Initial Ideas.

When we started looking into what kind of film opening we wanted we considered a variety of options and played around with a few ideas. One initial idea was to do a musical, but when thinking and researching we realised how hard that this type of genre would be to do, for example we would have needed to find enough volunteers to take part, as musicals usually have a high number of people and also we would have required a good choreographer for it to work for us, thus ruling this idea out. Another idea we had was to do a comedy, but again we thought this wouldn't demonstrate our skills well enough so we chose not to follow up on this idea.

In the end we all agreed on the genre of drama, this is because we could show what we could do when it comes to filming and editing. You can also tell that a film is initially a drama in the opening as they don't tend to have lots of special effects and editing. Doing a drama opening isn't as hard to do compared to other genres, e.g. comedies and musicals where the openings don’t actually show their genre till quite a bit into the film. Everyone being happy we went on to plan and film our opening.

Before we filmed we took some photos of the locations we were going to film in:

Chorlton park because it was big and there were lots of places to film the happy memories.



We decided to film our sad memories in the southern cemetery, this fit in perfectly with what we wanted to do. We also found a suitable cross where we could film the main part of our opening. The cross was perfect as it was plain and didn't have a name on it, we wanted this as it would keep the audience guessing as to what it was that had happened.

Shot List

Most of our shots contained only natural lighting and all sound was Diagetic, however in the café scene the lighting was artificial (low key). Our plan is to remove all sound and place in some non- diagetic music over the scenes.

1. Establishing shot of the Graveyard.

To set the scene to the audience so that they know where they are.

2. Long shot of Main Character walking to grave.

Introduces Character into scene; long shot showing main character is being overwhelmed by his enviroment.

3. Close up of Main Character walking to grave.

To show the audience the emotions he may be feeling.

4. Mid shot of Main Character arriving at grave.

Still able to see characters emotions but you can still see the location.

5. Point of view shot of grave.

To show the audience what the main character can see.

6. Shot of Main Character from behind grave.

Main Character places flowers at grave. Showing the key prop and also tells audience that main character is associated with whoever is buried in the grave.

7. Close up of Main Character.

Showing emotion oh ramorse. Telling audience he is sad about the passing of person in grave.

8. Memory 1 (Park).

Showing happy moment with Lily and main character to audience. Also showing them who it was in the grave (Lily). Memories will be showin in black and white, an indicator as these being moments from the past.

9. Memory 2 (Café).

Showing audience happy moment between main character and Lily.

10. Memory 3 (Bus).

Showing happy moment between main character and Lily.

11. Mid Shot of Main Character.

Returning to present, compareing his emotion from the past to the present.

12. Long Shot of Main Character leaving graveyard.

Showing how Main character is again overwhelmed by the current location

13. Long Shot of ‘Lily’ across the road. Showing Lily in the present.

14. Long shot of across the road without Lily for when Lily “disappears”.

This Editing will leave the audience confused and will want to continue watching to know what happens next.

15. Reaction shot of Main Character.

Showing the emotions the Main character is feeling.

16. Long shot of Main Character walking down the road.

End of opening scene, bring questions to audience as to where he is traveling to?

Locations of our filming

When we first planned out what was to happen in our film opening, we knew that we wanted shots in a park and also in a graveyard. We all chose to go to Chorlton to do our filming, this is because it was the closest to the college and we also had a member of the group who knew the area well. We did our filming in Chorlton Park and also in Chorlton Cemetery. We chose to film in the cemetery, as cemeteries are known to be a very depressing place. A number of famous films that are thrilling, scary or even dramas are filmed in areas like this and we thought this was perfect for our location. Opening a film in an area like a cemetery brings lots of questions to the viewer’s head, for example “Why is he in a cemetery? Is he visiting a grave or just passing through?” etc.

The goal of when we went into the cemetery was to find a unnamed wooden cross for a grave, fortunately we found one and began filming. The reason we wanted an unnamed grave is so that we could keep the secret a little while longer as to who’s grave this was.

Also helpful was that there was a flower store very close to the cemetery; here we purchased our key prop, the flower, lily, which ties in to the title of our film. The purpose of the key prop was not only to act as a connotation of the title of the film but also to make the audience ask questions as to why the main character is holding this particular flower and also who this character is who is dead and in this grave.

The filming for the cemetery took around 4 lessons to complete, three visits gained all the shot we wanted but we went on the fourth time after realizing some shots were sloppy and had to be re-done. We first started filming in the local park for our memory scenes for the film opening; this took around 2 lessons to film. After a few sessions filming we all went into the cemetery, here we looked for a suitable location for the shots that needed to be done in here.

As earlier stated we had some shot in Chorlton Park (shots of memories of Lily in the story). The reason we chose this park is because it is where we would imagine you may take a partner on a day out, also the park can connote happy moments in life and this is what we wanted to achieve.

STORYBOARD

Long, establishing shot to show surroundings and help set the scene. Low toned slow music to help portray sadness from the word go carried on throughout the opening sequence.



Close up shot of gravestone to help show what the genre of the film is. Music again carried on throughout.



Medium-Close up shot of Matt placing flowers down on gravestone, again helping to show the genre of the film.



Panning shot around the gravestone to then show Matt, he is looking sad the lighting is natural and the music again is low and dull.



Close up of Matt's face, sadness clearly shown, clothing dark all to show this isn't going to be a happy film.



Photograph of a memory Matt is holding shown, camera zooms into photo and into the photograph scene to create a sense of a flashback. Music changes as zooms in and scene changes to a happier time.



Mid-shot of Jess and Matt sat on park bench, sun shining, normal clothing, looking happy, helping show how they were and making the audience ask questions about what happened and why she isn't here anymore.



Mid-shot of Jess and Matt in Cafe Nero, again showing a memory, both looking like a normal happy family. Artificial lighting in this as indoors.



Mid-long shot, another memory, Jess and Matt walking hand in hand along the high street again looking happy making the audience be able to relate to the couple and how hard it must be for Matt who has obviously lost this girl from his life.



Last memory shot, mid-close shot of Jess and Matt sat on the bus, again looking happy and everything normal.



Mid-long shot of Matt walking out of the graveyard, looking completely destroyed and taken apart, totally different from previous scenes. Makes the audience have pity and feel for him even though they don't know what has happened yet. Music changes back to sad theme and we again begin to feel sorry for Matt.



Point of view shot from Matt's point of view of Jess across the road, car passes and Jess disappears.



Shot of Matt's face, he is obviously very affected by what we think is this girls death, seeing things etc, audience filled with pity.