Evaluation Acticity 1

 

 

We added the title it at the end of the opening 2 minutes. This is typical of the type of film we tried to imitate. Its very simple and subtle, unlike many action movies that have very extreme and over the top titles. After looking though many films of the same genre. Lots of the films that we analysed had simple titles, like ours. Hopefully this effort to imitate the titles of similar films will help to make our film look authentic, and appeal to our target audience. The title is put up on screen at the very end of the opening two minutes, mainly because most films do this, but also to prevent any disruption of the film; as having a big title come up in the middle of the sequence would do.

The location that we used is not the most typical location used in gangster movies, but we wanted to give the opening two minutes a Tarantino feel so we used a setting that is more typical of a horror film. Many of the film that are made by Tarantino use less conventional locations and settings, that really give the film a unique feel, we tried to give our opening two minutes the same kind of feel as Tarantino's films, and with the choosing of the location, i feel that we have accomplished it. We also chose this location as its nearby, easy to get to and we have access to it. It also has previously been used for shooting a cowboy-horror film.

For the costumes used in out opening two minutes, we used very conventional old style gangster costumes, a plain suit, which is very conventional. We used very conventional costumes in our film to make it obvious of the genre of the film, for example if someone were to be channel hopping on the TV and this came on they would know its a gangster, which may help to attract an audience. Even though our film is unconventional, the costumes were made a conventional as possible in order to make the genre easily identifiable. The props that were used were also very typical of a gangster film, which are mostly guns. We didn't really go over the top with the props in our film, we tried to keep the film feeling gritty and raw, rather than some over hyped blockbuster. The props just add to the feel of the film, as the costumes make the biggest impact.


The camera work and editing took two different styles in our opening two minutes. The majority of the film is shot in longer more extended shots. This slows the pace of the film down considerably. This helps to build suspense and keep the viewer wanting to watch on. Longer shots are very conventional of gangster films as most gangster films are telling a detailed and complicated story, the longer shots make the story easy to understand and comprehend. Our film however features both conventional long shots, as well as faster cuts during the short fight scene. The longer cuts at the begging build the suspense, then the faster cuts climax the event, then the cuts show back down. This is typical of gangster movies, making the audience wait for the big climax.


The titles font was not originally going to be this style, it was going to be a much more plain, bland and simple font style but after getting some feedback from peers it was decided that the font should be changed in order to get a more conventional feel. We took inspiration from;once again, films made by Tarantino. We looked at many of the films he has made and chose this font. It has a gangster feel to it, so we decided to use it instead of some boring plain font. The credit titles as well as the film title were done in the same font to keep in looking consistent and tidy.

Our opening two minutes was designed to leave the viewer wondering what is going to happen next, and i feel like we have accomplished it. Almost every film, though out all genres. Our film defiantly leaves the viewer wondering what is going to happen, which is what almost all films do in their opening two minutes.
This is very conventional of all films in our genre and we feel like we have made our opening sequence very conventional.

The style of the film defiantly shows the genre of the film, everything about it was designed to do so, from the costumes, to the style of the font for the credits to the colour correction. The opening of the film was meant to build suspense, and i feel, that's exactly what it did. The start is very slow with lots of long cuts, slowly building the suspense. This is very conventional of gangster films and a trait we think we executed well.

Our film actually starts at the end of the story and then goes back to follow the story and how the protagonist got into the situation the opening two minutes shows him in. This is a little bit of a more unique way of telling the story but doing this allows us to make the suspense factor in the opening two minutes a lot larger. It also makes the view wonder who the characters are, making them watch the rest of the film. I also feel that making the film start at the end makes it a bit less boring, which in turn, will make the viewer want to continue
to watch.


The characters are not formally introduced though out the entire opening two minutes, and for good reason. The two gangsters do not say their names, what they are doing, or any background information, this once again, is to make the viewer curious about the characters, making them want to watch on and discover their story. The gangsters are identifiable however by the clothes they are wearing, making them seem more powerful than the other character. As with the two gangsters, the protagonist is not introduced to the audience, he is just shot dead there and then, this makes the audience want to watch on an discover the motives of the two gangsters, which helps to draw the audience into the film.

The special effects that were added to the film were added because we could not do them for real, like shooting Chris in the head or burning down the hut. The special effects add the gore to the film, which is stereotypical of gangster films, which we wanted to imitate.