Screen Shots

The Key features for an opening sequence

The first key feature would be titles as the audience know what they are watching and what type of film they are watching. the audience can tell a lot from the title which makes start to think about what is going to happen in the film. The titles can be right at the start of the film or just after a clip of the film which can make the audience think about the title. 

From this title we can tell that the film will be childish but fun from colours and font used. the background shows that the film will be light hearted and happy. the font is bold which draw our attention and make us wonder what might happen in the film.

Credits

Credits can be shown at the start or end of the movie. Some films like to shown the actors/ actresses from the start to show who is playing who and excited about who is going to be in it. it draws the audience in because we want to watch a certain actor or actress.  other films have them at the end as they want to create suspense so that the audience watch the whole film to find out the name of the certain actor/ actress. it makes the audience think about who the actor or actress is in the film.

As we can see from this film Rango unless you are interested in animated movies you are not likely to want to watch this film but knowing that Johnny Depp is included in the cast we are more likely to watch it even if we did not like animated movies. E.g some people watch moves because of the actors or actresses in the film rather than the actual film and story line.

Opening music

In every film there is music during the opening titles/ sequence which gives an in sight to the genre and type of film you will be watching. the type of music used would be related to the the type of film.

E.g The opening sequence to Cinderella has  fairytale music which shows to the audience that it will be a happy film .

Justifying which classifaction our film is.

By looking at the BBFC website we decided that our opening sequence would be classified as a 'U' this means that it is impossible to predict what might upset any particular child. But a ‘U’ film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over.‘U’ films should be set within a positive moral framework and should offer reassuring counterbalances to any violence, threat or horror.

We chose this classification as our childrens opening sequence doesn't involve any bad influence language no imitable behaviour no sign of horror or drugs. Our film is particularly suitable for a pre-school child to view alone.

Comparing our film with a professional film.

The film we are comparing our characters from our children's opening is toy story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGe4HEgtscQ 

The characters in our opening are an ensemble. they have no specific names where as Toy story has main characters which we as an audience know and then they have ensemble characters which we may or may not know. 

Lego man 1 - Red stripe on top

Lego man 2 - Blue hat

Lego man 3 - Green hat

Lego man 4 - Cream soldier outfit

The main character in our opening is lego man 1 as we show a close up of his shocked face. from this we can immediately guess who the main character is even if we do not know the name. this is seen in Toy Story when we as an audience realise that Woody is the main character as he in introduced from the start of the film. the other characters are just as important as Lego man 1 but we do not realise from the start whether they play a big part in the film , this is shown in Toy Story when we meet the other toys which we do not know who they are from the very start.

From the film opening Children can learn who the main characters are and symbolises young children with their friends and the things they like to do as a group of friends. In this case it would be an adventure which many young boys and girls find that this is the sort of game they would play in the garden which is significant to them as they can relate to what is happening. 

Children may think that it is okay to be told what to do all the time even when it is someone they do not know which in a way is not a good thing but children can start to realise that when they are told to do something in school or at home that has good consequences it is for the right reasons.

Our intended audience

We intended that our audience would be for young children especially young boys that are interested in Lego and adventure films. the age range would be 5-12. We tried to influence the audience to watch our film by focusing in on face expressions of the characters. We also added music from garage band that has created tension that draws the audience in. We added a rhetorical question and left it on a cliff hanger at the end of the opening sequence to makes the audience want to watch more and it has left then thinking what is going to happen next.

final childrens film opening - legoland the adventure

In the process of making our opening sequence of our film we fell that using stop motion was challenging. the thing we found the easiest was editing as it didn't need much. to improve next time we would use a different method of filming. 

Story for Childrens film opening

Name - Lego Land; The Adventure.

Story...

• 'big boss/ elderly woman' telling/sending lego men on a treasure hunt.
• 'big boss/ elderly woman' instructs them and gives them a list of three things.
• adventures start the treasure hunt.
• on their way; they meet a man who asks them to retrieve something for them aswell
• end of film.

Ideas for children's opening sequence

some ideas -

we want to use stopmotion to create a children's film opening sequence, using barbie dolls, or either lego people.

Then we decided to use the Lego man to create the stop motion movie to do with an adventure. We are using 5 man in the opening sequence. We want to make our film a fun and happy film for young children to watch. We want to inspire children into making the films themselves like this with there logo.

Old Student work

Childrens film openings

http://www.youtube.com/longroadmediastudies#p/search/73/oqfEeo8PFdg


we like this because its created in a good and creative way making it look like it was a real kids film.
The music at the start makes children want to watch the film as the music is quite happy.

Classification Research

The differences between a U and a PG film are...

U

It is impossible to predict what might upset any particular child. But a ‘U’ film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over. ‘U’ films should be set within a positive moral framework and should offer reassuring counterbalances to any violence, threat or horror.

If a work is particularly suitable for a pre-school child to view alone, this will be indicated in the Consumer Advice.

PG

Unaccompanied children of any age may watch. A ‘PG’ film should not disturb a child aged around eight or older. However, parents are advised to consider whether the content may upset younger or more sensitive children.

Analysing the opening of Children's Films

Pocahontas opening scene;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1Dbgqt-Mpw

-Animation
-Starts with a happy song to introduce the scene
-Characters have clear voices so its easier to understand
-Slightly over dramatic which makes it scarier for children
-Bright colours are really bright which contrasts with the dark colours

Over the Hedge opening scene;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmg0DmaYeLU

-Animation
-Scene introduced straight away, no opening music
-Its an adventure film
-Cute animals
-Makes children think animals can talk
-Tense background music as animal steals food

Snow White and the seven dwarves;


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gWiVs5Q0kc

-Animation
-Happy/fairy tale opening music
-The book at the start shows children that it is a story
-Evil and good characters are shown at the start
-Bright colours
-Contrasting voices between Snow White and the evil Queen
-When Snow white is introduced there's happy music and she sings along.

The Lion King;


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4wk-DDIELU

-Animation
-Famous opening music
-All the different animals are shown all leading to one place
-The music changes when the animals gather
-Bright colours
-Birds eye view of animals walking
-Music and animals happy - children happy

Pixar: The Incredibles - original 2004 movie trailer

CHILDRENS FILMS

Toy story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGe4HEgtscQ&feature=related

- characters are introduced
woody, andy, molly, mum, potato head, etc
- happy music is playing in the background
- comedy/action/adventure
- voice of characters over music, so you know they're important

Monsters inc.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkRPNChO4x4

- happy jazz music playing
- some of the credits are played in the beginning sequence
- it introduces what the movies about
- comedy

George of the jungle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-IcQSv5Qa4

- the movie is narrated
- the first bit on the movie when the credits are on it is in animation
- the music was catchy and happy, the lyrics explain the movie
- comedy

Preliminary Task

For our preliminary task we were told to make a video of a series of Camera shots. E.g. Establishing shot, long shot, over the shoulder, close up etc.

We found this harder because there was only two of us making the video.

We played the role of two young children who wanted to go to the park. Our success in this video was managing to get the shots we were asked for. We could improve on continuity as we found there was hardly any in the video. Also next time we need to make sure there is three of us as i didn't work very well with two of us.