Evaluation Activity 1

The purpose of an opening sequence is to establish the mood and visual character of a film and introduce the viewer to all or some of these elements:

• Characters
• Locations
• Narrative/Plot
• Themes
• Visual
• Genre

In our opening sequence we see our main character "Jess" going about her daily routine. In our planning process, my group and I contemplated whether we should have any other characters within our sequence. In the end we then agreed it would work effectively if we had "Jess" alone, because it  helps the audience identify the main character and focus on "Jess"'s attributes. This is a convention followed in many romantic comedy's for example in Juno and Bridget Jones Diary. Conforming to this convention meant that our opening sequence didn't give much of our plot away.

The music in our opening sequence was used to highlight some of our genre. The song we used felt  matches our romantic comedy. To find a non copyright track; we spent a good few days on Soundcloud trying to find the perfect match. The song we used in the end was found under the "indie rock" catergory. The chosen music can also suggest some of "Jess's"  musical interests as well.

Our opening sequence was filmed in a flat in North West London, we asked our actress Connie Martin whether she was comfortable acting in her own environment. She replied with "Yes yes of course, in fact acting within my environment would make my performance all the more effective" with this it was then decided we would film the opening sequence here. This was useful because then we then didnt have to labour over finding props and costume. Connie Martin also said "I found it easier to relate to the character of Jess within my space" When filming we included shots of the interior of Jess's home such as her bedroom and kitchen. We thought about the mise en scene quite alot, so of course some of interior had to be rearranged to create an effective representation of our genre. We also decided not to have an establishing shot of our location because we wanted the focus to be entirely on our character Jess.

When adding in our credits we felt it was important for the titles to tie in with the appropriated shots, for example when Jess is gputting on her make up; we have "Make up by Cerys Celeste Walsh" We did this throughout our opening with our wardrobe manager, and the company that would of provided the dog.