Juno - Film Opening Sequence

Juno is a quircky, indie film which is a teen comedy drama the genre we want 'Science Boys' to fit into. I'm looking at its opening sequence to get inspiration for mine and Kirsty's final project and an idea of this genres code and conventions.

General Info.
Genre: comedy/drama ("off-beat")
Director: Jason Reitman
Box Office Takings: $231,411,584
Distributer: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Starring: Ellen Page, Jennifer Garner, Michael Cera

Analysis
The entire openeing sequence consists of the character Juno walking through town to her destination of the drug store. 11 seconds into the sequeucne however, it become a mix of real-life captured footage and also drawing and animation which adds to the films quicky edge and instantly shows the audience it is an original film concept. The way the character is walking and what she is wearing represents she is not a typicl teenage girl instantly without any dialogue required and this make her intriguing and captures the audiences attention. Close-ups on her shoes and her drinking from the alrge bottle highlight these quirkcy features of the character to the viewer. The use of the simple animation makes the film less heavy - when it's going to tackle the topic of teenage pregnancy - but also adds an element that the film isn't totally realistic and is going to be far-fetched or exaggerated which helps add to the comedy vibe the film will have. The opening sequence shows the setting the film will be set very well and portrays how normal and typical it is which makes the film easier for more people to relate to. I alos like how the animation is mostly kep to the setting so the chracter Juno appears like the only 'real' thing in this unreal surrouding which foreshadows some of her emotions to come in the film. For an opening sequeence, it really portrays the vibe the film is going to have which I like as audiences immediatly know whether it is a film they will enjoy, or not. Also, the music in the clip is interesting as it seems very old-fashioned and would not be related to teenagers and a teen film usually which adds to the films quirckiness and portrays that the setting which Juno is travelling through may be a bit backward.

Credit Sequence

1. Distributer
2. Prodcution/Picture
3. Whose film it is
4. Title of the Film
5. Cast names
6. Casting by
7. Costumes by
8. Music & Songs
9. Music supervisor
10. Co-producer
11. Film editor
12. Production Designer
13. Director of Photography
14. Executive producers
15. Produced by
16. Written by
17. Directed by

Influence on 'Science Boys'
From watching the opening sequence of Juno, I love how the tone of the film is instantly conveyed. Also, I like how the character Juno is portrayed without dialogue through her mannerisims and think that quality could be really effective in 'Science Boys' as a way of showing what the chracters are like without them speaking. It also adds intrigue as viewers are almost guessing what the characters are like and I love the idea of an opening sequence which really sets questions about the rest of the film. Juno use of music I think makes it stand out and very different, but it has made me realise in 'Science Boys' I would like to use more modern music associated with teenagers to help contrast the nerdy characters with the 'hip' music - Kirsty mentioned a possible song we could use Jay-Z 99 Problems.

However, since our inital concept for the 'Science Boys' opening sequence to consist of introduing the characters with freeze-frames and it basically being them walking down some corridoors in school, Juno showed us that that sinario can still look effective and be interesting. It alos taught me that things need to be happening in the background to build a better idea of the setting and situation but these must not draw away from the main character/s. The credit sequence also showed what people need to be recognised at the beginning of a film and how many names and roles we need to include in our final project to make it look authentic. The representation in Juno is also going against the stereotype of teenage girls who get pregnant and tries to show a different view on the subject matter; however in 'Science Boys' because we want there to be more obvious humour we want to play-up to those stereotypes of science-nerds and not really show another side: however, it is a possibilty.

Science Boy's Brainstorm

After some dicussion, me and Kirsty have decided to adapt on our original 'Science Boys' idea. We got inspiration from the TV shows 'The Big Bang Theory' and 'The Inbetweeners' and these helped us look at waht characters we want to have in our version. Here are the characters ideas we "brain-stormed" this lesson based on research into other chracters like this:

• Goofy, clumsy character who is so involved in science that other things do not concern him.
• 'Wannabe' coll one who tried to fit in and be popular but his love for science means he unfortunatly falls into the 'Science Boy' category; this character is based on 'The Inbetweeners' character Jay.
• Eccentric character who is into new experiments and discoverys - similar to 'The Big Bang Theroy's' Sheldon but he will look more physically eccentric.
• The stylish one who is vein and image obsessed but still has a love for science; doesn't quite fit into any social status.

We want to use a voice-over of one of the chracter rememebring the day and the whole opening sequence will basically be them walking down a corridor and then freeze-frames and a brief descripiton of that character. This is the basic outline we have just established so it needs work and we need to look at similar films to gain more inspiration and to ensure our 'Science Boys' fits in with the codes and conventions of other teen movies.

Adapting the 'Science Boys' Idea

As me and Kirsty said one of the genres we were looking at was teen-comedy and one our initial idea which we also used in our continuity project was the idea of 'Science Boys'. With a bit of advice, I've looked at the opening sequence of the film Trainspotting (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Naf_WiEb9Qs , excuse the swearing!) and I really like the part with freezeframes on the characters to introduce them. i also like how at the time, it was quite contreversial and showed something which was topical but from a different angle. Also, there are only four main characters shown in this clip which is good as it shos a limited cast can still be affective. I also love the idea of using a voice over and music over the action as I beleive this will give us a better sound for our final project as previously we have really struggled with the sound appearing too amateur.

Our initial 'Science Boys' idea was set around the concept of a group of nerdy friends being ain detention, but because of a science experiemnt gone wrong. We wanted to show what British schools are really like and this gave us a great group to represnt and some stereotypes we could include. I'm going to look at some more similar films over the weekend to give me more ideas on what sort of film me and Kirsty could make.

At the moment, I'm keen to develop the 'Science Boys' concept to something much, much better than our continuty project which is slightly indie with an edge....

Initial Ideas

For my final project, I know I will be working with Kirsty becasue we have worked together before and I know we can work well as a team. However, we are really struggeling to decide what genre of film we want to do for our final project; we want to do something original and that appeals to teenagers. Here is a list of genres we are considering:

• Thriller
• Teen-comedy
• Drama
• Reality Documentry e.g Cloverfield

We are going to look at different films in these genres to decide on a final genre we would like to work on. I want to do something which requires no dialogue, has a mainly teenage cast (as this is what will be most accessible to us) and that doesn't look tacky...

Lord of War - Research into Film Openings

This is the first film opening i have analysed and researhced. I've never heard of 'Lord of War' which I think will help as i can be objective as I have no opinion on the film as a whole. Here is my research which I've decided to break into sections to make it easier to use...

Background/General Information:
Genre: action-drama
Plot: about illegal arms (weapon) trafficking
Director: Andrew Niccol
Starring: Nicholas Cage, Jared leto, Ethan Hawke
Distributer: Lions Gate Studio
It took $72,617,068 wordlwide in boxoffice

Analysis
The opening sequence is basically follwoing the production, transport and use of a single bullet; the audience only see things from the bullets point-of-view. It is as if the bullet has been stuck on the front of the camera so you can follw all its movements from it being made in a factory, to being transported and opened by different people and then being placed in the gun barrell, waiting to be used when the audience can't see anything until it is shot out into a childs head. Following the journey of one specific thing in the opening sequence is similiar to the opening of Sweeney Todd (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLS1VzUwfQ4) - The link shows how in Sweeney Todd you follow the jounrey of blood.
Giving the audience a limited view as they can only see from the point-of-view of the bullet builds up a suspense and makes the audience instantly interested and curious - I really like this idea of not showing the whole picture as it gives intrigue and has the feel of a movie opening which would be good for my final project. Here is an example image of how the audience just sees the limited view from where the bullett is:

As you can see, the bullet is on the bottom of the camera and the frame and the direction the bullet is pointing is where the viewer can see and you get this view the whole way through.

As the opening sequence ends, the bullet goes straight through a childs head which is very hard to watch and brutal, but it happens so fast it shocks the viewer into seeing the reality. This foreshadows very quickly how harsh the film is going to be so sets almost the tone of the film for the audience. Instantly, from the opening sequence qihtout researching the film I could see it ws going to be a film about the production of weapons and then how they are used and the moral issue behind this. Showing the child being shot, shows the audience there is going to be some moral decisions they have to make when wathcing the film. In my final project, I would like to produce something that gives the audience something to think about and poses some questions as I think this is really effective. No characters are introduced either in the opening sequence which I think works for this film, but in my final project I may want to make the audience aware of the chracters.

Music & Sound

The music used in the opening sequence isn't as brutal or shokcing as what the audience is watching. It is slow and suprising relaxing which contrasts with the image on the sceen and suggests someone you may not expect to be linked to what you visual see. The music is very undestated and not too loud so you can hear the nosies of the bullett being made, the machinery and the small noises around the bullet which builds up tension and suspense for a lounder noise to be used. The noise of the bulletts touching is very effective and continues throughout the whole opening sequence is very distinctive. There is no dialogue in the opening sequence of 'Lord of War' which also builds suspense and questions. I think the more relaxing and liad-back music is used to not make the film so heavy and make it more comfortable for the audience to watch.

Credit Order

1. protaganist actors name (Nicolas Cage)

2. film title (Lord of War)

3. other cast names

4. casting

5. music by

6. costume designer

7. editor

8. production designer

9. director of photography

10. exectutive producer

11. co-producer

12. exectutive producers

13. producers/produced by

Overall, I find the opening of this film very effective in enticing the audience and posing them with question and making them intrigued. The choice of music and the limited vision all contribute to that and I really like the idea of not shoiwng the audience everything. It suprisies me that a 'big-budget' movie like this with a star like Nicolas Cage doesn't show their big named actor straight away, instead they use his name to start it which may entice viewers even more. I've got some good ideas and inspiration on what I'd like to do in my final project. Also, after watching that opening sequence I want to see the entire film which I think makes it an effective opening!

Science Boys - Evaluation

During our planning for the Science Boys, we looked at scripts from The Big Bang Theroy to get inspiration for the type of film we were trying to create. Me and Kirsty soon realised that it was going to be a difficult task to create a script and this took up the bulk of our time. Also, due to casting issues our original script had to be altered as we only had two available 'science boys'. We wanted to create humour but also make it realistic for what British school is like, and this was great when we needed a location as we could easily use one of the school scicne labs. Contacted and arranging to use the space was easy, but we did have time restrictions on how long we could film there after school.

When it came to the shoot, I know see we should have done more planning. We took different shots from different angels and tried the actors lines many times to gt them right. What was difficult is we didn;t have proper actors and when doing a comedy this is vital as some of the lines didn't come off as they should have. We saw this later while editing and even cut out some lines which weren't working. During filming we had difficulty with the camera on getting its angle in the right position while it was on the tripod. Also, we had the difficulty of the humming noise in the scince lab which was really picked up by the camera. This also didn't give the film a crsip sound and later in editing we had to use backing music through then entire piece to try and make it sound more professional. In our final project, if we use a location like that again we will have to re-record our dialogue to ensure we get a crsipt sound that sounds as proffessional as the music.

We filmed most lines shot by shot to ensure our actors got them right and so we could switch between close-ups on each character. We tried a pan shot, which we used in the final film, to show the audience the setting and the relationship between the two characters.I feel if we continue with the concept of the Science Boys for our final project, we need to give our actors rehearsal time and even try and get ammateur actors as this would really help give the film its comedy edge. Also, the stroy-baord we created was too brief and when we came to filming we didn't take much notice of it which meant some of the shots we got weren't good enough. Also, when we come to filming again me and Kirsty now really know our strengths and weaknesses so we can take on roles that best suite us. While filming we were both doing a bit of everything and this sometimes made it confussiong for the actors who didn't know who to take direction from.

When we came to editing, we labeled all the shots so we know what we had to wrok with. We tried to get fast, clean cuts between each shot to provide the quick comedy but the light and sound is most of the shots didn't provide them with a good finish. We knew the music we wanted to use as it is used often in The Inbetweeners - which we also took inspiration from - so we were able to dowload it from musicaddict.com and cut it to suite out clip. The instumental at the beginning we knew would work best for our end sequence of freeze-frames of each of our characters so we cut the music for this. We wanted to use this project as an almost taster or trailer of Science Boys so really wanted to introduce the characters with these freeze-frames. However, in our final project we would like the gang of boys to be bigger so they can bounce of each other more.

Science Boys

Me and Kirsty created the idea of the 'Science Boys' and decided to trial it in this continuity project as we would like to do a better version for our final project. The conecpt is a group of science-nerds who are best friends but end up in detention.... The idea came from us wanted to create a British teen-movie that would be fun and we used inspiration from The Inbetweeners and The Big Bang Theory. So, here is the taster of Science Boys- it's a little rough and has taught us that A LOT of planning and some better acting will be required if we want to use this idea for our final project! However, enjoy.....