Evaluation part 8

Since the begging of this project I feel as though I have come along way and have learnt a lot about coming over technical problems and skills with in producing our title sequence. I have learnt a lot more on how to use a camera and the processes of editing. Also i found that if I put a lot of my own time into my work like staying after school to help editing and filming after school and recording after school you get a better final product.

Overall I feel as though our title sequence is very successful it has come a long way. Scince the begging of this title sequence it has made a dramatic change the content of our title sequence now is very differnt to how it was a few weeks ago. Now i feel as though it is a title sequence. Whereas i used to just think it was a clip from a badly made film. I am very pleased with out final product.

Evaluation part 7

While making this tile sequence one of the key decision that we made was to get as much footage as possible even if the idea didn't seem very good we still filmed it just in case we needed it or didn't like something else we filmed. It was just to make sure we had enough. One of the reasons for this was because if we went to film in the same location again the weather could be different and then it would change the brightness and everything about that one peice of footage.


Another thing that i have learnt is to film in good lighting. For example as we were filming in the forest the light was getting darker and darker and i think you can see this in the video. Right at the end where i get dragged through the mud it seems darker than the rest of the footage.

Evaluation part 6

I think that we have attracted our audience by drawing them in to our sequence with the chase scene.I think that this part appeals to the audience the most.They are intrigued to know what is next.

Here is a quote from someone saying "It has that twilight kind of feeling" in a way this is a good point because people who love Twilight will want to come and see our film but on the other hand if they have said that then it could mean that our title sequence and Twilight are very similar even though ours is more of a thrilling film. So maybe if we made it more jumpy and scary it would of put people on the edge of their seats more and think it isn't like Twilight at all.

Evaluation part 5

Our title sequence represents a typical horror/thriller film.
For the sound we have used a scream and a lot of horror films have screaming in them to make it intense. I feel as though there is a lot of anchorage in our title sequence again because of the chase. Also people may wonder what will the vampire do next. The typography doesn't exactly represent horror but it is still creepy,slow and effective. The expressionism I feel has been done well because horror films are usually filmed in the dark,or have a dark element to them. We didn't have to use many props we only used the picture to stick on the wall and a phone at the end where a girl looks through pictures.

Evaluation, part 4

Our title sequence focuses on the main features of an intense,jumpy thriller. We haven't given too much away or made it too obvious what our film could be about. We have just shown a chases which should hopefully draw the audience in and get them thinking why is she being chased? and then they will want to know more. Our scenes are dark and eerie which are typical code and conventions of a horror film. Also Meany horror films have a chase scene in them to build up tension so if we put that at the begging in the titles then it will make people want to watch on.

Firstly we had to choose the genre of our film to then get an idea of what location, settings, sound, lighting we would need to include in our sequence. Our genre was fantasy/horror/thriller. At first I was thinking of dark alleyways, small narrow streets at dusk or night.In the end we filmed in a forest as it was going dark. I feel as though it gave our title sequence a mood, it made me feel helplessness and isolation for the character. I find that I feel that way when I watch horror films and a character is on their own, for example in 'The Orphan'.

There is a scene in Twilight where there is a deer chase, this gave us a few ideas on how to set up the camera for example high and low angles, point of view angles. In our title sequence we used a point of view angle. I had to hold the camera while running this puts the audience in my eye view so they are seeing what I am seeing. And we done the same with the vampire's point of view, so he can see me running in front of him. There is a shot in the sequence which i really like, it is when i run and jump over the camera. This is a worms eye view.

The typography in our sequence is now simple. At first we choose a medieval font and filled it in with the colour red. Our font now is much more improved, we didn't want it too be red because it was too obvious because it associates with blood and danger. Also it did look a bit childish. I really like the slow fade in and the fade out it looks as though it is seeping thorough the screen, that on its own seems eerie. From research I noticed that in the title sequence for 'Se7en'the font was white and it gave it a neat simple look but it was still effective.

With the music we had a few problems. The first idea was to use the song 'Creep' by Radiohead but we wasn't allowed to because of the copyright. so we managed to record the instruments of the song by the school band but we was never able to record Helen's vocals because she was never in school. We asked another person but he didn't seem to keen on doing it. In the end we decided not to use creep anymore and went on a web sight and found a similar piece of music where it was non copyrighted, it starts off slow pace and then builds up. It is quite a rocky kind of song but that is what we wanted. We also recorded our screams because our original one wasnt effective enough. And now we have a better one.

With the editing the hardest part was keeping the shots in time with the music. We had parts that we wanted to be in slow motion for the slow part of the song. Also it took us a long time deciding on what effects and motions we wanted on our footage.

Evaluation, part 3

The kind of media institution that could distribute our title sequence would be Warner Bros. We chose this company because of certain films that they have done, for example the harry potter film 'The Deathly Hallows' and the bat man film 'The Dark Knight'. These films and Warner Bros are very popular with the audiences so therefore would give our film good publicity. Also these films have elements of dark and gloom and also have lots of action, just like our title sequence dose. The audience for these two films are also around the same age group who we would want to watch our genre of film. Warner Bros has also done films for the young generation for example Corpse Bride. Which would be aimed at around 12-18's. So overall I think that our title sequence would fit in nicely with Warner Bros.

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Evaluation part 2

The target audience for our title sequence are males and females from around the age of 15-30 but it would mainly be targeting females. We are targeting people who like fantasy action films. We are targeting people who don't mind a bit of jumpy thrilling action, romance and a bit of blood and gore. And people who enjoyed the Twilight saga films. We want people to watch it with an open mind and imagination. We are targeting people who love to socialise and go to the cinema with their friends and families and will also be able to afford to go out and see or buy the film. Our group didn't do any pre-production research and the consequences of this is that we dont know if people will not like our idea or the genre of our film so it was a bit risky.But the feedback we got was mostly positive.

Evaluation part 1

The brief that we were working to was making an opening title sequence to a film. A title sequence is where the film introduces the actors, actresses, director and the name of the film, but they have to go in a particular order. A title sequence is to draw the audience into the film. The title of our sequence is called 'Bitten'. At first we called it 'Love Bite' but it made it sound like a romantic comedy so we changed it. Also 'Bitten' is easy to pronounce and is easy to remember and you can tell the type of genre of film it could be.Overall i think that 'Bitten' is a good name for our title sequence. Our opening sequence consists of the vampire's stalking photographs of the girl who is his victim. Then it goes straight into the girl running away from a vampire through a forest (who is played by me). Then it goes to the vampires house where he puts the pictures up on his wall. We have lots of different angles and shots to show different views of her running. In the middle of the sequence the title 'Bitten' comes up. Also at the end of our sequence there is an opening scene where the victims friend is grieving over a photograph of them together. The sub genre of our title sequence is a teen vampire action/teen fantasy.We choose this genre because it seems to be getting quite popular with the young generation.

FINAL title sequence

personal journal

In Madrid we got our filming done and it all went to plan. We got lots of different shots and angles of Charlotte looking on her phone. we had to take a lot of takes to experiment with the footage once we got it back to England because we wouldn't be able to go back and film it again because we wont have the right setting.Once we have uploaded the footage we will be editing it and then adding it in at the end of our title sequence for our opening scene.

Audience feedback

These are a few comments for our feedback. We posted our title sequence on YouTube and asked people to write comments about what they thought of it.

• Yeah I thought it was really good!

• Awesome!!!

• it’s quite good, it has the twilight kinda feeling, that scream is shrilling maaan

• It's really good, I like the effects such as how the production logo shook and was blurry. Also how you put the camera sideways on the floor when she was being attacked in the woods. It was a good effect to make you feel she has acctually fallen down. Really good title sequence :)
  
• Love the slow motion running!!

• Very good work here!! Well done girliesss <3

• Love the slow motion running!! The typography really works with the whole title sequence! I didn't really get the bit where Charlotte is sitting on the bed and looking at the pictures.but apart from that it's awesome :)well done girls!
  
• The man wiping the blood off his mouth was my favourite bit!! Can't believe you removed it!

• It looks like a good horror film.

• It was really really good, but you could say you don't need the end bit.

• I thought that was actually very good but I'm not sure about the pictures at the beginning maybe you could have one of Emily like looking around like she thinks she's being followed but apart from that it was really good it looked like a psycho horror like Blair witch or something scary.

We also got people to answer a few questions about our title sequence after they watched it here is the feed back.

The questions

1)Can you guess what type of genre this is?

2) Have you seen one of the Twilight saga films?

3)If you have what made you want to see them?

4)would you be interested in seeing 'Bitten' if so then why?

5)could you suggest any changes to be made to the title sequence?

1)I think the genre is thriller/horror,maybe something to do with vampires because the title of the film.

2)No I haven't seen the Twilight films (yet)

3)N/A

4)Yes, I would definitely want to watch this, it left me in suspense as to what has gone on for the girl to be in the situation of running through the woods and what happens to the girl, the ending with the friend also leaves the viewer questioning if the girl is still alive or dead.

5)No, i wouldn't change the title of the film as it is simple yet effective to the genre of the film. If anyone like myself enjoys horrors/thrillers then this would stand out and catch their eye.

This is our first finished version of our title sequence Bitten. This one has the part where Jon wipes blood off his chin. In our final version we have taken it out and also added our opening scene to the end.

personal journal

In today's lesson we filmed Jon Purday wiping blood off of his mouth. We filmed it as a close up so we just got his chin and mouth in. We wanted it to be mysterious. We gave him fake blood to wipe off with the back of his hand , we wanted him to over exaggerate the wiping to give it a good dramatic effect. As we uploaded the footage we thought that it was too bright so we dimmed the lighting and made it darker. Once we watched it over a few times we all decided that we didn't like it very much because it split up what was going on in the sequence. It seemed a bit random but we just wanted people to get a glimpse of the vampire before i get bitten. So we discussed what other ideas we had and got rid of the clip with Jon Purday. I am still going to put the title sequence up with that bit in to show what it looked like before.

In the half term we will also be be filming. Me, Sonal and Charlotte are going to Madrid for a school trip so we are taking this opportunity to film more footage.The location will be in a hotel room. We will be filming Charlotte looking at a picture of me on her phone while she is sitting on her bed,That is the plan anyway we will see if it goes right.

These are aniamatics of our story boards.This shows our title sequence scene by scene.

personal journal

These are screen shots of us editing our footage of the title sequence. We were finding what effects we should add in between each cut and also effect we should put over the C.E.S productions logo. We choose a fuzzy/shaking horror effect to go with the logo. And we just left the cuts as they were before.

personal journal

We got our recording done by the school band, Turtles.Unfortunately the singer Helen couldn't make it so we recorded the instruments and will record her voice next week.and put her voice over the song.

personal journal

In today's lesson we arranged a date to record our song by A band called the Turtles they will be playing 'creep' by Radiohead. We will be recording this tomorrow after school.

Change of plan!!!!!!

we recorded the turtles song but only the instruments. we couldn't record Helens vocals because she wasn't in. We still put the sound on to see what it would look like without the lyrics,we liked it but its wasn't exactly what we wanted. In the end we changed our music altogether and got a non copyrighted song from a website called freeplaymusic.com. The music is still a rock genre. overall i think it goes well with our sequence.

Change of plan!!!!!

We have also decided to film an opening sequence for our film. It will be Charlotte sitting in her room looking at a photo of me while the song plays in the background on a stereo. The location will be at my house in my room.we plan to get this filmed next week.

We have also decided to change this idea too because we ran out of space to put it into the timeline.

Personal journal

In today's lesson we transferred our title sequence footage from Movie maker to final cut pro. This would allow us to cut and perfect our footage. We were also deciding where to put our titles and where to put the title of the film 'Bitten'.In the end we decided to put the title 'Bitten' in the middle of the sequence.

Institution Research

Who would produce/distribute our film?

Warner Bros. Pictures

We chose this because of certain films that they have done, for example the Harry Potter films and the Batman films which relates to our dark and action part of our genre. However, they have also done films like Corpse Bride which is aimed at a younger audience but is very strange at the same time so I think that this would be perfect for our film.

Examples of films they have already distributed/produced:

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1


• Inception


• Clash of the Titans


• The Book of Eli


• Sherlock Holmes


• Terminator Salvation


• The Dark Knight


• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street


• Corpse Bride


• The Matrix

cast and crew

Amy Clement - Actress ( playing a man )

We couldn't find a boy to play the part of the vampire so we got our friend amy to wear a hoodie and back genes. She chased after me and dragged me away.

Sonal Rabadia - Camera Woman

Charlotte Norman - Editor

Emily Hills - Actress and Director

We used me as the actress to play the girl because we wanted her to look victimized and in some kind of trouble.

Filming Location

Today we filmed a bit more of our title sequence after school. Our filming location is in Bostall woods. We decided to film here because it is a good location for our story line it is also eerie and creepy. The weather and daylight made the woods seem even darker than it really was which gave the footage a good effect.

Personal journal

Today we took some more pictures of me being stalked by the vampire. These pictures will be going at the beginning of our title sequence. I think that these are successful because they flow into each other showing the right amount of gap in between each step i take.

Music and sound

The sound effect that we want when c.e.s productions comes up in our title sequence would be a lightning storm sound. For example:

Another sound effect that we will need is a heart beat. we need a heart beat sound when the title Bitten comes up but before this we will have a scream which we can do ourselves.

we thought that this would be a good song to have playing through our title sequence. The music that we might have would be a song called 'creep' by Radiohead. It has slow and fast paced parts. We plan to have some friends to remake this song so that it wont be copyrighted. This song creep is appropriate for our title sequence because there are lyrics in the song that relate to the actions and movement in out title sequence.

Personal journal

Today we took pictures for the begining of our title sequence where there is a board of pictures that the evil vampire has been taking over a period of time. They are of me walking around as though i am being stalked.

These pictures are of charlotte taking pictures of me walking to show the prosess we went through. This is where charlotte took pictures from a high angle to make it look like the vampire is looking at me from above.

Font

These are some fonts that i choose from www.picnik.com. As a group we have desided to look at few more fonts because we wasnt too sure on the one we had alrady choosen. I like this one because it looks like blood is coming out of the letters which will go well with our vampire idea. Also the blood red coulour on black contrasts nicely against each other, and makes 'Bitten' stand out.

I like this one because it looks as though it has been scratched in by nails. And looks sharp that could represent fangs on the vampire.

This is our final choosen font. We want it to appear at the end of the sequence instead of at the begining with the sound of a heart beat. We have all agreed on having a blood red colour on a black background.

As our title sequence is going to be dark and gloomy our titles are going to be white, then they will show up clearly against the darkness. Our titles will show up in the corners of the screen and in the middle, we will vairy it.

Twilight clip

This clip shows the effect that we want to get when I'm being chased by the vampire. The camera is going to be in the vampires point of view so it will be a bit shaky. We are also going to film low angle shots of our feet running through the woods and up streets and through a park to show the chase. The viewer will mainly see from the waist down and the back of the characters. Like in this clip from the film Twilight the camera is in the point of view of the hunter and is also very fast pase with lots of cuts to make it more dramatic this is the effect we would like to give in our sequence.

personal journal

Today we took photos for our stalkers notice board. I had to walk down a road while Charlotte and Sonal took pictures of me. we made it look as though i didn't know they were there so it would look natural. This part is to go at the beginning of our title sequence were we introduce the evil vampire looking at the notice board.we took some pictures from a high angle which was taken from a bridge and then some were taken from behind of me walking out of school.

Codes and Conventions of a title sequence

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• What are the conventions of Opening Title Sequences?
  
  • Details of Cast and Crew (what order?).
  • The Film's title.
  • An introduction to character or character type.
  • Indication of place.
  • Indication of Historical period.
  • Information regarding mood and tone.
  • Introduction to signature theme tune.
  • Information about genre.
  • Questions that the viewer finds intriguing.
  • Patterns and types of editing that will be echoed in the remainder of the film.
  • Mise en scene and cinematography that will be echoed or elaborated upon later in the film

Edward Scissorhands and Sweeney Todd

I have chosen Tim Burton's film title sequences because they are dark and gloomy which is the effect that my group want to put into our title sequence. Our film isn't happy so we will be using dark, dull setting and colours to create the mood for the audience.

Both title sequences take us on a journey, in Sweeney Todd the audience follow the journey of a blood drip and in Edward Scissor hand we follow a journey through a factory. At the start of Sweeney Todd we go through a window which is inviting us into the film also in Edward Scissor hands it takes us through a door. The title sequences look as though they are mainly animated. The main colours are grays,blues and blacks but in Sweeney Todd there is bright red blood trailing through a type of factory mechanism. The red blood draws the eyes away from the titles of the names.In Edward Scissor hands the titles are in the center of the shot so therefor the audience will be looking at them. They are also quite large and white which will contrast against the black and blue making them stand out more.In Sweeney Todd the music starts off with an organ piano and then it stops and the sound is quieter and calmer but still a bit creepy. The music is just from instruments there isn't any singing or a narrator.It's the same in Edward Sicssorhands, there is just an orchestra playing instruments.I noticed at the end of both title sequences it goes for animation to real life, in Sweeney Todd the blood goes from the pies, down a drain and into some water which is real. And in Edward Scissor hands it goes from a house on a hill to an old lady standing at a window who is real.






Key elements of a Tim Burton Title sequence:

• Black,blue,gray colour
• Takes us on a journey
• creepy, gloomy
• factory
• Blood drip
• pies, cookies
• rain,snow

Class Essay

Mise-en-scene

A title sequence is the first thing the audience sees when the film starts, this being that it is very important that it gives of a first good impression. Within the film Se7en there are many things to consider in its title sequence, one of which being the mise-en-scene. Throughout this truly chilling title sequence there is no exterior or landscape shown which automatically leaves the audience with lots of questions in relation to the background information; the basic facts an average audience member would expect to know. We see a constant close up of the characters hands, never their face or body. Although we can see clearly sharp objects being used and there movement is very much the focus when they are involved in the frame. There are many different props used throughout the sequence which include: sharp objects, pen, paper, needle and thread and many old photos. Throughout the entire sequence the colour remains desaturated which we can only interpret as it having some relation to the forth coming events about to take place later on in the movie. The whole title sequence is film in a dark light setting, this suggests that the life is being drained out of the film this is also linked to how the character treats his victims. The final thing that sticks out in the sequence is that various things are highlighted in the props such as “homosexual” and “Transsexual” as well as cutting out the name “GOD” out of a clipping, to perhaps show the theme of religious belief and the connection to the person in the sequence; also the precision the person in the sequence has cold possibly be giving the audience an insight into the characters personality.

Purpose and character

From the close-ups we can’t tell what or where the location is, but we can guess that it is in a confined room. The reason why I think this is because the person who is making this book doesn't want anybody to know about it. I thought that the location was very secretive, and because the shots were so close to his hands and almost zoomed in on everything it makes you feel almost claustrophobic; which I think helped to make it feel eerie and scary. I also thought that the person was a man from the look of his hands. From this title sequence I think that he was trying to get rid of his identity by scraping off his finger prints, which made me feel really uncomfortable because it was an image I really didn't like. This suggests that he could be a serial killer and has planned things through to not get caught also this person seems to know what they are doing. There are images of dead people and it looks like he is creating a scrapbook which he has put the picture in but we aren't sure what the scrapbook is of. I also thought that he would have been a perfectionist because everything was done with his own hands and it clearly showed that he took time and care with his work and it was obviously thoroughly planned, I could tell this from the way everything seemed so precise, he seems to document his work very obssessively, but with patience. I thought that the person was religious, because they cut out a piece of a dollar bill that had the word ‘God’ written on it and also at the end of the title sequence the song ended with ‘gonna get me closer to God’, this made me think that they are killing people for their deadly sins and that they were killing for God. He crosses out words such as "transsexual" which also makes me think that he is religious. I got the idea that it was the seven deadly sins because there are two 'sevens' in the title and because the first shot after the title sequence says 'monday' which could explain one of the sevens.

Cinematography

'Seven' title sequence uses a lot of extreme close ups, this is used to create tension for the audience as it makes you feel very uncomfortable and it puts you in discomfort. Also all of these shots are still, we are only able to see the movement of the peoples body features and some of the objects. Due to the fact of these extreme close ups being still we are unable to see the surroundings and where everything is set, this is to create a big mystery which people may want to reveal by watching the whole film. Most of the lighting in this title sequence is dull; this is to create a scary and an unpleasant atmosphere. Not only the lighting is dull but also the colours included are rather dark such as brown, black, dark blue, grey. These colours give the whole title sequence a very unpleasant effect. Rays of light have been used for the main features and objects to stand out. Some of the photographs are very shaky as well as lightning has been added to them, this is to create a more unpleasant effect towards the audience, as this type of effect may reflect a scary storm at night. Fast pace has been also included to flick through a lot of things creating excitement towards the movie, leaving the audience wanting more. This title sequence also includes flashes of red which create an effect of danger. Layering is one of the things that has been used but not so much, it shows photographs fading out onto other photographs. The letters and numbers are hardly visible as a flash has been added to them which creates a mysterious side of the film. Looking at just cinematography you are able to get an idea of what the film may be about and the uses of cinematography are very strong as they create different emotions towards the audience leaving them wanting to see more, and that is the main aim of the title sequence.

Sound

The sound of the title sequence creates a disturbing feel. At the beginning it shows the character preparing to sleep, a clicking sound is used as the background which could be connoting a ticking clock counting down, showing that it is a countdown for something that is going to happen. In the sequence the character is crossing out words and pictures, every time he crosses something out you hear a scratchy screechy sound. This could be implying that the things he is crossing out are his next victims, as the screeching sound could be the person screaming and the scratchy sound could be the way they are killed. By putting this disturbing sound track in the background of the sequence with the close up images it creates a sense of confusion, as the audience has to take in the creepy sound and the glimpses of images together trying to make sense of them both at the same time.

Story Boards

Typography

This is our chosen font:

Production Logo

We thought that our Production Logo could be of a tree that grew in a few seconds and then the company name could come up which in this case is "C.E.S Productions" which is just the initials of our names.

1. As we decided that the font of the title of our film would be in red that it could be a good idea for our production logo font to be in red. However, we thought that this didn't look that good as the colours clashed. Also, the positioning of the writing didn't look right.

2. The only colour that we thought would look right is white so we then tried it and it looked much better, giving it a more sinister feeling, as the white matched the sky.

3. This one doesn't look as good as the one before but we wanted to try different positions of where the name would go. This one didn't look good because of its position, as it took away part of the picture and made it look odd, as if it shouldn't be there.

4. This is our final Production Logo, which we think looked the best and had a good position on top of the image. It makes it look like the tree has grown out of the company name.

Production Schedule:
Filming: 4th January - 21st January
Editing: 21st January - 11th February

Lost Boys title sequence