In todays session we have finally finished the opening title sequence. We had a perfect picture cut ready and all we had to do from here was to just finish some dodgy parts where the sound had gone.
After this, we changed the colour of the final title in After Effects and we added in some blood dripping down from one of the letters.
As we have a picture cut finalised, we now need to focus on what titles we need to put into it. As our opening title sequence is inspired by the same editing style as ZombieLand and Shawn of the Dead, we have used it as a case study to see how and what order they represent the titles.
In our title sequence, as ours is a smaller film that would have come from a far smaller studio, I would put the titles in this order. Studio Company, Production Company, Actor 1, Actor 2, Actor 3, Actor 4, Directed by, Produced by, Movie Title.
For our sequence I think we should op for having the titles fade in and out for a total screen time of 4-6 seconds a title. We have already seen the positioning template, so I think we are going to position the titles either to the right, left and centre of the screen. For the shot of James walking down the road, I think it would be appropriate to put the title on the left of the screen (in the blank space) and I think this would be a good time to put the actors names, The font we will use is yet to be decided. For the beginning handheld shot, I think it would be a good idea to put the company titles here in the centre. None of our titles are planned to be 3D tracked like ZombieLand, but I do want to experiment with the Movie Title Name. I want to track it into a video so that it follows the motion of the camera.
For the names of everything, we are yet to come up with them. But they are probably going to be random.
In todays session, we cut down the long sequence of James walking down the road by trimming it down to three dramatic different cuts which brings him closer to the camera in a more dramatic way. This brings more suspense to the viewer. By doing this we had a final picture cut. With this done, we finalised the audio. All we did was make the energetic music go on for longer, meaning it goes from diegetic sound to non diegetic. With this all done, all we have to do from now is to just adjust the titles to the correct time and to ensure they aren't blocking anyone in frame.
For the ending, where we had a video of the camera panning up a glass window, we wanted to track in the ending movie title into it. We used the website dafont.com to find the appropriate font.
I used the track motion tracker in After Effects in order to track the text into the sequence. By applying the track to a null object. I was able to track the 3D text to the null object. This made the ending far more dramatic.
In today's session, we finalised the picture cut. I had come in at Activities time and I also finalised the draft of the sound.
Saul Bass was born in 1920 and changed Hollywood by revolutionising what title sequences where. All modern opening title sequences that introduced the mood or theme of the film are in a way a legacy of both Saul and Elaine's work. He started off designing adverts for films in the 1940s. He designed a few posters in the 1940s-50s until he worked with Preminger. Preminger needed a poster for the 1954 film Carmen Jones. When Saul finished, the film makers were so impressed by Saul's work that they invited him to produce the title sequence as well. This is the first point in his life where he had the opportunity to design title sequences. This came out to be a life changing decision.
After creating the title sequence for The Man with the Golden Arm in 1955, his name got thrown around in the film industry. He continued to make title sequences and this paid off, as up until this very day, they are considered some of the best the film industry has ever seen.Saul also made logos for companies such as Warner Communications and AT&T. His graphic design skills are so good that the average lifespan of one of his logos is 34 years, which is remarkable compared to the average of 10 years for everyone else's.
Elaine began to work with Saul after the opening title sequence of Spartacus in 1960 was made, which Elaine co-directed and produced. And soon after this very married. Most of Saul's work after this point in time was made in collaboration with Elaine.
Some of their famous work include the Psycho opening title sequence.
In todays session, we finished the video order and roughly cut each sequence to the amount of frames we want. For the next session, we are going to sound design it and we need to re record some audio for a sequence that had a technical issue whilst filming.
By the end of the session we could watch the whole sequence as a whole and see roughly the pacing of it.
In todays lesson we started editing are opening title sequence. We looked through all the clips and found out around 8% of the files where corrupted in slow motion. This apparently not too much of a deal as we can use the speed gain feature to speed up the footage, but from what we have sped up at the moment, it doesn't look the best.
In summary, we looked through all are clips and then started to order the clips in the first scene to roughly how we want them to run. As of right now, we have put together the clips of the murder scene, the interaction with the dog walker and the very beginning of the church scene.
As said in the previous question, the target audience is a broad range of different profiles. I would suggest that a typical audience member would be aged around 17-50. They would also have a liking in the genres of, comedy, thrillers, dark humour and suspense.
I would base the target audience to be just the United kingdom, as other countries like the United States don't necessarily understand the culture. The film also targets both people in rural and urban areas.
The hobbies and interests of a potential audience member doesn't follow a pattern in my opinion. Any one could be a potential viewer.
I would have thought an independent British media company would distribute my media project. The media company would have to be good at marketing thriller, comedy and a touch of horror films.
Some established Film distributors include:
I think the best film distributor for are film is Amazon Studio. As Amazon is a very well known company with their own streaming service. They already have a very established audience that could be potential viewers. Amazon will also be able to market the film across all their platforms. Amazon Studios have a rather big budget but I doubt they would spend it on a movie produced by a first time director, etc. The good thing about Amazon Studios is that they can promote the film from within the company. So effectively there are no costs in marketing the film.
From looking at are scripts and storyline, I would have thought are movie would be made for an audience aged between 17-50. The audience will also preferably like thriller, dark humour, comedy and suspense genre films.
The first movie to have a CGI generated title sequence was Superman in 1978.
Here you can see how some of the leading production company logos and sequences have changed over the years.
