Music Research

For our film opening task we decided that we would like to include music in our final piece and make it a key part of the opening sequence. Therefore there was a lot of importance in choosing the right piece of music to use and took hours of research. We sat down over three days and simply listened to all sorts of different music tracks. We cannot use Copyrighted music due to the rules of our exam board (OCR). Therefore we had to look through Royalty Free Music and music that was over 50 years old as these songs are not copyrighted.

After looking through Royalty Free Music we found a large amount of them sounded very cheap or poorly instrumented (yet still impressive for a 'one-man band') and they simply did not suit the music style we had in mind. Therefore we began listening to music over 50 years old and found to our surprise that a lot of popular and great music is of the previous generation. We came to a conclusion of three songs that we felt would suit our action-comedy genre/film idea. These were the three songs that we felt were good.

The Rolling Stones - Paint it Black


The Animals -  House of the Rising Sun


The Monkees - Daydream Believer


After listening to the beat of the songs and to how we felt they would contrast or match with what was going on onscreen we decided that the Monkees - Daydream Believer was the song we were going to use as it suited the ironic comedic element of our film opening, the happy music contrasted to the killing that ensued on screen, much like in the Deadpool [film] opening.

Deadpool Film Opening Credits


We felt that 'Paint it Black' had been overused by the existing media and despite it having a good rhythm to it and sounding like a good match, we decided not to go with it. As for 'House of the Rising Sun', the overall feel of the song was great but the beat of the song seemed like it would be hard to match with what was happening on screen. Therefore we decided that 'Daydream Believer' was the best song to use. We tracked the scenes to certain points in the song and felt they matched perfectly.

Shooting Schedule

For our Film Opening Task we had to create a Shooting Schedule so we could organise the date, time and location of which we would be shooting the film opening. We also had to list the props, costume, sets, cast and credits we would be using. As well as this we gave a brief outline of timings throughout the day so we had a schedule of when we could shoot specific scenes, when to take breaks and when to check footage etc.


Link: Shooting Schedule  <---- Link to Shooting Schedule document


Overall, having a shooting schedule makes filming much easier as it outlines all of the props we need, and is a basis for timings and dates, it can also be handed out to the cast and crew so everyone has the same information

Costume Research

For our film opening we had to research costumes for our characters to wear, we did this so that we could get a better idea for the specific items of clothing that all of the characters will be wearing. Having a page of costume research helps the actor and producers get innovative ideas for costumes and how to make them look better whilst allowing them to picture the scene better.   

Costume Research  <---- Link to Costume Research document.

Overall having a document of costume research helps solidify final costumes and also helps to create a clear images of all the scenes that will be recorded.

Outlaw Video Storyboard Evaluation

For our storyboard we drew and wrote down what scenes we would need to record we at the location of filming. After recording these scenes we decided as a group to re-record the scenes in a different way. We did this by changing the plot. This was done by removing all the excess characters like enemy 1 or 2 for example. We did this because we felt like with all the fighting scenes it would take away form the final fight and make it less appealing to watch. it would of also made fitting the in the titles difficult as the scenes were shot or would only stay on one camera angle for a few seconds making the titles hard to read.
So we scrapped the old story plot and made a new one that would take less time to record, require less people and the final fight would be more satisfying to watch as the build up doesn't have constants fighting which ruins the final fight as the audience is then used to the fights taking place.
It would take less time to record as we didn't need other actors, so we didn't need to choreograph the fights which meant we saved a lot of time and that we could successfully over-record so that we would have plenty of scenes to choose from so that we can have different angles for each shot which can help create a more intense effect to the film opening.

In conclusion we decided to scrap the old story plot and make a new one as it allowed us to make a better quality film opening that would take less time to record, so that we could over record and give us opportunities to make better scenes due to the wide range of camera angles.   

Outlaw Video Stroyboard

This is a video representation of our storyboard which we used to plan making our film opening.
We used a storyboard to help plan out the scenes we will be filming so that we don't end up recording wrong scenes which have no relevance.

Film Opening Storyboard

Opening scene presentation Evaluation

We also received feedback from our classmates who commented on the theme, genre, narrative, target audience, institution and whether they would pay to see the movie and any other comments they have on the idea.


Some of the comments we received:

'The idea is really ambitious and sounds very exciting. Credit to them if all of the effects on after effects work out. Sometimes super ambitious projects can be a let down. I have confidence in you if you're willing to put in the time for the special effects."

"Keep in mind the idea of props and special effects i.e. fire/gunshots etc."

"This film takes influence from Deadpool with the anti-hero and a comedy-action genre throughout so I like the idea and would see it, it certainly sounds interesting."

"The target audience suits the film well as the action and comedy appeals to a teenage audience."

"The film sounds intriguing, I would definitely watch this film."

Overall, our presentation seemed popular amongst our peers, we received no negative comments and everyone showed clear interest in our project and our ideas for the film opening. We have learnt that they like the editing style and our ambitions for the project so we intend to keep the use of special effects and want to continue experimenting with Adobe After Effects so we can achieve a high standard, professional-looking film opening.