The effect of the VoiceOver/monologue on audience

By watching the film "Love Actually", which includes a voice over in the opening, we discovered that:

• Makes the audience feel connected to the film/character talking
• Creates imagery
• Creates/presents the talker thoughts and feelings clearly to the audience
• The audience can relate to the character
• The audience wants to know/ find out more about the character speaking
• The audience immediately draws conclusions about that character, whether they like them, whether they relate to the character etc.
• Draws the audience into the film and engages them in the action.

These all make voice overs a successful element to film openings, as they draw the audience in, creating interest, and creates enigma.

Opening 2 mins of a film: Love Actually

In the opening 2 minutes of "Love Actually" Directed by Richard Curtis, we discovered:

• The opening titles are accompanied by a voice over, this creates an enigma, as you know nothing about this person; you do not know what they look like, who they are, what is their background story etc. and so this makes the audience want to continue to watch, to find out more about this character.
• The voice over also fits with the visuals, eg. "mothers and daughters" fits with visuals of what the audience assumes are a mother an daughter greeting each other. This has the effect of drawing the audiences attention, as they are both seeing and hearing what the voice-over is saying, so they are intrigued and pulled into the film.
• There is a slow motion effect on some of the clips. This helps to slow down what would normally be a very quick process, someone running to hug a love one, so that the audience has a chance to see what is happening and take it in. It also creates a calming mood for the audience, and romanticises the clips, which then contrasts with the comedic scene that follows, which results in a greater effect of the comedy aspect of this "Rom-com"
• The actors names in the credits are in alphabetical order, with the first letter of each name in red, eg. Alan Rickman. This shows the audience that no single actor is more important that another, and so it is going to be more of an ensemble film, rather than just focused on one single character.
• The use of red font is also used when what the voice over is saying is written out at the bottom of the screen. The words that are written are "Love Actually is All Around" The highlight of the word "is" could be representative of a heart, similar to way that a heart is written between two peoples names, to represent that they are in love,  as "is" is in between two other words.
• The use of the colour red is also effective as it has connotations with love and passion.
• As the letters fade out, the last word to disappear is "love" this could hint to the audience that the key theme of the film is going to be love.

Opening 2 mins of a film: Forrest Gump

We discovered that in the opening 2 minutes of Forrest Gump, directed by Robert Zemeckis:

•   The use of the McGuffin, the feather, not only moved the storyline along, as it is typically used for, But also used to create enigma, as it is the first thing that the audience sees, and follows. As the camera tracks the feather, different elements hinting towards the plot are revealed. For example, at the beginning all that is in the frame is the feather, and the sky; however, over time, building, cars and people are revealed, hinting at the time era and setting of the film.
• The music used was very soft and gentle, reflecting the movements of the feather. This created a comforting and calm atmoshpere for the audience.
• When the feather first lands on a mans shoulder, the audience automatically assumes that this is going to be the main character. However, the feather gets caught by another short burts of wind, and so continues travelling. thsi adds both enigma for the audience, as the wonder whom the feather is going to land upon next (who will the main character be).
• When the feather does land, it lands between the pair of muddy trainers of a man sitting on a bench. This adds to the enigma, as the man is wearing a suit with muddy trainers. This in itself is peculiar enough to create an enigma, but there are also the questions that automatically form in the audiences mind: Who is he? What is his story? etc. As the feather travells up the mans body, we see his face for the first time. As he picks up the feather, he does it in a very slow, cautious, child-like manner. This hints at the fact that he has a very child-like mind, which, as the film progresses, the audience discovers.
• When he opens his suitcase, all of the contents are neatly and uniformly packed, hinting at his personallity. He also pulls out a Curious George book... This hints, again, to the audience, that this man has a very child-like mind.

Opening 2 mins of a film: Inglorious Basterds

In our groups, we all analysed the opening two minutes of the film Inglorious Basterds, directed by Quentin Tarantino. These are the main points that we discovered about the opening:

• The majority of the opening was the titles, however, these varied, as they had different font styles and sizes, depending on their role in the making of the film e.g. Director, Starring and Co-starring etc. all had different font styles and colours.  This use of the lengthy titles added to the enigma of the opening, as the audience will be waiting for the visuals to start. However, it could have the opposite of the desired effect, as some viewers may find it boring, and so may skip the opening titles, thus not creating the desired mood.
• You are also shown an establishing shot of a man chopping wood with an axe, followed by a shot of a woman hanging laundry on a line, which she then goes to look around as she hears a motor approaching  You are only shown a small section of visuals in the opening 2 minutes, which adds to the enigma of the clip, as the audience is only shown a snippet, and so are curious to find out more.
• Sound: The sound in the opening titles tells the audience a lot about what to expect from the movie. The music that is playing with the titles is not of this era, and so the audience can assume that the film is going to be a period piece.

Overall, I believe that this makes a very effective film opening, as it creates an enigma for the audience, and so keeps them wanting to continue watching to find out more.

What makes a good film opening?

As a class we discussed what we believed made a good film opening, and the conventions of film openings. The list we came up with was:

Post Production (Editing) Journal

Day one: 
After transferring all of our shots off of our tape and into final cut pro, we watched the clips and re-named them in order to be able to quickly and easily find the clips that we needed when we needed them. Whilst watching the clips back, the modern tracking shot of feet walking up the stairs, had a shadow of the camera, as the sun was very bright  the shadow is very obvious. We decided that we could not fix this problem in editing, so we decided that we would re-shoot the shot later on.

 In the mean time, we decided to play around with a few different effects on Final Cut Pro, to try and find our desired effect for the dream/flashback shots. The effects that we found created our desired effects were:______.  Whilst playing with these effects, we found that the blurring around the edges of the frame actually hid the shadow that appeared in the tracking shot, and so we did not need to go and re-shoot this.

We also put all of our clips together into the correct running order/sequence, and put in a few transitions to test how these would look, and if they reflected our genre.  When we had all of our shots together, we decided to watch the whole piece together, to get a rough idea of how the final product would look. We decided that we would have to re-shoot the last shot of the dream sequence, as, originally, we planned to play it in two different shots, to add to the confusion we wanted to create in the scene, but when watching this back, it just made the shots look disjointed and unprofessional, so we decided we would re-shoot this scene in one, flowing shot. 


Day two:
After we had re-shot the scenes that we wanted to, we uploaded them to final cut pro. Unfortunately, they did not fit in with the rest of the clips: the colouring of, and the lighting conditions were all wrong, and the hair on BAZ was not identical to that of what it had been in the other shots, so in order to keep the continuity that we desired in our film, we decided to keep the other two shots. 

Music and sfx: 
For our music, we wanted to have a very haunting piece of music, that wasn't too fast paced, but then worked up gradually to reflect the increasing action and tension in our plot. We decided to use the song "Newborn" by Muse, but decided to use the instrumental version of the song, as without the words it gave us more of our desired effect, and was far more effective, as the lyrics were not there to draw attention away from the action.  

For our film, we needed a few different sound effects to be added in post production these included:

• Phone ringing
• The voice over for the phone call.

We had to ensure that all our audio clips; both the music and the sound effects, fit in with the visuals, making sure that they flowed together.

Day Three:
Once we had all of our clips and music in place, we wanted to concentrate on the transitions and the effects on the movie, so that it looked effective and like a final product, rather than just clips put together. The effects that we used were:

• ____- for the flashback scene to distinguish the time difference to the audience

The transitions that we used were:

• We decided to use fading in and out to distinguish between the real-life and dream sequences, and this gave a slightly surreal feel to the piece, which helped towards our genre.

Preliminary Task Reflection

After planning, shooting and producing our film "Traced", here are my reflections on the piece as a whole:

Shots: We a number of different shots within our film to portray our genre of a Psychological Thriller  I believe that the way that we used the rough, jerky camera movements was very effective in portraying our genre. We also used these shots:

• Tracking shots: The tracking shots used in the opening of the clip gave the impression that BAZ was being followed. This not only makes the audience feel uncomfortable, but this also creates an enigma, as you do not know who she is or why she is being followed.
• Point of view shots: the point of view shots used added to the enigma, as the audience are seeing the scene from the characters point of view, but do not know her identity.
• Close ups: The close ups added to the enigma that we were trying to create, as only small aspects of the scene were revealed to the audience.

Sound: 
We decided to use some non-diagetic music in our clip in order to create a eery mood for the audience, and to build up the tension that the audience is feeling. We used an instrumental version of the song "Newborn" by Muse. We chose this song as we wanted a song that is quite haunting, yet still beautiful and interesting to listen to. Our diagetic sound also fits in with the theme, as it makes the scene seem more realistic, and so more unnerving for the audience.

Editing:
We decided to use a fade in between the real life sequence and dream sequence, as this is a very stereotypical way of distinguishing between the two. This meant that the audience automatically knew that the two were different. We also edited the clips of the dream sequence so that they were blurred around the perimeter of the frame, which also added to the dream-like feel. To distinguish between the past and present within the dream sequence, we decided that we wanted either a black and white effect, or a sepia tone, as these are stereotypical features to distinguish between the two.

Mise en Scene: 
Mise en Scene is everything included in the shot. This includes:

• Props
• Setting
• Location
• Lighting
• Costume, hair and makeup.
• Facial expression/body language
• Colour

As many of our shots are close-ups, most of the frame is taken up by these, however, there are a few elements that help towards the Mise en scene of the piece. The elements we selected to include in our frames were very cliche, as we wanted the audience to concentrate more on the plot of the story, rather than the minor details. These are:

• The cliche outfit of the receptionist (smart blazer, glasses etc.) The audience will therefore automatically recognise her as being a receptionist.
• The cliche setup of a typical office (Desk, chairs, laptop, telephone, coffee mug etc.) The audience with therefore recognise the setting as being an office.
• Our main prop was the parcel we were provided the task of including in our clip. Our parcel was surrounded in, and created part of the enigma, but also acted as a McGuffin, as it moved the plot along. 
• As many of the shots are close-ups, the body language, and especially the facial expressions are very clear and key to the acting, which also portrays the genre.
• The colour we used in the film was all very dull, and not bright or lively at all. This added to the feel and portrayal of the genre, as it gives the film a dreamy feel.

Creating a Genre-Psychological thriller

-Our genre was a psychological thriller, so, as mentioned in one of my previous posts, we wanted to include some of the traditional conventions of psychological thrillers. The conventions that we chose to include/ play on in our piece these were:

• Dream sequences: for the most part of our piece, it is set in a dream sequence. Dreams and flashbacks, which were the two main components/ themes of psychological thrillers. Our use of them clearly distinguishes out genre in a very stereotypical way.
• Enigma- the parcel: we were given a brown-wrapped parcel to include as part of our plot, we used this to create an enigmatic feel to our piece, as it was a key part to our film, yet the audience never found out what was inside of the parcel.
• Enigma- identity of BAZ: Initially, you do not find out that it is BAZ in the dream, as all of the shots up until (0:40) are either tracking shots from behind, or close ups of her hand, so you do not know what she looks like. Enigma is quite a key feature/ theme of psychological thrillers, as it keeps the audience hooked, and on the edge of their seat up until the point that the enigma is solved, if at all.
• Shots: We used a number of different shots that helped to create our genre. These included:
• Tracking shots- Tracking shots create quite an unnerving feel for the audience, as it gives the impression that someone is following the character. It also adds to the enigma that you can only see the back of the character.
• Close ups- These were used to draw the audiences' attention to certain aspects of the frame, for example, the parcel in the hand, and then it's absence. Which makes it very obvious to the audience that the parcel is of importance. The use of the close ups also added to the enigma of the film, as the audience is only shown small close ups of the character to begin with, so are not sure of her identity until (0:40).
• Over the shoulder shots- used to show the audience the scene from the characters point of view.
• Point of View shots- used to show the audience the scene from the characters point of view.
• Editing: The editing that we used was very choppy and quick to begin with. This gave the impression of expanded time, as shots were added in. This created a feeling of suspense and tension within the audience, as they were waiting to find out what was happening in the scene, which also added to the enigma. The film then switched to more of a real-time format, as the two characters are having a conversation. The scene then switches to expanding time, when the parcel is spotted on the desk, as there are extra shots, such as the close up of the eyes, added in. This, again, creates tension and suspense in the audience. This feeling of tension and suspense that is created adds to the theme of the psychological thriller, as it creates a feeling of unnerving and discomfort within the audience.
• Sound: The song that we chose to use as non-diagetic sound to accompany our visuals was an instrumental version of "Newborn" by the band Muse. We chose this song as we wanted a song that is quite haunting, yet still beautiful and interesting to listen to. The song also builds up gradually, with quite a complex melody, which reflected the nature of the narrative, up until (1:30), at which point it starts to get quite rocky and heavier. This fits well with the visuals, as this is the part of the scene where she spots the parcel, which is the enigma of the clip.We chose an instrumental version of the song, as we believed that the version of the song with the lyrics slightly distracted focus away from what was occurring in the frame.

Preliminary Task

Our Preliminary Task piece is named "Traced" it connotates the well-known term "retrace your steps" which links into what the audience is seeing, as you are watching flash backs of the same scene. It is a psychological thriller.