G321 Creating Our Selected Film Openings: Juno, The Strangers and Vertigo

In order to practice creating openings and to help us decide on the genre we would like to produce, we recreated the openigns for three films. As a group, we had 2 hours to film all three film openings and so there needed to be a lot of preparation to ensure we met the deadline. Before we began to produce our openings, for each film a storyboard and shot list was created so we could manage our time effectively and replicate each opening accurately. My task was to collect a few props, such as a doll for Juno, as well as create the storyboard for Vertgio.

This is the storyboard I created:

1 - Fade in, Institution Name (2 seconds)

2 - Fade to black (2 seconds)

3 - Fade in, extreme close up of the left of
woman's face

4 - Pan across face to lips

5 - Slight zoom to lips,
Fly in credits of actor's name (3 seconds)

6 - Pan up to girl's eyes

7 - Credits fly in and fade (3 seconds) as
girl's eyes shift

8 - Zoom to extreme close up of left
eye, red tint and 'Vertigo' fly in
and fly off (6 seconds)

9 - Zoom in spiral (7 seconds) and
background fade to black while spiral continues

10 - Credits appear (10 seconds) as spiral grows

11 - New spiral zoom, colour change to purple,
more credits appear (10 seconds)

As the shot list would include the shot type, duration and description, I only needed to draw what was shown and state the transitions between each shot and their duration and did not include all the details. This was not completed properly but was sufficient enough that as a group, we could work out the correct timings with the shot list. I have learned that when we create our opening that we need to be as detailed as possible in the shot list and storyboard in order for us to create it quickly and efficiently.

In the first hour, we managed to create the opening of Juno and Strangers and Vertigo in the second leaving time for us to begin editing early. After 5 hours, including several editing sessions in our own time, here is the record of how filming and production went with an evaluation of my performance.


25/01/2011 - Filming Juno and The Strangers


During our media lesson (10-11am), we filmed the footage for Juno using our own sketches of the cartoon backgrounds drawn onto A3 paper. We then stuck the the backgrounds onto a wall and filmed a doll moving in the way she does in the real opening using the correct camera angles and movements where possible. At the beginning of the opening, there is also a short shot of the real world when Juno walks past some joggers and into the cartoon world and so we filmed Emily Wallace (a group member) to walk past with myself and another media student as a jogger. In editing, we used transitions to link the shot together and merge the two as seen in Juno. 


During the next free lesson between 11.30 and 12.30, the footage for The Strangers in which several shots of houses around the neighbourhood were used. This gave us a selection to choose from and find the best shots resembling The Strangers opening the most. 


27/01/2011 - Filming Vertigo
In half of our second media lesson of the week (10-10.30am), we managed to film Vertigo and upload all of our footage onto the Mac in preparation for editing. As the shot for Vertigo is one continuous one, it took several attempts to break giggling fits before the final footage was recorded. 


Editing Sessions 
Luckily, my timetable allowed me to be involved in nearly all the editing sessions and so I could help by using my skills on the Mac and showing my group techniques on iMovie. In the first hour session, we managed to put the raw material of Juno together with some transitions and the correct timings. Later that day in the second session, we made the timing of Juno accurate and put The Strangers together (including titles, transitions and text) with only the non-diegetic narration left. In the final session, we added the transitions, titles and sound to all of the openings and completed on 7/02/2011 to be uploaded within the next few days.


Evaluation of My Performance
All the tasks of filming and editing were either completed on time or with time left to spare allowing us to edit extra and perfect our openings. Our time management was excellent and if we perform the same in the future, we will be able to complete our final piece quickly with time to improve and perfect our opening. I stayed on task during filming and editing helping us to finish quickly and helped others in my group so that they could complete the work quicker.