Final opening of childrens film

Time Line

This is our time line for our childrens film opening sequence. It includes what's going to happening for the first 1 minute 20 odd seconds. So far we couldnt make our childrens film sequence last 2 minutes but the timeings are just rough so it may last longer than we've mapped out.

Ideas for childrens opening sequence

Title: The quest for the magical M&M's

The storyline is the opening of a blind wizard eating different colour M&M's and he realises that there are no blue M&M's. He tells the children to work together as a team to search for the missing blue M&M's, therefore teamwork is the theme and the moral of this story. The children hear a suspicious movement in the distance and decide to investigate, this wizard is the evil wizard and is the binary opposite of the nice wizard. The genre is a hybrid of fantasy/comedy. The opening shows the introduction of the characters, sets the scene and shows how the problem arises.

We have created a story board and timeline for the opening sequence as a guideline for our filming to make it easier and more structured. By doing this it has allowed us to think carefully about the different convention and micro elements that should be included in each shot. It has also allowed us to work out how everything is going to work together in order to form the opening sequence.





















Location: We have chosen to set our film in an outside location near the woods and grass area as we felt this would enhance the fantasy theme that we would like to create. However, if the weather is not suitable for filming, we will film inside.

Props: Props that we will include is a packet of peanut M&M's as this is the focus of the storyline.

Costume: For the two wizard characters, we will need a wizard hat and/or a fake beard to show to the audience who are the wizards straightaway.

Character names:
Tom - Todd
Bronte - Dorothy
Jess - Holly
Tom - Gwenofyn the wizard (evil wizard)
Lewis - Zeddicus the wizard (good wizard)

Narration:
We have used 'Matilda' as inspiration to include a narrator in the background in the opening few seconds. We thought this would be a good idea as it will help the audience understand more straightforwardly.

Script:
A long time ago in a land far, far, far away there lived a wizard called Zeddicus, which is me. It began here where he began his quest for the magical M&M's...

The last line is to be said slowly to added effect and emphasise the title of the film. While this is being said an image of a packet of M&M's will be shown.

Practise storyboard

To practice making a story board, our group looked at the opening of 'Back to the Future'. Each person in our group focused on a different convention, either: sound, mise-en-scene, character position or camera movement.
Bronte - mise-en-scene
Lewis - camera movement
Jess - sound
Tom - character position

We watched the the opening sequence twice and picked out the main details of each convention. We then showed the opening scene through 6 stages, documenting how the sound, camera movement etc worked together to form the opening. This helped us to understand how to document and display the storyboards so that we could do this ourselves for our work efficiently.

Intial ideas for children's opening sequence

Our group has chosen to use a U classification. This means that there are no special effects made to cater for adults. The target audience is children between the age 5 - 12 as the BBFC believes that at teen years tastes begin to change. The beginning has to include a positive, moral framework and offers reassuring counter balancing to any fear, that is suitable for children to view alone without needing parents to explain the storyline. There should be no strong lanuguage or discrimatory behaviour, drug use, violence or sexual content. In addition, there should be no portrayal of realistic or accessible weapons.

So far, we have decided that we will use live action and the genre will be fantasy/comedy. The characters will include binary opposites which will portray the moral of the story to the audience. We will also use a narrator to give introductory comments to guide the audience.

Analysis of the opening sequence of Finding Nemo

The opening sequence of Finding Nemo starts with no credits or even the title of the film, just the establishing shot of the setting. An establishing shot is used to show the location of where it is set, the ocean/reef, the 'neighbourhood' as it is desribed.

Soon after it shows a binary opposite which is the evil barracuda and Nemos parents. The barracuda is shown to be threatening with lots of long sharp teeth, as is darkly colorured in comparison to Marlins bright orange.

Later the two main characters are shown bonding, His dad and himself, children can relate to this because it shows his dad being overprotective for example when he makes Nemo hold his hand crossing the road even though there is no road and embarrasses him by talking to his teacher about his disability and not letting him go off and play with the other kids. Children should be able to relate to this because their parents are naturally over protective.

This film is an animated adventure movie, the titles and the credits start after the disaster of a main character - Marlin losing his wife and only finding one egg left, the titles shimmer to represent the waters reflection and mood of the film. The mood is also shown by the use of bright colors in the reef plants and fish. There is a father and son theme to the film. when theyre on their way to school Nemo gets really excited and starts becoming inquisitive asking various questions. This is typical of a son to look up to his dad, and expecting him to know everything, especially as a single parent.

The 'Finding Nemo' title is in bold lettering and is underlinded with a wavey line which could refer to a wave. Theres a small fish cut out of the O in Nemo to relate to the fish theme. The soundtrack that plays through the credits is slow and suggests sadness and a sense of well being. This contradicts Nemos excitment that cuts in.