Band of Brothers

We have analysed the title sequence of Band of Brothers, and presented our analysis through a Prezi presentation.

Beginning Stages

When we finally decided what idea to use for our coursework, we put a lot of detail into a mood board, that would help us to get a feel for our film opening, and if we encountered any problems during storyboarding, scriptwriting or filming, we could go back to this mood board for inspiration.

Our mood board includes the overview of the film, the genre, pro's and con's and camera shots that we first came up with when coming up with the idea.  At the present moment we have not come up with a name for our film, but some potentials include:

• Home is war
• War is home
• Home is where the war is

Dead Man's Shoes

To develop our understanding of genre for our chosen idea we were told to watch Dead Man's Shoes.  It is very dark, and hard hitting, aspects that we are going to try and create in our own film opening.

Brilliant aspects of the film included:

• Soundtrack
• Script
• Editing
• Characterisation of Richard and Anthony

These aspects all really add to the dark and challenging atmosphere, and are key in establishing the genre.

One of my favourite scenes of the film included the scene were three of the characters have been drugged by Richard.  The use of a variety of camera shots and editing create a disorientating effect, and slight comedy which is also key to the film, making the contrast of humour and reality of the action so much more effective.

 

Another favourite scene or scenes is where flash backs are used.  It adds to the horror of what is taking place, with disorientated footage in black and white, establishing that the scenes happened in the past.  Fast editing is also used between reality and the flash backs in order to highlight the frantic nature of the film.

The soundtrack of Dead Man's Shoes was outstandingly effective, songs were used at perfect timing and helped to create the foreboding atmosphere.  The use of music is extremely key in establishing mood and atmosphere and this is something to consider when creating my own film opening.

Overall, Dead Man's Shoes focuses on a soldiers return home, and his thirst for revenge, the plot twist adds to the horror of the circumstances, and creates a film that is successful in challenging its audience.  Watching this film has given me a wider understanding of how to create suspense and atmosphere, and also given me some idea of how to approach the challenges that my own opening idea hold.





Submarine

After discussing our ideas we were told to watch Submarine to try and develop our understanding of genre.  We were told that the genre of our first initial idea was similar to that in Submarine.

Aspects that worked really well in Submarine included:

• Use of non-diegetic sound
• Soundtrack
• Slow motion shots
• Extreme close-ups
• Colour and lighting

All these aspects really emphasised the films genre and since watching Submarine my knowledge of the genre, and what is and isn't effective has developed greatly.

My favourite scenes included one in which a girl falls into a lake, but the action stops, freezing all the characters expression, the camera focuses on each characters expression before quickly cutting back to the action taking place.  The use of this shot and the childlike background music highlights the immaturity of the characters and also leaves the audience in suspense.



Another favourite scene, or rather scenes were ones in which the super 8 footage was used.  These videos would represent Oliver's memories of Jordana.  The use of a super 8 camera was very effective and highlighted the fact that these scene's were memories.  The music used was also very effective and highlighted the content of the scenes.

Submarine focuses on an awkward teenage boy and his first love, (very similar to our first idea) but does so in a way that avoids cliché.  The use of voice over is brilliant and key in moving the film along.  The film manages to tell a relatable story in a refreshing and intelligent way that makes it stand out.  Watching Submarine has helped me understand that you do not need to over complicate things in order to produce a fantastic film, and that at points, keeping things simple is the best way to work, as it enables the audience to get more involved with what they are seeing.







Initial Ideas

When beginning to explore ideas for our film opening we decided to choose two genre's that were on different sides of the spectrum.  Keeping this in mind, our first film idea was a supernatural comedy/romance, and our second film idea was a social realism, focusing on war.

Supernatural Comedy/Romance:

Our first idea was formed around the thought of an awkward teenage boy that struggled with day to day life, and fitting in with school.  We had some small trouble at first trying to create a storyline that was original and were not sure of where this idea was going to go, all we knew was that we wanted it to be a comedy, and also wanted to create a chaotic school environment. 
We came up with an opening shot and knew that the opening would consist of the boy going through the day at his school, with many comic occurrences.  Establishing this we still were not sure of were the story was going to go, or knew what we wanted to end the opening on so that the audience was left engaged and enthusiastic in finding out what would happen next. 
After discussing possible ideas we settled on making the film supernatural; the boy would not be able to grow old and his awkwardness and incapability to fit in was due to him constantly having to change schools.  We felt that this would add originality to our film and it was something we could build on to create an exciting story line.  We decided that we would end the film opening with the boy encountering a girl, but not just any girl, a girl who actually took notice of him, this would be a change in his monotone life and therefore a good place to open the film.  With our film opening plot decided my group and I became very excited about our idea, we discussed how we would create a school environment, how we would use non-digetic sound to establish the boy's life and story of his incapability to grow old, and overall were very passionate about our idea.
We then looked at the pro's and con's of our ideas, pro's included a knowledge of the genre and an excitement for the idea.  However, con's included a difficulty in setting, how we would find enough extras to participate in the opening and also the issue of costume.  Because of these issues and the difficulty of putting together something on such a large scale, we wanted to come up with another idea that would be simpler to create, but still provided a challenge.

Social Realism

Our second idea came about with the thought of a soldier walking on a deserted road, surrounded by a dark forest.  We wanted to base our opening in a very rural setting, a contrast to our other opening.   From this we then came up with the idea of a soldier returning home from war.  
To make our idea original we thought it would be interesting to focus on a contrasting affect the war can have on someone, keeping this in mind we decided that the soldier should live for war, find excitement in it.  From this we also decided that our soldier should have such an infatuation with the war that it now controls him, it has over taken his mind and he is not himself anymore.  Due to his new mind set he has become ruthless at war and he is actually sent home on leave as his superiors are worried about him.  The opening focuses on him coming home, but we want to create an uneasy atmosphere, implying to the audience that something is not right. 
In our beginning stages we have decided that the soldier returns home and in the opening he is seen shooting a woman in a house in the middle of nowhere.  It would later be revealed that this woman is in fact his sister and he has killed her as he believes that she is his weakness, and in order to fully focus on his mission at war, he needs to kill her so she can no longer distract him.  The opening would see the soldier returning home and end with him shooting her, leaving the audience on edge and eager to see how the film plays out.
We also thought that we would create our own composition for the opening, we want the background music to be very deep and slow paced, to then heighten with the shooting, we would also play war cries and explosions over the top to create the mise-en-scene of war.  We were also very passionate about our second idea.
Pro's and con's included a great excitement of the idea, actors in mind and location available as pro's, and a knowledge of the genre that needed development as the con's.


After looking at both idea's, we decided that we would focus on creating the Social Realism genre as a basis for our film opening.  We were very excited about both, but felt that we would be able to work on our second idea better as it seemed more manageable than our first, while still holding difficulties that we are eager to overcome.

Preliminary Task

The preliminary task set for our AS class this year, was to create a minute long short film, that highlighted our knowledge of camera shots, angles and editing with iMovie. 

At the time of starting this task, I had never used an apple mac before and I had therefore never used iMovie for editing.  However, after completing the task I am now more aware of how to navigate through the programme and how to create a clip that is similar to what I had envisioned.  I still have a lot I can improve on, and hope that at the end of my AS course, I will be confident in using an apple mac, and iMovie.

Overall, my group and I were very pleased with our Preliminary Task, we received very positive feedback, and from carrying out the task we were able to develop our knowledge of camera shots, angles and editing with iMovie, so that when it comes to making our film opening, we will be able to create something of a high quality.