Credits

At the BFI, I learned how important credits were to actors and how much they desired to have a credit all to themselves. The visual effects person who was at the BFI study day, really emphasised how much actors demand an individual credit.

Credits are a big part of a movie. They tell the audience who has stared in the film, the director, the producer, the distributers and editors.

End credits are added to the end of a movie to list the cast and crew involved in the production. They usually appear as a list of names in small type, which either flip very quickly from page to page or move smoothly. Credits may crawl either right to left, usually in the UK, or bottom to top, more commonly in American movies. Credits that appear during an opening title sequence do not appear at the end of a movie.

Kyle Cooper

From watching this interview with Kyle Cooper, I was able to understand how important it is to have titles. In particular, its important to ensure that they are of a suitable font and size which give an impression and tone to the film. For example, in Se7en, Kyle Cooper has ensured that the text looks had written and jumpy. This is to relate to the fact that character in the sequence is a psycho, who is hand writing notes down in a journal, scratching his emotion and developing his own optical in the bath, where he is writing on the film, and is all jumpy.

The type in To Kill A Mocking Bird is very simple, as it does not hid behind objects or move in a Z-axis. The form of the horizontal type and the circular marbles makes for a good contrast, so therefore the type is integrated.

One of the key elements that I learnt was that everything is done for a reason. There are no 'mistakes' when it comes to title design. Every last detail is considered when creating the sequence, from a crack in a photo, to the hair on King Kong.

One of the films that made the biggest impression on him was 'The dead Zone' by Tom Skerritt. This was because the sequence consisted of simple typography, great music, and simple shapes, which linked the graphic design skills that he had developed earlier.

Opening Sequence Designers

There are many famous opening sequence designers, however not many are as good as Saul Bass and Kyle Cooper. They have covered a range of famous title sequences between them, like Vertigo, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Se7en, Psycho and North BY Northwest.


Saul Bass described his main goal for his title sequences as being to ‘’try to reach for a simple, visual phrase that tells you what the picture is all about and evokes the essence of the story”. He wanted the audience to see familiar parts of their world in an unfamiliar way, he called it  “making the ordinary extraordinary”. Examples of this image that he wanted to portray can be seen in Walk On The Wild Side, where an ordinary cat becomes a mysterious prowling predator. All modern opening title sequences that introduce the mood or theme of a film can be seen as a legacy of Saul Bass's work. In particular, though, title sequences for some recent movies and television series, especially those whose setting is during the 1960s, that have purposely copied the animated sequences from that era. Some examples of title sequences that relate to Bass’s graphics and animated title sequences are Catch Me If You Can and X-Men:First Class.

http://www.creativebloq.com/design/top-movie-title-sequences-10121014

BFI Study Day

During the study day to the BFI I learned many things, from learning how to analyse an opening sequence, to knowing what it takes to be a producer or visual effects worker. The first thing I was told, was how to break down an opening title sequence. To do this, you need to look at the Genre, Narrative (enigma), Character, Atmosphere and Setting of a sequence. Every opening sequence contains all of these elements, however, they usually focus on one specific element, due to their genre, plot or reputation. For example, Dawn Of The Dead is a horror film, so the opening sequence specifically highlights atmosphere, as this what makes horror films unique and stand out from other genres of film.

While I was there, I also got the chance to analyse and look at previous students films,to see what separates a level 1 opening sequence, from a level 4 opening sequence. For level 1 sequences, they showed to much of the plot, which diminshed the enigma in the film. Also there were very few, if not, no credits for producers, editors, and many othe roles used in creating a film. Furthermore the camera quality was no very good, which further lost marks. In contrast, the level 4 film had, a good quality camera, contained over 15 credits, and had suitable music. Also, the level 4 film was exactly the right length (2 minutes), and did not tell too much about the plot, which placed an enigma in the audiences head, which made it a level 4.

A visual effects producer also came in, and explained how important it is to get the visual effects right. He first explained how significant it was to get the text the right colour and size, so that it was not to distracting, but equally not so difficult to read that it does not get ignored. he then said that certain cast members get individual credits, while some smaller cast member, barely get a credit at all. He suggested that this was down to the quality of the star cast members, and that they demand a individual credit, otherwise they will not take part in the film.

He also used the phrases, 'above the line' and 'below the line'. The phrases are all about the costs that the film has to pay. 'Above the line', refers to the amount of cost it will take to get a high class, Hollywood actor on board to act in the film. 'Below the line' is used to say the cost for actually producing the film.

We were then introduced to a young producer. He explained that his job was to basically look over the whole film. He told how difficult it was to get permission to film in certain areas of London, and to get good quality actors on board, with a small budget of just £60,000,for the entire film. He also said that he had to use cash raising websites like Kickstarter, in order to get funds, along with using facilities that he could use for free, like his old school.

http://petesmediablog.blogspot.co.uk/

Film openings 1 copy from petefrasers

Film openings 2 from petefrasers

Log Lines For My Opening Title Sequence

'A police officer seeks revenge for the death of his partner, who was murdered by an infamous assassin.'

Armed and ready, a group of criminals have taken over abandoned warehouse, knowing that a group of agents are constantly on their trail.

Now or never, a group of armed criminals have to make a split second decision about whether to give up the fight or keep on running.

The log line that we have decided to use is 'A police officer seeks revenge for the death of his partner, who was murdered by an infamous assassin'. We have decided to use this because it gives us the opportunity to create a thriller opening sequence that is includes action, enigma and other conventions of thriller opening title sequences. This will thereby for fill the purpose of the sequence to be a thriller. However, it also gives us the opportunity to add a twist into the sequence, which may increase the enigma, tension and suspense that is in thriller films. The log line will also use mise en scene, to represent different social groups in the form of criminals and police officers.

Our Recreation Of The Opening Title Sequence (Memento)

Targets

There are many areas of which we could of improved during filming our preliminary task. One of these was lighting. During filming, we did not take into consideration the lighting and whether we should have made it brighter or darker, in order to of created an atmosphere or feeling towards a character.

Another aspect we could of improved on was script writing. the script that we wrote was not very clear on why the character needed to borrow the other characters phone. This therefore caused some confusion among the audience as they were thinking why does he need another phone? and  why has he given in another phone in case he does not trust him?

I feel that we could also improve the level of ICT that we have used to edit our film. This because we did not maximize the potential capability that the software (Adobe After Effects) had to offer, as we had basic knowledge of how to use to use it. 

I feel that we could also improve among the team communication among the group. This is because we did not communicate our individual ideas about the filming across very well, which could of led to some simple mistakes being corrected.