Treatment

The opening of a short film: The genre of 'Memoirs of a Survivor' is an apocalypse thriller with comedic twist.

Duration: 2:16

Audience: The genre of our opening sequence is an apocalypse thriller with a comedic twist. The intended audience would be males around the age of 16-25 year old as there is frequent

use of strong language. There is also scene with a decaying hand that does not dwell on pain or injury so therefore it doesn’t class as an 18 but does appeal to older males/females, as there is a thriller effect and comedic twist because it gives it an element of sophistication as well as humour. As our genre is apocalypse thriller is a strong threat and a menacing feel throughout, as everyone is dead.

Resume: The opening to 'Memoirs of a Survivor' starts

with a fade in of an alarm clock, such as on a phone on a bedside table or a windowsill. Matt a 34 year old accountant gets out of bed wearing his pajamas, lumbers to the bathroom, and gets ready for work. Matt then ready puts on his coat and sluggishly walks the stairs. He then walks into the living room says asks did his flatmate have a good night, there is then a shot of his flat mate replying with a zombie-fied 'Hmm'. Matt proceeds to walk out of the door without realising his flat mates hand is decaying. Matt then makes his way to work.

Suggested Elements: For performance will we have Matt Taylor who will play the main character 'Matt' and Matt Molnar who will play the flat mate 'Ted'. At the start of the sequence when Matt gets out of bed he will be wearing his pajamas which will be a simple top and pants. He then walks to the bathroom and gets ready. These isn't really any key props in our intro. Key locations in our sequence will be Salford Queys, which is a upbeat and urban area like Manchester City Centre.The title for our sequence is 'Memoirs of a Survivor' and will appear in the middle of the credits and the titles just as Matt reaches Salford.

Recording Days: We will record 'Memoirs of a Survivor' on a Wednesday afternoon and a Friday morning as this is when we usually have media and twice on the weekend. All this will hopefully be done by F riday 25th of March. As our deadline for everything is 15th of April after we have filmed we

will edit our sequence and add music.

Locations:

Salford Queys. This is were Matt will begin to realise that something is wrong and proceed to ring the office to find out. He will then see a woman in the distance and begin to run after her. The audience will then be left to wonder if this is a real person or someone of his imagination.

Matts House. This is were the intro will begin. Matt will slowly and sluggishly get ready for work here. He will then speak to his flatmate who he thinks is hungover but unknowingly to him it slowly turning into a zombie.

Silent Hill Scene Analysis

This analysis is only from 3.58 to 6.39. The video has now been removed by Sony.

The scene starts with the main protagonist Rose, waking up after a car accident. She is confused and distorted and shocked that she is in what appears to be a different world and atmosphere. There is a high angle shot to show she is vulnerable and scared. There then a extreme high angled shot of where her car is parked and how it is so different and scary and it highlights the main difference in the scene. She looks to the side and the camera eye line pans with her and she notices that her daughter is completely gone. She proceeds to leave her car and then starts to run on the road. Panicking for her daughter or any human contact. There is a close up of her face and ash falling down onto her cheek and then a close up of her hand while she is rubbing the ash between her fingers. This seems all to be unfamiliar to her and while she walking around the ghost town of Silent Hill. You get a lot of interesting shots showing the surroundings and that there is no human contact. She seems to be very scared and upset about what is happening showing she is scared. This builds up a very tense atmosphere and as the audience you also don’t understand what’s going on. There is a rotation shot around her looking around and she is still looking for her daughter. She shouts ‘Sharon’ and this completely stops the rotation of shot and she proceeds to go run after her daughter, who she saw from the corner of her eye. This leads up to more story and leave wondering.

Silence of the Lambs opening scene analysis

In the opening sequence of the ‘Silence of the Lambs’ there is a woman running around a scarily looking and foggy woods. From this atmosphere and the typical low-key thriller music you can tell this will be a horror/thriller. The scene really makes you think she is in danger from the mise en scene.

Through out this first scene you get the opening title’s fading in and out, this is put in so you know who worked for this film, etc. The amplified noise of her breath and feet rushing through the leaves makes a false sense of danger. From this you see that she challenges the typical girly stereotype because she’s very sporty and dominant (to carry on running and not have breaks). You think she is getting followed but then you hear that her name being called and she stops, and a man with an FBI hat tells her to go to n office to see someone. When she see’s this man the eerie atmosphere and music stops and it is apparent that it was only an assault course and not her being followed on her morning jog. She then gets into the building and when she gets into a lift she is surrounded by big men, but it suggests she may be smaller but she still has some sort of power. She then walks past a plate on a wall when she is on the way to the office she meant to be going to which says ‘Behavioral Sciences’. She gets in and she looks round and there is close up shots of her face looking scared when she see’s pictures of a dead body with a lot of gore.

From all of this you can clearly see it’s a psychological thriller and that something might happen to her, which results in her fighting for her life. This scene really sets the scene really well especially with the music and strange shots of the woods.

Preliminary Task

What did you learn about the cameras and editing software during the preliminary task?

Whilst filming our preliminary task we learnt a lot about the cameras and how to use Final Cut Pro, which was the editing software.

During filming we learnt how to use the cameras basic functions and settings as well as using the tripod properly when steadying our shots. This benefited us when we filmed panning shots of Matt walking through the door and down the corridor and when he left the room. We also learnt that using the tripod was not necessary throughout as we did a close up of Matts feet as he walked up the stairs. We used the camera functions to our advantage, for example when filming the shot of the door handle we used zoom which increased the range of shots we used throughout the whole of the task. After using the camera for an hour or so, we had found it was simple to use and experienced no problems.

We used Final Cut Pro to edit our film which at the start we felt was quite tricky to use but throughout editing it became more clear. As we filmed several angles of the same shot for a wider variety, we had the option to pick the best shot to use which allowed us to cut our filming, place them on a timeline and link them seamlessly so they where in sync with each other. When setting our scratch disk up we found this quite difficult as there were problems with saving and usernames due to permissions but it became easier after a while.

In the filming and editing of your project, what worked well and what could have been improved?

As we had a planned shot list that we followed helped us to be continuous throughout the shots as they are linked together seamlessly and were all in sync with each other which helped us to edit quicker and easily. As we only had one actor it was quite hard to do the 180 degree rule as we had to judge positions so there weren't any mistakes or movements in the characters position. We felt we got away with this as it gave the film a comedic effect as well as making use of what we had. This didn't really affect our editing as we filmed the same shot several times so we had back ups incase a mistake was made. Also we had clear consistent lighting throughout.

As our prelim wasn't perfect there could of been several improvements. For example we could of added music and effects to make it more professional rather than having ambient sound such as other doors opening which wasn't meant to be in the shot. We could of also shot our sequence in a wider range of locations such as outside the college campus instead of just all inside the building. There was also jumpy shots towards the end of the task which could of been due to the fact we were getting quite restless but when filming our main task we could try and have regular breaks to prevent this happening.

Give a detailed, specific example of how you have used a shot/ reverse shot combination in your film

Due to the fact we only had one actor we found shot reverse shot quite difficult because as Matt had to play two characters it was hard to judge the position of him, for example where he was stood and what position he was stood in when changing characters views. When filming the conversation between 'Good Matt' and 'Evil Matt' shot reverse shot can he hard to see as it wasn't an over the shoulder shot. This can be improved by having two actors in our main task to ensure shot reverse shot is clearly shown.

Give a detailed, specific example of how you achieved match cuts during the editing process

We used a match cut when Matt was walking upstairs towards the room. For instance as matts hand comes closer towards the camera there is a match cut to a close up of his feet (which we achieved by lying on the floor with the camera) going round the corner of the stairs and then a another match cut to him continuing to walk up the stairs. While editing we found this worked well and it ran smoothly throughout the editing process.

How did you make sure that you didn’t break the 180 degree rule? Or if you broke it, what have you learnt from this?

We made sure we stuck to the 180 degree rule by staying on the same side of each character at all times. We didn't cross over the line, that's how we stuck to the rule.

Preliminary Introduction

Welcome to our online blog!

For our preliminary task we will be filming and editing a sequence of a character walking upstairs towards a room, opening a door, and exchanging dialogue with another character. This task will demonstrate matched cuts, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.

The Preliminary Task Shot List

Shot list:

• Medium shot of evil matt walking in through a door
• Pan follows him
• Long shot evil matt walking up the stairs
• Goes to close up shot of his hand on rail
• Close up of feet while he's carrying up the stairs
• Long shot in front of him continuing up the stairs
• Medium shot finishing the stairs, walks completely out of shot
• Medium shot of the door, when evil matt comes through the door, it turns into a close up shot of evil matt's face and he looks round and then it zooms out slightly and pans around to see evil matt in the hallway standing in front of a door
• Close up of door handle, turning down
• Medium shot of evil matt coming through the door
• Point of view shot of him looking at good matt
• Medium shot of good matt sitting down
• Shot reverse shot between evil matt and good matt, talking about the bag
• Between the conversation there is a cut-away medium central composition shot of the bag on the table
• As evil matt walks up the bag to pick it up there is medium shot of bag and then he picks it up
• Camera pans up to show him leaving the room in a long shot