film opening review;

My film opening is completed, edited and submitted!

Some positive aspects of the process were how it cut together and fit very nicely. I was pleased with how I managed to get the whole film to move exactly in time to the music and/or sound effects. The photos of the letters and the recording of the clicking sounds of them were done seperately and I was unsure if this would work out but I'm impressed it did. I was also happy with how the fishing scene turned out because the props used were so tiny and it was difficult to get them to line up without moving between photos or without the blutack showing. After a few takes I had it looking smooth and effective and I liked this scene a lot.

I was satisfied with most the sunset transitions that I did, but because I did this in an editing program, photo by photo, it took me quite a while per picture and as a result I didn't get quite the effect I was after. I felt it was too jumpy and that made it less beautiful. If I had more time to do it again I would make more sunset shots so that the sunset was more seamless and polished. I also needed to pay more attention to lighting, because when the pictures were put on to the backgrounds there were subtle colour/shade differences between frames because I hadn't properly taken this factor into account. I needed to put a set flash on on my camera instead of leaving it on automatic, and I needed to avoid the sunlight hitting my props.

film opening crew and talent/art department/location;

crew: 
myself

talent:
narrator - Mummy
assistant - Eloise

art department:

• all pictures will be sourced from the internet, printed and then collaged.
• my owl and cat are handmade puppets that my great grandma made a long time ago.
• most/all of the images (backgrounds, boats, fishing rod, guitar, etc.) will be doctored.
• I use Microsoft Digital Image to edit my pictures, I have this program at home
• sound effects (waves, whale chatter, splashes) are found on free sound databases on the internet.

location permission
I give myself permission to use my computer, my bedroom and my brain. :)

film opening script;

The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear

The Owl and the Pussycat
Went to sea,
In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey,
And plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.

film opening treatment & style;

The film opens with a white screen and the title The Owl and the Pussycat files letter by letter onto the screen. There are the sounds of the clicking as the magnetic letters hit the board, the letter y hit the board sideways and then squeaks while turning the right way. Waves roll in as the voiceover of the narrator reads "The Owl and the Pussycat, by Edward Lear" This now cuts into a scene of the sea, with a pea-green boat on it, an owl and a pussycat are in the boat as well as some honey, money and a guitar that are visible. The waves move, accompanied by the sounds of waves swishing and crashing as the voiceover of the narrator reads the first verse of The Owl and the Pussycat (here).

The waves get louder as it cuts into a time-lapse montage, accompanied by music - Hedonistic Me by Born Ruffians.Clips are of the owl playing guitar with music coming from the guitar, the cat then has a fishing rod, line goes out into the water, they wait for a few moments, then it the line comes back in with a fish, then with a whole pile of fish. Then they hear a chatter behind them, they turn around and it's a dolphin.One dives up, then another, then a third. they watch them dive. Then the two of them look up to the sky, they watch in the exact same position as the sky changes above them, sunset in colours of orange, yellow and pink, until the moon and stars come in and it is night time. The last frame we see is one of the silhouette of them in the dark on the water in their boat.

I want to do this sort of in the style of a children's picture book. Stop motion helps with this a lot as the lack of smooth flow is like the short break when turning a page.

film opening concept & research;

 

The Owl and the Pussycat

My film is going to be based loosely on the poem The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear. 

My target audience is younger children, or big kids if you feel like :D I am planning to use stop motion and a handmade collage (using edited "stock images") to tell the story. 

I am beginning with the very first stanza narrated by my mum in the classic and original style of the poem and then moving on to a montage set to an assortment of songs. This montage will contain all the fictional adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat.

I have access to most of the equipment to make this happen, photoshop and other photo manipulation programs, a sony cybershot camera (with burst function), a narrator, a large collection of music and a flexible tripod. I need to learn how to use film editing software to complete this.I don't think this will have a high impact on the audience as not much attention is required to understand it. :)

I did my research by looking up the words to the poem and then by reading different picture book interpretations of the poem.

I searched sound effect websites for good ocean sounds and I then spent a lot of time on google images looking for pictures that I can edit into what I needed. I decided to use an origami boat in the end, because it was hard to find a boat that was mostly a straight colour.  I borrowed mum's magnetic letters from school.

horror genre conventions!

Morality;

Shown in: Psycho (1960), Halloween (1978) & Scream (1996)

 

A convention manipulated in the movies Psycho, Halloween and Scream is Morality. We are shown constantly that people who partake in things that are morally wrong will come to a grim ending.
In Psycho directed by Alfred Hitchcock, the lead character Marion steals $40,000. She is seen in her underwear in the first few minutes of the film and is sleeping with a married man. She is also seen close to naked in the infamous shower scene, right before she is brutally stabbed to death.
In Halloween, John Carpenter's 1978 film, Laurie's friends are constantly seen 'breaking the rules'. They drink, smoke, take drugs and have sex. Annie gives her babysitting job to faithful friend Laurie so she can go off and fool around with her boyfriend. She is seen in nothing but a shirt and underwear minutes before she is killed. Lynda, Laurie's other friend, has also just had sex in someone else's house and is drunk when she is killed, along with her boyfriend Bob. Laurie remains alive as she is not distracted by these other 'immoral' things.
Scream by Wes Craven consciously alerts the characters as they commit obscene acts, referring to the 'Rules of Horror Films', as is with the other two films; alcohol, drugs, sex and promiscuity lead to a cruel death.

Morality was used in these three films to reflect the ideas of society at the time, all the iniquitous acts carried out by the characters are things that were (and maybe still are) seen as extremely wrong by the people of that era.
This convention changed across the three films as the generation and the target audience changed. The scene in Psycho with Marion in lingerie was racy and scandalous at the time it was released, but our culture has got used to it as current broadcasting standards allow us to see more than that on the evening news. Halloween and Scream were also more directed towards a teenage audience with young adult leads that people could relate to. This meant that the crimes had to be worse and more shocking to appeal to the younger generation.