The target audience of action movies are generally kids aged 15-40. This is because the younger generation is the one that typically likes the adrenaline rush they get from action movies. The target audience is very important when making a movie opening because you need to incorporate things that the target audience enjoys. In my case for action movies, the general target audience is 15-40, so I am going to need to create something that grabs the attention of people in that age group. Another sub-genre I was considering doing was Spy action film which also has a target audience of 15-40, so there are certain elements I need to incorporate to fit my audience. The most important adrenaline booster in action movies are stunts and action sequences like car chases, since I am doing a movie opening, I do not need to incorporate those major action sequences. I can use smaller action like a small fight or a gunshot, but more importantly I need to find a way to make an opening that shows that in the film there will be action sequences. The dialogue and camera shots in my film are going to have to hint at adrenaline boosting scenes further down in the film.
In this movie opening the usage of shots and close ups of items like guns and the speedometer of a car to set the tone of the film as an action film. The shots allow the audience to anticipate that their will be action and the major action sequences in the future of the movie. The only "action" in this movie is the last shot where the man gets shot, but that is a basic scene that I could probably create. This scene does a good job of developing the plot and the character without having a crazy car chase or gunfight scene, it makes good usage of camera shots and sound to set the tone for the rest of the movie.
Another aspect of action movies is the representation. Most action movies have a male and white lead in Hollywood. Representation is important because it allows people to be inspired and the full story can be told from all perspectives. Unfortunately, due to COVID and other issues there are a limited amount of people I want to ask for help, my pool of actors is limited, so I cannot control representation in my movie opening, but I do think that I have a diverse group of friends I could contact to act in my opening. I still do believe I can make a good film with the limited pool of actors
Action movies are movies where people are going in to watch expecting to be entertained. A good action movie opening must have something interesting right away, something that makes the viewer want to stay. There has to be some sort of plot, where the viewer is asking what happens next without giving away too much of the movie. Another essential part of an action movie opening is the fact that there does not have to action, the opening is setting up for the climax which is where all the action should be. The opening should merely set up the action not necessarily include it. This is perfect for me, because I can create an opening that does not need action which I can do even with my limited capabilities. Another essential part of an opening is to introduce the main character and make the audience want to find out what happens to him and root for him, otherwise they will get disinterested from the start.
Examples
Iron Man
This film follows the exploits of Tony Stark who is Iron Man. The film opening is one that does not really develop the character much and more so develops the plot of the story. Here, the main character Tony Stark is riding in a military vehicle with members of the military, it portrays him as a playful person who likes to make jokes. However, suddenly an explosion occurs and Tony leaves the truck only to be blown up by a missile that has his name on it. He wakes up surrounded by people with face coverings who are speaking a different language and are presumably shooting a hostage video. At this point, the title screen is shown. This film opening introduces the audience to the plot of the movie and gets them to ask who are those foreigners that took Tony hostage and why did they take him hostage? The rest of the movie will go on to answer those questions, but the opening has used many techniques to hook in the audience.
The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight is a film that follows the fight between the Batman and the Joker. The film opening is specifically used to develop a character. Here the film opening depicts a squad of bank robbers successfully robbing a bank However, what makes this opening a little different is that it is a sequel film meaning that the main character(Batman) has already been developed, so instead this opening introduces and develops the villain. The Joker is depicted as a ruthless killer who seems to be very smart considering the mind games he plays in this scene to ensure he is the only one left alive and gets to keep all the money. He is introduced as a smart villain that will wreck havoc in Gotham. This film opening instead of making people ask what happens next, likely leaves people asking who is that and what is he going to do next. The rest of the movie displays the rest of his tricks and shenanigans, but the film opening does enough to make the audience stay and find out what the Joker is up to.
Both of these film openings do a good job of capturing the attention of the audience and ensuring that they stay for the rest of the movie. They both take slightly different approaches as one develops a character and one develops a plot, however they are equally as effective. From these openings, I understand what kind of opening is needed to grab the attention of an audience and I am leaning towards doing an opening that develops a character simply because it is more feasible.
At this point, I have decided I want to do some sort of action movie. It took me a lot of deliberation but after running through some basic plots I decided given the circumstances, an action movie would be the best way for me to move forward. Action is a very encompassing genre with many sub genres like sci-fi, superhero, spy, martial arts, disaster and many more. Obviously given the circumstances as well as the resources on hand any movie involving superhero's or sci-fi is likely ruled out. As of right now I think a movie opening to a spy action film would be best or a combination of a spy and buddy cop action film. The first step is to research.
In general action films are films that are usually very fast-paced, high energy and have many stunts. This comes into play usually in the thick of the plot of an action film, so I do not really have to worry about stunts since I am doing a film opening where I am most likely going to only be introducing the conflict. The fast-paced movie is meant to stimulate the senses of an audience and boost their adrenaline.
OVERVIEW
As stated before, action movies are very encompassing so this leads to the fact that the genre can have many different types of plots and conflicts. Usually their are five plots in action movies: Escape, assassination, revenge, oppression and kidnap. An escape movie plot is usually where a main character is trapped in some sort of location and has to break free like in Die Hard. An assassination plot where the main character has to track down the villain and kill or capture him like in Hitman. A revenge plot is where something happens in the main character early in the film like their loved one is killed or kidnapped and they spend the rest of the movie trying to get back at that person who caused their pain like in John Wick. An oppression plot is where a group of people is under the rule of more powerful people and they have to fight to escape that rule like in Avatar. A kidnapping plot is when either the main character is kidnapped or someone they know is kidnapped and they have to either escape being kidnapped or they have to save the person who has kidnapped like in Taken. The most important thing for me is to pick a plot that allows me to be creative and create something I like while also within the limits of my capabilities and the extra limits set by COVID.
The most common aspect of all action movie plots is the necessity for very fast-paced scenes that boosts adrenaline. These scenes are very important and to create them directors and their crew use many techniques to achieve this. Without these techniques, an action movie would not be successful and would not be a good product. When I create my film opening I will focus on using these techniques to create my film.
The editing in action movies is unique and is one of the major reasons why action movies seem so fast-paced. Firstly, during a fight scene or car chase, there are usually many cuts that are quick and show different angles of the conflict occurring. These quick cuts helps to further encapsulate the chaos that is going on. This helps to build-up excitement and tension during the fight which boosts adrenaline. Speed ramping which is when shots are sped up or slowed down is also another technique used that builds up tension and excitement.
The lighting and colors vary depending on what kind of action movie is being made. For more lighthearted action movies, like a buddy cop movie, the lighting is more prominent and lighter colors are used and the action sequences usually take place during the day. However, for more solemn action films, the directors use darker color palettes and the lighting is darker especially around the main character which is meant to symbolize the position the main character is in at that point. These intense movies make use of lighting to help convey the solemn and serious tone of the movie, while lighter colors help to convey a more fun and lighthearted tone in a movie.
The camera shots in action movies also help to create tension and excitement. In action sequences, usually when the main character is being overwhelmed, a close up of their face will be shown to convey a sense of desperation which further boosts tension. Moreover, action movies have alternating medium and long shots of action sequences to help show the audience all angles of a car chase or fight scene. These multiple angles are necessary for an action movie to because it helps create a mood of excitement.
I really feel I can incorporate these techniques into my opening and that for me to have a successful opening it will need these editing techniques.
This is the first post of my project. I have already run into my first issue of choosing a genre for my film opening. Obviously, just by virtue of being a high school student I am limited in my ability to make a movie opening, further complicating matters is the COVID situation. I have no siblings and the obviously due to COVID, I do not want to ask too many people for help with my filming, so I am going to need to fund a genre that not only uses limited amount of people, but also a limited setting because I do not want to go to many places. Right now, I am torn between an action movie and a horror movie. I feel like the opening for either of those movies can be limited to one or two settings and can be fit to accommodate fewer actors than other genre's might.
I think there are benefits to both. A horror movie would only need one setting and I can create an opening where whatever horror monster I come up with claims its first victim and the audience will be introduced to the horror movie. On the other end, with an action movie, I can set up the setting and also use a limited amount of characters and in the opening I introduce the main character as well as introduce the audience to some of the plot. I feel like Horror would involve less setting and actors, but would take more expertise to make so after I research I think I can come up with an apt decision.
Moreover, when deciding between these two genres I am going to have to consider is capability and the products I have. Is it possible for me to create an effective horror movie without the high tech instruments movie makers use? The same question goes for action movies too. The first thing I am going to do is research other low budget films and see which methods are plausible given the equipment I have. This will be the biggest deciding factor in me picking one genre over the other. Moreover, I will need to look around my town to see if there are any parks or streets where I can film in an atmosphere that would fit the plot of my movie. If I cannot find a dark and gloomy place, then maybe horror is not the way to go. It is an interesting question, but one I am looking forward to answering in the coming weeks through my research.
This project is very unique even compared to any project we did in class. For starters, due to the fact that our class was online the whole time, I did not make any new friends or acquaintances with whom I could film with. I am going to have to do this project alone, which is different than any other project this year. Moreover, this project is a combination of all the projects we have done. We did a project where we had to create an entire atmosphere using only Foley sounds, something this movie opening is going to need to have. We also did a project creating a music video, which basically made us create an atmosphere without any character dialogue. This project in essence combines the two projects into one project, except this project is worth a lot more points.
I anticipate this project to take a lot of creativity and be much harder than any other project I have down. There are so many factors I need to consider and COVID makes it a little harder. I think that with enough research and being on schedule will give me a product that I like. I think that with enough planning an preparation I can make a piece I am happy with. The blog is also an interesting portion of this project that I have never did anything like before. I think it is good and will help me in the planning process.
The biggest thing I learned from the other projects we did in this class is the importance of planning and how much easier it makes the rest of the project. I normally did not plan in other classes and even after the first couple projects I did not plan. However, eventually after the first couple of projects I learned to plan and on the music video project, the shot list my group created helped immensely with the filming process. The biggest takeaway I took away from the projects we did in the class was the importance of planning and that is the one thing I want to inculcate in this project.
The project was very smooth in all stages. First before doing anything, we had to pick out a song. All the group members decided on Mountain at My Gates after listening to it. We all decided based on the assignment, the lyrics of the song would allow us to be most creative. Next up we had to research the marketing strategy of other bands or artists, so we picked 4 that were all in the rock genre. There were 8 total rows we had to fill, so each person was assigned 2 rows.
Next, we had to start the filming process. The most important process in filming is the planning. We first came up with a storyline and then within two class periods we discussed what shots were best for this storyline. We all chimed in and took the best ideas and made a document of shot lists. One member of our group who was the best artist used to shot list to come up with a storyboard which further helped to film the video.
Next we had to film the video. We decided it would be easiest if one person gathered everyone they were in contact with and filmed the video due to COVID. The video filming date was set, however the work of the PowerPoint was still left to be done. There were 5 requirements listed, so we each person got 1 requirement and one person got 2 requirements. We created a Google slides and everyone put down their requirements soon after. Their was some confusion on the first requirement and whether or not that referred to our band or case studies and after careful reading of the instructions around 10 times, we deemed it referred to case studies.
We all asked questions when needed and helped anyone who needed help. My aspect of the PowerPoint were the case studies and the samples. Everyone felt the best samples to do were social media account and merchandise, so I created new social media accounts on Twitter and Instagram and took screenshots to put on out PowerPoint. I used Wix to create the homepage of the band and used whatever pre made templates they had. The merch was made simply by pulling off a blank hoodie on Google and going to PowerPoint and pasting the logo our group made on top of it.
Eventually when the video was finished being edited we added that onto the slides and then we were ready to present. The presentation was the last part we needed to do. We went and it went pretty smoothly. Everyone presented the portions of the slide that they worked on and we decided we wanted to do bullet points with further elaboration during the presentation because reading directly off of a slide was a very monotonal and old thing to do. There was no real struggle in this problem as everyone did their work on time and did everything that they agreed to do, which is one of the main reasons it went so smooth.
I learned a lot from this project. The first thing I learned was how to split a major media project in a way no one gets too stressed and this way ensures everything will go smoothly. I also learned how important planning is. The shot list and plot creation was very detailed which made it that much easier to film it. The planning of the PowerPoint also allowed everyone ample amounts of time to do their part. For the Cambridge Project, this is helpful because I will put more effort into the planning portion of the project instead of rushing into creation like I normally do for other subjects. Also, I learned that the less I procrastinate, the easier the project will be in the long run. Since, our group finished the planning and the division of work so quickly, I was able to space out my time spent on the project which made it less difficult and stressful.
The way my group and I brainstormed was we used our time in class to first discuss what song we wanted to use. We all listened to the four songs and immediately eliminated two. Between the other two, we weighed which ones would allow us to be more creative in making a story music video. After deliberation, we decided that the song that would have the best storyline was Mountain at My Gates. The next part was how we were going to split the second aspect of the project which was the media chart. This was easy as we split it in a way that would make it so that everyone has the same amount of work. To make sure all of us had the most recent and updated copy of a chart, we made a Google Doc and everyone worked on it there so we all had the information readily available.
Next came the process of creating a storyline and a shot list. We had a general idea of the storyline we wanted to do because we had come up with rough outlines of different stories during the song selection process, but during our time in class everyone was communicating through Microsoft Teams and we just kept on exchanging ideas till we found ones we liked. After we came up with the storyline of a person fighting their internal struggle, we had to come up with a shot list. The process for coming up with shot lists was relatively easy because we had the storyline in place so we just needed to discuss the proper shots needed to enhance and make our story have a meaning. We created another Google Doc and listed all the shots in order in the Google Doc as we were discussing them.
There were no challenges for me personally up to this point. We had ample amount of time in class to come up with a storyline and a shot list, so we did not have a need for much homework either. Everyone was responsive and did what we agreed to do with no complaints. The usage of Google Docs as well as the meetings we had in class helped all of us be in constant communication. However, this was just the planning process, I anticipate their to be more challenges when it comes time to film and edit the videos.
