final title sequence

This is my completed title sequence:

preliminary task

I filmed this preliminary task to show the use of:

shot-reverse-shot

180 degree rule

match on action

evaluation question 4

WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

Initially I planned for my film opening to have a certification of ‘15’, but targeting an audience of 30+ years. This is because I had felt that the whole film wouldn’t include too much violence or gore which typically appeals to younger audiences. However, having made my opening I now feel like my target audience should be lowered to be more similar to the certification age.

This is due to the fact that I conducted an audience survey of 15 people most of whom were in the age category 17 or younger. Overall people in this age group said that they did like the film. They said that they would like to see the rest of the film, and named specific parts of the opening that they liked in particular such as graphics or soundtrack.

Because I have lowered the target audience this means that there is a larger audience to view the film meaning that in industry the film would be more likely to reach larger production companies.

The target audience for my film would enjoy my film because it has action, mystery and drama, which are all aspects of film which typically appeal to a younger audience. My film includes a wide range of characters in terms of age, different genders, and different qualities meaning that there is a wide range of characters for the audience to relate to, once again widening the audience for my film.

Because my film is a pastiche of a classic 1940s film noir, it will also attract a niche audience of fans of these classic thrillers.

Overall I feel that my film is successful in attracting a large audience because of its range of characters and appeal in the storyline and style of film.

evaluation question 1

evaluation question 6

evaluation question 5

evaluation question 3

evaluation question 2

evaluation question 7

LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FINAL PRODUCT?

Since I made my preliminary task I have progressed and improved in every aspect of the filmmaking process and I feel this mainly came from practice and experience. For my preliminary task I completed a very short film that consisted of somebody walking into a room and speaking to someone else, it displayed the use of a match-on-action, shot-reverse-shot and the 180° rule. As a practice my class also made a film called 'The Package' on the school grounds which was about the delivery of a package. This project helped me to understand how so use the camera and then helped me get started on Final Cut Pro X, it was extremely helpful for me to fully understand these aspects before I went out and filmed my thriller opening as it meant that on location I could be much more efficient with the technology I was using.

The fact that I chose to make my thriller opening on my own rather than in a group meant I was heavily involved in every aspect of the process, rather than focusing more on a certain aspect. In the planning process I learnt how to create a full storyboard, put together a shot list and structure my film in term of location, characters and actors so that my film could become what I had envisioned it would be. When I was filming I found that it was extremely helpful to have the resources that I had planned previously to hand as it gave a structure to my filming and meant that I didn't miss any essential parts. This was very important for me since I ended up filming in Yorkshire which meant that it would have been very difficult for me to go back a re-shoot anything, my planning helped provide a certain guarantee that I would have enough footage to make the film.

The next stage was the filming. Looking back at my finished title sequence, one of the aspects that I feel I have improved in most in the camera work. I tried to use a variety of different camera angles, movements and positions to make the film more interesting and engaging. This included the use of a whip-pan shot, tracking shots and closed frames to give my film the style that I had intended. My film aimed to be a pastiche of a classic film noir and therefore the style of my filming was important to show the style that is associated with film noir. For example I aimed to use mainly closed frames and smooth camera movements, however there were exceptions to this for example I used a handheld tracking shot as a point of view of the girl walking around the tree. Because I planned to film in a certain style this affected my choice of shots and camera movements, this was challenging as it gave me less freedom in terms of which shots I could use, however it was also a benefit as it meant I had a theme and pattern to follow and base my filming around.

Sound was a key element in my film which was made harder by the fact that I chose to include dialogue. I found that the sound was one of the hardest parts, especially of the filming process because I was recording sound outside which meant dealing with background noise. In the end I had to re-record parts of my dialogue because they were not clear enough, this taught me that I should have paid more attention to the diagetic sound during the filming process as this could have saved me quite a lot of time afterwards. Finding non-diagetic sound to use in my film was not something that I did in my preliminary task, and therefore was fairly new to me when I began to search for my thriller opening. It was difficult to find two tracks that were perfectly suited to each sequence in my opening, however once I came across the site audionetwork.com I quickly managed to find the right tracks. While trying to find the right track I tested many different tracks with my opening, I learnt from this process that the soundtrack was very important as different tracks could completely change the style and feel of my film.

An area that I have also progressed in since my preliminary task is the use of Final Cut Pro X. When I made my preliminary task all that I did was cut clips and piece them together, whereas for my final film I used transitions, storylines, auditions and more. I played around with the saturation to make my film black and white, and adjusted sound by using hum removal. I also added title over the top of my film to turn it into a title sequence, in doing this I thought carefully about the composition of each frame and where therefore titles would naturally fit.

Overall I really feel as if I have progressed in all areas of the filmmaking process, some areas more than others, however still a sufficient amount in each area that I have been able to make a title sequence that I am happy with and that I feel is far more technically advanced than my preliminary task.

editing update

I have now completely finished the editing of the video for my film and have reduced it to exactly 2 minutes.

I have also just put in both soundtracks and have edited them so that they both finish on a dramatic and louder note. For the 2nd track I boosted the bass, this is because the track has a very deep double bass line which when enhanced creates more of a rhythm and continuity to the film.

For the ending of both tracks I have selected a different part of the track that is one long note and played it louder over the end of the original track ending which fades out. This is so that the endings both come to a conclusion at the end. The first track also fades out this note as well so that there is a dramatic start as it cuts into the second sequence.

I now only have to add in the titles until I have completed the entire title sequence.

editing update

Having worked on all different aspects of my opening for 5 weeks I am very nearly finished. I have now finished all of the editing of the actual footage and sound. I have decided that I will put my title in at around 10-15 seconds, this has dealt with an issue I had with the continuity of the lighting in my footage. Some of my shots were far lighter than others which meant that I have had to edit the chase so that the girl is shown to be running over a longer length of time. The lighter shots play first, then the title, then the darker shots including the strangling scene to make it seem as if time has passed.

I have also decided on the two soundtracks that I will use, however I need to edit these so that they fit perfectly with the film for example adding fades and adjusting the sound levels. I have also recently worked to improve my diagetic sound by reducing background hum and improving the sound levels of each line too.

Overall I have been making good progress with my thriller opening and I hope to finish up the few aspects that are left very soon.

soundtracks

Having done quite extensive research on various copyright free websites to find my soundtrack I have decided on two different tracks I will use for the two different sections of my opening.

I heard about a website called Audio Network which enables the searching of music through styles, moods and genres. The website allowed me to search for the different tracks via how I wanted them to sound. However even then I found many tracks which weren't at all what I thought I would use, but seemed to work well with the film.

In my planning I specifically stated that I would not use a loud, obvious orchestral track, however, having tried more subtle tracks such as the one in my planning, they didn't seem to give full effect to the film. Therefore for the first part sequence in the opening I have chosen the track 'Devil Rides Tonight' by Ray Davies. I chose this because:

• It has a fast tempo of 144 bpm which keeps the pace of the chase moving.
• It is in a minor key which fits with the killing.

It is described as a "fast vintage orchestral drama" piece. And having played it with the first sequence I think that it works well in building tension and emphasising the drama of the chase and the murder.

For the second sequence with the meeting in the street and the shots of the "godfather figure", I had been very unsure in the planning stages what kind of soundtrack I would use at all. In the end I decided on the track 'The Prowl' by Tim Garland and Gareth Johnson. I chose this because:

• It effectively highlights the fact that the opening is set in the late 1940s and is an old crime thriller/gangster movie - Audio Network describes it as a "nocturnal, sleazy big band detective/spy theme with a dramatic build".
• Again it is in a Dm key with keeps the dramatic and thriller-like feel
• The tempo is a much slower 102 bmp, this slows the pace down of the opening and creates more contrast between the two separate parts of the opening.
• The track has a very moody and film noir style too which I really feel helps make the whole opening more stylish, just as classic noir films are supposed to be.

Overall I am very happy with my two soundtracks. I like the fact that I am using two separate tracks as this keeps the opening interesting by making it seem as if there is even more to it, it also creates a contrast which I feel has the same effect. Even though the tracks aren't what I had originally planned, I think they work better as they also fit so well with the style that I wanted my opening to have.

final ident

I finished my final ident that I had planned for "Jack in the Box Studios".

To make the ident i used stop motion made up of 141 stills of 31 different sketches. The idea behind the ident was to be a slightly twisted version of a typical jack in the box, in the fact that the jack in the box is dead in the box. This distorts the idea of the jack in the box being a toy for small children and twists it in to a more dark and sinister form.

to do list

By Friday 15th February I have to complete:

• My ident.

I will complete this before Wednesday 13th February.

• My titles.

I will complete this by Friday 8th February.

• Reshoot the high angle, POV tracking shot for the first sequence.

I will complete this by Thursday 7th February.

• Find a soundtrack to use.

I will complete this by Monday 11th February

• Fully finish the editing.

Complete with all other parts by 15th February.

titles

The title of the film 'Anatomy of a Murder' will appear around 00:22:00, it will be a white title on a black background and will probably look something like this:

I hope to animate it so that the title appears and then cracks is two horizontally to look like the picture above. This frame will then rip away to reveal the film playing underneath it, as shown in this rough example:

I will most likely do this using a green screen underneath the titles which I can then play the film onto. The edges of the paper will fade away so that in the end the film is playing and fills the screen as usual.

editing update

Over the past week I have continued to edit all of my footage. At the moment I have a 2 minute 20 second long opening. I am in the processes of cutting down the first section and adding in the right clips to the street scene. I have decided to edit the interior scene and the street scenes separately, then once I have finished rough cuts for both I will adjust them so that it cuts between the two.

This week I have been mainly working on the street scene, first I watched through all of the footage and was very pleased with the composition of the the shots. So far with this section I have been piecing together the dialogue shots and forming a rough cut that I am just beginning to trim down and edit more closely.

Finally, this week I also discovered that many of my shots look better in that they are less shiny, they have more depth to them, and they aren't quite as dark if instead of using the 50s TV effect on final cut, I simply reduce the global saturation to -100%. Because of this it is likely that I will colour adjust the whole opening to be like this.

editing update

I have now been editing for 2 weeks and have managed to get together a rough cut that I have also now shortened to around 3 minutes. I have mainly focused on the opening scene - the murder in the woods. This scene is now 1 minute longer so, depending on the rest of the opening, will probably be shortened by another 5-10 seconds. This scene also still requires form close editing that I will complete when I have the music in place as well so that the rhythm of the music fits with the rhythm of the editing.

So far I have been using the 50s TV effect on final cut pro on all of my clips, this has further emphasised the style of the film and the time period it is set in. However, having played around with the colours and saturation of one clip I found that the black and white may look better and more stylish if I just turned down the saturation of each clip to turn it black and white. I will experiment with these two ideas and audition clips so that I can decide later on which method I will use.

Overall so far I am happy with how my editing is going and the footage that I took, so I will continue to edit the whole sequence and will start to find a piece of music that I can use.

christmas filming

Over the Christmas holidays I was planning to film two of my locations for the opening, the woods and the street shots both of which would be filmed in Yorkshire. The filming for these locations remained on schedule and I filmed over 3 days.

On the first day I began my filming at around 2:00 leaving about 1 hour until it started to get dark having decided that for the running shots I would film while it was still light to make it easier for the actors (especially Simon who had to wear dark glasses). I will probably darken these shots in Final Cut Pro X when it comes to editing. My second day of filming in the woods took place when it was already dark so that I could do the silhouette shots and other shots that needed the darkness for the shot to work during the filming.
The third day of filming was the street shot which took place in Kirkbymoorside. This location was the hardest because it was on a road so there was a frequent problem of cars and people walking past, this meant that the filming took longer than it should of here and there are quite a lot of extra/unusable shots.

I then managed to also film my wimbledon location shots over the holidays before I had planned to. The shots for this location we very simple and therefore it didn't take long to film, and now that I have all the film it will be much easier for me to start the editing.

Overall I can say that the filming was quite time consuming, it was quite tricky at first getting to grips with each step to take for each shot. However, by the time I did my 4th day of filming in wimbledon I was much faster and more efficient at getting each shot done as it should be.

a history of British film - part 4

WHAT ARE THE MAIN GENRES PRODUCED BY THE UK FILM INDUSTRY IN THE LAST 25 YEARS? WHO GOES TO SEE THESE FILMS?

The main genres produced by the UK film industry are social realism including films such as 'The Full Monty' in 1997 and 'Brassed Off' in 1996, and romantic comedy with films such as Notting Hill and Love Actually. Films produced in the UK clearly are generally about real lives and real problems affecting the country represented in different ways, such as the 1996 film 'Brassed Off' actually has quite a dark undertone while it stresses and attacks the Tory government at the time very directly. An example of a British film produced in 1997 was 'Sliding Doors', though it starred the US actress Gwyneth Paltrow, she played the part of a London girl who becomes part of a rather tragic story. Many older British people would favor these British people over any Hollywood film so the people who go to see British films the most are aged 30+, where as the younger people generally would rather go to see a Hollywood blockbuster with more action.

DNA FILMS LAST 2 PRODUCTIONS WERE DREDD 3D (2012) AND NEVER LET ME GO (2010). WHAT KIND OF FILMS ARE THEY? HOW ARE THEY DIFFERENT FROM EARLIER FILMS? HAVE THEY BEEN A BOX OFFICE SUCCESS?

DNA Films has previously produced films such as ‘The Last King of Scotland’ and ‘The History Boys’, types of films which focus on British cultural issues. These films found audiences both domestically and internationally and were both relatively successful. More recent films produced by DNA Films include ‘Dredd 3D’, an action/adventure film and ‘Never Let Me Go’, a drama/thriller. ‘Dredd’s domestic gross box office figures were $13,414,714 and worldwide this figure was almost $31,000,000. ‘Never Let Me Go’ on the other hand had a worldwide gross box office figure of almost $10,000,000, but, had a budget of $15 million compared to ‘Dredd’s 

$50 million.

SUMMARISE IN YOUR OWN WORDS WHAT KINDS OF FILMS MOMENTUM PICTURES LOOK TO DISTRIBUTE AND WHY?

Momentum Pictures distributes high budget Hollywood style films, such as ‘Seven Psychopaths’ which is in cinemas at the moment. This film is an action comedy which had a production budget of $15 million and included some extremely well known and highly regarded Hollywood talent, for example Christopher Walken. Momentum Pictures has also previously distributed many horrors such as ‘A Night in the Woods’ and ‘Apartment 143’, these were also high budget films and were filmed and produced in the Hollywood style and scale rather than on the small scale that an independent company many produce on. 

conclusion of planning and research

Having done all of my research, such as surveys, vox pops and internet research, and planning, such as a storyboard, shot list and mock ident, I now feel ready to film the opening itself. I will film over the Christmas holidays so that I can start editing as soon as I return to school where I can use Final Cut Pro X.

Whilst filming I will be using an HD camera, tripod, directional mike, clapper board, tripod and battery lights. I will make sure that when I am filming I also film plenty of extra footage including fillers, so that when it comes to editing I have more than one option for each scene in case I find that some shots do not fit well together. I will use all aspects of my planning for the filming on location to help me get exactly the shots and feel that I first envisioned plus more.