BFI trip!

Today our media class attended a session at the BFI, where the chief examiner for Media Studies, Pete Fraser, talked to us about how to create a good film opening.
He gave us some tips and tricks on how to include these 5 key aspects:

1. Genre
2. Narrative (enigma)
3. Character
4. Atmosphere
5. Setting

We watched a few examples of film openings, including Catch Me If You Can, Dawn of the Dead and Napoleon Dynamite and we were told to look out for the five key features mentioned above.
These examples are taken from three completely different genres, which is useful for general research into film openings and we found that all three openings incorporate these features in ways specific to the objective of the film. I found it helpful to look at these because it made me realize what has to go into our product, for it to look like the opening for an actual feature length film.

We also had a look at a few film openings done by Media Studies students in the past and assessed them, to highlight the good features and identify areas for improvement. This was useful because we were able to see which opening had the greatest impact on the audience and we learned a bit about what to avoid on filming days and how to add in our titles effectively.

Hannah Rothman, Associate Director of Create Advertising London, also spoke to us about creating trailers and her experiences within the media industry. She helped us establish the differences between trailers and film openings, so that our opening does not end up looking like a short film or trailer. We learned a lot about her journey into the media industry and what her job entails which was really interesting for me as I am considering a career in media. Here is a trailer which Rothman worked on:

We spent our afternoon in a session with Dexter Fletcher, an actor and director who started his career in one of the first and best films that I saw when I was younger, Bugsy Malone! We received advice on the best ways to shoot our two minute opening and the ideas and processes behind some of his own recent film productions. Here are the trailers for Wild Bill (2011) and Sunshine on Leith (2013) which we were shown the openings to:

My group in particular found today really inspiring, and after being told about some of the most common, cliché film openings previous students have produced, we have decided to change our idea and attempt to produce something a little more authentic!