Childrens Film Opening Sequence Ideas

Ideas for an adventure opening sequence

Title: Be careful what you wish for
Genre: adventure/fantasy
Location: in the girls room (
Moral: be careful what you wish for as it might come true.

Narrative: The girl wakes by the sound of her mum shouting her name from downstairs, close up of her face as she wakes from her nap, the laptop is on her lap from when she fell asleep doing her homework, at that point the laptop makes a noise, 'you've got mail' a letter then hits her on the head she reads it . The unnoticed parcel next to her starts to shake. There is a reaction shot of what she sees in the letter, she drops the letter and goes towards the box, the camera follows the letter and zooms in to show the words 'Be careful what you wish for' largely on the screen.

Parental Classification

Parental Guidance
All ages admitted, general viewing, but parents are advised that certain scenes may be unsuitable for small children. However some scenes may be unsuitable for children under 8.

Analysis of opening sequence - Matilda

Matilda
We looked at the opening title sequence to the children's film Matilda. Matilda is an adapation of one of the best well known childrens books of all time written by Roald Dahl. It's a family film with a bit of an adventure theme. It's aimed at a young audience but it's also suitable for an older audience to watch.
The credits at the beginning introduce the companies making the film and then introduces the name of the film. The background colour of the credits are bright colours which appeals to children, there is also not many credits to keep children entertained and help them to not get bored.
At the beginning you see a baby the music is very soft and slow using a piano and string instruments, this represents the innocence of small children and babies. As soon as you see the father the music quickly changes to a more deep, fast beat using an electric keyboard and drums. this again represents the different type of character and gives the audience a good idea of what type of person the father is. this music then continues throughout as they are driving home which is more past pace keeping in tone with the music.
Throughout the opening sequence there is a voice over which introduces the characters very clearly and lets you get to know them. The voice over also introduces the narrative and gives you an idea of how the rest of story may turn out.
The location is clear from the beginning that its in America but we arent sure where abouts. The opening sequence starts off with them in the hospital after Matilda has just been born. Then from there they get into the car to go home. You get to see the street they live down as they pull up to their drive, before you see their house.

I thought we were friends

We were given a task to make a short clip of anything we chose and include lots of camera angles and techniques such as; shot-reverse-shot, over the should shots, close ups, establishing shots, match on action and staying within the 180 degree rule. We created a clip about two young friends difficulties of relationships. one difficulty we faced was getting into our roles and to keep a continuous flow by trying to follow the 180 degree rule. The camera angles were quite easy to set up and by using a tripod it made it very easy and still.

Match On Action -A match on action shot is a cut that connects two different views of the same action at the same moment in the movement. By carefully matching the movement across the two shots, it makes it seem that the motion is uninterrupted.

Shot-Reverse-Shot -In a shot/reverse shot sequence, the camera frames each speaker in medium close-up as he or she recites a line of dialogue. The shoulder or profile of the listener can often be seen, slightly out of focus on the edge of the frame, while the camera is focused on the face of the speaker. It is used to shoot conversations between characters.

180 degree rule -A cinematographic technique which states that the camera must remain on the same side of an imaginary line, perpendicular to the camera's viewpoint, from which the establishing shot is taken. The 180 degree rule is an important element of the continuity style.

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