Discussing Storyboarded ideas

 We had a conversation as a group again with Adam and Luke discussing what ideas we had came up with we presented these forward to Adam and Luke so that we could receive feedback. Jana and Gite had created a bullet point lists of how they visualized the opening title sequence and I created a storyboard. From this conversation, we realized as a group that our idea still needed improving however we all presented elements of an idea that we liked but it needed refinement and re-organizing to create an interesting opening piece. We liked my idea about having the kids exploring the house however we discussed the idea and decided that it could be better if we have the kids playing a game, such as a hide and seek around the house this was due to the fact that we agreed converting the rooms back and forward could get confusing and end up making the film look not very well refined, whereas if we are following the children the whole time we could have a much nicer smoother opening title sequence with a lot less cutting up of the film. We discussed having more subtleties of the asylum girl such as instead of her randomly appearing she could, quickly appear in the background as if she is watching the children but then disappear as this would make the audience feel more uncomfortable. Jana's idea included a similar concept apart from the fact we would have a birds-eye view shot traveling over the top of the trees leading up to Peaslake house we decided this could be a cooler opening shot as it is more engaging to see as an opening shot. I personally really liked the idea of having a glimpse through the trees cut presenting Peaslake as it gives another level to the opening title sequence that really establishes that the building is in the middle of nowhere. Gite's idea followed all the same concepts as ours, but one thing that was clear from all the ideas presented was that we all wanted the opening title sequence to open with a big establishing shot of the building. After this chat, we realized that we needed to refine our idea as we have something very good however it just isn't assembled yet into one piece.

Gite's idea/bullet point list:

Jana's bullet point list:

What I really liked about the ideas: 

I really liked Jana's idea of a birds-eye view establishing shot of the location and building as this gives the viewer a further idea of where the people are. I liked the idea of having the kids playing hide and seek in the house as this is such an innocent game and can have many subtle hints around it expressing that there is another being in the house with them. Childs innocent in a game can really resemble genre typical horror as it takes something so innocent and converts it into something dark.

very rough story board

 Today I and my group had a discussion about the ideas we had for how we wanted the opening title sequence to look, we discussed how we wanted to present these ideas, I suggested that we all go off separately and visualize how we want the opening title sequence to look like, this way we could take ideas from each other's visualizations and create a piece that takes a part of everybody's own visualization. My group agreed and we decided that we would present our final rough ideas to each other tomorrow. This way of approaching it I found to be beneficial as it allowed us to have three plans that we could re-visit if there was a problem with the idea we choose, this way we also got to see different ways of how we could present the horror itself. 

I personally went off and created a very rough storyboard of how I think our opening sequence should look: 

Scene 1: A 10-second establishing shot, panning from left to right of a car with the family inside arriving to Peaslake house (mental asylum). Slow creepy non-diegetic music starts playing and diegetic sound of the car driving up the driveway on the gravel can be heard. Credits begin to appear on the bottom corners of the screen.

Scene 2: A 5-second over the shoulder shot of the family walking into the house, music continues. Dialogue can be heard from the wife making a sarcastic comment about the look of the house. The camera zooms onto the children running through the house. Diegetic sound of the children giggling can be heard. Creepy non-diegetic music continues.   

Scene 3: A 5-second mid-shot of the children's side as they are running down the corridor passing all the doors. Diegetic giggling continues and non-diegetic creepy music continues. Dolly tracking shot of children as they are running.

Scene 4:A 3-second over the shoulder shot of the camera panning up over the children's heads to reveal the room number of the door they are about to enter. Giggling stops, non-diegetic creepy music continues lightly in the background. Door opens. 

Scene 5: A 5 second shot inside the room with boxes and furniture is shown. Non-diegetic music continues. A small pan from left to right of the room is shown. Credits continue to roll in a white calm font.  

Scene 6: Quick cut transition with a flash, non-diegetic music increases. 5 second shot of the asylum girl crying. Diegetic crying noise can be heard, creepy music increases in volume and door slamming can be heard diegetic sound. The camera slowly zooms into girl before, quickly zooming to the door slamming.

Scene7: A 5-second mid-shot of the children's side as they are running down the corridor passing all the doors. Diegetic giggling continues and non-diegetic creepy music continues. Dolly tracking shot of the children as they are running. Non-diegetic creepy music reduces in volume. Credits continue to roll. 

Scene 8:A 3-second over the shoulder shot of the camera panning up over the children's heads to reveal the room number of the door they are about to enter. Giggling stops, non-diegetic creepy music continues lightly in the background. Door opens. 

Scene 9: A 5 second shot inside the room with boxes and furniture is shown, in a different order to last time. Non-diegetic music continues. A small pan from left to right of the room is shown. Credits continue to roll in a white calm font.  

Scene 10: Quick cut transition with a flash, non-diegetic music increases. 5 second shot of the asylum girl in a chair that she is strapped to and doctors walking around her writing things down, diegetic sound can be heard of the girl crying and screaming, diegetic sound of the doctors walking around her and diegetic sound of the pen scribbling things down on the paper can be heard. The camera pans from left to right of the room. Before the camera quickly zooms back out of the room and the door slams on camera diegetic sound of the door slamming can be heard.

Scene 11:A 5-second mid-shot of the children's side as they are running down the corridor passing all the doors. Diegetic giggling continues and non-diegetic creepy music continues. Dolly tracking shot of the children as they are running. Non-diegetic creepy music reduces in volume. Credits continue to roll.

Scene 12:A 3-second over the shoulder shot of the camera panning up over the children's heads to reveal the room number of the door they are about to enter. Giggling stops, non-diegetic creepy music continues lightly in the background. Door opens. 

Scene 13: A 5 second shot inside the room with boxes and furniture is shown, in a different order to last time as well as a window in the back of the room. Non-diegetic music continues. A small pan from left to right of the room is shown. Credits continue to roll in a white calm font.  

Scene 14: Quick cut transition with a flash, non-diegetic music increases. 5 second shot of the asylum girl, the room is converted a yellow vintage gel is used on the lighting of the room and diegetic sound of the girl screaming outside the window can be heard as well as her hitting the window can be heard. The camera zooms in on the girl and goes over her shoulder to convert into a close-up shot of the asylum girl's face.  

Scene 15: A 3 second close-up shot of the asylum's girl's face screaming, screaming is diegetic sound, a fade transition to the girl from the family screaming in a close-up shot. 

Scene 16: A 3 second close-up shot of the girl from the family screaming at the brother because they are fighting over the toy. The camera slowly zooms out from the girl's face. Creepy non-diegetic music stops. 

Scene 17:A 5-second mid-shot of the kids can be seen of them shouting and screaming that the toy is there's. Diegetic sound of the kids arguing can be heard. 

Scene 18: A 5-second mid-shot of the children's side as they are running back up the corridor passing all the doors. Diegetic giggling can be heard. Dolly tracking shot of the children as they are running. Final Credits roll.Diegetic noise of the children running can be heard.

180 Degree Rule

 

The 180-degree rule states that two characters in a scene should always have the same left/right side to each other. If the 180-degree is broken it can disrupt the scene and disorients the audience, If you break the 180-degree line, rarely is this rule broken.  

Chart of the 180-degree rule:

To understand this concept you must imagine a line going down the center of two people, when shooting using the 180-degree rule you must choose a side either the left or right of the character. Once the line has been chosen you should only film on that side of the character as this gives the viewpoint of two characters. If this line is crossed then you can risk disorientating your audience as the character's positions would be viewed as switched. In other words, if the 180-degree rule is broken then a person who was originally facing left in the scene can all of a sudden face right if the rule is broken. When thinking about the 180-degree rule a critical thing to imagine is a line going between the two characters, the camera can move anywhere along that line as long as it does not cross over it to the other side of that line.

Very rarely is the 180-degree rule broken a famous example of this would be : 

Joker scene 

In this Joker, Batman (Dark Knight) scene the 180-degree rule is broken, this is done presumably to show the change in power between the two characters, this is because we flip between different over the shoulder shots of the two characters. This is a very clever scene as it does not lose the audience however it makes the viewer feel dizzy as the camera spins around these two characters. I personally like this scene as it has a tense feeling due to the continuous breaking of the 180-degree rule. 

Example of the 180- degree rule: 

In this clip the 180-degree rule is followed, the camera stays on one side of the two characters without crossing the line. A clear eye line is kept between the two characters throughout this whole clip this allows for a direct line to be visible between the two characters further displaying that the camera is staying on one side of that line. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

30 minute full class chat

 In today's lesson, we did a full class call, where we discussed what is expected from us in the next, 3-4 weeks. We were shown examples of previous blogs and how much development you go through with your idea as well as research you do into different aspects of your idea such as costume, make-up, fake blood, etc. We spoke about how we need a lot of evidence on our blog to raise our grade when it is examined so that the examiners can see that we were there for each step of our project. 

Analysing one of Kyle Coopers opening sequences

 

Spiderman 2 

Scene 1  - Spider Web 

The opening title sequence starts with a tracking shot following the line of one of the webs, a dutch tilt is used to zoom out of the line to show a segment of the web. Showing the audience a segment of the web represents which marvel hero it is as marvel has got a high fan base, from the opening shot we are aware that this is a spiderman film. A bold red is used throughout the scene to represent spiderman's main character colour. The web is carried into the rest of the opening sequence. The credits have been done in a bold white, most likely to make them stand out against the red. Dramatic strong non-diegetic music is used to set the genre of the action movie, the music is loud and has a fast tempo. As the title sequence continues they zoom out of the primary web to present multiple, again emphasizing the fact that a spider is involved.  

Scene 2 - Comic book 

The web continues into the next scene however it is made to be more abstract, and in the different segments, Kyle Cooper has used different images from the comic to tell the story without giving away the whole film. Alongside, the comic images the credits are presented in different segments in different sizes to distort the image making it look like a cracked mirror. The background colour switches between red and blue as these are spiderman's colours. The non-diegetic music continues to play throughout the scene. 

Scene 3- Modern girl  

Kyle Cooper uses a wipe cut from left to right, using the abstract line of the web, to present an image of a modern girl who is not taken from the comics this gives the viewer an insight into a character and what she looks like presumably from the film. She is in black and white which I'm assuming was done to keep in line with the colour pallet used by Kyle Cooper. The non-diegetic music continues through this scene. The lines cover her face to continue the idea of the abstract web. 

Scene 4 - Cutting to the street 

A fade transition shows a comic image of a woman's eyes, it is a very clever, shot as it transitions seemingly from the opening sequence into the opening scene, the abstract web is removed which tells the audience that this is the opening shot of the actual film. The camera zooms out from the face of the girl, which is done in the same art form as the comic to show she is a billboard image. The music stops and instantly we hear narrative non-diegetic dialogue of Peter Parker's thoughts. 

What I liked about it 

I really like this opening title sequence as it as it tells the story without ruining the film, we are shown different images from the comic which tells us potentially what is going to happen, this turns the opening title sequence into a short film of itself. Another aspect that I was a big fan of was the fact that he carried the web into the rest of the opening title sequence, however, turned it into a more abstract image, this was very clever as it kept a main element of Spiderman. 

Kyle Cooper

 

Born July 13th, 1962 Kyle Cooper is an American designer known for his work creating title sequences for motion pictures. Kyle Cooper has directed and produced over 350 visual effect sequences and main title sequences, opening title sequences across a broad range of film and different broadcast mediums.

- Early life 

Kyle Cooper was born in Salem , Massachusetts. When he was younger Cooper was reportedly obsessed with sketching monsters. Cooper also had a strong interest in comic books,monster makeup books,and horror movies. In an interview with Revert to Saved Cooper  stated that he always wanted to be a film director, his words were 'I've always been interested in film and editing- more specifically,the juxtaposition of images in film or on a single page. However, I felt it more comprehensive to tell stories over time.Print design can provide great single moments,but I wanted to work with a sequence that had a beginning, middle and end'. Coopwe attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, he wnt to study interior architecture. Cooper was about to fail his course so he made a deal with his professor to pass him as long as he never actually becomes an interior designer. 

Cooper later went on to study for his Master of Fine Arts in graphic design at Yale University in 1988. He studied independently with well known American modernist Paul Rand during his time there. Cooper was influenced by Stephan  FrankFur's opening title sequence for To Kill a Mockingbird. Cooper also revealed that he took inspiration from William Shakespeare.  

-Awards 

 

Cooper has been highly credited in multiple different magazines , Details magazine stated that Cooper ''almost single-handedly revitalizing the main title sequence as an art form''. Los Angeles magazine calls Cooper the ''Da Vinci of main titles''. He is 'one of the top 50 biggest and best creative thinkers from the last 20 years of advertising and consumer culture,' according to Creativity magazine. Wired magazine also stated, ''Not since Saul Bass' legendary preludes,...have credits attracted such attention''. Kyle Cooper has had seven nominations for an Emmy and two wins. In 2014, Cooper was also the receiver of the lifetime achievement medal from AMerican Institutre of Graphic Arts.  

Storyboard discussion

In today's session, we spoke about how we need to develop a storyboard we continued the discussion, from the last lesson. When are lesson ended as a group we further discussed the plan we decided to create an interesting storyboard we should all go and developed one separately working with the idea that children explore the house and enter the different rooms where we see what happened to the girl from the past, in these rooms. As a group we set a deadline for this storyboard, being Wednesday so that we could discuss which scenes from each other we liked the most, and then after alter our storyboard top match what we liked the most from each others. 

discussion 2 with Luke

 Today we re-pitched the idea we had chosen to Luke. We discussed the idea in greater depth from a filming point of view. From this discussion, we realised that the idea was complicated to execute well, we needed to as a group rethink how this going to be filmed as an opening title sequence. We pitched ideas such as instead of flashing back and forward between the workmen and the girl we cut straight to the family arriving and looking around the house and as they are looking in different rooms we get flashes of what happened to the girl in these rooms. Another idea we were considering was to have a real estate agent showing people around the house and having the flashes back and forward from the rooms. We discussed the idea of it being in the same style as se7en as previously mentioned however it was getting confusing and the idea was not seeming anything like the opening title sequence of se7en so, therefore, we dropped this idea. As a group, we decided that our opening shot should still be an establishing shot of the building of Peaslkae house as this sets the scene of the location they are in as the building is very similar to that of an old asylum. We spoke about another concept as well, we discussed if whether we could do it so that it is in the style of an online video call where things happen in the background of the people talking however we as a group were not very fond of this idea as we believed it takes away from the motion we originally planned. We decided to move the idea to be shot inside the house as there is more potential for having clean cuts, to show past and present, we were fond of this idea and decided to base our storyboard with the idea that we go inside the building. We were a bit stumped after this discussion and needed some time to rethink how to shoot a better opening title sequence we were suggested to go watch The Shinning. After the discussion, I went and viewed the shinning and was inspired by the scene where the boy goes down the hall and sees the twins, I believe with our idea we could incorporate a shot like this.

 

rule of thirds and lighting

 The rule of thirds refers to when a photo or film is divided into thirds. This allows the viewer to see what is exactly in the image and where. The object /person/ subject should be placed just off-center running across one of these lines, this allows the subject to be the focus of the image. If the subject is at a cross-section of the grid this is where it will have the strongest impact. 

I experimented with this and took a shot of a bottle sitting on top of an iPad with a video playing, this created an interesting contrast in the image between colour and the point of focus. Having it at the cross of the gid added to the attraction of the item. 

After understanding the concept of the rule of thirds I took images using different lighting that incorporated the rule of thirds here are the results. 

In my shoot where I used an item, I placed it in the center to see what the difference was in contrast to when it is at the cross-section, in the image where it is center the item looks to be rather flat however in contrast when it is at a crossroad the image is given more depth even though the item is in the same location as when the image was taken with the subject in the middle. I was a fan of using this lighting as the colours created a nice contrast against the subject. However, I was not a fan of the ring light reflecting off of the back of the image as it distracts from the subject.

In this final image of an item I used the rule of thirds and placed the subject on the center line in my opinion it achieved the best look in that location as the focus pull was directly onto the subject without distraction, this makes the image highly impactful and would be good to use is this was a marketing shoot.

In the following, I wanted to use the rule of thirds but adjust it to a human subject therefore I took photographs of myself. In this first image, I used a ring light but lowered the strength of the light to achieve a dimmer light, I ensured that my eyes kept in line with the grid and ran across as this allowed the section of my upper body to cross over each square, this meant there was less dead space in the image it also ensured that my face in the center was the main point of interest. Using dimmer light allowed for a softer image. 

In this image, I followed the same technique however I used a setting that added a tint of blue to the image this allowed the image to feel calmer and not as harsh as the other image. Blue is a colour commonly used to resemble peace and tranquility. This is why blue commonly gives us a psychological sense of security. Blue is also seen to be a very cold colour. Therefore this image even though it has the same features it comes across as softer and calmer. 

I then experimented with stronger bolder colors using the same method, primarily I used green. Green is commonly associated with nature and peace, however, in this image, I believe green makes the image uncomfortable. As it is such a strong colour it becomes very distracting and takes away attention from the subject, however using green I believe makes the image very eye-catching.

I then tried this rule using red, red gave new depth to the image as the image became more sinister and creepy, red is often associated with danger therefore using a strong red in the image can result in the image having a dark feel and tone to it, the mood of the image changes due to its colour. As this is a harsh red the image is screaming that idea of danger.

Finally, I tried this technique with a harsh blue which made the image very cold, and mysterious however unlike the strong red this lighting still had a calm element to it. I believe that by using the red and the blue you get the strongest effect with colours as it changes the entire mood of the image. By doing this experiment I am now able to see what areas of the rule of thirds create the best impact as well as I have been able to see what colour work in film and images and which colours are to overthrowing the image this is good knowledge to understand and experiment with before shooting our opening title sequences.

 The effect of using a ring light 

When using a ring light you create an effect called the ' Halo effect', this effect is caused because the light is circular and it creates a reflection of light in a shape of a circle in the iris, this is why it is called the 'Halo effect' as it creates a halo. 

Deciding which idea to go with

 Today we had an online lesson and presented the bullet point walkthroughs of our opening sequences. We discussed each of our ideas then we were given feedback. After presenting our ideas we voted on which idea we would most likely like to go forward with, It was decided that mine would be the best to follow through with. Adam believed that the idea now had more substance and it wasn't as mainstream horror. In our discussion we discovered that we are in a very good position as if we hit a roadblock we have two different very good ideas to fall back on, this made me feel a bit more comfortable with selecting an idea to go ahead with. To grow on this idea we have been asked to go away and create the characters giving them each backstories to grow on the idea for the opening title sequence that we have selected. We have been asked to create these characters by Friday. I am happy we have selected to go forward with my idea as I believe we can execute it very well. The main questions that need to be answered are :

-When was this set?  

-When was the girl being dragged into the mental asylum?

-Why was the girl being dragged into the mental asylum? 

-How many people are required to do this?

I believe we will need two older men (two teachers), one girl around 16 years of age and one female, and a husband with two children, Altogether 3men 2girls and one boy. 

-Who are the characters?

-How will we know who they are? 

These are some of the main questions that need consideration as we developed this idea for an opening title sequence. So far I am pleased with the progress we have made as a group today.

bullet point of how opening sequence would be shot

The horror

• We open with two workmen walking up to Peaslake with an establishing shot-
• We get over the shoulder shots of the men filling in the cracks and relaying the gravel
• as they do these separate things to fix the building we get a close-up shot of the item they are fixing 
• We are given a quick cut transition in the style of the opening title sequence of the girl and the events happening to her.
• First, the cut is when the men are re-laying the gravel, we get a quick cut to the girl being dragged into the building by two men, kicking and screaming.
• We cut back to the men filling in a crack and get a cut to the girl's eye, extreme close up with blood coming out resembling a lobotomy that has gone wrong.
• we cut back to the men re installing a door and then cut back to the girl getting dragged into it 
• the opening sequence ends with the men leaving the building 
• We then see a jump cut to 1 year later and the family arrives and the film starts.   

Secondary Research

For my secondary research, I believed it would be beneficial for our group to look at how bruises are made using makeup and how fake blood is created. I believed this would be beneficial as it is key skills for each of our ideas, therefore when we come to a final decision on which idea to go with, we will have valuable resources. I looked at three different videos and trialed the tutorials to see how they work in person. I trialed these ideas as I wanted to achieve the most realistic effect.   

Fake Blood 

This is the first video I looked at, I believe that the most realistic fake blood could be achieved by following this video however I did not have access to corn syrup so, therefore, I found another video, that did not include corn syrup. What I liked most about this video is that the man incorporated blue dye which gives it a darker more realistic effect. 

In the next video I watched, I found that I had access to all the materials, so I decided to replicate it.

Ingredients:

To create this fake blood I used one tablespoon of Colacoa /chocolate powder, one glass of water, a whole tube of red food colouring, and half a jar of powdered sugar 300g, and a blender. 

Step 1: to begin creating the fake blood I added firstly one glass of water, then I added the sugar, then I added the chocolate powder, and then finally added the red food colouring before blending everything together. I reduced the amount of each ingredient from the original video as the blender was not big enough to hold the amounts suggested. 

  
  

Step 2: I blended the ingredients together to form the fake blood, it took around 10seconds for the ingredients to come together. 

 

Once the fake blood was created I sampled it, I discovered that this recipe created very runny blood. When the blood was applied to the skin it looked quite realistic, however, if I was to re-do this experiment I would add more sugar to get a thicker consistency as this would have been more realistic. After I had finished creating the fake blood, I was curious to see if the blue dye from the first video would create a deeper red when added to the mixture. I decided to test my theory.

 After adding a few drops of the blue dye to the mixture, it turned brown and did not have the completion of blood at all, I am glad I tested this as I am aware of this if I decide to follow this recipe again. Another key element that I thought was beneficial with this recipe is the fact that it is edible, this means that there are no complications with having this blood on the face close to the mouth.

The result when blue was added:

The cleanup: In the end, another positive of this fake blood was that it was very easy to remove and clean it left no residue or marks on the skin or on the surfaces of the kitchen. To remove all that was needed was water. 

A comparison of the two results: 

Mine:

Videos: 

In this trial, I discovered that when this is actually created it is much more liquid like that in the original video, I believe this could be due to the lack of sugar in mine compared to the video itself. I believe this fake blood is quite successful as it has a very easy cleanup and created the effect wanted for scenes wanting to use masses of fake blood such as Jana's idea or Gite's idea.

 Following the process of the video, I did not receive the same substance, therefore I would be hesitant to try this recipe again on my shoot day, I believe that the first video including the corn starch will give me a better result as this allows the substance to be thicker this means for our shoot day we will need to pre-order corn syrup.

 Bruises 

I decided to look at bruises as this can cross into the top three ideas that my group has had for an opening title sequence. Jana's idea with a man being killed will require fake blood and bruises to show injury and signs of struggle. Gite's idea will require these two items to reflect the same, and if we follow my horror idea we will need these two areas of knowledge to realistically show a girl going through these horror experiences, such as a failed lobotomy (blood running past the eye), bruises from the men dragging her into the building, etc. 

This video showed an easy way to achieve realistic bruises and used cheap equipment to create this effect.

I followed the steps of this tutorial to see how the results would actually look. 

What is required:

• Dark green eye shadow 
• yellow mustard eye shadow 
• plumb purple eyeshadow 
• dark purple eyeshadow 
• red eyeshadow
• light pink blush  
• dark pink blush 

Step 1: I started by applying the light pink blush around my arm as the first layer, with this I incorporated the dark pink to create a medium-light pink as the base of the bruise. 

 

Step 2: After this in a circular motion around the bruise, I applied the green. This allowed for a border of the bruise and gave the bruise more depth. With my brush, I blended the pink together with the green to have it work together to produce the start of a realistic-looking bruise. 

Step 3: To enhance the colour of the bruise I added yellow eyeshadow and dapped it into the green this gives more colours to the green area which allows it to look more like a fresh bruise. 

 

Step 4: I then added the 2 different purples inside the bruise into different locations mainly circling inside the green this allowed for the bruise to look more realistic. I started with the lighter purple/plum purple as this allowed me to have an outline of how it would look once the deeper purple was applied. Adding the purple made the bruise look deeper and therefore more painful.

Step 5: Finally I added hard dabs of red into the center of the bruise, this gave the effect that blood vessels had been burst, which made the bruise look more realistic, I added more of each colour to give, stronger, deeper tones and then gently blended the colours together. 

I was strongly impressed with the result of this video, I believed that the bruise looked very realistic. I tested the bruise on my mum to see if she was convinced by its appearance and she was repulsed by its appearance which I believe makes the result a success. 

The removal:The removal was very easy again with this all that was required was a make-up removal wipe and the bruise was instantly gone.  

Comparison between the two results:

Mine:

Videos: 

This video in the end gives you a very close comparison to what she has created with a realistic look, out of the two trials I believe this one was the most effective as it gave something we can actually use and have all the equipment to create.

Following the video exactly I was able to create a highly realistic bruise, therefore I would be very comfortable with using this method again when it comes to my actual shoot day. 

first production meeting

 Today, I and my group (Jana and Gite) discussed all of our ideas together. We told each other all four ideas that we came up with, we then decided to discuss these ideas on a group chat that I created today. When we were discussing our ideas it was made apparent that we were all on the same ideas of the genre such as horror and thriller, I believe this was quite a strong element to our group as this allows us to quickly come together as a group. After discussing our favorite ideas among ourselves, we made a shortlist of our top favorite ideas, this list consisted of three ideas and we were fortunate enough to have one of the ideas come from each of us, at the top of the list we had my idea for a horror where a family moves from the big city to the surrey hills, into a building where only the father knows the dark history of the building (idea one on my ideas list), our second favorite idea was Gite's murder idea, where a murder comes and kills corrupt people in the world and it is a whole detective case about him, then our final favorite idea was Jana's which was an idea about a super-rich society who lives in old homes suddenly have a robbery in one of the oldest homes, the robbery went sour when it caused the death of a man and the man's wife believes that the murder and robbery are linked (an inside job). These ideas were our favorites as they each had an interesting storyline and where each highly achievable to be done in a professional manner. In our group today we also discussed what we think we will be most interested when creating this idea we discovered that we each believed we would like different areas Gite thought he would be interested in the editing part of the course, Jana thought she would be interested in the costume area of the course and I believed that I will be most interested in the filming and set up, hopefully this is how we end up arranging each individual task between each other as this makes it very easy for each of us to focus on the area we are most interested in in the process.  

2nd pitch of ideas

In today's online lesson we finalized the groups and continued to discuss other students' ideas. I found out today that I have been put in a group of three with Jana, Gite, and myself, I believe we have a strong group to create something of high quality as we each bring different skills and ideas to each other. In our group so far we have only had one small obstacle which was the time difference as one of our members is based in Canada therefore we have had to set our group catch-ups to be later on in the day. We are in the process of setting up a Whatsapp group chat so that we can share ideas with each other. In our class discussions of ideas, Jana's idea stood out to me the most, her idea revolved around a wealthy old society in the future that gets robbed, and then later following this robbery a women's husband gets killed and she believes it is due to something revolving the robbery. Her opening sequence idea was to show the wife arriving to find her husband dead before cutting to two months before. I was a fan of the concept of Jana's idea however I believed that the idea was not given justice to by the opening sequence in other words I thought the opening sequence was boring compared to the rest of the film, but maybe this can be altered. Today's lesson was a huge building block into the start of our project as now we are aware of the people we will be working alongside to create a high-quality opening sequence.

1st pitch of ideas

 

12/1/2021

In today's online lesson we discussed ideas between our peers. We each over the half-term developed four unique opening title sequence ideas, today we each chose our favourite idea that we came up with and presented it to the rest of the class. I pitched my idea of a thriller and discovered there were multiple problems with it that I had not considered such as if it was filmed in a studio there is a high possibility that it would look too set up, which means I would have to change locations to perhaps a forest so that the film looks higher quality and has a better effect. Another issue that was pointed out was that to create these types of high-quality opening sequences such as the one I suggested you would need a big team to achieve this and we are only going to have 2 or 3 other people in our group which means I may need to alter the idea to achieve a high-quality video with fewer people or change the idea entirely, after our class discussion I decided that my idea would not be highly achievable in a singular day of filming. There were two main ideas from other peers that I found to be good and interesting ideas, one was Sarah's idea which was to make an opening title sequence set in 2030 where a new government is in control, and there is a split society between upper class and working class. Her opening title sequence idea was to film inside a car with protestors banging on the glass, and the main woman inside the car keeping an eyeline shot with one specific protestor which turns out to be her past lover. I liked this idea a lot as it is highly effective and grabs the viewer's attention almost automatically, and it is very achievable with what we have available e.g she could gather 20 people and circle them around a car this way presenting from inside the car to be a protest outside. Another idea that I was a fan of was  Daisy's idea which was of a love story between two girls that run away to the forest in France to go and be happy together, her opening title sequence was quite simplistic but told the viewer a lot about the story, the idea was to have a compilation of memories of these girls and have the credits translated from french so that you can see it is based in France and the UK, I thought this was very clever and simplistic. All together I believe some very interesting ideas were brought to the class.  

13/1/2021

In today's online lesson we finalized the groups and continued to discuss other students' ideas. I found out today that I have been put in a group of three with Jana, Gite, and myself, I believe we have a strong group to create something of high quality as we each bring different skills and ideas to each other. In our group so far we have only had one small obstacle which was the time difference as one of our members is based in Canada therefore we have had to set our group catch-ups to be later on in the day. We are in the process of setting up a Whatsapp group chat so that we can share ideas with each other. In our class discussions of ideas, Jana's idea stood out to me the most, her idea revolved around a wealthy old society in the future that gets robbed, and then later following this robbery a women's husband gets killed and she believes it is due to something revolving the robbery. Her opening sequence idea was to show the wife arriving to find her husband dead before cutting to two months before. I was a fan of the concept of Jana's idea however I believed that the idea was not given justice to by the opening sequence in other words I thought the opening sequence was boring compared to the rest of the film, but maybe this can be altered. Today's lesson was a huge building block into the start of our project as now we are aware of the people we will be working alongside to create a high-quality opening sequence.

4 Ideas for an opening title sequence

 

Initial Ideas

Idea 1: 

Genre: Horror 

A horror about a girl who haunts the woods, the film tells the story of a small family that moved away from the big city and move to the Surrey hills. The family moved due to a marriage that was falling apart, as the husband was away from home too often and they decided they needed a break from their busy working lifestyles. The father of the two children one boy and one girl was fascinated with old-school medicine methods and was strongly interested in mental asylums and old hospitals, therefore without informing his wife purchased an old mental asylum that was converted into a house, the husband did not inform the family of the properties disturbing past. The children of the family loved to play in the woods behind the house, near the old tire next to an old, abandoned cabin. From the first night the family stay they hear voices in the hallway and a child's laugh and silhouette each night when they fall asleep. Each night their dreams are manipulated by the girl who used to live there and the family is shown exactly what it was really like to live there in the past. Whatever happens to the family in their dreams is also what they wake up feeling, for example if they are punched in their dream they will wake up feeling that punch as if it were real. 

To convert this into an opening title sequence, it should be shot at the Peaslake boarding house as this building matches the setup required for this horror and we also have access to a forest behind the main building. To shoot this the opening scene should show an establishing shot of the car pulling into the house. We should be shown a mid-shot of the families reaction to their new estate, the father should be the only one that looks happy about this new house, and to establish that they are in a dysfunctional marriage and have just moved we should see the kids taking boxes into the house after the mother asks them as well as the mother should say some sort of disproving line to the husband solidifying the situation for example' yeah wow some old hospital is really going to solve our marriage, you are unbelievable!'. We use a jump cut to show the kids running around into the forest, a poly shot should be used for this as it moves us with the children, at this point, we should have diegetic sound of children laughing and sticks breaking under their shoes along with creepy but upbeat non-diegetic music, as this builds tension. The kids should see the swinging tire and decide to play on it before going back to their new home. As the children are on their way home there should be a jump cut to the parents arguing about the new house while preparing dinner. This should be shot with mid shots and up-close shots to capture the emotions of the two characters. After dinner, there should be a poly shot, mixed with a mid-shot of the families going to bed, when the family has gone to sleep there should be jump cuts between the parent's room and the children's room as well as showing the hallway, we should hear creepy eery non-diegetic music throughout these shots and then sounds of a girl laughing should be added and shadows moving up and down the hallway, or a girl dressed in white strolling up and down the hallway stocking the wall as she walks with a mid-shot of her, this creates tension the opening title sequence ends with the girl dressed in white opening the children's bedroom with an eery scream.   

Idea 2 :

band film 

Genre: Documentary /comedy 

A Documentary on a band that is trying to create a name for themselves. The story follows these four teens that have decided they wanted to become one of the UK's biggest bands, we follow the story of each of them and are shown their rise to glory... or fall. 

Filmed in the style of the inbetweeners, each character has a very specific attribute to their personality that does not make for the perfect team. This band idea can be conveyed in an opening title sequence by showing this birds-eye view shot that drops to a mid-shot of the four band members, we know they are band members as they will be wearing quite bold leather extravagant outfits holding instruments such as a guitar and drum sticks, other this there should be non-diegetic rock music in the background as credits are shown in the corners of the screen, this sets the genre of the film. The band members should be heard chatting about their evening plans, which should be boring plans, however one member of the band should have something fun going on later as this sets the dynamic of the group. As they are walking down the street the other members should be begging the 'cool' character to join in with his plans. When the group decide what they are doing they should end up in a party with multiple establishing shots showing they are in a party, the opening title sequence should end with a long shot of the band zooming in with one member saying 'this is the start lads!'. To establish the idea that they are a band strongly we should be shown a mid-shot of the faces of the characters talking at the beginning discussing the idea of becoming big with their bad. Throughout the rest of the film, we see these four characters making small progress to get to the top and get themselves in very difficult situations,  that they overcome together. The ending shows them together in a big gig that they were asked to play for.

Idea 3: thriller/murder mystery 

Genre: thriller/murder mystery  

The film follows a special agent whos on the case of a mass murderer, who has just claimed his next life. This murder is unlike any other murderer this agent has investigated, after every singly body the killer claims, he turns the murder into a piece of art, portraying how they were killed.The story follows the different murders as the detective obtains clues to who the culprit is. 

This can be portrayed in an opening title sequence by opening the scene with a collage of different establishing shots showing the murder scene, while the investigators and detective walk in. Different aspects of the murder can be shown with close up shots of what the investigators numbered. This can be shot in a black room with flashing of blue to set the scene of this genre. The opening credits can be shown over the top of the different shots in the lower corners of the sequence. To portray that the body is apart of an art scene we can set up the body to be laying around different blue elements with fish to possibly show the victim was drowned this reflects the idea of the film, sad slow non-diegetic music should be playing over this opening title sequence. 

Idea 4: horror old man pipe   

Genre: Horror 

A group of teenagers get dared to break into the old man's house, a house known to have one guy living there that is never seen by people outside. The teenagers decide to break in only to realize they are stuck in the house with the old man and no lights, the old man had a notorious record for physical violence which is shown throughout the film. At the end of the film, only one member of the group escapes.  

This can be turned into an opening title sequence, opening with the credits rolling and an establishing shot of the teenagers standing outside of this creepy house, this should then have a quick cut to a mid-shot of the faces of the teenagers discussing if it is a good idea or not, and the history of the old man who lives in the house. Non-diegetic eery music plays in the background. This part should be shot in daylight then there should be a poly shot following the teenagers walking away from the house with a side midshot. As they discuss you can see the opening credits. A jump cut is used to show them returning to the house at night with a birds-eye view shot of the teenagers entering the house and the title of the film in the center. I belives this works as an opening title sequence as it sets the scene for the genre and story of the film.

After explaining my four main ideas I have decided that my favorite to pitch is between the thriller and first horror idea due to the fact I believe both are quite effective and can be well executed.