Photographs of the actors

These are photographs of the actors my group and I will be using in our film. The first two photographs are of me and my group member Emily, the last two girls are our friends. We used ourselves and our friends as it would be convenient, which came in handy as we needed a re shoot after we lost some of our footage. 

Filming

Today for the first time we filmed footage for our title sequence. Me and Emily from my group feature in the footage aswell as two of our friends (who are the other actresses). We cleared stuff out of the setting and set up the props and started filming at 9:30pm. It tooks us a while to get used to the camera as it's the first time we had used one like it for filming, also getting correct lighting. This made the process go on longer than expected and we finished filming around 11:20pm. However we didn't get all the footage we needed because of how long it ran over so we will need to film again.

Props we need to get for filming

 
This is the base of the costume for the actresses in our title sequence, however their characters are glamorous so the actresses will also be glammed up. 


This are pictures of props my group and I want to obtain to have in the title sequence. 

Feedback Sheets From Our First Pitch

These feedback sheets helped me and my group make the appropriate changes and additions to improve our film pitch presentation. The most common bit of feedback we received was where are the titles, at this point we hadn't added titles because we had to re film.

First Pitch Video

This is the video of me and my groups first pitch of our film, which we will then re present with amendments made from the feedback sheets filmed in from our class members.

First Pitch Slide Share

This is my groups first pitch for our final film idea, we presented this to our class which was videoed and we handed out feedback sheets so our next and final pitch will be more sophisticated with more knowledge of our production company.

Todorov's Narrative Theory of our final idea

Equilibrium- Four girls who have worked for a drug lord (Darnell) for many years in London are fed up of their life's.

Disruption of the Equilibrium- The four girls decide to leave and start a new life, they steal thousands of pounds and escape to America. They stop in Las Vegas where they double their money, they then settle in California with their own illegal business.

Recognition of the Disruption- The drug lords squad from London are on the girls tail trying to track them down but are always one step behind. As the girls business takes off other gangs in California are trying to take them down. 

Attempt to repair the Disruption- The girls gang are involved in many shoot outs and deals as the illegal side of California errupts into chaos when the Londoners arrive, as do the FBI as they have caught on the situation.

New Equilibrium- The remaing three girls and business partner (Alejandro) are in FBI custody being interrogated but don't give up any informantion of their remaining business. 

The Importance Of Typography

Typography is important in any media, especially in film. This is because it can convey the genre of a film with just one look. 

From these example fonts you can immediately guess which genre of film they belong to, this is why typography is so important. It allows the the mass audience to decide if they want to see a film in a instant, if it appeals to them or not.

history of title of the title sequence (+ Saul Bass)

The title sequence used to much less significant when cinema first started compared to present times. They used to be simple cards projected before the feature film, but with the invention of the TV desginers were forced to make the sequences more grand to keep drawing auidiences in.

People such as Saul Bass were part of the movement to compete with TV, Bass revolutionised title sequences and inspired designers in the years to come. His sequences reflected the narrative of the film and kept auidiences entertained. In class we were asked to study Saul Bass, I made a a powerpoint in response to this

STINCS

Setting-where and when the film is set.
Themes- what the film is about, e.g. family, love, betrayal.
Iconography-props, costume and make up relevent to the films genre.
Narrative- the films story and how it's presented.
Characters- the main protagonists and antagonists.
Style- how the film will look and feel through the sound, cinematography and editing.

STINCS applied to my title sequence

Setting-a house and street in modern day London.
Themes- money / friendship 
Iconography- money / alcohol / balaclavas / all black clothing / leather jackets / make up / jewellery / watches 
Narrative- through packing to leave, reminder on phone for Las Vegas and plane tickets for Las Vegas
Characters- the four main protagonists (Lacy, Chantelle, Scarlett, Vivian)
Style- Fast paced editing to reflect their 'fast' lifestyle of violence and drugs. 

Props (plane tickets)

These are the 'plane tickets' I designed and edited on photoshop. Me and my group will use these as props in filming to indicate to the audience of our title sequence that the characters will be leaving London, UK.

Animatics of Storyboard

This my group anamatics of our story board which we then uploaded to youtube. We put it together as an animation to help us clearly see our ideas, So when we went to start filming we had an idea in our minds of what we wanted the shots to come out like. 

Danny Yount (title sequence designer)

This is my research and analysis into Danny Yount a title sequence designer. As a class we were asked to chose a designer to research and my group chose Yount. Yount mainly uses graphics and animations in his sequences which isn't relevent to our title sequence but the way he uses and animates the typography is.

Story Board

My groups handrawn story boards for our title sequence idea. We were told to draw up story boards as its really helpful to have all our ideas on paper and in order. We hope it will be helpful when it comes to filming as we will know what we need and want to shoot. 

Codes and Conventions of a Title Sequence

    A films title sequence should give the auidience hints of the films -

- -characters

  -time period

- -setting

  -plot/ narrative

- -tone 

- -genre

-

  The title sequence should also credit the cast and crew, show the title and sometimes set up enigmas.

Analysis Of Se7en Title Sequence

The Se7en ( David Fincher,1995) title sequence created by Kyle Cooper is inconic and has inspired many other designers over the years. It can be classed as iconic becuase of how many it has inspired and and how it created a new way of creating title sequences. 

The sequence conveys the films psychological thriller genre through its mise-en-scene and STINCS. The sequence is mainly composed of close-up shots of office looking objects, perhaps belonging to someone interested in photography or film, as there are negatives and photographs of injured bodies. The person seems to be methodically creating a book which looks like an artists portfolio. In addition to the post mortem looking photographs there are files which resemble ones of a police investigation, this would suggest the person shown has acess to the police force. However there are also shots of the person cutting their skin off their finger prints. This shows that the person could be on the wrong side of the police force as they are trying to hide their identity. The auidience is never shown the persons location or identity this hightens the tension already built up by the props, cinematography and sound. 

The use of sound and typography also adds to the tension and helps convey the suspense thriller genre. The sound is a compliation of white noise, and electric sounds which resemble high pitch screams and the whirring of machines. This provokes an audience response as it creates the mental imagery of people getting harmed, a foreshadowing of what is the come in the film. 

The typography in the sequence is two different styles. One of which is a messy handwriting, similar to the handwriting in the book. The other is a classic typed font, both of the fonts are white agaisnt black which can suggest the binary oppositions of good versus bad. Which is part of the main narrative in the film.

Analysis Of Splice Title Sequence

Splice (Vincenzo Natali 2009) is a science fiction thriller film, the title sequence conveys this through its STINCS. The title sequence is animated and simple, it iscomposed of close up shots of various items, all green hued. 

The sequence opens with shots of twitching animals x-rays which fades into murky black and green water, as the camera moves along something which resembles a wall turns out to be the body of a snake but with visable veins. The shot follows the body ans fades out to bubbles and more different skin surfaces. Most of the surfaces are translucent or normal opaque like with the veins visable on top. This helps to convey the science fiction thriller genre as the all the skin and veins provokes the audience to think of animal testing, and the fact that the water is so dark and murky means you cant see where the camera is leading you or what else is in the water. The green hue of all these shots can suggest nature and growth, two main themes of the film as the the experiment of the 'splicing' grows up. The closing shot of the title on skin, shows the skin beating as if it were alive, this could show that the experimenting was succesful.

The typography of the title sequence is part of the images in the shots. All of the actors names are made up of the veins on a section of skin, this can connote of how they are tied to the narrative. The other typography of the crew is a simple classic text partially blurred with the murky water. Neither type of text stands out from what the audience is seeing, this keeps the title sequence thrilling as the audience is forced to focus on the main images. 

The soundtrack of the sequence is mainly composed of eerie violin and piono, but is partially muffled as you would hear it underwater, this is parrallell to the images. The music gets more dramatic as the sequence goes on and at the last shot of the moving skin and title a heart beat is heard. This aptly adds to the elements of the science fiction thriller genre.

Analysis Of Zombieland Title Sequence

Zombieland (Ruben Fleischer, 2009) is a comedic horror film, these themes are conveyed through the mise-en-scene and STINCS in the title sequence. The sequence is narrated, the voice narration sets up the auidience for part of the narrative as the the narrator is the main protagonist.

The sequence consists of shots of everday events being crashed by zombies, which shows the horror element and the antagonists of the film.The iconography includes the usual conventions of a horror such as blood, gore and people experiencing terror, also the narrator tells the audience that America is overrun by the zombies and that he is on of few possible survivors. This shows that the terror is widespread  and apocolyptic. 

However there are elements present which show the films comedic genre. The events that are being crashed by the zombies are comical, these are things such as a business man being chased by a zombie stripper out of a strip club, a zombie bride attacking her groom at the alter and a over weight man trying to run away from a zombie on a football field. These situations are ironic and in slow-motion which further adds to the comdey for the audience. 

The typography of the sequence is red, this is part of the iconography with the blood and can represent anger and violence. The typography moves with whats happening on screen, for instance when a car window is smashed the letters move as if they are pieces of glass. 

All of the aforementioned elements partnered with the voice over's rule's on how to survive the zombie apocalypse such as 'rule #1 cardio' and the rock song soundtrack the title sequence aptly conveys the comedy horror genre to the audience along with a hint as to the characters and narrative. 

Analysis Of The Game Title Sequence

The title sequence of The Game (David Fincher, 1997), a mystery thriller which conveys the genre through its STINCS, is a compliation of a home video with a piano piece soundtrack. The production logos are included in the title sequence as they turn into puzzle pieces with flowing water sounds, one of the elements featured in the title sequence, water, is present from the begining. 

The sequence shows rich family life as they prepare and host a childs birthday party in what looks like a 1950's setting, a older man who the audience can assume is the childs father looks uninterested by the goings on around him as the happy looking adults engage in conversation. There is also a shot of his silhouette smoking inside by a window. In a title sequence shots of the young boy and his father in the same position by a hedge appear four times, once at the beginning then dotted throughout. On the third time the father gives the boy a model boat and on the fourth he walks into the darkness behind them. This could connote that the father will leave this life he shares with his family and leaves the boy with darkness in his place. These elements help create the thriller mystery genre as there are no identitys given to the many characters shown and the audience can't be sure of who else will be a main character.

There are two pools in the garden setting, one by the tables and tents and the other further back. They are explicitly shown twice throughout the sequence and are in the background of other shots, this makes water constantly present. The first time water is explicitly shown is a shot of the model boats on the closest pool, one of the boats is the one the boys father gives him. The other time is when a boy gets pushed in the other pool by a group of boys who get told off by a woman, the audience can assume that the boy pushed in is the main boy. Without seeing the film the audience can already infer some of the themes of the film such as family conflict and a fear of clowns which in the film will be part of the actual game where the thriller parts of the film are. The final two shorts are of the boy smiling and a womans hands fussing over his hair with a warm sepia effect over it which cuts to the boy as a wrinkled middle aged man splashing water over his face. The man has no emotion and the room around him seems metal like and cold, which is a stark contrast to the shot before.

There is no typography and very minimalistic sound during the title sequence, this could be because the director and designer wanted the audience to focus and take notice of the significant deatails on screen. This helps create the mystery thriller genre in the sequence as the piano music paired with the grainy footage is quite eerie.

title sequence analysis

Spring breakers analysis

Introduction to the course, my group and initial ideas

Coursework requirements- to create the opening title sequence to an original fiction film, no longer than two minutes

MARKS-
- research + planning = 20
- title sequence = 60
- evaluation = 20

My Group- 
Me 
Emily Collins
Julia Misheva 

Initial Ideas- 
-Our first idea for the film was the aftermath of a teenage house party where contaminated drugs where taken and the group of protagonists have to work out what happend and deal with the subsequent dramas.
-The second was a group of girls in London who take their heart broken friend on a night out. 

-This idea got the most developed but we realised to film the title sequence (which would be the party) was next to impossible.
-We went back to this idea and developed the story line before changing it completely but keeping the four main girls, this then developed into our final idea.

In time outside of lessons we began to develope the four girls back stories and working the film idea around them, small elements where changes and thought on before we finalised the story and made our pitch. 

Delegations in the group

Initial ideas all together 
During filming 

Me - director/actress/camerawoman

Emily - main camerawoman/cinema together/actress

Me and Julia will be doing the majority of editing as we know how to use the application FinalCut Pro the most.