Value of Initial Research

Research Input –

·         The idea of the extreme close up before anything else was from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as it instantly shows a man’s eyes before anything else happens. I thought this technique was a unique way of starting a film and engaged the audience straight away which made me want to watch more of it. We are going to use this in our opening - starting close in on the brother and then pulling back.

·         I noticed that 3 of the 4 film openings I watched used various close ups and extreme close ups to give clues to the audience as to what the remainder of the film will entail; for example, Juno, showed various different shots of the brown chair being the main focus which gave the audience the impression it will be significant to the storyline

·         The idea of having a story told from the point of view of someone significant in the film is effective because although it may be fiction, it makes the audience feel engaged in the person’s life as if it were their own - when we change back to the 80s we could use this technique.
 

·         A Little Princess is very memorable because it is partially told through the eyes of a little girl and her struggle through being an orphan which heightens the intensity of the film making the audience want to carry on watching. Ruby needs to be this kind of character.

·         The idea of the film being set in the 1980s originally came from This is England; a film about a little 11 year old boy who grows up with the wrong crowd , but instead of following that story, the idea changed through the upbringing of Killing Bono; a film about the rise of Irish band, U2. Both of these are films with a lot of energy, and we can get that into our opening sequence through the footage of the band.

·         However, as it had to be a fictional piece we decided on the film being a flashback of how a band member ruins herself; we made it a psychological drama through the idea of an important member spiralling out of control, and eventually taking her own life, leaving her brother feeling guilty for giving in to her acceptance to the band in the first place