Art of the Title Grid Evaulation (DYM)

Storyboard for "Followed"

Summarise your film idea. Provide a brief synopsis and outline what happens in your film opening.

Our film "Followed" is about a seemingly innocent girl being pursued by a mysterious and creepy villain. In the opening, it is assumed that the girl is on her way to meet a friend. All the while, there is a man following her with a gun. Towards the end of the opening, her catches up with the girl, placing his hand on her shoulder. Then, the screen suddenly turns black, preventing the audience from knowing what happens next.

What kind of information has been included in your film opening?

In the opening, we have presented the director's and two main actors' names, along with the title of the film. Regarding the narrative, we have presented the idea that the girl is innocent and vulnerable. This is done through the fact that she's a small girl in normal teenage attire, showing that she is involved with nothing out of the ordinary. The fact that the man pursuing her, is physically much larger than the girl and that his face isn't shown, depicts the idea that he very mysterious, creepy and powerful. He also has a gun, which shows that he wants to either kill her or abduct her.

How do the titles link to the main film idea?

The font of the title conform with the stereotypical and grim conventions of thriller font. It's also white, that makes it easily visible and bold, as well as slightly uncomfortable as it greatly contrasts with the shot it is placed upon. The actual title, "Followed", obviously synergises well with the plot.

Summarise the expected audience reaction. What should the audience be thinking by the end of your opening? Is your opening clear or ambiguous?

Our opening scene is deliberately very ambiguous in order to make the audience very intrigued and excited to watch the rest of the film. I expect the audience to be wondering who the girl is, who the man is, why he is pursuing her, why he has the gun, who she was planning to meet and finally, what happened when the man caught up with the girl.

Identify three things that you included in your grid that are important in the construction of an opening sequence and explain their role in understand the film.

1. We used a variety of shot types in the opening sequence. We used different angles, distances and focuses. This is because we needed to make the opening scene interesting and dynamic in order for the actual narrative to intrigue the audience, without the shot type boring them. It also aids in the portrayal of the characters.
2. The character development is also extremely important. The man never gets his face in focus and is only seen in full once. This makes him seem very mysterious. In contrast, the girl has an extreme close up of her face when the man approaches her. This strengthens the idea that she is vulnerable and innocent.
3. Finally, the black screen which only shows the title is vital. It prevents the audience from fully understanding what is happening and ends the opening scene on an interesting cliff hangar. It also clearly tells the audience what the name of the tile is and gives them an opportunity to really appreciate the thriller font

How effective is your project as a film opening? Explain your answer.

Overall I feel our opening shot was fairly effective. This is because our character representation is very clear and the narrative is easy to follow. Especially the last, which creates suspense and gives the audience an incentive to keep on watching. However, my main concern with out opening scene is the setting. The setting is not very clear. This is because of two main reasons - we had no control of the lighting, objects in the background conflict with each other (a head teachers office with a lecture poster conflicting with boxes and barrows). We also had no establishing shot so right from the start it's not clear where the scene is set.