Evaluation

This is the link to my evaluation for my opening title sequence. 

Opening Title Sequence

Vimeo

This is my OTS, however this was unable to be finished. This is explained in my evaluation, the blog post about it is HERE

Filming

I have filmed the majority of the film, and now I only have one scene left that I will need to film. This will be done as soon as possible. However this is the scene that I need the dark room for and so this will have to be done as soon as I get back to sixth form after half term which is the week beginning; 23rd February.

Additional ideas, continued from previous post.

- Find out when all actors are free and organise a time to film.
- I will also need to think of what certificate this is going to have, I will use the information from BBFC, and also from my previous post on my blog. This is something that is very important and that needs to be thought about a lot, however I think that this will be decided in post production because then I will be able to properly analyse the footage and a correct decision will be able to be made. 

- I will need to get a few rolls of film so that I can use my film camera, this will be needed because I am planning on using the film camera as the main point of the story, this will also show the time/era that this is being filmed in. 

- I need to make a storyboard for this, and upload this so that it is more clear how this story is going to be told. This is very important in planning and so I will need to make and upload this soon. This will also be beneficial to both me and the actors because then it will be easier to direct and act out. This will also show how my ideas have developed, if I chose to change anything I will also be able to use the original story line as a starting point if needed. 

- Another thing that I could do to show aesthetics of the film would be to make a slideshare, showing visual ideas, as well as justification as to why I am going to be using these ideas. This will include costumes and locations as well as camera angles that I am going to use, this will be three separate posts though as I would like these to all be detailed, so that it is more clear as to what this is going to look like. 

-Another slideshare would be what fonts I am going to use, however I have already made a previous post talking about fonts that I would like to use. I think that there are quite a few good ideas for fonts and typography. For the title and the company name I could even use adobe photoshop and illustrator, as these are both things I have strengths in and I could create some suitable typography for this. 

- I need to find someone to use for my filming of the female character; I have asked my friend Charlotte who is in my year, also my mother has offered to be in this. However I think that someone younger will be better as this will possibly make more sense to the story. 

- I need to plan a day to film in the dark room, this is important to the story as I have explained earlier in this post. This needs to be filmed after the initial filming because I will need the photographs to be taken first before developing in the dark room. So I will need to plan this soon so that I can film in the dark room as soon as possible. 

- I need to think of a title that is suitable and fitting to the type of film that is going to be made. It is important that the title is suitable to the film because otherwise this will be different to the genre and this will not look or sound right, for the title I would like it to be at least two words and to be catchy and memorable. I want this to be short and snappy, this is important because if this is not like this then this, in my opinion, is going to make this of less quality then it could be. I would like this to be better than my idea for the last video that I was going to do, even though that was relevant to the story I think that this could have been better and more memorable as this was only a time and for this story idea I would like to have actual words that will be both memorable and relevant to my story. 

- I need to think of locations for filming, this needs to be relevant to the story, because otherwise this is going to be unfitting and will make no sense why these locations have been chosen. I have been thinking that suitable places to film would be rural locations, that are quite secluded, however I would also to have a few public places as this would be effective to show the juxtaposition of locations. This is fitting to the story as this is showing that stalking can happen in any types of places. However I have decided to make the main setting of filming to be rural and secluded, because these are typical places that would be used in a film noir. 

-When editing I could use a time stamp overlay to show time, date and location. This would be effective because this will show the continuity and the time frame of the film. This will also show that this information is important to the opening title sequence. The locations are especially important because of the theme. This could also be added onto the photographs after they have been developed, this would be done in post production and I would have to see if this was actually possible to do, and if this is going to look good. 

Ideas.

I have had to start working on the opening title sequence on my own, I have also had to come up with a new idea for what I am going to be doing for this. I have arranged who I am going to use for the acting for the anti-hero I will also be needed a female to act in this because of the story line, I have a few friends that I could ask, however if none of them would like to be in the opening title sequence then my mother has offered to be in it too.

The props that I will be needing are;

- Film camera

- Film

- Costumes

I am planning on filming sometime next week if possible.

These are the ideas that I have jotted down in the last week; 

-Stalker, which will be the anti-hero, there will also be a victim who will be a female character. I think that this would be best as this is sticking to conventions of a film noir and so this will show m understanding of the genre and it will also be clear to the audience what the genre is.

-I could use the dark room in the photography room for photo processing as I would like to involve the idea of old fashioned photography, so I will be using a film camera, and enlarge the photographs using the equipment in the dark room, I will also film the photographs being developed. However as I do not want to expose the photo paper to any light I will develop them before filming and then when everything has been done I will try to film it as if they are only just being processed. I think that the use of film photography is going to be very effective as this is going to be the main point of the opening title sequence because of the theme. I think that having this the way of the photographs being taken will be better for the type of opening title sequence that I am making. I also think that I will benefit more from this because this will allow me to film in the dark room, this will get me more footage and I think that the aesthetic of the dark room, with the red lights and the general look of the room will add effect to the video. This will add tension and the darkness and lack of lighting will enhance particular features of the character. I think that this will be better because this will only show parts of the body, creating an illusion of mystery and suspense to see the figure. If I want to use the dark room I will need to make sure that the dark room is not in use and preferably the photography room next door is not in use because there will be a lot of noise coming from there. I could use this at lunch time or during one of my photography lessons if possible. This would be best as I do not want to have the background noise to be the lower years talking, I want there to be only quiet natural noises, like footsteps and doors opening and closing. I also think that the silent noises in the dark room when processing are going to good, with the addition of the natural noises that are going to be going on. However I will add in foleying to enhance the sound so that it is heard more, this will be an excellent effect to have, this will also show my knowledge and skills in editing.  I would also like to have a range of closeups on the photographs to show that these are important to the film. I think that this will also be a good idea to use for possibly showing the titles, like the acting names and director etc. However as I am going to be the one that will be doing everything apart from acting then I will have to make up names so that the titles do not become repetitive, one problem with this would be that I will need to make it obvious that I have done everything so I will mention this in my evaluation, and also speak to my teachers about this. I would like there to be a lot of photographs that have been taken. I would also like to have a close up on the film rolls that have been used, if the majority of the photos have come out at good quality. Another thing that would be good to have in the video would be close ups of the equipment used in the dark room as this would be similar to 'se7en' and this is one of the main influences of the film. I think that if I were to do this, then I would have the red lights on as I think that this would be more dramatic and show the shadows, this would add to the theme of the film. I think that this would also be good to show the names\titles as this could add good aesthetics to it. However I will experiment with this during post production. I will not have this as a set idea, because if this does not work I will need other ideas so that I can use others and so that I have a range of ideas, which will also show creativity.

-This can be filmed at any time of the day, the continuity is less relevant as I want to communicate stalking over a period of time. Which means that this can be filmed at any time. However one disadvantage to this would be that I will need to film over a long period of time so that I can get many time frames.

-The end of the sequence will show that the victim has been murdered, as this will intrigue viewers to watch the rest of the film as this will reveal how the victim has died and who done it. This will be a classic 'who dunnit?' film noir. This will fit the conventions well, Also showing the knowledge of the genre, as I have tried many times to fit some popular conventions well. I think that this is a good idea to have because of the plot of the title sequence. However the murderer will not be the person stalking, this will be a separate character, the villain. I am thinking of maybe using this idea, however I think I will think about this more because while this is a good idea, it may become difficult to find another person to use for filming. While this would fit the conventions having the villain kill the female character, I think that this would be a lot more shocking to have the anti-hero be the murderer. However the face of the murderer will not be included in the opening title sequence so I guess this does not really matter who I use for the filming of the murder. This will create suspense and confusion, this will also make the viewers think about the video in depth and will also make them want to watch on, so that this cliffhanger can be resolved. This is a good technique to use, and is used widely in the film industry, usually only with sequels, however as this is not having a sequel and is only an opening title sequence this will still work well for me.

-Similar scenes in the opening title sequence for 'Se7en' I will analyse this and put a fully detailed analysis onto my blog so that I can compare the scenes from this to what I would like to do.

- One thing that I still need to think about is the title for the opening title sequence. This needs to be relevant to the film and must be fitting for both the genre and film. This is something that I need to think about well because if this title is not going to be fitting for the film then this is going to effect the video hugely. I need to make sure that this is a strong and memorable title. I want this to be a short and snappy title that will be able to recognised and linked to the film immediately, this will preferably be one word, two words possibly but only if necessary. I would like there to be scenery shots for the titles, for example actual title, actors, additional information that is needed. I think that this will be great for this particular type of opening title sequence, as the scenery shots will show the places iconic to the film, this will be places where the stalking is happening. This idea comes from the opening titles from the TV show The Walking Dead. I have done a post about this previously, this is on my blog. I think that if I do use this idea I will have a time lapse, showing the particular scene over a few minutes and this will be sped up and the name/title will appear, similar to The Walking Dead. These will all appear after the plot is shown. I think that this will be much better and have a greater effect on the video.

- I want this to be in black and white, except the dark room scenes because then this will show where they actually are. This will also add effect if the only colour scenes are the dark room scenes. However I would like this to be de-saturated because then this will not be as over the top in colour, and still maintaining the dark look. There is one problem that I could have with this, this is; that the change from black and white to red lighting could be seen as odd, because this is all going to be in black and white and then suddenly in colour. This is a film noir video and so having this in black and white will fit conventions, however if I wanted to be different, then I could have this all in colour, however I do want to have this in black and white because I think that this will be much better aesthetically. This would be the preferred look, although I do think that possibly having this in colour could be quite effective, I would change the saturation and brightness so that this was darker and still had the aesthetics of a film noir. This will be better if I change one of the brightness/contrast/saturation as this will darken the colour so that this isnt as bright and not an out of place colour.

-The music that will be used will be intense, dark music for the background. This will be good because this will enhance the seriousness and mystery of the film. I think that this will give effect to the film, as opposed to a different style of music. This will fit the genre well and will make it more obvious as to what the genre actually is. This will need to be continuous because I am not planning on having any dialogue in the opening title sequence. I would however want this to be quiet, as I would not like this to be shadowing of the film, if the sound is too much then this will take attention away from the video, this is not something that I want. If this happens then this could damage the quality of the film. Although, if this is too quiet this will not be fitting to the film, this is something that I need to think through well as sound is going to be very important to the film and the music will be the only main sound that will be continuously heard. I will also be including the sound effects and diegetic sound, this will not include dialogue though.

Filming.

Link to a previous post. 
The post that is linked is the production log from 14/12/14. In this I have talked about who I am going to use for filming, I was originally going to use my cousin Luke Anderson, however he has gone back to university so he has no free time to film so I am going to use another actor called Liam. As he is going to be available to use for filming a lot more than Luke. Liam also has a car so we can use this for filming and this will be a lot easier than using other transport like train or bus.

Titles and fonts.

Link to the post
The content in the linked post is the video that we are possibly going to use to show our titles. We think that this is a good idea as this is going to be creative and the timing for the filming was perfect for this idea. We have been experimenting with editing showing the titles, we have not yet found the best way to do this yet, however we are trying out lots of processes and timings to show this in the correct way. We have not yet figured out what font/ colour to use, however i have previously done some research into fonts that would be appropriate for the genre here however these are fonts that need to be downloaded from a website. This could be problematic as this could cost money to download and these might not be compatible with the software that will be used to edit the film. We need to decide what font we are going to use and whether or not we are going to have to download it onto the computer. We also need to work out what colour(s) are going to be used for any text that is going to be used on the film. I was thinking that dark reds/ black and white would be the most appropriate colours to use as these would be fitting with the genre and this is conventional for the type of film that is going to be made. These colours are also going to be regularly seen in the film so if these colours were to be used in the film then this would be maintaining the colour scheme, and these colours would fit in well with it and not look odd as this will be matching. Whereas if a brighter colour were to be used then this could affect the quality of the film and look out of place, this could also make it unclear as to what the genre actually is.

Vimeo

Link to vimeo

This is a link to the video on Harley's vimeo. This was filmed on Thursday 8th of January 2015 by Harley using his GoPro camera. This video consists of a car driving over the camera, we thought that this would be a good idea to have for showing our titles, we think that this is a good idea as this is going to be linked into our opening sequence as there will possibly be a car chase or something along the lines of that.

Costumes - unfinished

We have decided that the best clothing for the actor to wear would be; smart casual;
- White shirt
- Tie (possibly)
- Black jeans
- Black shoes

We have chosen this because we think that this will be the most appropriate for the genre as this is Film Noir, but set in present time.

Production Log - 09/01/15

Harley's post

This is the link to the production log on Harley's blog. I will be doing to production log next week, which will include any filming that we have done as we have planned to film maybe Saturday 10th or Wednesday 14th.

Vimeo - unfinished

Video on Harley's vimeo.

This is a short video for a test for something that we may want to include in our opening title sequence.

Notes

These are most of the notes that me and Harley have made about planning the order of the film and also the title of the opening sequence.  

Production Log 19/12/14

This is the production log for this week on Harley's blog. 

Roles in the opening title sequence. - unfinished

This is the post on Harley's blog about what things we are in charge of.

Title Ideas.

These are some of the ideas for the title of our opening title sequence, we came up with the idea of using numbers for the titles as we think that this is a good idea as this is rarely done and this will also link to our ots, as we are going to involve a clock which will show this time. As this is the time where our flashback is going to start, this is a key time in the story and so it is appropriate to use this time. 

We have decided to use the time - 18:04 because this is a catchy sequence of numbers and this will also allow us to create a rhyme that can be used in the ots. This is also a time that is during the evening and so this will allow us to use a night setting, which is the setting that we want to have. 

Production Log 14/12/14

This week me and Harley decided to work together for the opening title sequence that I was going to make on my own. We decided that it would be best to work together as there would be too much work for me to do on my own. We also properly planned how we would film and what the story line was going to be. We also organised;
- The types of effects we wanted to use, we decided to have a mix of both colour and black and white filming, the whole sequence will be filmed in colour and then edited afterwards.
- We experimented with sound in the music department in school, we recorded the sounds on my phone which I will upload soon. To find sounds we used an acoustic guitar and an electric piano. We found many sounds that could possibly be used and also decided to record other natural sounds at another time.
- We have also been thinking of ideas for the title, I have made a post about this previously here
- and we also have an actor for the OTS, I organised that we were going to use my cousin Luke Anderson for the role of our anti-hero. I decided to use him as he fits the aesthetics of what I had in mind for the character and also he done this project too when he was doing a-level so he has a good knowledge of what I need to do and I figured it would be very helpful. I organised this over facebook, here is the conversation;

• Lauren Siers
  

  
  

  
  

  Hey! Do you reckon you could help me with my media opening title sequence?
• 
  

  Luke Anderson
  

  
  

  
  

  Quite possibly, I've now finished my current project so I'm open for it. What do you have in mind?
• 
  

  
  

  Lauren Siers
  

  
  

  
  

  Ok so basically i need a guy to be in my video, and no one wants to be in it! Would you be in it? Its literally not even much acting needed and idk when its being filmed but miss humpleby wants us to have our storyboards/plots/characters sorted by like thursday
• 
  

  Luke Anderson
  

  
  

  
  

  Ahh ok then. Sure I might be able to do it anyway!

Sound

In the lesson on Friday (12/12/14)  we were analysing the sound in the film 'Priest.' We were identifying; diegetic, non diegetic, ambient, synchronous, asynchronous, contrapuntal, dialogue and the use of silence. We analysed and identified what the sounds were and spoke about the effect that it has on the movie and what mood it puts the characters and audience in. The sound effects used in the second half of the clip that we watched helped me to identify what was happening in the film as this part had many sound effects added over the visuals while the only thing that was being filmed is the girl underneath the floorboards. All of the sounds in this clip add tension and suspense to the story. The sound helps to amplify the mood and the characters relationships with each other, while also helping to show what type of movie this is. This is very helpful to think about when organising what sounds are going to be used in the opening title sequence that I am making. I need to take into consideration what effect the sound is going to have in the OTS and how it is going to affect the audience. I also need to think about what type of sound I am going to have in this  diegetic, non diegetic, ambient, synchronous, asynchronous and contrapuntal sound. This is something that is very important to think about because if the wrong type of sound is used then this will mean that this OTS will not be of the highest quality possible. 

Plot.

Earlier today me and Harley spoke about what we were going to include in our OTS. This was a more detailed and final version of the idea that I already had and Harley had some really great ideas that are included in this. For filming we decided to use my camera and his gopro camera and to use that for more action shots rather than the scenery shots that we are gojng to include in the sequence. We also decided what the basic editing is going to be; black and white and we also decided that the credits were going to be after the viewer sees the title of the film. We decided that this was the best sequence to have it in as we are making the chase/murder scene as a flashback which is going to be in black and white as this will help to show that this is a flashback. We still need to decide on a title for the film, this is a crucial part to the OTS so we will decide this soon. 

photos unfinished

These are photographs that were taken last year for my AS Photography project about Film Noir. 

photos

fonts

annie leibovitz

ideas

Analysing Opening Title Sequences - Game Of Thrones

Game Of Thrones Opening Title Sequence

Neo Noir - Unfinished

red riding trilogy 

bound

blade runner

all opening title sequences  

- need to add blade runner 

Analysing Opening Title Sequences - The Walking Dead Unfinished

The Walking Dead Opening Titles

Location for filming

This is a slideshare that I made to think of ideas for locations,

Scenery from laurensiersmedia

Improved version of the presentation.

This is an improved version of the presentation that I done in class. I decided to improve this as I felt that the first one I done was lacking information and this wasn't a piece of high quality work.
Although this one does have a few missing parts, I think that this is better. It is missing parts as these are things that I haven't thought of yet. There will be more improved versions of this as I decide what I finally want to do. One thing that I need to add into this is the title, this is something that I still need to think of, however I have been focused more on thinking of the plot and about what is actually happening in the opening title sequence. The title is something that I need to think of as this is important.

Media presentation - Improved. from laurensiersmedia

Presentation

This is the powerpoint that I made for the presentation on December 4th 2014

Link to the slideshare presentation

Analysing Opening Title Sequences - American Horror Story: Asylum Unfinished

American Horror Story: Asylum

These are the first notes that I got after watching the opening titles to 'American Horror Story: Asylum'. 

The pace of movement is quicker in contrast to the first season, this could have been done to represent the theme and nature of the show, as this is set in a mental asylum. This OTS is also longer than the first seasons, this could be implying that this is the better season as there is more screen time for the OTS. This is following the same order as the first season, this is following a pattern