Finished

Haven't written here in ages.

We filmed some footage at Canary Wharf a few days after Christmas. When school started we uploaded all the footage on a mac. We then went out a few days after we got back to Bexleyheath Broadway. We then uploaded this on the mas and got started.

When we first tried making a sequence we couldn't decide what would work and where. We then decieded to use Final Cut Pro. Using this was harder then usiing iMovie but it made the work seem a better standard. This complicated it alot.

First everytime we edited something we had to render it which took six minutes. This took a lot of time up that we didn't have. Once we rendered everything we had to then make a sequence.

We decided when we made our group we wanted two scenes on top of each other which when sped up and overlapped, looked like people running around making the area look busy. We took almost two weeks making this scene and when we tried adding it later on it wouldn't fit in with the music. So we had to scrap that idea.

Joe then made some music to use in our sequence, which when we added to our sequence, didn't work. So back to the drawing board.

We then started it again, and when we started putting things into place it started to work. 9 hours in the mac room (and many arguments) later, we had a finished openning title sequence about the economic downturn (named Canary).

We have an evaluation on Monday and when this has been 'crit' I shall write up an evaluation.

Aplogies.

Guys sorry haven't been in media recently. Been catching up with other stuff. Coming tommorrow to get work i missed to do. If any of u two can meet me tommorrow then i can start looking at what you have done and say what I think. Cheers.

Ideas.

When our group met on Monday we spoke about the different genres we could use. After discussing ideas for different genres and thinking up some basic ideas for them we all agreed that a "Documentry" film based around the recent credit crunch would be a good idea, and how the credit crunch has changed the economy previous during depressions in england (1985 for exaple) and so on. Once our whole group agreed on this we did a mind map of our basic ideas.
After doing this we spoke about some idea we could put in the title sequence. We decided it might be good to use some real footage (news reports e.t.c). When we started researching this Nina told use we couldn't use this because it has to be a "Fiction" film. So we thought about this and decided we could find a loophole (which we did). This is not so much a ma jor problem, it just means we will have to put more stuff into it and make ir more action-like or maybe drama.
We are now researching things that could be put into a title sequence and when we next meet, we will throw these ideas together and hopefully story board our basic production.

Bass on Titles.

For our title sequence we decided to look at "Saul Bass on Lines".
In this documentray he talks about how he effectivly used different title sequences for different films. Here is the documentray.

Some of his most famout title sequences are;

North by NorthWest (1959)

Psycho (1960)

And Alien.


After watching "Saul Bass on Titles" I feel I now know what is involved to create an effective title sequence. Saul Bass' most famous openings were with the use of lindes. He used simple lines in jis openings to create a more anticipated feel to his work.
It wasn't just lines he used though.
In "The man with the Golden Arm" he uses a bent arm. This is used to represent drug addidction which was inspoken of in the 50's. In Walk on the Wild Side" he uses a black cat. He said he used a cat becuase we see them so often, we stop seeing them. He wanted to bring the cat back into our eyes. Also in "Grand Prix" he uses a time before the race. The opening title sequence is used to introduce the movie and is a introduction to the film.

Saul started off as a graphic designer slowly working his way up into title sequences and finally fims. He said that his time working in graphic designing helped him with his work. Also Saul worked with a lot of animation such as "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad world". In this there is an animation of an egg, with different and completly rando things happening to it. Always in Saul's films, the opening title sequence brings the mood of the film and the drama of the film right into the opening title sequence.
Also he managed to use real life titles and animation to the best he could. What he alos said was that during the end of his title sequences, he used them to finish of the film. He put the end of the film with the titles so that people could "compose themselves before the lights came up". Also this did more then he expected. He changed the titles for just titles into something different.
For the time period, Saul's technology was way ahead of everyone else. In "Vertigo" he uses a pattern of different colored swirls, which would have been brilliant in those times.

Overall I think what Saul managed was brillinat and he has inspired so many titles for today and today's films, that he memory and what he did may last many years.

Wow, Blogger of the Week award...

Cheers Nina, but what does dubious mean?
Hehe, do you mean the name of my blog? Joe told me to use it. Blame him. Lol.
Urm... so I will be getting onto YouTube later today/tonight as we have a man coming round to sort out my dodgy internet connection so I will be doing the Saul Bass essay when it's fixed.
I managed to "legally" download Alien, Psycho and North by Northwest. I will watch these opening title sequences and post the videos and my comments/feelings up here.
Looked further into what type of film we should make and we still haven't decided what type it should be. Everybody seems to be doing a thriller and I think that we should do something different. Maybe a comedy or something like that. As I said before I will post my research/ideas on here when we/I have looked further into them. Going to talk with Joe and Ross todaya so we can discuss this further.
http://blogger-frog-blog2.blogspot.com/ This is Joe's Blog. He has some useful information to help with the project.
And so he doesn't feel left out... here's Ross' blog too.
http://just-another-blog-again.blogspot.com/

The Creative Works of Saul Bass

I can't get YouTube to work at the moment so I popped over to the library. I found a book called "OCR Media Studies for AS". This does not contain much on title sequences but it does contain this article.

" Some of the most memorable film scenes are opening/titlesequences. Some famous examples from different genres are:
Once upon a Time in the West ( in which a diegetic sound is amplified with a total lack of dialouge to to create audience anticipation),

Bond Films ( the Bond opening sequence has becoms a recurring motif; an established convention expected by the audience),

Goodfellas ( in which we hear the lead character narrate 'ever since i can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster', thus situating us firmly in the mind of the anti-hero for the duration of the film),

City of God ( in which music, fast edits and clever narrative techniques introduce two inter-connected storylines and take the audience back twenty years in the process a strategy shared with 'The Goodfelas')

This list could go on for the rest of the book and all the examples would contrast with one another as there is no fixed approach to an opening sequence. Your sequence does, however, need to observe the one rule that every example follows, your job is to establish character and/or setting to create an enigma - to help the audience understand easily where we are, who is invloved, but fundamentally, why we should be interested. It is likely that the time and resources to you will determine a fairly economical approach to this. Bond-style stunts and explosions are unlikely."

This shows me that there is no set example on how to use an opening title sequence and there is no set way it has to be done. All that has to be included is where the locaation of the film is taking place, the characters involved and to help and ivlolve the audience straight away. Also it is inlikely to make a brilliant sequence as of the cost, but we can make a good sequence with the equipment we have and the money we have.

Edit.

Still can't get YouTube to work. Trying to get down to Welling/Bexleyheath Library to use them.

The Brief.

Made a blog. My name is Adam (duh!). In my group I am working with Joe Smith and Ross Wood.






This is my continuty piece. This is a basic piece using different camera angles and shots to show the fact that the student is lower down where as the teacher is higher up.



In our group we have yet to discuss the type of genre for our opening title sequence.

I will have a look at different types of films and post what i have found.

Edit.
Looked at a few openings for some films. I looked at Kill Bill Vol.1

This film is a little confusing at first as it uses "Bang Bang" as it's opening song. This gives off the complete wrong idea as Kill Bill as a fast paced, action film. The opening credits are very slow paced and therefore gives us the wrong impression. This is a very good idea as it makes the audience want to watch straight away.




I then looked at Casino Royale

I think this has a brilliant opening credits.
The title sequence is animated which makes it more fun to watch as anything could happen. The song flows perfectly with the song and gives it the perfect effect of anticipation and anxiousness.
This invited the audience in allows them to open up to the film and accept it.





I also looked at Shaun of the Dead.

I'm not sure about this opening title sequence. It's animated but the song doesn't go very well with the sequence and it doesn't have a good flow.

Looking at these, I think a good title sequence contains three good elements. A decent soundtrack that accompany the titles and are in beat with it, a decent use of using the tiles to mkae it more interesting and less basic and a good background. If these three idead are incorporated then I think that there is the base for a very good title sequence