Thursday 20 December 2012

Title Sequence analysis- Sci-fi/ Romance

GATTACA

I chose to analyse gattaca because i believe it fits the Sci-fi/ romance category. The microscopic appearance of a fingernail and human hair suggest that the film will include a science theme also the packets of blood and urine support this idea. These images also imply an identity theme. The title sequence shows a man however the face is never fully shown, this creates some kinds of mystery. This also slightly reveals an enigma. In part of the opening titles this character is shown applying another layer of skin on top of his own therefore changing his fingerprint and identity.

 The text appears small at first giving the idea its being looked at through a microscope which links to the science fiction genre of the film. the titles also fade in sync with the music. The camera shots most frequently used are close-ups and extreme close-ups these mainly hint events in the film. The camera movements are relatively slow and smooth it creates quite a calm atmosphere for the viewers also the transitions from one image to another are very flowing to create the same effect.
 The music used for this title sequence is non-digetic the sound begins soft and slow and then gradually a high violin sound is introduced. The pace of the music matches that of the sequence, very slow. Eventually movement in the opening titles can be heard within the music. In the transitions of the shots overlap and fade into one another keeping the flow continuous. Overall i like this title sequence because it really gives the audience a real indication of the events that occur in the film.

Monday 17 December 2012

Richard Morrison

                              

RICHARD MORRISON

Richard Morrison born September 1973 is one of the worlds leading title sequence designers. He has created over 150 title sequences for some of the film industry's most respected film makers. At school Richard studied Graphics, film and photography.  Some of the title sequences created by Richard Morrison include: Quadrophenia, creep, Spice world, The golden compass, Vantage point, Dirty pretty things, Sweeney Todd and Dark shadows. Morrison began his career on the bond series with Maurice Binder and over the course of 30 years Richard Morrison has become known as the most prolific designer of British films titles'.





Scott pilgrim Vs the World: This is another one of the title sequences that Richard Morrison has created a title sequence for. The font used to display the words 'Scott Pilgrim', inducing the opening credits gives a 3D effect including visual effects like lightning bolts. I believe this gives off a guitar hero theme, considering this occurs during a band practice, this is quite convenient. This gives the opening titles a modern feel. The transitions are very well produced in the way that the audio and visuals are in sync with one another particularly the guitar beats. The actual titles are shown in either black or white and have been placed on top of very colourful and intensely quick moving psychedelic art work. Due to this the background and titles largely contrast with one another also the names are in block capitals which results in them standing out. The main title is shown in a very large font. This font translates a comic book/ video game theme which is one of the main styles throughout the film. The camera zooms out from the band and the re-positions to behind the sofa. This gives the impression that the audience is viewing this band practice along with the two characters on the sofa. This title sequence ends on a close up of 'Knives' Scott's girlfriend. This shot has been used to give the character emotional impact. Before the title sequence begins the Universal Studios logo appears, all pix-elated along with the music to give the visual and audio experience of a video game. This hints the genre and perhaps the target audience (12-18)

Questionnare- Audience research



 We are going to carry out a questionnaire to generate an overall opinion on the choices of music we have collected to use for our title sequence. I think this is a sensible thing to do because we will not only be basing the title sequence on what we think will work. 

MUSIC QUESTIONNAIRE


I will play a selection of people 4 of my final choices of the music we are contemplating to use for our title sequence.

If you were to hear this song in a title sequence, what genre would you expect the film to be?

What do you think the initial mood of this piece of music is?

What kind of films have you heard music similar to this being played in?

What kind of themes would you relate to this piece of music?

THESE ARE THE FOUR PIECES OF MUSIC:

Story board for Title Sequence


                                        STORYBOARD












Saul Bass


SAUL BASS

Saul Bass was an american graphic designer and filmmaker who became famous for the logos he created. Whilst being well known for his work on film posters Bass was also very successful for his work on motion picture title sequences. Some of his most famous title sequences include: West side story, The man with the golden arm, Psycho, North by Northwest, Catch me if you can and The Shining. Saul bass' title sequences were very distinctive, one of his main trademarks were his use of lines and geometric shapes. In his title sequences, Bass used these different shapes to create a kind of symbolism rather than a narrative. Most of his work was hand drawn to give a casual appearance. Saul bass revolutionized the way people viewed title sequences. Bass' Film posters were emblematic and they transformed the visuals of film advertising. Before his first film poster for the man with the golden arm, film advertising tended to consist of a photo of the movie star or a depiction of a key scene along with the film title. For this poster bass has suggested the protagonists heroin addiction by drawing a jagged arm and using box like wild typography. Bass has worked with some of Hollywood's top film makers such as; Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and Otto Preminger. Bass designed title sequences for over 40 years. The first title sequence he made was for Otto Preminger's 'The man with a golden arm'(1955). Due to this Saul Bass became widely known in the film industry. This film expressed a taboo subject in the 50s, a heroin addiction of a jazz musician. Because of this very controversial subject Bass decided to make his title sequence very much the same. He chose a jagged arm as one of the main images used, this strongly related to a drug addiction of this kind. He created this image by cutting out the shape of the heroin addicts arm and placing it on a black background. The title sequence has a white on black theme throughout along with a jazzy score. This creates close synchronization with the audio and visuals following the same pace, rhythm and detail. Slim white bars on a black background along with the opening titles of the actors names, also in white appeared before twisting into the German expressionist style arm. This arm symbolized a powerful message and condensed the story into one concept of a schizophrenic mind of the musician desperately struggling with an overwhelming addiction.

Typography

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6.

7.

we researched several different handwriting style fonts to try to find the right one for our title sequence. Something that we kept in mind is that we would like the font to be of a handwriting style and to look as if the writing is rushed. These seven examples were picked out of thousands of different fonts found on http://www.dafont.com/. I feel that they all fit the brief however i believe fonts 5 and 6 look a little bit too neat and curly. Because the opening titles are based around a letter written by Arrow the handwriting needs to be feminine and i feel that writing that is joined up tends to look more feminine that handwriting that is un-joined. due to this, choices 1, 2 and 4 are eliminated leaving only number 3 and number 7. Out of these two i  prefer number 7, I believe it will fit our title sequence better however i cannot make this decision on my own it also depends on the opinion of others in my group.

Wednesday 12 December 2012

Typography and Sound

In todays lesson we began to research the fonts and music we believe are suitable for our title sequence. Preferably we would like to find a kind of rushed hand writing for our title however it needs to be readable for obvious reasons. We would also like our music to be a relatively slow piano piece with tension building aspects. 

Here are the websites where we are hoping to find these:

Writing:http://www.dafont.com/

Music: http://www.audionetwork.com/

Our Title.

In todays lesson we finally came up with our film title "A Time To Love". We believe this is a suitable name because it actually reveals to of our main themes, love and time travel. This title is much more catchy than our previous name "where has she gone" it also relates to the film far better than our previous attempt.

Final Ideas

This image shows the quick write up of our final ideas, these are very similar to our brainstormed ideas. Our title sequence keeps a similar pace throughout which is relatively slow-motion. Our sequence begins with our main character Arrow writing a letter to her husband along with this image scribbling sounds and sniffling is heard. This frame then fades to her Finn (the husband) reading the same letter. From the start a soft piano piece plays with a quiet steady ticking sound which gradually gets louder and faster. We then decided the next shot is a close up of the letter as if the audience were looking from Arrow or Finn's perspective. As tears fall on the page a title will appear, slowly we scroll down the page as more tears fall and more titles appear. To do this we plan to use invisible ink. Once all the titles have been shown the page will flip and reveal the last line which is something like "I'm sorry, I Love You". To end the title sequence we would like the page to burn out from the middle, revealing the title of the film underneath.

Title sequence ideas 1

This is our first brainstorm of ideas for how to construct our title sequence. In the film when arrow is aware that she will be taken back to her futuristic time period of 2062, 50 years before the time where she is currently based. She writes a letter to her doting husband and father of her children to make him aware of her past and soon to be whereabouts. Due to this one of our ideas is to base our title sequence around the construction of a letter which will later be read by finn. this will include faint scribbling sounds, sniffles, teardrops onto the page and smudged writing. Also because of our time traveling  theme we decided to have ticking clocks layered and faded in and out to hint this theme. Due to the letter idea we came up with the idea that the titles should appear within the letter with the use of invisible ink. To go with this style and genre we thought a piano based music piece will be best to suit the plan for our sequence.

Zombieland: Title sequence analysis


ZOMBIELAND:Title sequence analysis

THE GENRE: The opening titles of zombieland make it apparent to the viewer that the film has a comedy genre with a horror theme that runs through the core. We notice the horror element at the very beginning when a bloody faced zombie runs toward the camera. Then the zombie belches, along with narrating voice of Jesse Eisenberg who we later discover to be the main character, the viewer realizes that zombieland is comical.
The opening titles show the spreading zombie population, blood, destruction and a set of survival skills. There are a variety of different shot angles used in this title sequence including close-ups on a savage zombie face, long shots showing car crashes and extra long shots of zombie gangs. These shots put the viewer in the position of the narrator implying that the audience is there.

THE MUSIC: The song used for the opening titles is a track called For whom the bell tolls performed by Metallica. I believe the filmmakers chose this track because the viewers may associate heavy metal with danger and anarchy. I think this was a good piece of music to use with the images used.

TYPOGRAPHY:  The fonts used for the titles have a red/orange colour and are fairly simple, they almost resemble fire, which suggests ruin it could also represent the sun and our burning passion as a race. This is one of the key themes throughout the film. The smashing glass within the titles reveals that there will be some elements of action somewhere in the entirety of the film.

INFORMATION:  This title sequence is very narrative in the way that it tells the viewer exactly what will happen in the main body of the film. The opening titles show zombie attacks in a range of different situations, I feel this makes the disaster slightly more believable. Many of these frames have a comical originality again showing the genre. The slow motion shots give the violence a much lighter and less serious tone this important to set the mood.

EDITING: The style of the sequence is very modern. The transition from one frame to another shows the use of the fade edits here this has worked very well. The pace of these edit is relatively slow which goes well with the slow-motion clips.

Monday 10 December 2012

Pitch Feedback





                                                                                          

After receiving this feedback from our peers and teacher, it became apparent to us as a group that a few things needed changing. It was agreed that our film name had to be changed which is something we are collectively working on.  A common opinion i found is that each group rated our film idea with two stars out of three meaning they thought our film definitely has potential. Another thing most groups mentioned is that they believe our cast was wisely chosen to suit the genres and events which occur within the film. Some of the negative feedback was that the budget we suggested for the production of our film was unreasonable in the way that the budget was far too low for the kind of film we are hoping to create. Other negative comments generally were based around some issues with the main plot and our lack of research and knowledge of our choice of director. Overall i believe our feedback is equally positive as it is negative and will benefit the development of our film idea.

Where Has She Gone? -Film Pitch