Evaluation part 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I feel the title sequence went well in portraying the theme and mood of the film, the music we choose gave off the romance element we wanted to portray in the film, The biggest thing I’ve learnt is how to use a greenscreen correctly although we did not use the clip in our final cut of the sequence it was a good learning experience to have.
We were inventive in our sequence using unconventional filming method during the shoots such as skateboard for a dolly and using a ramp and book for the diagonal moving shots, after we had started using a DSLR with a changeable focus we felt the quality of our shots had improved as we could now control more within the sequence.

Evaluation part 6

what have you learnt about technologies from your media project?

We decided that we were going to Use a DSLR camera as it was easier to control the focus of the camera using the manual focusing modes, this also made our pull focus shots easier to do
We were also inventive with our technology using a skateboard as a dolly cause neither of us owned or could afford a dolly that we could use instead, we faced little problem with the skateboard however other than it would occasionally veer off to the left and we would have to try and put it back on track another inventive thing we did was in the shoot of the plane sequence where we created a ramp out of wood and place the camera on a book and slide it down to keep the shot stable after recording the shot we reversed it in final cut to have it move the way we wanted.

for our final cut we used more conventional methods for filming such as dollies and Steadicam as these were more reliable to do as we wanted I feel we got better shots by using them  

Evaluation part 4+5

Evaluation part 3

Evaluation part 2

Evaluation part 1

The brief we worked to was to make a title sequence of a film that we also designed, I worked with Nathan in order to create the film Half-way Home which we had several titles planned for, that we asked for our audiences opinions on before settling.
Both Nathan and I were confident we wanted to do an action or romance styled film from the start, we then decided to combine the genres as it would give us a boarder subject to film with two elements to look at.

Our title sequence uses symbolism to suggest parts of the narrative and show important plot points such as the tea swirling to show everything is swirling out of control, and pan out from the shoes to show the two are getting further away.
We also have the plane move down in the shot to suggest how our protagonist will go down with the plane but will use it to rise in the story.

final cut

reshoot day 4

We used today to reshoot the Door scene using the Steadicam whilst we were doing we decided to reshoot a few other clips such as the calender, rings and shooting.

We ended up re shooting a lot of the sequence in order to keep continuity between all the shots and as we were using a different camera we had to keep similar quality to the rest of the sequence we have.  

This was our last chance to reshoot everything needed and I felt it went well.  

fourth cut

This is the fourth cut of our title sequence. we have added the smoothcam affect using the method discussed in a earlier post, due to the problems faced using the smoothcam we have decided to reshoot the clip using a steady cam    

Re-shot day 3

Today we reshot the plane scene in order to make the shot smoother, we invented a unique contraption in order to make to diagonal movement smooth, to make the smooth movement we use a plank of wood and an book with the camera balanced on top, we filmed the camera moving up the plane but decided it may be easier to film the shot moving down due the gravity, and we'd reverse it on final cut.

We also planed to reshoot the door scene but it was raining so we couldn't get the shot, we will instead use the Smoothcam on the clip     

Second Cut

This is the second cut to our title sequence, in it we have re-shot the shooting part of the sequence and have added more clips of our female character, we have also re-shot the part of the female character reading the magazine.

We have also move the credit positioning in the clip
we noticed some of the clips were shaky so we planned to re-shot them.
people still though that the male character looked like he was going to kill the female  

Using Smoothcam

As per our feedback we decided to add the SmoothCam effect to our title sequence to stop the shake
that was on some of our clips.

We started by quick time converting the clips we wanted to add the effect to and then replacing them in the sequence .

then we applied the SmoothCam effect to the clips we wanted.

We faced issues with the SmoothCam as the effect wouldn't render on our Mac users so to get around it we took a screen recording of the clip working in the pre-rendered stage and placed that into the sequence, this has caused the clip to look jumpy though  

Feedback of Third cut

                                                      

This is the feedback for our third cut of our title sequence, overall it is good feedback with only minor improvements on the cameras smoothness in the movements, there was confusion about the door number so we have decided to change that to a full door shot.   

Third cut

Feedback of Second cut

This is the feedback for our second cut of our title sequence

The feedback was good all round with only minor point to reshoot and Editing advice

the feedback suggested that everyone understood our narrative but one bit of the sequence suggests that the male character may be trying to kill the female character  

Editing 2

We have removed the new clip scene and replaced it with scenes of our female character doing other various activities this was implemented as we were having problems placing the new clips within the sequence and wanted the female to have more of a role within our story as we would like her to an almost equal job in the titles as we have given her an almost equal role in the narrative.      

using fades

From the feedback it was shown that the title sequence ends too abruptly. to solve this we added fade outs the end of the shot of the phone the text ran over and faded out after this gave the white text a black background for a few seconds, we have done this in order to slow the end and make sure it doesn't cut abruptly.  

Reshoot day 2

Today Nathan reshot the colander scene and the scene of our female character looking through the wedding magazine.

we also added some new shots to allow the female character to more in the sequence such as as focus pull on a letter with the words "to my fiancee" and scenes with roses

Reshoot day 1

Today we Reshot the Shooting portion of the sequence, we used a new location to do the shooting as it was free to use and we would have continuous access to the new location.

I feel this shoot went well and we managed to get some angles and shots we couldn't get before at frylands

Our news

This is the news report we have filmed for our title sequence, we have decided not to use it as we don't know how we will fit it into our sequence with the inclusion of the new shots we have.

This was still a good experience in using a greensceen however.

Greenscreen

We have decided to make our own news report, as we couldn't find a news report that would fit into our title sequence easily

we have used the green screen in order to create the background

Looking for news reports

We spend today looking for news reports to add to our sequence as the ones we were told the one we had on our sequence was confusing to the story. After an unsuccessful search we decided to make our own.

No more News

After experimenting with the greenscreen and making our own news report we decided that we didn't need a news report in our sequence and as we decided that with the new clips we added to the sequence we have established more of the story without need for the news report.

Uk Firearms laws

As we are using a firearm in our title sequence we have looked up information about the Uk firearms laws and safety.

The site we looked at

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/363016/Guidance_on_Firearms_Licensing_Law_v10_-_Oct_2014.pdf
"www.Gov.uk"- specific page 49 young person

We have done this order to know whether we are within the the law during the filming period.



Safety when using firearms

http://www.nssf.org/safety/basics/

First Cut of sequence

This is the first cut of our title sequence   

Editing 1

Today we stared the Editing of our sequence we started by converting all our clips form .MOV to .DV on MPEG streamclip so that the clips would render on final cut

We also downloaded our music choice we had picked out for sequence

We then dragged the clips that we wanted into final cut and started to create our sequence

We have also decide to Reshoot some of the clips

Filming Day 2

Today we filmed the rest of the shots we had planned out in our storyboard, meaning the Rings, model plane, dress, shoes, etc.

We meet at Nathans house again as this was the location we were using to film in, and gathered all the materials we would need for filming, the biggest problem we faced today was the movements of the camera as it would shake as we took a step, we solved this problem by using a skateboard to hold the camera steady.as possible when we moved. 

Font winner

After asking our audience which font they would like for our movie title this was the chosen winner and font we will use in our title sequence.

Filming day 1

Today we Filmed the shooting scene down at Frylands Woods, Me and Nathan met outside his house and proceeded to take 4 buses down to the shooting location.

I left Nathan to do the filming as I was the one acting in the shots although I did check the shots when we had finished on the journey.

I feel this was the hardest to film as the location was far and we had restricted angles in which we could film from.   

Props list

this is a list of some of the props we are going to use in our sequence.

gun: we could use an airsoft gun because they are replicas of real life guns and would look realistic on the camera, we would also have free use of one in an garden and wouldn't need extra specialist item to use or we could use an air rifle as it is a real firearm and will act like a rifle when fired, this will also cost us to get a range on which to fire and somebody with a licence to fire the rifle around before we can fire.

two wedding rings: this is to show the couple are getting married we feel showing this is really important because it is a main part of the film idea that they are engaged.

a wedding magazine: we will use the magazine to show that a wedding is being planned in our narrative, the wedding is one of the key points in our film as it is the reason our male protagonist is fighting to get back to his homeland 

Wedding dress: this is also to highlight that there will be a wedding.this will also be used to show how the 

targets: we will need targets to shoot at as we want to show how are male is a military man who will need to fight to survive. 

boots and high heels: this is to show that the man is tough and in the army and the high heels show she is a woman and they give an impression that she dresses for an occasion like the wedding.

plane: we want a plane because in one shot the camera moves up making the plane look like its going down, this is symbolic because in the story the man is in a plane crash.

calendar: to show that a wedding is planned on the date we select at a later time, it will also be used to suggest how important time is as our male protagonist is will go missing in action and will be away from his lover for a while and the film will show the affect over the time they are apart.

picture frame: to put a picture of a the guy in army uniform in to show he is a soldier. 

Location scouting

Today we went to look for a location on which we could use a firearm for our title sequence this lead us to Frylands Woods activity centre "http://www.frylandswood.co.uk" after getting there we spoke to the warden about how we where doing a Media AS and needed to film us using a firearm to which he agreed we could use the location as long as we had a supervisor with a firearm permit which they were also willing to provide to us

Fonts

These are some font ideas for our Title sequence we will ask our audience which one they feel would fit our title sequence the best

We will put it up to a vote on which on we use for the the actual title sequence. 

Costimes

In our costume we would like the man to wear military styled clothing such as combat trousers and beigish coloured shirt

We don't really mind what our female character wears during the sequence as long as it stays the same during the film and any re-shot we may need.

 

Equipment

the equipment we will use whilst filming includes items such as: 

2 cameras: this is so we can film the same scene from two angles in one take. this creates better continuity and smooth transition from angles.

2 tripods: this is so when we film using two cameras both are able to be steady when recording.

1 dolly: a dolly would be useful to film smooth tracking shots without having the shake which a steady cam would give.

The Game title sequence

The game title sequence is unique in that it doesn't have any title credits throughout the entire sequence,

The title sequence feature "home video" of what can be assumed is a birthday
(given the amount of people,party hats, cake and the children s entertainment), the title sequence is used to build the main protagonists story using his past as way to introduce parts of his history that may become relevant as the story progresses, there is one clip in the sequence that repeated being the clip of who is assumed to be the main protagonist standing next to his father who is looking unimpressed and then walks away in the second showing of the clip

Storyboard sheets

This is the storyboards for our title sequence idea and what we made into the animation 

Our title sequence will start out with a  calendar that will have markings that lead up to a wedding day, it will then move into two rings facing away form each other they will then fade into to pairs  of shoes one being a pair of high heels and the other some military boots, this will then pull outwards and move up revealing a wedding dress.

From then it will cut to the man taking shots at a target, form there it will cut to the woman sitting reading wedding magazines whilst watching the T.V. 

It will then cut to a model plane and move upwards to some picture of the two as a couple and the man in the military, it will then cut to a  phone ringing the woman will pick it up and that will be the end.   

Pitch take 2 video

pitch-take two

This is the powerpoint for our second pitching, We have made the updates that were required from our feedback of the last sharing and have added a slide explianing our Tile sequence idea.

From our previous showing we have decided a title for our film and selected a few fonts we may use in the title sequence, we have also decided an ending to our film which was a point made about our pervious pitching.

We have made a more specific target audience range, although it was still questioned against our film genre and we were asked whether we were going for a more action or more romance film and decide our audience gender on that.

we were also asked to consider music for the sequence again basing it off if the film is more action or more romance, it was suggested to us that we make a pole listing different tracks and going of that for our music selection.

Title sequence animatic

This is a short animation made for our title sequence it will be used to help us get an idea of what we are trying to create when making the full sequence.

Title credit ordering

Today we looked at the order the main credits commonly appear on the screen 

Pitch take 2 feedback

Title sequence idea

Our title sequence will have a similar layout to that of the Walking Dead


We will our title sequence as a prologue to set up our Couple and the idea that they are planning a marriage, it will also be used to set up the mood our film  

Danny Yount

Saul Bass

Saul bass from leannacatherina


In lesson we looked at Saul Bass and his titles

Saul Bass made title sequences using generic shapes and simple animations.
Using this style he aimed to capture the mood of the film

He uses a lot of symbolism in his works causing the viewers to think
he would often have one stand out image in the sequence that would be the used within the poster

Bass revolutionised the way title sequences were made as instead of using shots of the actors for posters and the title sequence he used the generic often hand draw shapes to make the sequences.

our film applied to Todorov's narrative Theory

1. A state of equilibrium: there is a happy couple planning to get married.

2. A disruption of that order by an event: Man gets called to fight in a war, goes missing in action

3. A recognition that the disorder has occurred.: Military phone girlfriend and inform her that her boyfriend has gone missing, woman lays around the house depressed and upset at her loss.

4. An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption: The man fights for surveil in an attempt to get home, meanwhile the woman is convinced to move on with her life and goes out with friends.

5. A return or restoration of a NEW equilibrium: The man returns safely to find that his girlfriend has moved on, he decides that she is happy that way and continues to be dead in her eyes.

pitch feedback

This is the feedback we got on the pitch for our film we got good feedback all round with a few improvements to be made to the pitch

the biggest suggestion for improvements was that we needed to specify what gender of target audience we are aiming our film at
we also needed look at fonts for our title sequence and figure out how we want our film to end
we were also asked to revise the release date to the film or at least explain more as to why we chose the date

Pitch-take 1

Pitch take one video

This is video of our first pitch for our film idea

Coursework- Film narrative idea

Our film is a love conquers all story of a couple divided by war, it is a modern "cold mountain"

our film starts with a happy couple who have recently got engaged and are planning there wedding, in  turn of events the male get called out to war and is promised he can get back before the wedding, our film will then divided to two different story arcs follow the man as he fights and the woman as she goes about her daily life.

As the Male is set to return home his plane gets shot down and it becomes a fight for him to survive during this story there will be cut-aways to the other part of the story following the woman and how she copes with the loss of her lover.

Towards the end of the film our hero returns safely, and prevents the military form calling his girlfriend  as he wishes to surprise her on his return as he approaches the house he discovers that she is with another man, accepting her happiness he decides to remain dead in her eyes.

se7en analysis

The se7en title is dark and unnerving, it features quick cut close-ups hiding information,this could be used to the character we are following wants to hide,we also get a close up shot of the character removing his fingerprints further showing us he wants to disappear.

There are two fonts used in the title sequence one for the credits and one for the names, both look to be handwritten with the biggest difference being that the casting credits are bolder, the credits look scratched onto the title and most have erratic movements around the screen, the credits can be used to give ideas of the characters such as Brad Pitts name being distance this could tell us his character is far from the case or he is split over his decisions that he has to make,another example is |Morgan Freeman's' name flips around and back again suggesting that his character will have to change his mind about something, the actors names are white and are written across a pure black background, where as the production credits are positioned across various shot be placed at the top or bottom of the screen so that they don't distract from what is being shown.

The music is stretched out creating an eerie feel to the sequence with the only words being spoken are "it'll bring you closer to God". informing the viewer how people are killed based upon "Gods" word            

Zombieland analysis

Using the title we can tell that the film is set in a modern time zombie apocalypse, using what is going on we can tell that is comedy as this is suggested in the mise-en-scene with such as the man running form the stripper zombie and the three legged race with the zombies, we are also shown that there will be a lot of gore within the film as there is blood everywhere even in the font for the film

Using the title sequence it can be assumed that the main theme of the film is survival as it features people running for a danger, It also starts with four basic rules of survival making this feel like the main theme of the movie, We also get shown that this is a comedy as all the danger is placed in ridiculous situations and there is unnatural amounts of blood.

The key iconography we can see in the is thing such a blood, people running in panic, the world falling apart.

Coursework-part 2 fonts

today we discussed how important the font typing can be to showing thing such as the mood and tone of a film, and the time period it is set in

An activity was ran where the class was given the fonts of some famous films such as: back to the future, Jurassic park, Harry Potter and a few others, we had to try and identify the films with only the title sequence fonts to go by.

In the second hour of our lesson we got into the groups we would work with on the sequence and began to discuss our ideas for the first time.     

Coursework Start

today we discussed starting the title sequence and how important they can be to film

We also discussed the theory of STINCS and how it can be applied to a title sequence

STINCS stands for

Setting- This is where/ when a film is set.

Theme- This is the mood of the film or what the film is really about.

Iconography- This is the costumes, props and make-up used to give a sense of the genre of the film.

Narrative- This is what the story of the film is about.

Character- who/what are they, what are they like,

Style- this is how things are filmed, focusing on Camera shots, the way they are edited and the type of music placed over the sequence


We then applied the theory to Three title pointing out what genre we though it was, what mood the film had, what type of characters there were(who was good, who was bad)

We also discussed how title sequences can be used as prologues to set up what is happening in the film, they can be used to set out the themes of the film or the mood/ tone of the film.