Title Sequence Placement Control

For our title sequence, we decided we wanted to place the credits on the spaces below the polaroid pictures. On iMovie, you only have a limited amount of choices to where you can place a title so I found this video which shows how to overlay typewriter animation onto iMovie. We do not need the animation but it does also show how to overlay text in any place you would want, using PowerPoint and iMovie. This, I think, is the easiest way to do our title sequence the way we wanted, instead of our original plan to transfer our footage file to one of our laptops/computers at home to edit on the credits using Windows Movie Maker.

Foley Sound

As said in a previous vlog, we decided to Foley all our sound on top of our footage. The Foley technique is the process of recording audio and laying it over your footage during post production. Our footage didn't have loud enough sound so to make the audio more effective, we intend to add multiple audio effects like footsteps, leaf rustling, unzipping of a bag, etc. We, also, decided to Foley on sound of Zoe saying "Shit" because our footage didn't capture it too well. I found a video, below, that shows how Foley artists work:

Clean Version Of Our Opening

We had a discussion in lesson about whether a cleaner version of our opening would be more effective. By this, we mean that our opening would not include swear words such as "Shit!" which is especially emphasised in it as it is the only line of dialogue throughout.
We showed our original draft with swearing to a couple of our peers and asked whether they liked it or thought it would be better without and after thorough discussion and feedback from a variety of people, we decided that the use of swearing made the panic more effective and made more sense in the context of our idea.

Film Review: Se7en

In lesson on Wednesday, we watched the film Se7en (1995). The film was about a serial killer who, in series, committed seven sins based on the seven deadly sins; gluttony, greed, sloth, envy, wrath, pride and lust. I, personally, enjoyed this film thoroughly as there were a multitude of plot twists and unexpected events throughout it which kept me on the edge of my seat. I do not, generally, like horror/thriller movies but this was certainly an exception. The distribution of murders throughout the film kept it intriguing though I did feel it was a bit claustrophobic: there were practically zero breaks between the plot lines so there was little build up of suspense as it was constantly tense throughout.
Though the constant tension could've led the movie to become unendurable, the depth and gravity of Morgan Freemans version of a retiring policeman kept the film somewhat interesting.
The portrayal of each sin and its corresponding murder, also, kept me exhilarated throughout as I found myself excited to see how the next murder would be carried out and how that would help to solve the mystery of the crime.

Filming Day 3 Research

As previously mentioned in our last vlog, I am going to film a couple more shots. I am mostly likely going to be doing it this Sunday as the weather forecast is sunny yet cold. Once more, this is essential for us to keep the continuity and verisimilitude of shots.

Another contributing factor to my decision to film on a Sunday was that I would have the entire day free to film rather than being limited on a school day and I'll get to capture some establishing shots in golden lighting, possibly raising the quality of shots and overall standard of our film opening.
I have made sure that I can use the shoes that Zoe wore on the original film day and I have organised a similar outfit so that we can guarantee continuity is achieved. I have, also, been to the location recently to ensure that the autumn leaves are still there so that everything looks like it was filmed together and the realism is achieved.

Vlog 6 - Filming More Shots

Saturation Issues

Whilst editing Phoebe realised that the saturation of some of our shots are different. This clearly ruins the realism of our film opening so we made the conscious decision to manually change the saturation on iMovie. The shots that we refilmed were slightly darker than the earlier shots so to resolve that, we lowed the brightness and saturation of the original shots so they matched. We thought that it would be better for the genre if we lowered the shots instead of brightening them as it would add to the atmosphere and tension.

Vlog 5 - Another Sound Update

Vlog 4 - Filming Day 2 & Update

Update

So when we got into lesson on Wednesday, we discovered that our MAC, that we use for editing, would not turn on. We all tried it and even Ms Foster could not get it to work. The MAC had all our footage and our mid-edited film opening saved on it which caused a lot of problems for us. In the history of Enfield County Media, this had never happened so we became very stuck.
Luckily, I had the SD card we used on the shoot with the footage saved on it so we didn't lose any of that but unfortunately, I did not have it on me (it was at my house) so we lost an hour of editing time but we plan to resolve this by spending extra time outside of class to edit and make sure it still looks professional. Also, fortunately for us, we had only edited the footage slightly so we don't have too much to make up for.
From this experience, I learned that one of us should always have the SD card on us, in case someone wants to edit our opening if they have a free period to prevent this from happening again and to ensure our opening is completely edited by the due date comes around.

FO Review: Interstellar

Over the weekend, I watched Interstellar and decided to review the opening because it was amazing! The movie starts with the main character, Cooper (played by Matthew McConaughey) in the midst of a plane crash. One of my favourite shots from the opening is a close up shot of his side profile. I love this shot because it really focuses on his eyes and the panic he is feeling. The emphasise on his eyes ensures the audience feels the fear that he is going through. The sound at this point is at is peak, and the diagetic sound of the space crafts engines dominates what the audience is hearing. Suddenly the sound and the visuals are cut off and the screen is black and silenced until Murph (played by Mackenzie Foy) begins to talk, whispering to her dad. The screen is still black which highlights her voice. The empty screen begins to fade into a shot of Murph, then changes to a shot of Cooper waking up. This sequence of shots is effective because it shows the audience that Cooper was having a nightmare without explictly mentioning it.
The image is has a dark contrast which makes the content hard to see but i find this extremely effective because it really emphasizes their voices and what they're saying. I really liked this and thought that the dark lighting could be good to use in our opening as it could help build some suspense and highlight the mystery of the opening.

Research Questionnaire

To get a variety of results, I carried out my research questionnaire on two platforms. I made a survey on SurveyMonkey.co.uk and I also filmed a questionnaire.

The video questionnaire I made interviewed fourteen different people from around my school, with ages varying from 15 to 50+ which meant I could get a good idea about the distribution of answers in context to ages. I then made some charts to show my results from both the survey and the video. The only problem I faced with the video was that I could not include everyone's opinion on every question so the infographics I made show more votes than the video.

From this infographic, there is a even distribution of favourite movie genres. It is evident that Horror/Thriller and Comedy are the most popular which can help us see what genre to choose. Picking a popular genre such as them will mean that our film opening will appeal to a larger audience and if the film was real, it would hopefully sell more than a film that was in the fantasy genre which got only one vote as peoples favourites in this research.

It is evident that romance in the least popular genre. Horror/Thriller and Comedy are once more, shown to be popular are as they don't have too many votes on this question, furthering our interest for picking one of these as the genre for our film opening.

 This figure shows that the title of a movie, though is important, is only important to a partial extent. Three people thought it was irrelevant so this gives us an idea that when choosing the title to our film opening, we won't have to spend too much time picking it, though it does have to be relevant to our plot line and genre otherwise it may confuse the audience and hinder them from watching it if it was a whole film.



This pie chart shows that most people, regardless of their age, watches films that have the 15 certificate. As shown in the video, there is a common opinion that I found, also seen in the survey, that films don't get enough sold tickets if they are rated 18 so it would be most beneficial for us to rate our film opening a 15 because it'll contain content that is so explicit for a 12 but it will also sell better than if it was an 18 because it would appeal to a larger audience.

FO Review: Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging

Last night I watched Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. This film had a very interesting film opening which used lots of camera shots and angles that we could possibly use in our opening. I really liked many of the shots but I particularly liked this one shot where the protagonist is running in an olive costume between two old people, its from a birds eye view angle. I thought it was a really clever idea for a shot and was very effective. Another shot I especially liked was the dolly shots of her running as it emphasises her distress while also establishing the setting.

Vlog 3 - Update

FO Review: The Fall

This film opening, I think, is amazing.  It is evident that lots of effort has been put into this title sequence and the results show this. Though this is a professional film piece, I think that this would be a great inspiration for our film opening as it leaves the audience in awe.
The opening is in slow motion which really highlights the emotion in each person's expression and not only does it capture the audience, it forces the audience to feel these emotions too. The use of this slow motion means nothing too important is revealed straight away, intriguing the audience to watch more. It is clear that the title placement has been carefully thought about and the hat movement to wipe away the title was very effective as it creates a feel of wonder. As the film opening goes on, more characters appear and objects begin to appear from in the river, presenting immense confusion in the audience which I think is the best emotion to give the audience at the start of the film because it captures their need for clarification and gets them to continue watching the rest of the film. 
One my favourite parts of this opening is the black and white smoke that is emitted from the train, possibly foreshadowing a conflict which gripped me into wanting to watch more. 
Overall, this film opening was very successful in its purpose to capture the audience into watching more as I went away from this to watch the whole film which continued its high standard. I think this inspiration would be great to incorporate into my film opening by possibly slow motioning Zoe's close up shots to emphasise the emotion she's portraying.

 

Film Opening Outtakes

I made a outtakes video of some of our film opening bloopers. This was mostly for us to laugh at but it also helped me with my editing skills so that our actual opening can have the best editing possible to ensure it looks professional.
When looking at this footage, it meant that I was able to see where there were mistakes, for example, when my shadow was forecasting over the shot. This reduces the professionalism of the film so we have to reshoot a couple of shots.

Vlog 2 - Filming Day

Today was our filming day for our opening so I decided to vlog about our day and a couple of the problems that we faced.

Napoleon Dynamite Title Sequence

In lesson, we watched a couple film openings and the one that caught my eye most was the Napoleon Dynamite opening as it is solely focused on the title sequence and arrangement of the credits. I thought that it could be a good idea to use a similar concept to this in my own opening as it highlights the importance that its an opening rather than a two minute movie and we could use a variety of camera shots and angles to achieve a good result.
After thoroughly discussing our film opening idea and coming up with the plot that we did, we remembered this opening and the research we did on Art Of The Title and still thought that the title placement was essential so we decided, as seen on our storyboard, that our opening will have the credits and title sequence embedded onto our clips of the candid, polaroid photos as we thought the arrangement must not look random to ensure professionalism is achieved.

Casting Decisions

In our pitch I mentioned that one of our top picks to cast as the protagonist in our film opening was Zoe Stamoulis and after considering many different options, we decided that she was the best choice for the role. We consulted with Ms Foster about our decision and she agreed. The reason we chose her was because she is very innocent looking yet we envision her to look very good at being distressed. She was a GCSE drama student and now does drama lessons outside of school and we knew (from personal viewings of her performances) that she would be great at acting this role, making her the best choice.

Filming Dates

We decided that the best day to film our opening will be Sunday 23rd of October. This was because it is during the half term, ensuring our whole day is free if we needed it to be and the park won't be as busy as it would be if it was a Saturday.

10.30 - 11.00am: Cast and crew arrival near Lower School to walk to Hillys.

11.00 - 11.20am: Quick discussion of camera shots to that we plan to do. 

11.20am - 2.00pm: Filming all shots 

We planned to repeat this schedule if we run out of time, this will allow there to be good lighting continuity in the shots. If we run over our time schedule, we plan to continue filming on Friday 28th October.

I made sure to check the weather on Sunday and the weather is forecast to be exactly what we are hoping for; a cool crisp autumn morning with little chance of rain. There will be a good amounts of sun that we could capture through the trees for our establishing shots but we also planned that if that doesn't work out and there is a cloud cover, then we could also use this at our advantage as it will allow the scenes to be partially dark, giving some shots an ominous feel, which is what we are aiming for.

Storyboard For Film Opening

We decided that it was essential to draw a storyboard for our two minute film opening so that we knew how long all the shots would be and to see if it would add up to +-10 seconds of two minutes. We took a picture of each shot, composed them and edited in the ambient and diegetic sounds that we wanted to use in our real opening. On the video of our storyboard, we were able to get an idea of exactly how long the shots would last for. We had a couple times when we over/under estimated some of the shot lengths so to resolve that we changed it so the audience would not get bored of lengthy shots.
I think we could've improved it by adding zip and footstep sounds so we could get a real idea for the sound use but it was still very beneficial for us to do because now we have a clear plan of everything we want to do and can now move on to filming.

 

Knife Research

For our film opening, we need a knife to put in our box and to make sure the knife looks just right, we went through quite a long selection process to choose which one looked best. We had a choice from 4 different knives of different shapes and sizes.

Knives 1, 2 and 3 (descending order)

Knife 4

Knife 3

In the selection process, we asked six different people what knife would look best in the context of our plot. We got three votes for number 1, two for number 4 and one for number 2. These results significantly influenced our decision but we had to take into consideration which knife would fit into our selected box. The favourite knife (number 1) was perfect but unfortunately was too large to fit comfortably in the box so we had to compromise and choose knife number 4 which was the second most favoured. We ran into a problem after the fourth knife was selected as we found it had the brand written on it, though we quickly worked around this issue as we discovered the other side was clear of this writing so that side will be shown in the film opening to ensure it looks professional.

Vlog 1 - Sound

Title Sequence Research

Due to our piece being a two minute film opening, it is essential to include a film title and film credentials. As presented in our pitch, we decided to really focus in on the placement of our title and credits and to ensure our film opening is as professional as possible. To research this, I used a website called 'Art of the Title' where I found five different title sequences from TV shows and films that I really liked and that I thought could possibly inspire our title arrangement.

Trapped
I liked this title sequence because the placement of the credits were obviously thoroughly thought out and placed in very specific places, like we want ours to be.
I thought that this could inspire our film opening because while watching the clip, it provoked the feeling of isolation and abandonment whilst also being quite sinister, which is what our film opening is supposed to be like so we could inspire ours on this to ensure it looks professional and good quality.

Olive Kitteridge

This title sequence was another one that I liked because the establishing shots use pathetic fallacy to possibly foreshadow the protagonists feeling which I feel we could use in our sequence by filming whilst it's raining to convey the feeling of isolation and panic in our heroine.
The non-diegetic music that plays in the background of the opening really entices the audience as it's slow and just simply a piano and violin which are instruments that are used in music to create the effect of sadness and/or isolation which we could use in our film opening to create intensity of emotion from our protagonist.

Jessica Jones

I found this title sequence really appealing as throughout it, the characters faces aren't visible, provoking the audience to become intrigued by their mysteriousness. It also means that nothing is revealed about the characters and gets the audience to watch onwards. This inspired me because we could use this by not showing the whole of the protagonists face, maybe just the eyes, to show mystery and conjure the viewer to think about why this choice may have been made, intriguing them into watching more.

Gone Girl

I really liked the title sequence from Gone Girl because the lighting throughout is very dark which portrays a sad, possibly sinister tone. Also, the placement of the titles is very simple but effective which inspired me because in our film opening, we could just insert the titles in simple places so it's not too technical but is still very effective and eye catching.

Veronika Decides To Die

I was really inspired by this title sequence. They placed the credits very selectively and it was very effective. Also, the music selected to accompany the dialogue was very slow and calm but it created the effect of intensity of emotion; really gripping the audience to listen carefully to what she's saying, intriguing them to continue watching.

Box Research

For our film opening, it is essential that we have a box to contain the photographs, letters and knife for our protagonist to dig up under the tree. As this is a key part of our plot, we thought that its very important to spend a lot of time deciding which box. In choosing which box to use, we had to main objectives that the box must meet: to look aesthetically right for the role and to be large enough to fit a knife in. These are the boxes we looked at:

1.

  

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

After extensively looking at each box and weighing out the pros and cons of each, we finally decided to use box number 5. This is because it matches both our objectives. Its aesthetically right as it looks like a box that a young child would own and put all of the evidence in. We, also, measured it to be 30cmX20cm so it will easily fit the chosen knife in.
It was difficult to choose a box because it we liked them all but number 2 and 6 were too childish and we didn't like the patterns on them. Number 3 didn't look like a box that a young child would own and it clearly had "the twilight saga" written on it, so it was obvious that this could not be used. Boxes 1 and 4 were too small to fit the knife in so we couldn't use them.

Location Research

In our pitch, we thought of possibly using one of two locations; Hilly Fields or Trent Park. I visited both parks over the course of the weekend and took a couple of photos at each location of possible places.

At Trent Park

At Hilly Fields

At Hilly Fields

After carefully analysing each location, as a group we decided that we liked the idea of it being located inside the forest as the first and third pictures demonstrate. Once we decided upon the setting, we planned what location to film at. We chose Hilly Fields because it was easier to access than Trent Park and our favourite location picture was the third one because it had a lot of open space for our protagonist to run about in, after the police find her.

Storyboarding For The Prelim

Prior to filming our Prelim, we made a storyboard to plan out the different shots and angles we would like to use. Before the filming day, we were able to organise what shots we needed to take, how long the shots would be filmed for and what camera movements we could use so that we didn't waste essential filming and editing time on procrastinating because we didn't know what we were doing.
Making a storyboard, also, meant that we could see what shots we were taking and if we needed two shots in the same position, we could film them at the same time instead of filming in a chronological order and having the shots be slightly different in angle.
In this exercise, the storyboard helped us to plan where we were going to use the techniques 'match-on-action', '180 degree rule' and 'shot-reverse-shot' so that our prelim fulfilled the criteria given.

Film Opening Pitch

In lesson, we performed a thirty second pitch of our idea for the two minute film opening. Doing this pitch meant we could share our ideas with the class and get some feedback from them about what to improve. The pitch helped us develop the idea of having the box be planted by our heroine when she was a child and that the information (photos and letters), in the box, was evidence to help someone be relieved off a criminal sentence.

Having other peoples input meant that we could add more ideas into our opening to make it more exciting so if it was made into a real movie, people would actually want to watch it.

Our next move is to determine who we want to act in the opening and where it will be set. We are conflicted over where we want to shoot, either Hilly Fields or Trent Park and we need to clarify exactly what genre of our film opening is.

MAC 5 - Prelim

For our Prelim, we decided to use lyrics from the Bohemian Rhapsody because we found it difficult to think of something to say, this helped us develop the idea that, in our two minute film opening, we need to spend more time on dialogue choice so that the audience is more gripped to the film.
The Prelim helped us improve our understanding of continuity and we tried our hardest to keep hand and chair placement the same so it looked realistic.
Reflecting on it, we could have definitely improved our Prelim as at approximately 0:04; you can hear the sound of River zooming in, which could suggest that we were quite careless about the verisimilitude.
I kept smiling and looking away from the camera which made it seem quite unprofessional and I have learnt that when filming, our facial expressions must be serious and we have to keep eye contact with the person being spoken too to ensure realism is achieved.

Storyboarding 'Remember Me'

In lesson last Wednesday, we practiced storyboarding for our two minute film beginning by drawing the first minute of the 'Remember Me' first episode. Doing these storyboards meant we could develop our understanding of all the different shots and determine the lighting, angle and sounds used to create different suspense's that we could use in our film beginning.

Preperation For Prelim

In preparation for our preliminary exercise, I did some research on the camera techniques that's obligatory to use in it. The shots needed are '180 degree rule', 'match on action' and 'shot/reverse shot'.

180-Degree Rule - The 180 degree rule is a filming guideline that actors in the scene should be filmed within a 180 degree angle which must be maintained throughout the conversation. This rule enforces continuity of the shot and the invisible line must be perpendicular to the angle of the first establishing shot. When the rule is broken, it results in causing the audience confusion.

Shot/Reverse Shot - Shot/Reverse shot is another editing technique that is used for continuity and without it, will cause confusion. It is simply the characters looking at each other or objects. The shot shows what the character is looking at then is followed by a reverse shot of the character themselves looking at it. This shot coincides with the 180 degree rule because in this case, the rule is used to retain continuity by not distorting the audiences view of the location.

Match On Action - The match on action shot is an editing technique in which one shot cuts to another shot portraying the action of the subject in the original shot. This is used to create an impression of continuity - the action in the shot creates a 'visual bridge' which draws the audiences attention away from the slight cutting issues.

From researching these three techniques, I've learnt that they are used principally for continuity. It is essential to maintain the audiences understanding of the shot and if these three shots are not applied then the audiences view is distorted and they may become attracted to something else in the shot. Having a better understanding of them for our prelim exercise means we can ergo use it in our two minute film beginning, improving its quality.

Storyboarding 'Luther'

In class we looked at a short clip from the TV drama 'Luther' Series 3, Episode 1. Doing this meant we could get some ideas for good camera shots to use in our film opening. A shot that I particularly liked in this clip was the second shot where the protagonist is looking out of the window and the depth of field is very wide as it focuses on the city but as she closes the curtains, the focus point shifts so that the foreground is no longer out of focus.
Another shot that I liked was the point of view shot from underneath the bed while she takes off her shoes as it builds up a lot of suspense and hints that something scary is going to happen without letting the audience know that there's actually someone under the bed. Both the third and seventh shot where filmed at this angle under the bed, so this enabled us to understand that these shots were filmed at the same time rather than shot three being filmed then the camera being moved several times for the next three shots before being returned to the same angle but not being exactly in the same space. Understanding this meant that it would be easier for us when it comes to us filming our openings if we had two shots in the same place.

Breaking The Fourth Wall

In lesson on Wednesday we researched about some more filming techniques. One of these was a technique called 'breaking the fourth wall' where one of the characters break the imaginary fourth wall and addresses the audience. This can either be talking directly at the audience or just glancing at them for a moment. This helps convey that characters true emotions on the situation and can also be used for dramatic irony; to show the audience that the character feels or knows something that the other characters do not. An example of this is shown below in Miranda Hart's TV sitcom "Miranda" where she uses this technique as an extension of her comedy. In this clip, she breaks the fourth wall three times; first to tell the audience that she's lied to Stevie about her date count and the other two times to express disgust at her mothers party plans and proposition to set her up Edmund Detory. This connects the audience with the characters and most often is used to set up an inside joke that the other characters are unaware of.
My group discussed the use of this in our film opening but because we haven't decided upon our plot or even the genre, we are most likely to do a thriller or horror opening in which, this technique can not be used appropriately thus, we are probably not going to use this.

Gaze Theory

In lesson we learned about the Gaze theory, which showed how the characters in a film or tv programme acknowledge the audience in their speech direction.

Intra-Diegetic Gaze - Intra-Diegetic gaze is when one character is shown to be looking directly at another character whilst talking.

 Intra-Intra-Diegetic Gaze - When the audience is watching the character(s) in the text watching TV.

Extra-Diegetic Gaze - Extra-Diegetic gaze is when the person in the frame is depicted as looking ‘out of the frame’ or otherwise known as acknowledging the forth wall and talks directly to the audience.

Film Making Techniques

On Wednesday, we researched different film making techniques that we could possibly use in our Prelim exercise and our 2 minute film beginning. 

Camera Shots
A variety of camera shots are essential so that the layout does not become boring for the viewer but can also assist on creating suspense.

Establishing shot - An establishing shot is used to set the scene and show the audience when a new scene is beginning.

Long shot - A long shot is used to focus in on a character while still showing most of the scenery. It is often used to portray the characters feelings using pathetic fallacy, usually sadness or loneliness.

Full shot - A full shot is one that focuses mainly on the main character standing up.



 

Mid shot - A mid shot is taken of a character from the waist up and enables the viewer to pick up on the characters gestures easier. This is used when a person is speaking with concentration and the dialogue is important to the plot.



Close up - A close up is used to accentuate essential dialogue that the audience must not miss due to the vitality of it to the plot.

Camera Angles
Film uses many different camera angles to create a variety of effects and help tell the narrative. Camera angles are used to show different POVs (point of view). The low angle is used to make the audience aware of the characters positioning and also, shows the viewers a different angle of the scenery. A eye-level angle
A high angle is often used to show the vulnerability of the character by making the POV higher than the characters.
A birds-eye angle is used to focus on the characters movements and the surrounding people who walk by.

Camera Movements

• Pan
• Track
• Dolly
• Zoom
• Tilt
• Point of View (POV)
• Dolly In, Zoom Out

Focus Techniques

Manual Focus - Manual focus is used is cinematography to manually adjust the focus of the shot. This is used because it means that the focal point can change in the same shot.

Continuous Auto Focus (CAF) - This is used in film to ensure the focus stays on the same object/person even as it moves. It automatically does this so the camera man does not have to keep manually focusing the shot.

Depth Of Field - In filmography, you can use two types of Depth of Field; short and wide. Short depth of field means the focus point is on one particular object/person and the mise-en-scene is blurred out. This is used to attract the audiences attention to one specific thing that may be important to the plot. On the other hand, you can use wide depth of field which is when everything in shot is focused.