Own Version Of Opening Sequences From News Stories

The Cat Thief

It was a dark, dull, rainy evening when a mysterious woman in a hooded, black coat was lurking around outside someones home.  She was fiddling with her nail bitten hands nervously, before creeping quietly towards the house from the corner in which she was hiding in.  With her plastic shiny boots making squelching noises on the soaking wet pavement, she approached the wooden brown door and knocked on it four times, loudly but gently, before scurrying into a bush next to the house to hide and watch.  A bright yellow light had turned on from inside the small cosy home and a chubby woman with scruffy brown hair and a pink silk robe had peeped out to see what was happening, but with no one in sight she went back inside and locked the door.  The mysterious woman, dusting the leaves off her shoulders, came out of the bush, and proceeded back towards the house, waiting for the light to be switched off.  When it eventually was, she tiptoed to the back of the house with her squelching boots and peered around for a way to get in, but all she saw was a cat flap, and decided that it was the only way that she could get in.  She pushed it and stuck her head in looking around for any signs of  someone being awake.  When safe, she plunged her whole body in, and crawled underneath the mahogony table, which was on the side of the cat flap.  Taking one last look around, she started wandering around the house breathlessly and desperate in search of things to steal, until her attention was drawn to a new born black and white spotted kitten curled up asleep in a light brown straw basket.

The next morning was a bright, sunny, delightful day, when the chubby woman had been asleep in her cosy, warm double bed.  Unfortunately, this did not last, as she was awakened by a terrible, deafening scream.  Her big blue eyes widenened, as she jumped out from the warmth of her bed and stomped down the stairs.  Her hair messy and her face pale, as she layed her eyes upon the empty basket.  She barged her very slim, tall daughter out of the way, before running briskly towards the telephone.  She picked it up and dialed a number, tapping her foot anxiously, and waiting for the phone to be answered on the other end.  Suddenly, an outburst of cackling laughter was heard on the other end of the phone, as the chubby woman demanded to know where her tiny kitten was.  With no reply, she slammed down the phone and asked her daughter to bring her her navy blue jacket.  With this done, she tied up her scruffy hair, put her boots on, and left the house, marching down the road to the police station.

The strange woman from the previous evening was in her rocking chair stroking the young, harmless kitten with her shaky hands, in a dimmed light.  She was in a gloomy room, with flowery wallpaper, unopened curtains and floorboards that squeaked whenever she moved her chair back and forth.  However, this silence that was only interrupted by the squeaking of the chair, was broken by the loud ringing of a childlike doorbell tune.  She jumped up and strolled suspiciously towards the peephole of the black door, still holding the kitten.  As she looked through the peephole, a look of terror filled her face, as she shrieked and ran to hide the newborn kitten in a nearby beige cupboard.  She then pulled open her dusty curtains and brushed her hair before opening the door, with a fake grin than spread throughout her face.

Analysing Opening Sequences

This animation film is called Replay, and it is about a deserted town were the air is contaminated and deadly,  therefore the people who live there have to use gas masks to survive and to breathe when not in a safe place where you can breathe clean air. This makes the audience ask questions like, what has happened to this town, and why. Also in this short film, a woman who lives in this town finds a tape that plays people laughing and being happy, which could be before the town was deserted and lonely. She shows the tape to a young boy who seems surprised and shocked to see it, but is not allowed to touch it as he may break it. This makes the audience sympathise the boy as he is quite young does not seem to be enjoying his life as the laughing, and birds tweeting on the tape comes across as if it is something new to him, and something he wishes he could have.  Later on is this short film the boy goes out of the safe place in which he is living, when told not to by the woman as it is unsafe outside and takes the tape with him. Whilst outside he imagines how life would be if it were happy and normal and he does this by playing the tape out loud and looking around. This makes the audience wonder what is going to happen to him, as the music which is played is depressing sad music. When the woman the boy is living with discovers he has left the place they are living in she runs outside with her mask in search of him, and the music stops and switches to the noise of her running and the young boy breathing. The boy eventually finds a place with a merry-go-round and sits on it and resumes the tape and imagining what the town would be like. During this he imagines a young boy and a girl laughing and throwing a paper aeroplane, and the sad music resumes, and the audience see that the boy has an artificial leg, making the audience wonder how he got it. The boy sighs an takes of the mask dropping it to the floor. And we see a close up of his leg turning back to how it was before he had his artificial leg. He then goes to the children and plays with them, after they ask him if he wants to and the town in which he lives turns brighter and more lively. The woman eventually finds the boy lying on the floor, and the film ends, showing the tape stop. This makes the audience sympathise the boy as he only wanted to live a normal life and be a happy child, but it also makes them sympathise the woman too, as she would be alone in a depressing world without the young boy. The opening of this short film is good as it makes the audience ask questions, and it also grips the audience too, as they want to know what happens next.

How Effective Are The Opening sequences?

Opening sequences have to be effective as they have to grip the audience from the start without giving too much of the storyline away. And there are various opening sequences that do this, like Salaam Bombay,  Ali and 8 1/2. All of these opening sequences are different to each other, but still manage to be successful as an opening.

Firstly, in the beginning of the film Salaam Bombay, is a young boy who is carrying some heavy luggage in his arms, with some cheerful music playing in the background. A bit later on we come to find out that the boy has been working in a circus, and they are packing away to move on. Whilst this is going on the boss asks the young boy to go and get some food and slaps him on the head, but he also asks him not to do any of his tricks again. This may suggest that the boy may be mistreated by the boss as he gets slapped over the head, but we also wonder if the boy has been in trouble in the past with his boss for doing something mischievous. The camera shot to show the boy running to the shop and back was an extra long shot with dramatic fast paced music in the background. This shows that the boy is running very fast and may want to get back on time to please his boss. However, at this moment in the film we are left wondering why he is rushing to get back, which makes the audience wonder if he gets back too late will he get in trouble with his boss. And it also makes the audience wonder if the circus have a deadline to leave and by when, so we are left wondering whether the boy will get back to the circus on time or not. When the boy finally gets back to the circus after buying his boss's food, we get a close shot of the young boy stopping with a shocked reaction on his face and the music stops, and the next shot is a long shot of the place were the circus was before, deserted. Leaving the audience feeling sympathetic towards the young boy, as we wonder where will he go or what will he do. It also leaves us wondering if the boss did it on purpose to get the boy back for "playing some of his tricks before." This opening sequence is a very gripping one as we are left asking so many questions about what will happen in the film later on, keeping the audience watching so that they will want to find out.

The next film that has an effective opening sequence, is the film Ali. At the beginning, is a black man running down a road looking very stressed out about something when white police men ask him what he is running from. Also in this shot they flick back and forth from the previous shot of the man running to a man singing some cheerful jazz music. When the man finishes his song, he switches to a calming softer jazz song, which no longer stays as diagetic on screen as it changes to a soundtrack for the next shot. This is of this mans life as a child, when he had to go to the back of the bus were it said "coloured people only." This shows that this film was set in a time where racism was going on. Which makes the audience wonder what happened to him when he was a child growing up to be a man as he seemed like he needed to clear his mind about something. After this shot they show go back to the present with a close up shot of the mans face punching a punching bag prop with the prop faced to the audience. This represents his anger and motivation in this shot, which makes the audience ask questions like, has he got a guilty conscience about something, which he may have done in the past. During this shot, it also flicks back and forth from thing that have happened in his life. They show him at a boxing match when a man makes a remark about his father, they also show his father painting a picture of God, and then later on go to show the father preaching about the rights of black people. This suggests to the audience that the community where this man lives is a religious one. But it makes them wonder what happened to the man and his father, as when the father was preaching he seemed to direct his comments to his son. This opening sequence is also an effective one as we ask questions about this mans life, and we want to know what is going to happen to him and also what has actually happened to him, so the audience will keep on watching to know the answers.

The last film that has an effective opening sequence is the film 8 1/2. The opening sequence of this film was an awkward one as the audience first of all have no clue as to what is actually going on, as it starts off with a point of view shot of a man sitting in a car, then it shows the rest of the area which is packed with traffic and cars everywhere not moving at all. However, the people in the actual cars around him, are just staring at the man in the car. At this moment in the film, some slow drums start to play for quite a while and then it stops and switches to the man breathing heavily and banging on his car window with screeching noises as the people in their cars are still staring helplessly, and not seeming to care. After this action has happened and the man appears to be dead, it shows the man outside of his car escaping all of those people and flying to the sky with noises of the wind playing in the background. However, when it appears he is out of the company of all those people, it shows that he is being used as a kite by a man as there is a rope on his leg. Then he eventually falls towards the sea, and the man wakes up showing the audience that it was a dream. This makes the audience feel that this man has been quite upset and depressed as his dreams seem to reflect that he may feel helpless with no one actually wanting to help him, and when he feels like he is free, it turns out he is not free and is tied down to something that he does not want to be tied down to, which leaves the audience asking why is he upset and why does he feel helpless and tied down. This film is also an effective opening sequence as at first the audience have no clue as to what is going on, and it leaves them asking questions and wanting to know, which keeps them watching.

Overall, I think that these films are have effective opening sequences as they do not give the storyline away and are not predictable. This is a good thing as they grip the audience from the start as they leave the audience wondering what is going to happen next and it also leaves them asking many questions about why things happened too.

How to make a blog interesting

What I have learnt from this video is that to make you blog more interesting, instead of just posting just a video on your blog, explain why it is actually there. This will help the audience understand the relevance of the video being there and it also will not confuse them.

Prelim Task Storyboard

Prelim Task Evaluation

1) Who did you work with and how did you manage the tasks between you? Explain how you organised your time and schedules. What issues came up with time management? What problems did you come up against? How did you deal with these? What were your strengths and weaknesses in this area? What would you do differently next time?

In the Prelim task I worked with Jeevan and we managed the tasks between us, by one person doing the cut and one managing the camera at first and then switching roles between us. We planned to organise our time and schedules, by controlling the cast. However, the cast became one of our time management problems, as they were not concentrating on the task that we were supposed to be doing, and the tripods we had also became a problem as we had two broken ones that had to be fixed, resulting in us finishing an hour later than planned. We dealt with these problems by telling our cast to be quiet and by waiting for our tripod to be fixed. One weakness in this area was the problems that we faced during the filming, but one strength was that we dealt with our issues that we faced wisely and patiently.

2) How did you plan your sequence? What process did you use?

We planned our sequence by using a storyboard, a script and a location recce. This helped us organise what we were going to do in our prelim task and also what problems we may face when filming. The process we used was our storyboard to know how the shot should look whilst filming, the script helped the cast know what they should say and what their actions should be when acting and the location recce helped us find out what problems we may face with the room which was used and also how we could solve them.


3) What technology did you use to complete the task, and how did you use it? What did you learn about using the cameras? Here you can also refer to the discussions we have had in class recently about digital cameras.

The technology used was a digital camera, tripod and a computer. We used these pieces of equipment by setting up the tripod carefully and tightening it into place. Then we put a battery and video tape into the digital camera and slid it into place on the tripod. The computer was used for editing the finished task. During the discussions we had in class, I found out that whenever we moved the digital camera and tripod, the spirit level has to be constantly fixed so that the camera can be focused. I also learnt to be extremely careful when moving around the tripod and camera as it could damage very easily.


4) What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing?

Factors I took into account when planning, shooting and editing were the problems that I may encounter. So when planning, I had to make sure that the storyboard was clear to understand, when shooting the spirit level had to be constantly fixed so the camera could be focused, and in editing, I realised our sound was not working at all so instead, had to edit it as best as I could without it.


5) How successful was your sequence? Please identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what would you improve/do differently?

I would say that my sequence was quite successful. Things that worked well, were the continuity for the majority of it, the 180 degree rule and match on action. However, if I could change what was done to improve my film, I would make sure that the continuity was filmed properly by filming for example, close up shots were the actor originally was, and I would also use up the rule of thirds more when nothing else is going on in the background. This would have improved my prelim task.


6) What have you learnt from completing the task? Discuss time management skills, group work skills, organisational skills and technical skills of production.

From completing this task I have learnt that my time management skills should be improved, by controlling the cast which would make the group work skills stronger and make the time management better. Being more organised would also help time management as if you know were everything is and have planned yourself correctly, things will be done easier. And for the the technical skills of production, next time I would make sure that the sound is working by doing a sound check.

7) Post production - What did you learn about the editing process? How did you make decisions while editing? How did you plan your time to complete the editing task? What were your strengths and weaknesses in this area? What would you do differently next time?

Things that I learnt from the editing process was that you can cut bits out of a film that you do not want and put the uncut bits together to make the film flow well. Decisions that were made whilst editing, were that the task had to be edited without sound as it was not working. I planned my time to complete editing the task, by cutting the film into parts and then cutting out the bit that were not needed, which made editing easier. My strengths in this area was that the continuity and my time was managed well, but a weakness was that one of the cuts was filmed in a wrong area which affected the continuity a little and the sound was not working  which made the editing harder. Next time I would make sure that the sound is working by doing a sound check to improve the quality of my task, and I would also, when filming, keep the actor in the same place to improve continuity.