Film Opening Marking Criteria

Find three student productions of your choice and upload onto blog (post title student film openings) - one to present to the class that you found interesting and two others to mark using the criteria below. What went well, Even better if and give them a grade. It would be fab if you emailed any students' work with queries on their productions or their marks and got a reply. Upload the film you liked and why.

This is the marking scheme for the film opening task, I will observe this and apply it to our production so as to achieve the highest possibly mark.

Level 1 0–23 marks The work for the main task is possibly incomplete. There is minimal evidence in the work of the creative use of any relevant technical skills such as:
• Producing material appropriate for the target audience and task;
• using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions;
• using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;
• shooting material appropriate to the task set; including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scene;
• using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects.

Level 2 24–35 marks There is evidence of a basic level of ability in the creative use of some of the following technical skills:
• Producing material appropriate for the target audience and task;
• using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions;
• using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;
• shooting material appropriate to the task set;, including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scene;
• using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects.

Level 3 36–47 marks There is evidence of proficiency in the creative use of many of the following technical skills:

• Producing material appropriate for the target audience and task;
• using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions;
• using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;
• shooting material appropriate to the task set; including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scene;
• using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects.

Level 4 48–60 marksThere is evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:
• material appropriate for the target audience and task;
• using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions;
• using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;
• shooting material appropriate to the task set;including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scene;
• using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects.

I really liked this film opening created at Hurtwood House academy named 'Simulacrum', as it applied numerous positive factors to their film opening and created an exciting action-thriller. They started with the initial pan shot to produce a exceedingly tense atmosphere. They used a credit to add realism to the sequence which instantly enabled them to make it look like an opening scene of a thriller. Then there was the close up shot of the hit mans finger on the trigger of the sniper which adds suspense and gets the audience on the edge of their seats. The editing technique used which was cross-cutting helps the audience to establish where the new character is, thus it helps them to foreshadow upcoming events. I loved the part where they used non-diegetic sounds which increased the pace and furthermore built tension for the next sequence. Overall this film opening should be marked in the 48-60 marks section because it was beautifully produced and edited, clearly the group that created this film opening were extremely dedicated to this task.

This film opening is called allegiance and I found it particularly exhilarating. It creates a very intense film opening which makes me want to watch more of it and find out where the mystery story will take me. I loved the transition between the credits on black and the van scene, they decided to use a build up in sound to cut between the two; this was effective because as the music spiked and the audience waited for something to happen they were introduced with an energetic scene. This also created a gradual build into a large impact creating a hard hitting tension piece. The walkie-talkie voice overs were to show that this was a serious film opening, we could tell this by the loud booming voices that sounded distressed. The way they filmed the van scene where the cameraman knocked back and forth made the van appear as though it was moving.They decided to have a freeze frame and add the titles, to make it unique from most opening sequences. They they kept the same font style throughout the opening sequence in order to give it a 'punchy' feel.