History of opening credits

 Throughout film, it has been a common aspect to include credits at the beginning of an opening to present the most notable members of the production team such as the director, main actors, etc. In 1897 Thomas Edison used to use a blackboard to present who the rights belonged to as well as and the company name. This inspired other film creators to begin films with their names being presented. In the 20th century, they decided to make the opening title credits handwritten on boards to introduce the film name as well as the producers. After many uses of this method, they started to personalize the boards to make their credits stand out against other competitors, however, opening credits were only predominantly used to make sure no contracts got violated or broken. 

When sound was introduced opening credits changed to match the sound to make it become more dramatic. In the late 30s actor's names began to be introduced in the opening credits. In the 40s more names became a part of the opening credits as more people and agents wanted the publicity. As TV became more utilized rather than cinema production companies needed to compete more with each other to create a more visually pleasing and engaging opening sequence with credits so that people would watch their production, adding more colours and effects were the most common ways to do this. 

In the late1970s more and more computer technology was being introduced and in 1978, the first digitally generated title got introduced in the movie 'superman' this raised audience views highly, this was highly impressive as audience members previously didn't believe this to be possible. During the 80s technology such as computers became more widely available for designers which created a rise in digitally created opening credits. This created competition in the 90s as more and more people were trying to shock and amaze audiences. By the 90s it became quite easy for directors to work with designers to create opening credits in different styles that resembled the genre of their film and also allowed for new technologies to be introduced. In modern-day opening title sequence, we are fortunate enough to have 3D animation as an option in cinema which means we are able to create visually stunning opening credits that engage the audience. 

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why ?

 Distribution plan 

Horror is a very universal  genre and can be distributed in many different ways, and can be created in many different ways as stated previously 'as long as the film  obtains that fear factor it is likely that people who are into horror will watch it.' Japan has dominated the horror genre and is an excellent example of horror is a transferable genre, an example of this would be The Ring as it was originally done fully in Japanese and converted into an American remake that essentially had the same exact product done shot for shot as previously stated. This means that our opening title sequence could be an independent production distributed in the same ways as Belstone pictures distribute their products such as Tank432 etc, or our production could be a low budget Hollywood film, an example of this would be 'Get Out', and 'Us' these are two productions that were done with a low budget, Us was produced with a 20 million dollar budget and Get out was produced with a 4.5million dollar budget.

Big low budget production 

Seen as our production would have been done by first-time directors it is not very likely that big horror conglomerates, production companies such as BlumHouse, Platinum Dunes, etc would take on board our film, as one of their Hollywood productions. Our opening title sequence however has high potential to be a very successful film but is just unlikely to be distributed by a big Hollywood production company.  However, if a big horror productions company was to distribute our film it would most likely be Blumhouse who would distribute our film as they are one of the biggest Horror film distributors and have created many notable titles such as Sinister, Purge, etc, this is due to the fact they already have a pre-existing fan base for horror, therefore, there would be guaranteed views and a good result of profit on its box office night, BlumHouse also specializes in horror as a whole and is very successful with its distribution in films worldwide.  

Where does that leave our production? 

It is more likely that our product would be distributed with an Independent film company such as 'Monkeypaw' who handle small budget productions of horror. 'Monkeypaw' specializes in horror and is owned by Jordan Peele. Monkeypaw has released multiple successful films such as 'Us', 'Get out' etc(film posters shown below). The fact that our products can easily be done on a low budget and be successful gives the company more reason to want to take it on and be a part of our film and therefore are likely to agree on terms for distribution of our product. The main issue with this method is that there will not be as wide of a global audience meaning that we may make less profit on our box office night compared to if we distributed with a big Hollywood company such as Blumhouse and our film may not be as recognized as some of the big production horrors such as The Purge, this is also due to the fact we would not have a pre-existing fan base. It is likely due to the fact that our product would be created by first time director that we would show our film in a microfilm festival to a niche audience to primarily get ourselves established as directors and film developers and hopefully grow the film into a more recognized production with the help of a pre-established film productions company such as 'Monkeypaw' after pitching our film to them and hopefully them showing interest in our product. After our film being out in multiple ways and being supported by a production company, it is likely that we would create a sequel if the film was successful.

  

target audience

 In a discussion with my group, we agreed that the target audience was for European /English ages 15-25, we decided on this audience as the film itself is more relatable to this area due to the location and storyline history of asylums. Our secondary audience would be an American audience same age bracket.

From my secondary research of films that are of the horror, we can safely presume that our age certificate for our film should be rated 15+ (15-25) as under 18s are the most likely group to enjoy our product. From my secondary research, we can also assume that males under the age of 18 are likely to rate our film more highly than a female audience member 2/3 times. 

(all Secondary research can be found on CCR Task 2) 

Primary research 

What have I learned from this research? 

My primary research would dictate that my target audience is Males aged  15-19 as they are the most likely to enjoy the horror genre. My research also tells me that streaming is the most used  platform to watch film which would mean that for distribution it will most likely by the most affective, on streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon or HBO. In my primary research, I asked 9 candidates aged 15-19, four separate questions to do with film and these were the results. 

The editing Process

 As I was unable to attend school physically due to covid I did not have access to the live editing workshops at school so instead, I completed all the tutorials that were available on Premiere Pro and created a final product I was quite proud of.

I started my editing process by importing all the raw takes emailed to me by my team and importing them onto Adobe Premiere Pro. After I had all the raw takes I watched each one to see what elements I liked from each using my storyboard as a guide. 

After finding the segments I liked from what was imported I deleted the unnecessary clips and cut down the clips that were necessary to roughly correspond to what I  had put on my mood board. Once I was happy with the timeline and order of the clips, I then started to edit it the audion on each raw clip either muting it or adding certain elements that I could ensure would line up with each other. 

While I was doing this I was also editing the shots to make sure that the cuts would a line as much as possible without the clip seeming as if it was jumping. Adding different cuts that I believed allowed to make the opening sequence roll smoothly, one example of this would be the wipe transition when the girl lifts up the sheet from the sofa and you are faced with the asylum girl.

After I had done those elements I was left with a very rough draft of my opening title sequence. At this point I decided to include my sound the music underneath, this is what really set the tone for the genre that we were trying to represent being horror. At this point, I went over my rough edited sequence again and re-watched it picking out aspects I believed didn't work such as some elements of the sequence at this point were jumping too much and therefore making the sequence look very choppy compared to what it was supposed to look like. At this point in the editing process I was having issues with the audio such as it being too loud and therefore not being able to hear the dialogue between the girls underneath, this was a big issue that took me quite a while to resolve, however, once it was resolved the audio ran very smoothly against the dialogue and allowed for both elements to be heard.

Once I was content with the general order of the sequence and how it flowed together I started to experiment with the colour and composition settings. I wanted to match the general conventions of the horror genre matching the colour to the eery music that was playing, I decided to do each clip individually matching the blue hue and darkness to match the setting the clip was taken in e.g indoors and outdoors. I would also change the saturation of the image throughout the clips to create a darker image overall. 

Once I was happy with the overall colour and tone of the sequence, I went over it again to check there was nothing that wasn't functioning with the consistency of the opening sequence after making minor changes until I was happy, I decided to add the title and opening credits. I decided for the title when it was shown I would want it to be party broken as this added to the conventions of the horror genre and also made it original. While choosing my locations for where I was going to place my opening credits I was very careful with my decision as I did not want it to disrupt any of the visual elements on screen as well as I did not want them dragging too much attention, therefore I chose a very basic font and lowered the opacity down on them as well as place them in the corner of the opening title sequence so that they would not pull attention to themselves.

As I was double-checking that everything was functioning I noticed that I had multiple problems with the rendering of the title of the film, and because of this, I had to go back and forth trying to resolve the rendering issue. Once I had resolved the issue I was able to take one last check through my editing ensuring that I was happy with the final product. Once I had finished changing slight things until I was fully happy with it I exported the file as an MP4 and uploaded it onto youtube. 

test shoot layout

This is the layout of how the interior of the house was made to look like for the day, we used sheets to cover furniture to portray the idea that the furniture had just been moved in and it was covered for protection, the idea of this was to imprint the idea that they had just moved into the building. 

 

Covid implications

 Unfortunately due to Covid, I was unable to make my way back to school for the shoot day. Jana and Gite went forward with the shoot day on May 3rd and I was sent over the videos that were taken, we decided it would be best that if I still could not return during the editing time, I should edit my own full version. I was unable to return due to my own personal health issues and taking precautions to protect them.  I, therefore, went ahead and learned how to use the software on Adobe on my own whilst in isolation and created my own musical element to add to the opening sequence. While creating my version of the opening title sequence I had not seen what my group had created, instead I followed what we agreed apon in the storyboard that I had created. I tried to be a part of the shoot as much as I possibly could from abroad, examples would be trying to organize the actors for the day and trying to organize where we can get the props and equipment from. 

Shoot layout design

 

Layout design created by me, this shows how Peaslakes interior common room will be laid out for the shoot day.