CCR

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Movie Opener Final Draft

https://youtu.be/nhpI5PbDuXQ

As a group we decided that the thing that people were most confused about was the ending where our main character, Kelsey, changed identity to ensure she didn't get caught for the bank robbery. Due to COVID-19 we couldn't re-film any of our footage, so instead we decided to add a subtitle towards the end of the film that should clarify any confusion about the identity change. Overall, I am proud of our end product and I think the film opener in its entirety makes a lot more sense now. 

Peer Reviews

Summary: I think our group got a lot of really good feedback. Our classmates were really descriptive and didn't hold back, which is great because it gives us plenty of idea about what to work on. As for improvements, I think the two main things my group will do is change the music at the beginning and  clarify the ending when Kelsey changes her personality. These were the two major comments we got about improvements so I think this will make our opener run a lot smoother. We should add subtitles or a voiceover to the ending to clear up any confusion about the personality change. Overall, I think the comments were positive, yet helpful for our group to improve our film opener. 

Rough Cut Movie Opener

https://youtu.be/7KzPKtchms8

Editing Week 2

While we continued to edit, We had to do a few more transitions towards the end of the film openers to make sure it wasn't just a cut between each scene, we wanted to do this to add symbolism, as stated in the outline we had originally made for the opener. One example of this is seen in the picture above, we had to zoom in and then zoom out to show two different people, and therefore a change in the main character. To do this, we chose the transition, "Dip to Black", where it zooms in and zooms out on the separate clip to show the identification of our main character had changed, an essential part of our opener.

Editing Week 1

In the first week of editing, my group ran into a few issues. I think this was mostly because we needed to brush up our skills on Premier Pro. We tried adding in all of the clips but since some of them were taken in different backgrounds, they didn't quite flow together. While playing around with a few transitions, eventually we got to the point where everything flowed correctly. We still have to add in titles, effects and special audio, which is what we plan on tackling next week.

Filming

In the second week of filming, we actually began filming starting at the school. We filmed a few bystanders for the bank robbery hiding behind bushes as well as a few clips at the airport. From previous travels I have a few clips in an airplane that we were planning on cutting to when the main character is fleeing the country. We still have a lot of work to do but I think this was a great start to our filming process! 

Beginning to Film

We began our filming at Lely High School and Naples Airport. These scenes of our film opener will be the robbers preparing to rob the bank as well as hiding in bushes. The airport scene is toward the end of our film opener when the main character is fleeing the country. For the first week we were just preparing to film. In the pictures shown you can see me walking out to the parking lot to find which car we were going to use for the bank robbery. As well as this we went to both Naples Airport and Marco Airport to see which one would fit our film better and we ended up choosing Naples Airport.   

     

Preparing to Film

Actors: Carson, Sarah, Kelsey and me. We have not decided who is going to play who, but the characters in the film opener includes bank robbers, a sick mother, the main character, and bankers. 

 Costumes: The bank robbers will be wearing all black and ski masks. The bankers will be wearing business outfits. The sick mother will be wearing pajamas because she will be in bed.  

 Props: We will have fake money, a fake gun, and a money bag. We will also need to get a car and a bed for the flee scene and the sick mother scene. 

  Locations: We will be filming at a bank, someone’s house, and the airport. The bank is for the robbery scene. The house is for the scene with the sick mother, and the airport is for when the main character flees the country.  

Dates and Times: We haven’t completely decided what days we are filming yet but we are most likely going to film on February 8th and February 9th. The bank robbery scene will be filmed around 5pm and the airport scene will be filmed around sunset or 6pm.  

 Scripts: As of right now we do not have scripts. We were planning on making it up as we go along and if someone messes up of comes up with a new idea, we can always refilm that scene.  

 Film Equipment: We are going to use my camera to film and Sarah’s computer to cut and edit the film to make it flow smoothly from on scene to the next.  

Storyboarding

This week we created a storyboard for our action and adventure film opener. After lots of brainstorming, my teammates and I thought we should open the film with a bit of action. What better way to do this than a crime scene. Our movie will start with a bank robbery and on of the members of the group robbing the bank will be our main character throughout the film. The main character has a mother who is very sick and needs money to find pay for a very rare and expensive medicine. In the opener the main character goes home to her mother to give her some money and tell her that everything will be okay, before changing her identity and fleeing the country so that she doesn't get caught for the bank robbery. the film will be about the young girl's adventure and obstacles she has to overcome in order to get the medicine for her mom. In the opener we do have some symbolism such as the zooming in on the money bag and then zooming our to see a backpack that the main character is holding. This goes to show that the girl does not want her mother to know how she got the money for her. Carson, one of our group members, did most of the drawings such as the bank robbery and the scene where the main character visits her mother and then flees the country. Kelsey, another group member, colored in all of Carson's pencil drawings. I wrote all of the captions for each image to describe what is going on in each scene. As a team, Carson, Kelsey, Sarah, and I all worked together on the brainstorming aspect of the film opener to come up with the best opening we could think of for our film.

Brainstorming

From the action and adventure film openings that I have watched, something big tends to happen in the opener of the film. Either something that jump starts the plot for the rest of the movie such as a death of an important character, or something that will affect a character for the rest of the movie making he or she who they are. For example, Spiderman getting bit by a spider changed his life because of the superpowers he possesses for the rest of the film. Another approach that is popular is flash forwards or flashbacks. These types of film openers give a little bit of context to the plot of the film as well as tend to entice the audience members a little bit more than bland introductions. The most obvious film opener for action movies, is action. A lot of James Bond movies start mid-action and then the context of it comes soon after. This gives the audience a taste of what they’re in for as well as shows who the protagonist and antagonists of a movie will most likely be. The last film opener I discovered while looking through past examples was the informational film opener. This type of opener is used in movies such as Divergent. The main character gives context and setting of what is going on. The information given at the beginning of the film tends to be the most important as it often has something to do with the plot. In Divergent, the opener explained all five factions and what they believed in, as well as sharing that the main character didn’t know where she belonged. Then at the end of the movie we discover the main character falls in multiple factions, and is forced to control her mind for the greater good. Then the five factions dissolve as there is a war between the people in Chicago and the outside. The action was centered around the factions, which the audience wouldn’t have known about if they missed the opening of the film. 

Opening Genre Inspiration

Quarter 3 Week 1 Assignment 

My group chose to do an action and adventure film because, when done right, they can be very enticing and interesting. The thing about action and adventure films is that there can always be something new around the corner that the audience is not expecting, and they can be for all ages and types of people. There is hardly any restrictions to classic action and adventure films which makes them extremely popular in modern day society. There are many similarities and differences between action and adventure films. Action is associated with a particular kind of scene such as one with explosions, high speed car chases, or combat. Examples of these films include Black Panther (2018) and Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). Adventure, on the other hand, implies a story such as a quest narrative and often located within a fantasy or exotic setting, for example, the search for mythical objects or treasure in such films as King Solomon's Mines (1950) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). However when put together, they can truly be great movies to watch, and each one is different from the last. 

Action and adventure movies can also have a variety of movie openers and there are many different ways to approach the film. While action films continued to flourish as the medium-budget genre movie, it also fused with tent pole pictures in other genres. For example, 2009's Star Trek had several science fiction tropes and concepts like time travel through a black hole. However, most of the film was structured around action sequences, many of them quite conventional (hand-to-hand, shooting). While the original Star Wars featured some of this kind of fighting, there was just as much emphasis on star-ship chases and dogfights in outer space. The newer films featured more lightsaber duels, sometimes more intense and acrobatic than the originals. Some fan films also have similar duel scenes like those the prequel trilogy. It was action with a science fiction twist. The trend with films such as The Matrix and The Dark Night series, is that hand-to-hand fighting and Asian martial-arts techniques are now widely used in science fiction and superhero movies. Action and adventure can also be split up into different genres within the action and adventure. Some action and adventures can have a bit of mystery tied into it.