Recent Progress

In the past few lessons we have mainly been concentrating on getting all our work ready from our Media booklets to be scanned and put onto all of our blogs. We have also whilst doing this been editing our opening sequence. Efosa is the most skilled out of our group on Final Cut so he is taking control of editing but we are all putting our ideas in as to how the final edit looks. We are making quite good progress now and are working very well as a team so we are ready to show our opening sequence when it is asked for.

Se7en Opening Sequence

  


At the beginning of the opening there are shots which help us to establish what might be happening in the film and also help us to understand the genre. We can tell that it might be something to do with crime and horror as there is a pan shot of finger prints which tell the audience that there has been some sort of crime committed. The dark dull colours used also create a sense of horror and dark mysterious happenings. There is a creepy effect created with the fast forwarding used and slow motion.  


The credits are shown over the images. Morgan Freemans' name is shown on a black background, which is cleverly used to make sure the audience's full attention is on his name. He is a very famous actor so the audience will therefore want to see his performance in this film and want to watch it more. The main title of the film is shown half way through the opening which is unusual as most titles are shown at the end of an opening. This could show how the film is different to other films which will intrigue the viewer into watching it. 


The sound used in the opening is all non-diegetic. It is quite morbid and scary music that builds up throughout the opening. There is a drum beat throughout the opening that reminds me of a heart beat.   
This could relate to how there is going to be death in the film. There are lyrics at the end of the opening in the song that say "you bring me closer to god" and at the same time as this the sound of the heart beat stops. The reference to god could link to death and so could the beat stopping. 


There is a constant use of changing from positive images to negative. This could relate to how there might be different sides to the film. It may have the horror side but there my be an opposite to this as well. 

Editing

Today we have been starting to edit our Opening. We have been working on Final Cut Express where we have been cutting our shots and fitting them all back together to start to build our final piece. I think that we have been working well as a group. We have had very few disagreements and have worked well
to help and teach each other all the things that we didn't know. I have been contributing to the decisions made with the editing and we have overall made quite good progress and if we carry on how we are we will be finished in no time :)

Cleaner Opening Analysis

Firstly with characters we hear the voice over of a man who we obviously assume to be a main character who is telling us the story of how a woman found her mother dead. We don't actually see the man's face until the end of the opening which keeps the viewer intrigued and wanting to find out who the character is. The sound used in the opening is contrapuntal as the lyrics of the song say 'tell me something good', when the actual action in the scene isn't 'good'. The colour used in the opening is mostly quite dark and dull which matches the mood which is about death. Even the blood that you would expect to be quite bright is dull and congealed on the floor.  

The credits are shown throughout the opening on the images so we can read the credits without it being boring (on a plain background). 

My feelings and thoughts about group discussions and decisions

I personally feel that as a group we have worked well to come to final decisions about our opening. But obviously as every group has we have had to compromise as we all have different opinions. I am excited to get onto the editing part of our opening as at the moment I cant really see how the film will end up. We have decided that next lesson we will start to edit our piece to bring it all together and start to create the music for the non-diegetic sound.