BFI Study Day

From the BFI study day i learnt a number of things, the first thing we explored was the conventions of film openings which are involved in a title opening sequence. Peter Fraser explained there are 5 aspects these were: 

• Genre  
• Narrative (enigma) 
• Character 
• Atmosphere 
• Setting 

With this we analysed several opening sequences such as ' Catch me if you can' and ' Dawn of the dead' to see what aspect they focused on the most. We identified that Dawn of the dead was more focused on setting. This exercise helped me decide which aspect i should concentrate on more for when it comes to making my opening sequence. Afterwards we analysed previous students opening sequences from this we highlighted and discussed what the strengths and weaknesses were and had to give them a grade. Recurring issues were things like showing too much of the plot, not involving any titles and a bad use of sound. Fraser stated the importance of sound and how it played a vital part as the opening sequence should have about 50% sound. The music should also be appropriate and fit the genre. By examining other students work and picking apart its good and bad points means i can look out for them recurring issues when doing my opening sequence so i can avoid making the same mistakes. 

The last speaker, Jake Hume the producer of 'Sixteen' helped me understand more about film distribution as from the question and answer session we became more aware of the struggle to get films on the market and to even get noticed. Finally Peter Fraser gave us tips on how to make our opening sequence to the highest of standards. Overall the study trip was largely beneficial and i learnt a lot.

Peter Fraser's Blog 
http://petesmediablog.blogspot.co.uk/

Below is the powerpoints which Peter created in order to help us understand better.

Here was the brief outline of what the BFI stuff day consisted of: