Two minute mise-en-scene opening

What was the task?

The aim of the task was to create an opening to a film using mise-en-scene. Mise-en-scene is the arrangement of everything that appears in framing like actors, lighting, costume etc. We had to incorporate all of these aspects into the first two minuets of our film, including the ones that had all ready been provided for us by our teacher.

What elements of mise-en-scene were we given?

For the opening of our film we had to incorporate five different aspects of mise-en-scene that had been provided for us by our teacher. These included, a forty year old woman, fish and chips, a uniform, the roller coaster at Great Yarmouth and a sunrise on Saturday/Sunday morning. These were the things that definitely had to be in our film opening but everything else was up to use. Although these are the final five aspects of mise-en-scene we had to use, we were originally given a cup of tea to use instead of fish and chips. Fortunately though we were aloud to swap one element with another group so we swapped having a cup of tea with fish and chips instead. This was more convenient with our opening as ours was to be set at the beach and you associate chips with the beach more than a cup of tea.

Initial plot ideas

For our short opening we came up with three main ideas. Our first was that there would be an old woman going back to the beach after many years to revisit it. She would be exploring all the places she use to go to when she was younger, like the fish and chip shop and the arcade. She would eventually came across the old roller coaster where she would look at it for a while. Here she would then have a flashback to when she was younger and you would see her younger self at the beach. You would then see a young girl and boy at the beach having fun and playing about on their first date.

Our second idea was that there was an old woman at the beach on holiday just relaxing. She would have been just walking around and enjoying the scenery on her trip. She would be walking home after having some fish and chips on the seafront when a man stops her by the old roller coaster. The guy will then persistently try and take her purse and rob her of her possessions. When she started to fight back against him and resist him he would then pull out a knife and stab her to death before taking her possessions and running away. You would then see her laying there in a pool of her own blood at the end in front of the roller coaster with a crowed gathering around her body.

Our final idea was that a woman would be going to the beach to meet with her secret lover. She would be lying to her husband and saying she was going to her parents when in fact she was going to meet with her secret lover at the beach. The lover would then go and meet her from the train and you would see them having a romantic date on the beach. When he goes to drop her back off at the station they walk past the old roller coaster where the hug and say goodbye and he proposes.

Casting ideas

For our short film opening we thought that we would cast Tasmin's mum to play the forty year old woman as Tasmin is in our group so it'll be easier to get her to get her mum to come along and do the acting. It'd also be harder to get anyone else because none of us really know anyone else that is close to that age range. We were also going to have her sister and one of there friends be in the film as they would be perfect to play the young couple on the date. They also knew Tasmin is in our group and the rest of us didn't know anyone who would be free to play the rolls. Unfortunately they ended up cancelling at the last minuet and so we had to get someone else to play the roles instead.

Location ideas/research

Our first idea for a location was Great Yarmouth as we had to film the old roller coaster there for our mise-en-scene and so it would just be easier to film most of our opening there anyway. It also would make it easier as we all had to get a train there anyway to film the roller coaster so we might as well just film the whole of the opening there anyway. We did also think of filming some of it in Wymondham as well, we needed to film a sun rise as part of the mise-en-scene and it would be hard for us to get to Great Yarmouth early enough to film one there. This is why we decided to film it instead in Wymondham as most of us lived in/around Wymondham so it would be easier to get the sunrise there. Filming in Wymondham also help for the filming of the older woman who had to be in our opening as she couldn't make it to the beach on the day we needed her so we can just film what we need of her in Wymondham.

Prop ideas/research

Some of the props that we decided to use in our film opening included an old film camera that we gave for Emily and Matt so they could pretend they were getting a photo taken from it that would be used in a photo album that the older woman would be looking at. We also had fish and chips as a prop which we had them both eating while looking out at the sea on a wall. Our final prop was the photo album that Tazmin's mum would be looking through when she would discover the photo of her when she was a teenager at the beach with her date.  

Costume ideas/research

For our opening we originally thought that we could have our cast wear old cloths that people would have worn forty years ago so it would show that the flash back was from a while ago and not last week. This would include things like having the girl wear a plain dress and the guy dressing up smart casual. There would be nothing that looked too modern because they wouldn't have had that forty years ago.

Lighting ideas/research

Our initial idea was to use the natural lighting of the sun for all the filing done at the beach as we wont really need anything else. We also would film a sunrise which we would use in the film as it was part of our mise-en-scene and we have to include it.

Filming plan/ schedule

We all agreed to film on the last Friday of half term as that was when we were all free to go to Great Yarmouth and was also the easiest day for our actors to get there. We had organised a group chat that we used to see who was free when and then decided that Friday would be the best day to film on. We thought it would be better to go to Great Yarmouth early so then we could get the filming done when there would hopefully be less people around. We arranged to meet at half nine at the station and get all the filming done by around two. 

Final idea

Our final idea was to have a forty year old woman looking at an old photo album and she gets to a page with a picture of her when she was younger with a guy next to her and they would be smiling at each other. She would then get a flash back to when she was that young girl at the beach and you see her and a young boy having a fun and romantic date at the beach. There would then be clips them walking along the beach, having chips, dancing and finally going the pleasure beach and having there photo talking.

Final characters and casting

Our final idea's for the characters was to have a young girl who would be the forty year old woman when she was a teenager. She would be played by Emily because Tazmin's friend cancelled at the last minute and Emily was the only person we could get on such short notice. Then to have the young boy who will be the person going on the date with the younger version of the forty year old woman. He was played by Matt who was one of Tazmin's friends as the person she was originally going to have cancelled and so we had Matt come in last minute to do the role. The final character was the forty year old woman who was essential in the film opening. She was played by Tazmin's mum as she was the only person we know who was around the age of forty.

Final location

Our final location was Great Yarmouth because that was where to old roller coaster was that we needed to incorporate in the opening and so it was just easier to film the rest of the opening there. We filmed on the beach where Emily and Matt danced together and played by the water and just did general romantic things together. We also filmed by the pier which is where they shared and ate their chips and again just acted so romantic. Finally we filmed by pleasure beach as that is where the old roller coaster we needed to incorporate was located. We also filmed a small section in Wymondham because Tazmin's mum couldn't make it to the beach and so instead we decided to film her looking at the photo album at her home instead.

Prop list

The final props we included in the film were fish and chips, the photo album and the old film camera. The old film camera was used as the camera that the couple would film their date to the beach on and was also used for when a photo was taken of the couple together, which was the photo that was put into the photo album. The fish and chips were part of the mise-en-scene and we had to include them into the film opening. We decided to have Emily and Matt eat them on the sea font as a romantic action. Finally the last prop we used was the photo album with the picture from the beach in it. This would be used when the forty year old woman was looking in it and she would come across the photo album and find the photo of herself at the beach and have a flashback to that day she was at the beach.  

Costumes

For the costumes, because we had to change the people playing our roles we weren't able to get them to wear any sort of costume so they just wore their causal cloths. This consisted of jeans, trainers, hoodies and coats which is just what Emily and Matt were wearing when they got to the station and so that was their costume for the filming. 

Final lighting plans

The final lighting plans were to use the natural light from the sun at the beach as our lighting as we didn't need an artificial lighting. We also needed to incorporate a sunrise as part of our mise-en-scene and so we used this in our film opening as part of the lighting. 

Dimond 9

A film opening should in my opinion...

I think that the most important feature for a film opening is for it to be creative. Without the creativity the film opening wont be unique and captivating which means people will be less engaged to watch the rest of the film. A creative film opening also individualises it and makes it stand out from other more generic and ordinary film openings that don't tend to captivate audiences. The feature which I think is least important in a film opening is for it to start at the beginning. Many great film openings didn't start at the beginning and the use of it starting else where in the film makes it seem more interesting to the audience and gives them a sense of what is to come in the film.    
Based on the mark scheme a film opening should...

According to the mark scheme the most important thing in a film opening is for it to be creative. This is what I thought was the most important thing because if the opening wasn't creative then it wouldn't be very captivating and you might not wait to watch the whole film. The next thing that was most important according to the mark scheme was the use of titles/credits. I personally thought that after creativity the next most important thing for a film opening was the introduction of setting. I chose this because in many film openings you are normally first introduced to the setting before anything else. Although you do often see titles/credits appear in the first two minutes of a film, I don't think that it is necessary for it to happen then as there are many films that don't introduce and titles until a little further in. The least important factor according to the mark scheme is the introduction of genre. I personally put this as fifth as I thought it was quiet important but not essential. I thought that having the genre obvious in the opening was important so people knew what kind of film they were watching but thinking about it now it isn't actually that important and it wont gain me any extra marks by making it my priority.

What do we expect to see in the opening two minutes of a feature film

Opening two minutes of a feature film 

Woman in black

In the opening two minutes of woman in black you see three children playing with dolls and having a tea party. You don't hear any audio from the characters and only the sound of quiet creepy music can be heard. You see the three girls having lots of fun just playing around and smiling when the music suddenly gets louder and all three girls look towards the corner with blank expressions. They then look towards the window before they all stand up together and walk towards it, crushing their dolls and tea sets as they go. You then see all three girls open the windows and jump out at the same time before you hear a woman's scream at the end. The camera then shows a wide shot of the whole room where by the corner you see the back of the head of a woman who was in the room.

From this opening you don't really get a sense of what the plot is, you don't know why the girls jumped or who the woman in the background was but it gives you enough to make you want to continue watching to find out. You also aren't introduced to any key characters, you get a glimpse of the woman in black but you don't actually find out who she is until later on in the film. There isn't much dialogue in the film either except for at the end after the girls have jumped and you hear a woman shout 'my babies' who you presume is their mother but you never find out. This is okay though as the creepy music in the background gives the opening a more mysterious and sinister feel to it that would probably be destroyed by any other dialogue. In the opening you see no titles or credits on the screen as they come on after this scene; you also don't see any other location in it apart from the attic that the children were playing in.

Bridge to Terabithia

In the opening to bridge to Terabithia you see a man come out of a house and enters the car parked out on the front. It then zooms into the window of one of the top floors where you see a young boy looking through the window, watching the car leave before getting out of bed. You see him running out the front door and across some fields. You see him drawing on a sketch pad and these mix in with footage of him from later on in the film along with the credits rolling over the top.

From this opening you don't really get a sense of what the plot is as you are only introduced to two characters and not much else. You are introduced to a key character which is the young boy and also the man who must be his father but there are other important characters introduced later on in the film that you don't see in the opening scene. There is no dialogue in the opening as only soft music plays over the top of the action going on. There are also titles in the opening which come along at the beginning and also during the whole two minuet sequence. You also see many locations in the opening compared to the other films. At the beginning of the film you see the boys home and the area around it, you then also see various fields and farm land that the boy runs across during the opening.

Harry Potter and the philosophers stone

In the opening to Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone you see first a shot of a road sign with an owl perched on top of it. You then see an old man walk out of the woods towards the street and brings a small device out of his pocket and holds it up before taking the light from all the street lamps. After this you then see him looking at a cat before talking to it and seeing it actually turn into a woman. They begin to converse in conversation talking about a boy and a tragic event before bringing up the name of someone who is bringing the boy to them. Out in the sky you then see a light which turns out to be a flying motorbike with a man riding it down to the older man and woman. You then see this guy give the others a child which he had tied to his chest and they place him on the door step from one of the houses with a letter before turning away.

From the opening you do get a sense of what's going on, but you understand more about the child and his potential later on in the film. In the beginning you understand that a tragic event has occurred where a man has had to take a young baby from its home and place it on the door steps of the only family they have left. You understand that according to the people this is safer for the child but you also see concern from the woman when she talks about how these people are horrible and how they shouldn't keep him here. From the two minuets you see a few of the major characters from the film. You are introduced to the main character which is the little boy, though you do not realise this until later on and also three other equally important characters as well. Compared to the other two film openings this contains a lot of dialogue with characters having conversations and not just single lines like in the opening to the woman in black. There is only one location shown in this film opening though which is the street in which the child gets left at and the titles only occur at the end of the scene when you see the title of the film come up on the screen.

Opening two minutes of an as media film

Hemlock

In the opening to Hemlock you see a shot of moving water with the title of the film coming up over the top of it. You then see the shot of someone's feet moving and pushing a wheel barrow where you also can see someone else's feet resting over the edge with the rest of their body covered by a thin blanket. As the wheel barrow moves you see the shoes of the person occasionally getting caught on the ground and getting dragged across it. You see a wide shot of the man pushing the wheel barrow which is when you discover that the person inside it is probably dead and that there is a shovel on top which implies he is finding a place to bury them. Towards the end of the clip you see the guy holt the wheel barrow and lift the blanket off the girl before lifting her up and placing her in a hole before beginning to bury her.

In the film opening you are not introduced to too much of the plot but you are given enough to kind of understand what is going on in it. You understand that a girl has been probably been killed and is going to be buried by this random guy but you don't know who they are or why she was killed. You hear no dialogue as only the soft music plays over the top with a few of the sounds from the filming like the noise of the wheel barrow and the sound of him burying her in the ground. At the beginning you are introduced to two main characters, the boy who is burying the girls who may or may not have killed her and the girl who had been killed and is being buried by the boy. You only see two locations in this opening, the path by the woods that you see him pushing the wheel barrow by and then the field in which he buries the girl in. You also see a lot of credits and the title in the opening. The title appears right at the beginning of the clip with various credits popping up during the opening scene.

Captive

In the opening to Captive you see a guy tied to a chair with blood all over him and on the floor as well. You see that he is tied in a deserted house/area which has been vandalised with graffiti and is covered in dirt and leaves. You then see a clip of the security cameras in the place which show all the rooms in this abandoned building including where the guy is being held hostage. It then cuts back to the guy where you see all the injury's he has sustained by possibly being tortured. You then see him start to wake up and take in his surroundings and realise that he is being held captive and can't escape. The image then cuts back to the security cameras where you see a girl dressed all in white with long white hair covering her face come up on the screen before the camera goes static. You then again see the creepy girl walk past the window where the guy is being held hostage and he starts to scream for help. As he does this you get a sort of flash back where you see him when he was free taking photos at this abandoned place of a doll in some water. This is when you see the creepy girl with another doll and she is walking up towards the guy and you see her take him through the reflection in the water. It then goes back to him tied up and you see him scream for help one last time before it cuts to the title of the film.

In the film opening you get a good sense of what the plot is as you see in the flash back that the guy has gone to the place just to take some photos when he got kidnapped by a crazy girl and was obviously tortured by the state that you see him in. You are also introduced to two of the main characters which are the guy who is the one being held captive and tortured and the crazy girl who is doing all of this to him. In the scene you see two locations, you see the room/building that the guy is being held captive in and also in the flash back you see this area outside the building where he was taking photos before he got taken. Throughout the beginning of the scene you hear no dialogue as only the sound of the characters movements and the creepy sinister music can be heard, then towards the end of the clip you hear and see the guy screaming out "help me" multiple times. At the beginning of the opening you see quite a few credits and they continue through the first few seconds of the scene, then right at the end the screen goes black and you see the title appear on the screen.

Redemption

In the film opening you see the city with some of the credits come up. It then zooms out and you see that there is a young guy looking out towards the city. You see he gets a text from an unknown number that tells him a location and a time before you see him walking away from the building he was on before heading to the destination that he had been told to go to which is a parking lot. In here you see a black car arrive followed by a whit car and three people get out with it, two dressed completely in black with black shades on and one in a business suit. You see that the guy in the suit then go to the back of the car where he reaches in a grabs the briefcase and a gun. The clip then jumps to outside the parking lot where you see the guy from earlier arrive and head towards the three other people. The guy in the suit checks his watch before stating to walk towards the door with the briefcase with the two security guys following either side of him. Both men meet in the middle with a fair distance between them. They exchange little dialogue before one of the security guards goes and checks that the other man doesn't have any weapons on him. They exchange a little more dialogue before the man with the briefcase aims his gun at the other man getting ready to kill him. The other guy looks at the briefcase for a split second before taking the gun from the man and holding him hostage while pointing the gun at the security guards. He then hurriedly backs away to the door with the briefcase and gun in hand before pushing the hostage away and making a run for it. You see the two security guards chase after him trying to retrieve the briefcase but they both end up getting shot. The guy then walks out of the building with the briefcase when a black car pulls up behind him and the guy in the suit from earlier gets out and gets the guy to get in the car.   

In the film opening you get a sense of what the plot is. You see that there is something in the briefcase that a guy wants but the man with the briefcase won’t give it over without the money so the other guy try's to take it by force. You are also introduced to two of the main characters who are the guy who tries to steal briefcase and the guy who had it at the beginning of the scene. In the opening you see quite a few different settings, the first is the building where there is a guy looking out at the city, then the parking lot where you see the other character arrive and then finally the area around the parking lot outside where you see the characters leaving. Throughout the opening of the scene you only hear a little dialogue which is when the characters meet and they exchange small talk. Finally you see titles and credits throughout the beginning of the opening with the title appearing quite big on the screen not long into the opening.

Stand by me

Stand by me

The film stand by me is about four twelve year old boys who are good friends. They learn about a boy who has gone missing for many days and head out to find his body. On there journey they learn more about themselves and there friendship.


The main characters in the film are Gordie, Chris, Teddy and Vern who are very close friends but they are all very different. Gordie is from a family that have never hurt him in any way but after the loss of his older brother Danny they start to block him out. They ignore his existence and the mum,  especially acts as if Gordie isn't even around. This has in turn caused Gordie some damage. He tries to give up on his dreams of being a writer because his dad thought it was stupid, 'Fuck writing, I don't want to be a writer. It's stupid. It's a stupid waste of time... I'm no good. My dad said it. I'm no good ' You see later on just how much he likes to write and make up stories when he is around the camp fire with his friends and is telling them a story about a fat kid named Davie. You can see how he really gets into the telling of this story and how he likes watching his friends grip on his every word. You can also see how his closest friend Chris can see how much his family has messed Gordie up, 'I know how your dad feels about you. He doesn't give a shit about you. Denny was the one. He cared about and don't try to tell me different. You're just a kid, Gordie.' Chris can see that Gordie's parents just don't care about him and were always only ever interested in Danny. You also see this on a flash back that Gordie has of a meal that his happening around the table with the family and Gordie's dad is only interested about Danny's football game. Although Danny tries to tell his parents about a story Gordie has written, they just dismiss him and go back to talking about Danny's big game. This shows us just how important it was for Gordie to find the body. He wanted to find it so he had a feeling of accomplishment and wasn't just the failure that his family thought he was. He wanted to do something that would amaze his parents and actually get them to notice him for once and move on from the death of his brother.


Chris also has issues that he thinks finding this body would over come. He had been accused of stealing the milk money, which he had done but nobody would listen to his side of the story, they just all thought he was a thieve and that's how they decided to label him, 'Yeah, I took it! I mean, you knew I took it. Teddy knew I took it. Everyone knew I took it. Even Vern knew it, I think. But maybe I was sorry and I tried to give it back.' You can see here that although he took it, he was sorry about it and he did feel guilty. He even tried to return it but people still labelled as a thieve. 'Yeah. So let's just say that I stole the milk money, but Old Lady Simmons stole it back from me. Just say that I told this story. Me, Chris Chambers. Kid brother to Eyeball Chambers. Do you think that anyone would've believed it?' Because he is the brother of Eyeball (a menace in society) everyone just presumes he will turn out the same so even though he tried to return the money, people still saw him as a menace and a thieve. This shows why he wants to be part of the group that finds the body, he wants to be known for something else other than stealing the milk money. You can tell that he hopes that by finding the kids body people will forget about the fact he is a thieve and that they will remember his name for something else instead, something better than a thieve.

Teddy is the next character that also has a bit of a messed up family. You see from the film that his dad is a little messed up in the head and often took things out on his son, 'I know who you are. You're Teddy Duchamp. Your dad's a looney. A looney up in the nuthouse in Togus. He took your ear and he put it to a stove and burnt it off.' You learn that Teddy's dad is no longer around with him but despite this he still cares deeply for his dad and tries to defend his honour, 'My father stormed the beach at Normandy...You call my dad a looney again, I'll kill you.' This shows that even though his dad has physically and probably emotionally hurt him, he still defends him in front of others. You can also see how proud he is of his dad by the number of times he mentions the fact he 'stormed the beach at Normandy' during the movie. He brings this up a lot as a way to remind others that he was a good, brave and honourable man once and that people need to remember this and not just the fact that he is now in an asylum because he is a little looney. I think he wants to find the body so people stop thinking that he will turn insane like his dad. Many people think he will end up like his dad, 'No wonder you're acting the way you are with a looney for a father.' and maybe he feels finding the body will make people stop thinking these things. Maybe he feels that finding the body will make him seem like a hero and not just the looney mans son.

Finally the character Vern also has a reason to find the body, but his motive isn't as strong as the others. Through out the film you see that he is the one that gets messed about by the other boys, they always pick on him in a joking manner, '(after dropping his hamburger in the campfire by accident) This isn't funny! What am I supposed to eat? You could cook your dick'. You see here that they are only messing about with him because he is there friend, but through out the whole movie they seem to pick on him a little more than the others. 'Ha-ha! You flinched! Two for flinching! Two for flinching! (Teddy punches him twice in the arm) ...B-but... you flinched'. This could be because out of all of them he is seen as the most vulnerable and the easiest target. Seeing this though it does make you wonder if because he is such an easy target for his friends, maybe he is an easy target at school too and maybe he gets bullied there. This could explain why he wants to find the body because maybe he feels that if he does people may respect him more and not pick and tease him as much. The other thing you see in the film about Vern is that although he is friends with Gordie, Chris and Teddy he doesn't seem to fit in with them that much. He's kind of like the out caste in there friendship group. 'Shut up, Vern...There's one thing I didn't understand. Did Lardass have to pay to get in the contest? (Chris and Teddy sighs) No, Vern. They just let him in.' This show how he doesn't understand things easily and because of this the others pick on him, but despite all this all the boys support each other and stand up for one another. Like at the end of the film where you see them all standing up to Ace and the other older boys.