Our trip to the BFI, London

For part of our research, and to also gain a bigger understanding on how to create the 'perfect' opening clip to a film, we had a great experience to go along to two separate showings, on two different days, to sit, listen and learn more about Media AS. Although the first trip was only of great help for our coursework side of Media.


On our trip, we had the honour to meet and ask questions to the famous director of Wild Bill, Sunshine on Leith and Eddie the eagle, Dexter Fletcher!

We watched all of the opening scenes to Dexters films, which gave us a sense of how we could create our own opening scenes and what is important to include and also what is not so important. The opening scenes we watched were:


WILD BILL


SUNSHINE ON LEITH


EDDIE THE EAGLE


We also had a man who spoke us through the curriculum of our coursework and showed us some good and bad examples to take note and also get ideas from.
I learnt a lot from this trip including some key things to remember when planning our short opening scene. Tom Woodcock (the speaker) told us to note down some points:

• Don't shoot in too many locations
• Control your space
• Limit your colour palette
• Use lighting to set mood and create atmosphere
• Be consistent with your lighting
• Choose 1 or 2 fonts maximum for the credits
• Keep a consistency of size, colours, transitions and spacing also for the credits
• And finally... Don't make the font too big!

Throughout the day, we were set tasks and activities to complete in our student packs. We had a macro conventions task which was to watch the opening title sequence to three films; Napoleon Dynamite, Casino Royale and The Wedding Singer. We had to fill in boxes for each film about the genre conventions, narrative, character, themes and atmosphere. From completing this task, I realised a lot of films have little, or no narrative, but make the characters quite an important aspect of the opening scene.


We were also set an activity to complete for a micro conventions task. We had snapshots of some opening title sequences to four different films; My Best Friends Wedding, Raging Bull, Oceans Eleven and Seven. We had to note down the colour, lighting, font, framing, costume, props and setting of all of these separate films. From doing so, I realised that all of the opening scenes are very consistent with these things.


Finally, we were given a sheet of the 10 steps to the best results. These are very helpful when creating our own opening title sequence and are all shown below:

The 10 steps to the best results:

1. Take stock
2. Set up a Blog
3. Build up skills
4. Investigate 
5. Ideas
6. Planning
7. The shoot 
8. Edit 
9. Evaluation
10. Enjoy yourself !