Main Influences

The main influence for our film opening was American Horror Story: Coven. We liked the idea of the characters being dressed head to toe in black, it took a twist on the stereotypical idea of a witch with ragged hair and warts, and took a modern take on it. We hoped by making it modern that audiences would be able to relate to it and connect to the media product.

Our opening will be filmed in a forest, much like some of the clips in the opening of AHS. We felt that the forest portrayed loneliness and also fear of the unknown. The editing of this particular clip shown below includes darkening the shot to make it black and white.

One particular scene from the American Horror Story opening that we really thought would fit with our media product was the part where the three hooded black creatures walked through the forest slowly. We felt it added a lot of mystery while being easy to symbolise what is being shown. It signals a cult type group of people working together, in our case, witches. 

Final Script

Scene opens by panning around a field at a long shot, showing the forest in the distance, the camera then does a jump to the forest and pans around an empty forest. All is quiet, peaceful and eerie. The camera then jumps back to the field.A person can be seen stood in the middle, staring at the forest. Jump shot to a close up of the person with a confused expression, looking around frantically. They are dressed entirely in black, and look down at their clothes. The shot changes to an extreme close up of the person's hand picking at their clothes, as if they are confused as to why they are dressed like that. The shot then changes to a mid-shot from behind the girl as she starts to walk towards the forest. 

Once in the forest, the pace of the cuts between clips begins to speed up. We also hear the heavy panting of the girl over the top of the clip to add dramatic effect. At first, it starts at a steady pace. It begins with showing  the girl looking around the forest, then switching to a shot of three figures dressed in black walking through the forest - their hair is covering their faces, they almost look like shadows within the forest, They are walking behind each other in a line, the camera uses different shots of their faces, feet, hands, lips and eyes. As they walk the sound of crunching leaves can be heard, and they get louder and louder. As it switches back to the girl, it is a close up of her feet as she walks, snapping twigs along the way. It again quickly cuts away to a clip  of the three figures, who quickly stop in their tracks and look sharply to their left, before turning that way and continuing to walk. Behind them in their trail in the background there are stickmen hanging from different trees, the camera then does a close up of one of the stickmen.

The three girls then stop in a clearing. In the middle stands a lone cauldron.  The three girls surround it and hold hand showing no emotion on their faces again. They each have their heads bowed and looking at the floor. After a few seconds the girls start silently screaming and chanting as the introduction pot the eerie music starts , the next jump shot is of a match being striked and thrown to the ground under the cauldron whilst the other two girls are ripping a doll up and rags and throwing them into the cauldron. Whilst the action is going on jump shots will be used to show close ups of the girls faces, they are smirking or crackling.

This is when the shot cuts begin to speed up. The shots include different angles of the lone girl walking towards all the action and clips such as burning matches, china dolls and rags being ripped apart and water dripping from a leaf on a tree (this will connote sadness and danger). These shots will also include the names of the actors and crew involved carved into the trees or written on burnt paper on the floor. When the jump shots finish, it will cut to a close up of the first girl as her expression turns from confusion to fear and she starts to scream.The other girls spin around and see her, after a few moments they all start laughing, it's a dark, evil laugh. The sound of the heartbeat stops and the screen cuts to black. There will then be a static sound over the black screen. The title of the movie will then fade into the black screen.

Salem Sypnosis

The opening of the film starts with a lone girl standing in a open field, staring at the woodland. She's confused to why she is there, and why she is wearing a outfit of black. She then slowly turns and walks towards the forest, and begins to stroll though quite calmly. Unknown to the girls knowledge, she is not alone in the woods, as three other girls emerge. The new three girls are witches, and the fourth girl is their new recruit. The three witches start chanting and breaking twigs as the lone girl continuities to make her way though the woods, she passes signs that the witches are about. The signs are little wooden crosses hanging from trees. One of the witches then hears the lone girl after she accidentally steps on a few twigs. the witches then go back to chanting and crackling until the lone girl gets closer. When the lone girl finds herself in front of the witches, they all top and start smirking at her. Suddenly the lone girl screams and the screen goes black. this leaves the audience wondering what is going to happen next. Will the girl run away or will she join the witches?

Evaluation of Three Possible Film Openings

Age rating: 15

MY SCRIPT:

Scene opens by panning around a field at a long shot, showing the forest in the distance. A person can be seen stood in the middle, staring at the forest. Jump shot to a close up of the person with a confused expression, looking around frantically. They are dressed entirely in black, and look down at their clothes. The shot changes to an extreme close up of the person's hand picking at their clothes, as if they are confused as to why they are dressed like that. The shot then changes to a mid-shot from behind the girl as she starts to walk towards the forest. 

Once in the forest, the pace of the cuts between clips begins to speed up. We also hear the heavy panting of the girl over the top of the clip to add dramatic effect. At first, it starts at a steady pace. It begins with showing  the girl looking around the forest, then switching to a shot of three figures dressed in black walking through the forest - their hair is covering their faces. As it switches back to the girl, it is a close up of her feet as she walks, snapping twigs along the way. It again quickly cuts away to a clip  of the three figures, who quickly stop in their tracks and look sharply to their left, before turning that way and continuing to walk.

This is when the shot cuts begin to speed up. The shots include different angles of the characters walking and clips such as burning matches, china dolls and water dripping from a leaf on a tree (this will connote sadness and danger). These shots will also include the names of the actors and crew involved carved into the trees or written on burnt paper on the floor. When the jump shots finish, it will cut to a close up of the first girl as her expression turns from confusion to fear and she starts to scream. The sound of the heartbeat stops and the screen cuts to black. There will then be a static sound over the black screen. The title of the movie will then fade into the black screen.

MARY'S SCRIPT:

No sound, just a forest, girls appear in  the shot. Opens on a wide shot of 4 girls standing in a woods (staggered) heads towards the floor. All of them are dressed in black, no expression on their faces. A flash appears and a jump shot change occurs; to a close up of all the girls faces, focusing on different parts of their face (eyes or lips) Jump shot again; the girls are ripping a doll apart, running through the woods. The girls move

in sync with each other, in time with the eerie music which plays in the background throughout the duration of the opening titles. 

In the next shot the girls can be seen silently screaming and chanting, the next jump shot is of a match being striked and thrown to the ground. Whilst the action is going on jump shots will be used to show close ups of the girls faces and then will return back to the action.

The opening credits will be written across the trees and outfits of the girls. They will fly across the screen appear for a second and then disappear.

ZOE'S SCRIPT:

Camera pans around a empty forest. All is quiet, peaceful and eerie.

Then the sound of crunching leaves can be heard, and they get louder and louder, Camera pans to a extreme close up of  feet walking one behind the other slowly.

The camera then does an over the shoulder shot of one of the girls, in the background there are stickmen hanging from different trees, the camera then does a close up of one of the stickmen before flashing away to the four girls walking one behind the other still.

The girls are all dressed in Black and show no emotion on their faces, the camera does a close up on a few of the girls faces, it's almost as if they are shadows within the forest. They continue to walk until they reach a clearing in the woods, during this the camera uses shot cuts of the girls faces, feet, hands as they walk. The leading girl stops and the others follow. The camera does a mid shot.

In the middle of a clearing stands a lone cauldron, the camera primarily focuses on the cauldron for a few seconds before panning as the four girls surround the cauldron and each slowly reaches for each others hands. The camera zooms into a 180 degree shot, showing each girl from behind as they hold hands, the camera then shoots to the front of the girls, showing no emotion on their faces again. They each have their heads bowed and looking at the floor. 

The camera the goes to a longshot and in the distance there is the chiming of a church bell.

The Camera then pans to a extreme close up of one of the girls who reaches into her pocket and produces a rag doll covered in needles and with a small lock of real hair tied to the top of the doll. Another girl produces a knife, the camera does a mid shot to show the full extent of the girls body holding the knife. The third girl withdraws a box of matches and the final girl, the one who was leading produces nothing. The camera pans away slowly as the four girls drop hands and line up in front of the cauldron.

The girl holding the matches steps forward and slowly pushes the match box open. The camera slowly pans into an extreme close up of the girls hand and the match box. In the match box is a single black match. The girl then reaches into the box and plucks out the match and drops it into the cauldron unlit and steps back into line. The camera then pans onto the next girl with the knife, who slowly steps forward. The camera goes to mid shot as the girl holds her left hand over the cauldron and places the knife over the top, quickly the girl makes a fist around the knife before using her right hand to move the knife shown the skin of her hand. The camera captures blood dripping of the girls hand into the cauldron. She then moves back and the third girl with the rag doll steps forward. She smirks and quickly rips the head of the doll off and chucks then into the cauldron .The camera pans to a longshot during this to show capture of the girls during this part. The girls then create a circle again and the fourth girl steps forward towards the cauldron. She looks at the other three girls and laughs. It's a dark laugh. The camera then speeds up and creates a mid shot of the girl as she starts talking.

Girl four:  Are you ready?

The other girls all start laughing and the camera then goes Black and the titles start

FEEDBACK FROM CLASS:

• Sineads use of sound was really effective and added to the eery feel that we are trying to portray in our opening. 

• The setting of the field was very popular in the feedback, people thought it would connote loneliness and vulnerability. 

• The idea of the cauldron was liked but could be seen as too 'obvious' and brought down the creepy tones of the opening. 

• Ripping up of rags and dolls was said to be symbolic, perhaps because this is what will happen to the main character further in the film. 
• The beginning setting of the field contrasts well with the fast pace of the rest of Sinead's script as it created strong contrast.

After receiving the feedback, we decided it a good idea that we take all of the best/most well liked parts from each of our scripts and put them together for our final piece. By doing this, we would ensure that we are creating an opening that would be liked and would be popular. There were parts of all of the possible openings that we agreed did not give the effect we wanted and so we decided to remove. We decided that we would continue to use non-diegetic sound, the setting of the field, my idea of the close ups and the symbolic ripping up of dolls/rags.

Age Rating

After researching the requirements of each set of age categories presented by BBFC, it was decided that our film opening scene will fall into the category of 12 or 15. This was determined as there is a slight dark theme to the film opening but there is no explicit violence, gore or sexual references and so would not need to be of a high rating. The reason that it could possibly be rated a 15 is because it may be seen as quite intense and the direction that the actual film would be going in would likely feature some kind of violence and strong language as the film is a horror. 

Below are the descriptions for a 12 and a 15 BBFC classification.

12+ - viewers may only be over the age of 12 years old. There may be a moderate amount of strong language, sexual references or violence in these movies. A 12 rated movie will most likely have dark themes.

15+ - viewers may only be over the age of 15 years old. A 15 film will contain any of the following - strong violence, frequent strong language, sexual activity or references, nudity, discriminatory language or drug taking.

Film Opening (Salem) - Initial Ideas

The brief for the primary task is to create the titles and opening of a new fictional film, to last a maximum of two minutes and include a range of camera shot types and angles.

Roles

Crew - 

Director/Editor - Sinead Grace

Camera-woman/Story-boarding - Zoe Brant

Actress/Editor - Mary Lawson

Cast -

Actress - Aimee Tyrrell

Actress - Ece Celik
Actress - Sinead Grace
Actress - Mary Lawson

Ideas

1. Salem - the premise of the film is about a witch coven, who perform rituals in order to recruit new witches. The opening to this film would show a snapshot of how their rituals act out. It will include the three leaders of the coven carrying out the ritual and the new witch they are recruiting. It will be named Salem as that is an iconic location for witchcraft.

2. The Trees - this film would be of the horror genre and would be set in a forest where, recently, people had started going missing. It would start with a young girl walking around in the forest, dressing in  'going out' clothing and seemingly lost. She is on the phone to her friend but suddenly loses signal. After different shots of her walking around, it zooms into her shocked face as she screams and it is then cut off.

Final Decision

As the crew, we only came up with two ideas as they needed to be quite in depth and so we did not want to spend to much time on coming up with our ideas and instead get straight into planning and making the video. We decided to go with the idea of Salem as we felt that, as an opening, we would be able to make it more interesting and intriguing. Also, there have been many films and television shows based on witches recently and so the group felt this would be a more popular option. Now that we have decided on this being our film premise, we have decided to each write our own scripts and combine them in order to come up with more ideas and create the best content we can.

BBFC Classifications

The BBFC (British Board of Film Control) is used to protect younger audiences from unsuitable and harmful content. Every 4-5 years, the BBFC will hold a major consultation to to find out what the public thinks about age ratings. They will adjust the ratings depending on social attitudes.

Universal - This would be suitable for anybody aged 4 or over. There is no use of bad language, overly-sexual behaviour or extreme violence in U rated movies.

Parental Guidance - a PG film is suitable for general viewing, but it is advised that younger viewers are accompanied by an adult. These movies will not contain any aspects unsuitable for children, but may tackle challenging issues such as bullying or bullying.

Under 12's with Adult - viewing is not usually advised for children under 12s, but those wishing to see it must be accompanied by an adult. There may be a moderate amount of strong language, sexual references or violence in these movies.

12+ - viewers may only be over the age of 12 years old. There may be a moderate amount of strong language, sexual references or violence in these movies. In terms of language, sexual themes and violence, a 12 is the same as a 12a but a 12 rated movie will most likely have darker themes.

15+ - viewers may only be over the age of 15 years old. A 15 film will contain any of the following - strong violence, frequent strong language, sexual activity or references, nudity, discriminatory language or drug taking.

18+ - viewers may only be over the age of 18 years old. An 18 rated film will contain - extremely strong violence, frequent strong language, strong portrayals of sexual activity, sexual violence, strong horror, strong blood and gore, real sex and discriminatory language.