EMILY JOHNSON - Individual Blog

As a group we have decided to use a superhero themed opening for our children's film, with the genre being action. Me, Esther and Jade are the main characters in this as:

• Me- Playing the part of elastigirl. 
• Esther- Catwoman
• Jade- Lightning girl

As we all play parts of superhero's costume was very important in our opening. As superhero's usually have glamourous costumes, that slightly hide their real identification. We researched well into this, and found many inspirational ideas from different films. Such as the Incredible's. We took the idea of wearing something over our faces to hide our identity, and either a cape or tight clothing to make us look like superhero's. We do realise that if costume is not bought on the day of filming it would damage our final product and so we need to make sure that every item is bought in and worn correctly. As superhero's have two identity's, so the other identity would be a normal teenage girl. Obviously no special costume would be needed for this, as we could all just wear our normal clothes. 

The location of our sequence has to be limited to the college. Although we have not yet decided on an actual place, we know that we need the refectory, a place outside, and a room with a blank background. These will help create the opening sequence and help people decide on the genre of the film. 

STEVEN HEATH - Individual Blog

As a group, we have decided that 3 members of our group will be acting in the opening sequence and 1 member will be filming. The roles are as follows;

• Jade - Lightning Girl
• Emily - Elastigirl
• Esther - Catwoman
• Steven - Camera work

The costumes we will be using will have to fit around the Superhero genre and will include stereotypical superhero costumes. At the start of our opening sequence, before the superpowers are brought to the knowledge of the audience, the characters will be wearing every day clothes. Whoever is wearing the certain costume is responsible for bringing it in, except minor props and small costume items that other members of the group will bring in to share.

We will be filming in a number of places around the college site. We are unsure of how busy certain areas will be so we will decide on outdoor locations and a few indoor locations at the time of filming, so we can film in a quiet area for efficiency of filming. We have also decided to use the Refectory as the Establishing Shot of our opening sequence so the viewer knows it's a school which suggest the characters are normal students at first. We do not need permission to film in the places we have decided on, as students have permitted access to these areas during college hours. However, if on the day we decide to film somewhere that we need permission for, we will gain permission before entry.

ESTHER NORTH - Individual Blog

As a group, we have come to a conclusion that the actors within our group are going to be Emily, playing Elastigirl, Jade, playing Lightning Girl, and myself as Catwoman. Steven is therefore going to be filming. As the sequence is based around superheroes, we will need to bring certain specific costume, such as masks, capes, etc. to convey the idea of superheroes. We will also need to bring in costume to relate to our personal character, eg, cat ears for cat woman. We are all, therefore, responsible for bringing in our personal characters costume, with the acceptation of Jade bringing in a cat mask for me to wear.
However, in terms of props, the only things we plan on using are food and our personal mobiles phones, which we all regularly carry around with us so do not need to worry too much about finding and bringing them with us on the day of filming.
     For this particular task, we are required to film inside the college grounds, in which we are granted to film in most areas, as long as it is not disturbing anyone or somewhere where there is no pupil access, for example, the roof. However, the main areas of the college we plan to film in are the refectory and outside, both of which we are free to film in, and do not need permission.

JADE GILLETT - Individual Blog

For the task of shooting our children's film opening sequence we have selected three members of the group to become actors. This will be me; Jade playing Lightning Girl, Esther playing Cat Woman and Emily playing Elastigirl. We have decided that three actors will work the best to portray the overall narrative as too few or too many could confuse the target audience of young children. We will therefore be keeping all conventions simple and easy to follow. We have also designated the role of filming to Steven, as this is one of his strengths in the group it would be an advantage to use him to help maintain a high standard while helping to give our final product the best possible quality.

The costumes we will be using have been purposely chosen to keep within the action, superhero genre. This will be the typical red and blue colours for Emily and me while Esther will wear a cat mask to show her character. The costumes will be most useful to assist the reflection of the true superhero characteristics, as well helping the audience to establish an introduction to the main characters from the very beginning of the sequence. A side from this there will also be the use of normal, casual attire to aid specific shots where the girls will be playing typical schoolgirls. Props are going to be kept to a minimum but there will be the use of food and drink when filming the shots in the lunch hall and the use of mobile phones for certain close up shots. As a group we have decided that it is our own responsibility to bring in costumes and props but small items have been decided on to share amongst us.

The filming of the sequence has been limited to the sixth form grounds so as a group we have decided on places that will work well to present the establishment of location. We have decided that we will use the refectory for the lunch hall shots; this can show the typical school environment, which we will use as an establishing shot. For the starting interviews we will need to use a blank background, which we plan to set anywhere that is free at that time. The end of scene features a small shot in the forest outside, this can portray a contrast to school life, hopefully helping to show a more adventurous and action looking location. We do not need permission to film in the places we have decided on, as students have permitted access to these areas during college hours. If on the day we decide to film somewhere that we need permission for, we will make sure to gain permission before entry.

Risk Assessment

Soundtrack Planning

The genre of our opening sequence is a mixture of action and musical. Therefore, with the genre of musical, part of our soundtrack will be the digetic sound of a song sung by one of the characters, to convey the conventions of a musical genre. This is most likely to be an upbeat and dancey type piece, in which the character can relate to the lyrics and it is relevant to the narrative.

A film that this could be compared to is the opening sequence for the movie 'Hairspray'. Like our opening sequence, Hairspray opens the film with a song to set the scene, relating to the narrative. The opening song is also fairly upbeat, immediately grabbing the audiences attention and conveying the feel of the movie.

Mise En Scene

Costume: As the opening sequence is the introduction to the characters which are superhero's, costumes will play an important part with this. All the main three characters will have superhero costumes on, such as a mask to cover the face, and a top to show the logo of their superhero's name. As well as that the characters are normal students at college, so they will have normal everyday clothes. The superhero costumes will show and help the audience establish that the characters are superhero's, and although the superhero's wear masks to hide their identity, they are easy to identify when they're not in their superhero costume. 











Location: The location of the opening sequence is firstly in an interviewing room, where the superhero's are interviewed. It's just a small room with a plain background, so the audience can concentrate more on the characters and listen to what they are saying in order to understand the story. It then moves onto a college, as the superhero's are normal teenage students, so it can show them in their natural surroundings.  It's also a simple and familiar location to children, so they are able to understand. Although at the end of the scene, the superhero's meet in the forest as this is the location of their first mission. 

Props: Props such as food and drink, and bags and books are used in the college to show that it is a college and that the characters are normal everyday people. Not many others are used as it is just the opening of the film, and we want to make it seem simple and not too complicated with gadgets etc. 


A film similar to this is The Incredibles, although it is animated, the characters live two different lives, living normal lives and living the life of a superhero. The costumes used are also similar and the film includes some elements of our mise-en-scene.  

Lighting: The lighting used at the beginning when the superhero's are on screen is completely different to the lighting used when the superhero's are their normal identity. The characters when superhero's will have shadowing over their faces to make them seem more mysterious and sly. This will match the personality and their characters, as they are people with secret identity's. Whereas when the characters are sitting in college, the lighting will be natural normal lighting, to make the scene look natural. 

Children's Film Opening Sequence - Planning

Our Film Classification

The film classification we have chosen is a PG. We have chosen PG because our films is primarily based around the action genre. Because of the action genre use, there will be mild violence and one use of the word 'bloody'. The use of violence will be kept mild and there won't be blood on screen, this means the guidelines will fall within the PG rating classification.

Examples of films that fall into the PG film classification that are the same genre (action) are Spy Kids and Agent Cody Banks, except they are spy based and we are superhero based. These two films have fighting scenes and very low level bad language, which our film fits into well as previously stated.