Group Feedback

Today we watched everyones final piece, it was quite good and there was a huge amount of feedback from everyone. It felt like there was only positive feedback given to our video which is great but then also slightly dissapointing as we cannot change or add anything (if possible). That is other than the obvious of making the title sequence longer. However some of the postives were:

- Great sound track

- Good technique of tripping over the tree root

- The titles or the font, espcially the "reflection title" from the killer's knife

- The main favourite is the jump cut scene of the killer approaching the victim, which was a great idea put forward

Final Cut Review

• All in all i think our final cut went to plan, even though it became quite stressful nearer the deadline date.
• The final result looks better than i expected, the music fits in well with the scenes and therefore increase the reaction from the audience.
• The darkend effect didnt go quite to plan, it doesnt look like night time, this is mainly because you can still see the sun streaming in a certain areas. If we want to film a night scene again it will probably be best to film it at night.
• The variety of shot angles and types looks really good and makes the sequence a lot more interesting, so im happy we added them all in.
• We decided to keep the font simple so as not to make it look to 'tacky'. I think this was a good idea because now the attention is not drawn away from the shot to the font.
• I like the way the titles give the effect of flikering, by fading in and out, i think this looks very effective. The way the sequence ends with the killer bending over and then fading into the title also looks impressive because we didnt have to edit it much.
• If i could re-do anything, it would be how much we filmed. Our final piece was very short which gives us less chances to gain points. If we had filmed more we coulf of added more of a story line which would of looked better.

Rough Cut

New Title!

We have decided on a new title for out film, it is Fallacy!

Also our production name is going to be Corrupt Production

Animatic Sequence

This is te final animatic sequence aas we had to change the last one because the shots made it look like a trailer over a title sequence.

Storyline

On the blog we have never explained what is happening in the our movie. At the moment we have called it LSD but this may change later on in our planning as its a bit unoriginal. The plan is there is a teenager who has gone camping in the woods with his friend and has taken LSD. The idea of the fast running, tripping and shaky scenes reflects his physical state. He is running from a 'killer' which he doesn't know if it is real or just in his imagination. The shots back to the barrels reflect a oldness and the effect to have it black and white adds to the oldness of it. Hopefully this will be evident in the fist sequence.

Title Fonts

We have to look at what font we need to use that goes with our sequence but doesn't look tacky. The title of our film if LSD, because this is the drug the boy has taken hence the type of filming we use. So here are a few ideas i have.

















Shots

I went out into the wood to take some pictures of shots we will use in our sequence. My first picture is a CU. This will be a close up the running feet from the side and i have important an image of feet off google and placed it into my shot.

My next shot is just from the eye point of the killer. I have two pictures taken from behind a tree which is similar to a shot seen in our sequence.

My next shot is purposely made 'wind swept' to give the impression of some one running really fast. So the shot would be taken from above looking down at the feet.

Costume

The use of costume in our title sequence has been kept to a minimal as well. All we are using is a dark coat (with a hood), boots, dark trousers, a t-shirt and light-coloured combats. We did this because we could see that in title sequences of actual thrillers that they kept all the killers costume simple. This is more effective then cramming in lots of different costumes because it adds to the creepiness of the villain as they are just wearing dark clothing and that there is nothing really to distinct them from anyone else.
This is like the coat that the villain will be wearing in our sequence. We made sure that it had a hood because it will add suspense if you cannot see their face.

This boot is basically identical to the ones the villain will be wearing. We made sure that he wore big, black boots to make him look scary as big, black boots are sort of associated with villains in thrillers as I have seen many wearing them in other thrillers.

Props

We haven't included many props in our production but the ones we are using are vital for our title sequence; these include a knife and a tree root.

We are using the surroundings of our title sequence as a prop almost as the they sort of what makes our sequence scary!This is basically the same knife that we are using as the killers weapon.

This is an image of a root that is similar to the one that the victim will trip over.

Titles for the opening

We have 10 titles to show in the opening sequence in the following order;

• A _____ production (havent decided on name yet)
• Actors names
• Music By____
• Directed by_____
• Edited By____
• Costume design by___
• Casting By____
• Produced By___
• The title of the film.

This is my rough plan however it may change when we put together the film depending on what fits nicely.

Oh Dear!

We recently finished our first storyboard and I have realised that we have made a mini film or the opening sequence opposed to the task of creating a title sequence. Enlightened with this information we have decided to re-think our idea and try to cut it down and effectively remove the story from it so that it does not make a great deal of sense.

Our inspiration for this was Shrooms after watching the title sequence/opening scene it really made us re-think what we had done

Analysing previous student thrillers

I really liked the music in this opening title sequence because i think it really flows with the movie. I also really like how they disorintate the images making the filming look as if the camara is shaking and makes the audience really have to focus to find out what is going on. Is clever how they build up tension in the middle with fast images and then at the end they slow it down back to the normal pace to allow the audience to know its the end instead of just cutting it suddenly. I think we may incorparate the idea of shaky images into our thriller.

Inspiration continued

The 'Saw' title sequence is one that i think is good because it shows clearly that the film is going to be really gory and mysterious. It starts by showing lots of splashes of blood to immediatly give the audience a feeling of anticipation about whos blood it is and where it came from. Then it pans and there are hand prints in the blood to show it was a human struggling. There are plenty of shots of different types of weapons like guns, knifes, hammers etc and i think this is to emphasise the violence of the film and to show that the 'villain' is prepared and willing to use many methods to cause pain, also the names of people featured in the film/took part in the makings' names were on the weapons which i think is an imaginative and original thing to do. Towards the end of the sequence there is a quivering hand covered in blood with 'Saw' written on it to introduce the film in quite a expressive way which then focuses on a flickering TV screen and slowly zooms in, to show that things arn't right. Eg they are in a dormant place so the TV doesn't work. When it zooms out there is a close up of a man waking up under water which gets straight to the point of the film really as everyone people just wake up in a random location...

Saul Bass

Saul Bass was a graphic designer and took part in designing some of the most famous title sequences in the world. For example he worked closely with Alfred Hitchcock and made the title sequence for some of his films such as Psycho, where he animates the text joining then pulling away from each other.

He also is famous for making icon for selected companies such as, United Airlines (1974) and Warner Books. Another way he put his creativity to use was by designing unique posters for many films such as Exodus (1960) and The Shining (1980). Here are examples of some off his work.

Inspiration (Shrooms)

We saw this film and it gave us ideas for our own thriller. We have taken the basic story line of this film which is that the protagonist takes some magic mushrooms and turns into a crazed killer that murders all of her friends. We have changed it so out protagonist takes LSD when camping with friends, trips out and ends up having an encounter with a creepy stalker in the woods.

Initial Ideas

Our first thoughts of the Thriller Title sequence were to make it a thriller/horror genre, this would leave the door open for a wide use of techniques and editing skills giving more opportunities to get a good selection of marks.
We began by brain storming ideas and we came up with
- Weapons
- Woods/ Abandoned building
- Night time/Poor Lighting
- The possibility of being under the influence of drink or drugs (obviously we would just make this seem to be the case)
- One crazed maniac, who will not be seen directly (also they will be dressed in large dark clothing with large boots of some form)
- Some form of brutality

From this we will decide on some final ideas and create a story board.

What have we learnt so far?

So far we have done too major tasks, one was a continuity exercise which we filmed in the LRC. Mainly though throughout both off these tasks we were looking at camera angles, editing and how to use the equipment we had. I also learnt how different shots i.e. close ups, can insinuate different moods to the audience. 

When editing, we found that making the scene flow wasn't at all easy, and some beginnings of sentences were cut off ever so slightly.  With no talking in our opening sequence i think it will be easier to edit, however we may keep some intentional static scenes to add to the thriller aspect.

Vertigo Sequence Analysis

In this scene the music is a complete contrast to that of Se7en. It is loud, high and repetitive. But also includes sharp bursts (orchestral stabs) which emphasize the fact that it's a thriller. The fear in the girls eyes insinuate the thriller aspects.

Se7en Sequence Analysis

We were asked to look the symbolic connection between title sequences and film content. In this title sequence there were many symbolic shots. For example the emphasis on the needle foresees the idea of a thriller. Also the music used is quiet but evident in the background.

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