finding nemo opening sequence

Narrative : In the narrative of the opening scene of finding nemo there is a typical stereotype of a children's film and this is because of how there is a lively and fun atmosphere where all the fish are swimming and having fun. There is also a contrast too and this is when all the eggs are taken away from the parent fish and the mother is killed and this is different to an equilibrium because there is no way of solving this and this is not normally conformed to a children's film where the mother is killed straight away. But it does give the sense of a equilibrium because it makes the audience think that there will be a repair of the disruption because the audience thinks how they are going to survive with just one parent.

Genre: The genre of finding nemo is a lot different to other children's films and this is due to the dramatic opening sequence, finding nemo is easily a hybrid where more than 1 genre is used in a film. The use of horror is used at the start when the mother is killed, comedy is used when they chase each other around the home, romance is used when they hold hands, adventure is used straight away because it makes the audience think the father will have to cope with a life without a mother which seems like an adventure, action is used when there is a fight scene with the shark and there are a lot more used

Themes: One big theme of finding nemo is family and this is shown because they have a lot of eggs that are about to hatch that will make one big family and love is also used and this is because the fish’s are in love, these two themes are stereotypically a children's film because it makes a happy film and they are used a lot in children's films because they don’t have to have any detail in that will make them a pg, 12, 15 and a 18 rated film.

Characters: We are introduced to the characters by the dad being conformed as being very nice and it seems like the mother look not as friendly by the way she was reacting to moving home but as the opening sequence develops the audience understands the mother is happy too and that they are both in love and this sets a great opening scene to finding nemo.

Jack's Preliminary task evaluation.

To start off our project on the Childrens films we had to do a preliminary task and film a sequence based on what we wanted to do. We had a sort of guideline sheet that we had to follow. We had to film a close up of someone opening a door, then a reaction shot, a talking scene etc. In my group we decided we would film an affair. To keep good continuity we had to stick to the rule of 180 degrees this would stop any confusion. We had a few problems when filming to begin with because the area in which we chose to shoot our sequence was quite busy. We were also not allowed to film anything outside the library as we were making to much noise. Our short sequence went well in the end even though we had a couple of problems. The storyline we had was quite easy to follow and I think we used some good over the shoulder shots for talking. To make our sequence better if we were going to film it again I think we could organise what we were doing a bit better and make sure we picked to film in a less crowded area.

Ideas.

Our ideas For the whole film are;

Our first idea is having a little boy waking up, and having his daily routine, for example waking up, having breakfast, and then a climax, or a problem that changes the route of his day to day routine. Then there is a resolution at the end.


Another idea we had was a sports day event including lego people, and how one lego charcater cheats, and then gets punished.

Tutorials

I searched youtube for tutorials on the use of iStop-Motion. They showed me how to make movements more fluid and how to take each individual shot. While looking at these videos we thought it may be slightly easier to use lego rather than clay as the characteristics of clay would be harder to use. I found this video most helpful.

\

As we came to a conclusion on attempting to use iStop-Motion (and probably clay) as our main technique in our sequence we looked at these videos to look at how the use of Stop-Motion varies with different film makers. As a group we decided that we prefered the use of Stop-Motion in Pingu. This was despite Morph being more children based (related to our task) and Jan Schvankmars work being extremely skilled. We preferred it because the use of mise-en-scene related to the amusing theme and made the whole sequence very comical, which could directly relate to it being aimed at a child based audience.

opening sequence for a childrens film - Ideas.

First ideas.


Within our group we discussed numerous ways in which we could present our childrens film opening sequence. We looked at Jan Schvankmar and Morph to look at the use of stop-motion. We also looked at typical children's films of today, Like 'Narnia'. Apart from these we looked at typical animation like 'disney' and 'pixar' films to see what techniques they used and how easy they would be to incorporate into our sequence.

Together we decided that all of us would prefer to do a childrens film opening using iStop-Motion. However we are early in our planning process and our choices could change during our planning.

Research for the opening sequence of childrens film - Istop motion.

Jan Svankmajer - tma/svetlo/tma (Darkness/Light/Darkness)

This sequence by Jan Svankmajer is very well known, and is famous for the use of clay model, and using a number of shots, to create a sequence that flows like a video. We think that this would be a good and challenging technique to utilize in our sequence.

Švankmajer has gained a reputation over several decades for his distinctive use of stop-motion technique, and his ability to make surreal, nightmarish and yet somehow funny pictures. He is still making films in Prague at the time of writing.

Švankmajer's trademarks include very exaggerated sounds, often creating a very strange effect in all eating scenes. He often uses very sped-up sequences when people walk and interact. His movies often involve inanimate objects coming alive and being brought to life through stop-motion. Food is a favourite subject and medium. Stop-motion features in most of his work, though his feature films also include live action to varying degrees.

simon's homework preliminary task

In media studies we had to do a preliminary task which involved getting a video camera and filming some scenes based on what we wanted to do. What my group filmed was an affair which got found out. When we were filming this we tried to use some basic rules such as the 180 degree rule which is when we have to film inside an imaginary line going straight through a scene, If there was no 180 degree line this could make the viewer change there perspective on the scene based on where its being shot from. We did this rule quite good by always following it when we were filming different scenes. Another rule we did quite good at was where we filmed someone holding a handle and opening a door, and then the perspective of what it looked like from someone outside this is called match on action and we could have used this a bit more because it is vital to stick to this rule. I learnt a new camera shot too called shot reverse shot which is when the camera shows one character looking at another character and then the shot is flipped and you see it from the other side. We did not do a lot of this and this could have made our preliminary task better by having more conversations that use shot reverse shot.

Conventions of childrens opening sequence

Analyzing Atmosphere in the film called, A Series Of Unfortunate Events, directed by Brad Silberling in 2004. The beginning is happy with elvs running around in a happy and fast paced manor, however this is not real beginning as the rest of the film is completely different and has a different atmosphere. It then turns dark and gloomy as the characters are introduced and the music which created a happy and upbeat atmosphere comes to a hault. The atmosphere in the rest of the sequence deteriorates as the children find out there parents have been killed in a fire at there home. There is low key lighting throughout the sequence to make everything seem sad and depressing. The transition from the beginning of the sequence when it is happy and joyful to dark, sad and gloomy makes you think that something is going to go bad. Throughout the sequence everything seems mysterious and you feel a little confused.

Analysing the genre of the opening sequence of A Series Of Unfortunate Events

The opening sequence of A Series Of Unfortunate Events consists of a vast range of genre types. The opening sequence changes rapidly at one point and this allows us to analyse quite a few genre types such as:

• Adventure - The opening sequence gives the audience a sense of adventure because of how the children are mysterious and unique by there characteristics, and also because the narrator gives an idea that the children will have to find a new way of life after there parents died, which seems like an adventure.

• Comedy - The opening sequence also gives an idea that the film has some comedy in it, and this is because of the youngest child biting onto the table which is humorous and the way the narrator speaks is quite amusing too because of the sarcasm that he uses.

• Horror - Another genre that is used is horror, and this is shown just after the happy start of the film and how it quickly changes into a dark gloomy atmosphere which is a contrast to what was being shown a few seconds ago which was a bright lively atmosphere.

• Fantasy - The opening sequence can be seen as a fantasy too because of how the narrator speaks like he is unfolding a story which gives the sense to the audience that it is a fantasy. Also because of the weird things that the children do like being an inventor, reading books all day and biting objects gives the sense that the film has a genre of fantasy too.

• Family - The opening sequence gives the idea of a family genre too and this is because the 3 children have nobody else to look after them and they are orphans, and this means they will have to stick together as a family which shows how close the children are.

Because the opening sequence of the film has so many genre's it makes it a hybrid. And this is when there is a mix of genre's in a film and because this film opening has 5 different types of genre it can definitely be called a hybrid.

Conventions of a childrens film.

Long Road Children Film2009.

The normals things you see in a conventional childrens films are;

• Simple narrative - This is because complex language and speech would confuse a young child.
  
• Happy endings - Most children's films have happy endings, this is because children's films usually have morals, the 'happy' ending shows that the moral, and the 'lesson' as such has given the character in the film a 'happy ending'. This makes the child feel positive about there experience at the cinema, and shows that everything has consequences.
  
• A disruption during the story - This gives the film a plot, and a purpose. This also helps to put across the moral of the story, so that the disruption can be resolved, using morals and lessons. This gives the audience a lesson, from whats right from wrong.

• Moral - The morals that could be used in a children's films are; Not to steal, to always tell the truth for example 'Pinocchio'.

This short clip shows how morals are used, and how they could be effective to children. It also shows how children learn a lot, and are educated through children's films, with morals.

• The theme's during a film in a childrens film, are usaully happy. such as; Action, Romance, Comedy, Musical, Adventure, Fantasy. All of these themes are used as a combination, called 'hybrid'.
  

childrens films are in the age ratings of U and PG. A childrens film is much different to a adults film which would be a 12, 15 or 18 because it does not show clips that are bearable to a young audience.

In film the term 'children' is directed at people aged up to 12 years and this is different from teenager. A teenager would rather watch a film with the rating of 12-18 rather than watching a film with the rating of U-PG. A childrens film is mainly targeted at children under the age of 12. So the rating and style of film will be suitable for them.

U or Universal is a classification that is suitable for everyone to watch. This means that all age ranges can watch the film. In a U rated film there can be mild violence, mild sexual behavior e.g. kissing, nudity with no sexual reference, there should be no foul language, the horror should be mild and not scare or disturb the child, and there should be no illegal drugs being used unless there is drugs that have been subscribed to people.

In a PG also known as parental guidance it is near enough the same as a U, except horror, violence, language etc can be used a bit more, hence why parental guidance is advised if a child is watching a film with a PG rating

Preliminary task

Our preliminary task was to show various shot types through a short sequence. We designed a story board consisting of 12 different shots. We also wrote a script, the location and the actors that participated in the sequence.

We experienced a few problems a long the way of filming on our first day, the majority of our film got erased, as a consequence on the final day we had to re-film a large section of it in a different location due to the previous location being over contested. Despite this we still managed to complete the task on time.

One of the positives throughout the task was that it gave us a chance to familiarize ourselves with the cameras and give us an idea of what we should and shouldn't do in the future when we move onto our main task of the childrens film and later on the thriller sequence.

To conclude, our preliminary task showed us how to improve next time as well as familiarizing ourselves with the equipment.