In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Key Frame 1 is of camera movement. This shot is quite slow movement as it pans up the stairs which I think is very effective in making suspense and fits in well with the thriller theme. 

Key Frame 2 is lighting. The light in this shot is red, the light in this shot is created by having red blinds shut on a very sunny day. I didn't plan using red lighting but after shooting it a few times with and without the red lighting and found that the red lighting made the shot look more dramatic. Also I think it fit's well with the blood that the opening title sequence is based around.

Key Frame 3 is framing. I really like this shot, it is my favorite shot in the opening sequence. As the shot begins it is of a fish swimming around a fish tank, it makes the audience think that the fish is important and what the shot is based around, but then it zooms out and reveals a pair of binoculars. The framing in this shot is good because it makes the binoculars appear as though they are floating. I think that this shot fits very well with the triller theme of the film, it adds a lot of suspense as the audience will then want to know why the binoculars a relevant to the rest of the film.

Key Frame 4 is transition. This shot is just a simple fade-out. I didn't use any other transitions other than fade-in and fade-out because it takes the audiences attention away from the film opening.

Key Frame 5 is typography. This shot is of the title of my film, most of the titles in my opening are actually on the shots but I felt that it would be better to put the title of the film on a black background as it is to separate the shots between david's house and holly's house. The font I used was 'bank gothic', I chose this font because I felt that it needed to be simple, easy to read, fit in with the triller genre, but I didn't want it to be boring.

Key Frame 6 is setting. This shot is just a simple house that zooms in on one of the upstairs windows. The shot of the house shows the audience that the setting is just an ordinary suburban  street. The fact that the shot then zooms in, adds tension because the audience is waiting to see what is happening inside the house.

Key Frame 7 is narrative. I chose this shot as my narrative shot because this is the first shot that shows the knife and the blood. This is the first shot that shows the audience the intense thriller theme. Before this shot the audience doesn't have a very good idea of what the film will involve.

Key Frame 8 is costumes and props. This shot shows that the main props in the opening are the knife and the blood, there are quite a few other important props in the opening but the knife and blood are the important to the rest of the film and to the triller genre. This shot shows only one piece of costume, the trousers of the girl (holly). Her trousers are just plain black. The props and costume are in this shot because I think it takes away some of the suspense to have too much going on in a shot.

Key Frame 9 is visual effects. This shot is the blood in the sink. I think that the way the blood drips and runs down the sink fits very well with the genre as it adds a lot of suspense because the audience doesn't know where the blood dripping is coming from.

...I didn't base any of shots on particular shots from other films or television shows. Although my title sequence in general has some parts, such as the zooming in on the house, which are based around the zooming in on the suburban street in the opening of american beauty. There are quite a few things about my opening that resemble the opening to american beauty, like the shot of objects that people pick up, or some feet as they are moving, or close-up of people's hands whilst doing somethings instead of showing their faces.  

How does you media product present particular social groups?

My film opening sequence represents the character group of murderers in films.

In my film, like many other, the audience has an idea about who the murder is due to the picture 

of her, but there isn't actually a shot of her face, just shots of her legs and hands. This is very similar to the murderer in the film disturbia, the audience know what her looks like but it doesn't always show his face, also in both film, to begin with, the audience doesn't know anything about the murderer, why they kill people, who the people are that they are killing. 

Having the opening sequen

ce not actually show the murderer adds a lot of suspense because you can't see if it actually is the girl from the picture that is shown in the opening, you can't see any of her other than legs and hands. In the film disturbia although it does show the murderer's face when the murdering 

starts it is the same suspense

 with not knowing what is going on.

Another similarity that the murderer in my film and the murderer in Disturbia is the type of costume, although you don't see any of my character's costume apart from her trousers, both murderers where a lot of plain and simple, black c

lothing. The colour black in the costume show 

that the characters are not very nice

 and happy people, if they were wearing bright and colourful clothing it would make the audience believe that they were nice people and not the bad guys.

Although the murderers in both mine and disturbia have many similarities, they are not really anything a like, the murderer in disturbia is a middle aged man and the murderer in my film is a teenage girl.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? How did you attract/address your audience?

This is my film opening title sequence with my Directors Commentary.

My commentary was not long enough to fill the whole of the length of the sequence so I just placed short bit of commentary in different sections of the sequence where I felt they fitted.

To make sure that whoever is watching it doesn't get bored of having nothing to listen to whilst there is no commentary, every time I stop speaking the original music plays to fill the silence.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Feedback;

'Thought that the sound went really with the footage and I don't think any of that needs changing.'

'Nice shots, some held for to long - shorten, music works well.'

'Title were well placed in the shot, but perhaps too bland, needs more interesting font.'

'Work on fonts and maybe text animation.'

The range of shots is good and they establish the scene well. The close ups are good.'

'Good cuts between shots, a bit jumpy - needs transiting, shot at the end is a bit long.'

'The scenes overall don't need editing as they are very good.'

'Good use of shot distance, zoom confusing, varied use of close/med/long etc.'

'Shots work work, like the way it zooms out of the window, get a good idea of the criteria of the film, maybe some characters, smooth movement.'

'Alot of thought put into editing, kept each shot in proportion and their timing, the 'title' was to long.'

'Happy music doesn't seem to fit to the sequence, possibly needs some more sound effects.'

'Good choice of location , houses/costume is good and fake blood/knife good for props.'

'Good use of significant objects, blood looks real.'

'Good intro, kitchen is a good scene, works well with all the blood.'

'Does it need music throughout? what effect are you trying to creative with the choice of music?'

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of construction this product?

Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Since the continuity editing task I have learnt a lot about filming and editing.
Using the skills I learnt from doing the continuity task it help me a lot when filming and editing my film opening sequence, it help me in particular when filming and editing a shot from my sequence that begins with a sho

t of the murderer holding a knife from the side, then cuts to a shot of she holding the knife from a different angle. When filming I almost made a continuity error and had the girl hold the knife differently in the second shot, but thanks to what I le

arnt in the preliminary task I manage to correct the mistake before filming it.
That shot was the only shot that needed the skills I learnt from the continuity task, because it was the only shot that needed 'match on action' the rest of my shot are a montage of different zoom-in, zoom-out and pan shots that do not fit together with 'match on action'. There is also no shots that involve breaking other filming rules that we learnt in the continuity task, like 180 degree rule.

 

Invoice Audit

The things that people invoiced me for when they helped me have shown me that the main technical skills that I need to work on are;

- Photoshop

- After effects

- Garageband

I am not very good on how to use these programs, I can do the basics but when it comes to more complexed things I have to ask for a lot of help which is why I have more people invoice me that the amount of times I invoice other people. For my next project I will need to get more confident in using photoshop, garageband and after effects.

I have only use the invoices with six different people, three people invoiced me and I invoiced three people. During my next project I am going to try and invoice a lot more people and be invoiced a lot more. In my next project I am going to try and not just use the invoice system with more people than; matt mike, philippa, dave, alex and kirk.

Information Clouds

People I have helped

People that helped me

Although there are only three people in each box, what I have noticed from doing this task is that I did not help any of the same people that helped me. I also received more people than I gave out. I organised these box as though the names are on a sort of podium, the best comments and advice are in the middle at the top, the next best is lower down at the right and the least good comments and advice are lowest down on the left.

Evaluations

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

My film opening in many ways has stuck to conventional opening title sequences; it shows the difference between the two characters and gives you detail about what the rest of the film involves without giving away the total plot of the film. Although like many other film opening is does not introduce the audience to any characters. My film opening is a thriller film, but it does not involve the type of music that you would expect to be in a thrillers opening title sequence, it uses music that in a way can be seen as happy.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My film opening in a way represents the social groups of teenagers, although the film is about a murderer, it is also about a teenage boy who falls in love with a girl and doesn't really know what to do about his feelings, a struggles with that fact that she does not have feelings for him.

This film is mainly based for a teenage audience, but also may appeal to some adult audience.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Companies that would be interested in a thriller based for teenage - adult audiences, that is farely low budget.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
teenagers and possibly some adults.

How did you attract/address your audience?
...

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt a lot about how a film opening is construted and what they must involved to be; interesting, let the audience know something about what the film will involve but not to much information that they can guess the rest of the film. Also I have learnt how to make an opening title sequence not look like a movie trailer.

Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

I have learnt a lot since we shot the continuity task, in the continuity task we made quite a few errors of continuity. But in shooting my film opening I had learnt that I did not make the same mistakes. There was one part of my film opening that I was shooting that there is a shot of the girl holding the knife in her right hand and when I shot the next shot of her holding the knife, I nearly made the mistake of her holding the knife in her left hand but through using my knowledge from the continuity task I realised it before filming a shot with continuity errors. The continuity help me in many was when making my film opening as it taught me a lot about error that are easily made in filming.

Shooting my film

The filming to my film's opening title sequence when very well.

I got all of the footage that I need within 2 afternoons of filming.

I would have manage to shoot it all in one day, but I left it too long in the first afternoon that it began to get quite dark outside, and I was using the sun as the lighting in my film.

Day one of filming...

In the first day of filming I shot all of the shots that involved the fake blood, I thought that getting all of these shot done first would be more practical because these would take a lot more time and preparation than the others. The shooting took quite a lot longer than I had intended it to, because I shot many of the shots several times to make sure that I had enough footage if some the footage didn't look as good as I had hope. This taking so long meant that I had to shoot the rest of the shots the next day.

Day two of filming...

In my second day of shooting I got the rest of the footage that I need for my title sequence, in the second day I shot all of the footage of david's bedroom and of the houses. I managed to shot all of these shots a lot faster than the ones from the day before, as these shots did not take as much time to preprate and tidy away, and also I didn't have to take a lot of time redoing thing such as the fake blood.

The shot that took the longest to get right, and that I had to film a lot of times was the shot of the fish, I need the fish to swim in and out of the shot, but obviously you can not make a fish take instructions so I had to film a lot of the fish and wait until the fish did what I wanted it to.

Overall I feel that my shooting went very well, I got all of the shots that I needed and did it quite quickly and easily!

FINAL SEQUENCE

This is my final version on my film's opening title sequence.

I am very happy with how my final sequence has turned out, although there were a few things that still could have been made better with a little more time. If I had another lesson to finish my film sequence I would probably try out adding some animation to the text so that it does not just fade-in and fade-out. However even without text animation I still like how my opening sequence is and it has, in many ways, turned out exactly the way I had planned!

Changes

I have taken the advice that people gave me in there comments and have realised what I need to change in my film opening sequence.

- change font        (i am thinking about using 'Bank Gothic')

- possible animatic fonts (am not too sure)

- shorten last shot

- shorten 'Title'

- change my names to other peoples names

...a few of the comment said that they think I should re-think the music in my film opening, but I have decided to keep it, I like that it creates and contrast of emotion (happy music, horror scene) and in a way I think it fit with my film very well.

Rough Cut

This is the rough cut of my film opening sequence.

I really like how my film opening is turning out, although there are still a few parts of the film and a few title that I feel I may change.

I am really glad that so far I have gotten the video to match the length of the piece of music playing.

Also I'm glad that it is around two minutes long, because when I was planning and filming I was worried that it wouldn't be enough to last the whole two minutes.

New title list

Sexual Llama Productions
An Alie Faulkner Film
Barry Faulkner
Leni Einerman
Nichole Shipp, Charlotte Nobbs
Amy Taylor, Natalie Biscoe
Craig Griffiths, James Young
TITLE
Casting by Natalie Nicoll
Costume design by Hannah Howell
Editor - Natalie Nicoll, Director of Photography - Natalie Nicoll
Co-producers - Holly Myhill & Lisa Nicoll
Executive Producer - Natalie Nicoll
Directed by Natalie Nicoll


The main changes to my title list is that I change the two main actors names from; david nicoll & holly myhill, to; barry faulkner & leni einerman.
.....the reason that I change them is because holly and david and the names of the character as well as the actors, and in my opening sequence it makes it very clear what the characters names are.

Three Tips

Three tips for myself when doing my next project;

1- Plan the project better, and be very sure of my idea so that I don't change my idea like I did this time.

2- Make sure that I shot everything several times so that I have options of which ones is the best.

3- Make sure that I have good lighting, because during this project I waited to long to film things and it had gotten to dark to film so I had to wait until the next day.

My Picture

Me, my mum and my sister working out and testing ways to make the fake blood drip off of objects or down things. This was good because we came up with a lot of good ideas and filmed them and I am going to use them in my film opening. This was also a lot of fun, covering the majority of my kitchen and kitchen objects in fake blood (red food colouring.)

Risks when filming

The main risks while filming my opening sequence;
- Breaking or dropping my camera or tripod.
- Tripping down the stairs whilst filming on the stairs.
- Staining object that I put fake blood on.
- Stabbing myself in the foot whilst dropping the knife onto the floor.

Ways of lowering risks;
- be very careful when moving camera around.
- be sensible and causious when moving around on stairs.
- only use the fake blood on un-important objects or unstainable objects.
- make sure that I am aware of where my feet are when dropping the knife and drop it very carefully.

The Music

For my film opening sequence I will be using the same piece of music that I used for my moodboard and both of my animatics.
It a piece of music from Garageband called; Jaracanda.

New Animatic

This is the animatic of the new storyboard to my opening sequence.

New Costume

As the only part of mine and charlotte's bodies that will be seen are legs and hands;

the only costume we will need is a pair of black trousers

we will also where short sleeve t-shirt so that they will not be seen

and we will not be wearing any shoes

New Cast

Although the story is still the same, and the picture in the sequence is of Holly and David, because there is no shots of David and only hands and legs of Holly, me and my sister Charlotte Nobbs will be playing Holly's hands and legs.

...this is me and charlotte.

New prop list

Props
- fish tank/ fish
- bonoculas
- tap/ sink/ water
- fake blood (red food colouring)
- chair
- bed
- pictures
- bedroom door sign
- knife

New Location

The locations I will be using for my new sequence are;

- my house 

- my neighbour, james', house 

These are some of the same locations as my first idea.

New Shot List

1. Pan - up stairs to the door (zoom in)
2. Close up - of sign on bedroom door
3. Close up - picture collage (zoom in)
4. Extreme close up - picture of holly and david
5. Close up - fish tank (zoom out)
6. Mid shot - fish tank and bonoculas
7. Mid shot - bonoculas hanging on the wall below window (zoom in)
8. Extreme close up - window blinds (from inside)
9. Extreme close up - window blinds (from outside) (zoom out)
10. Long shot - david's house
11. Long shot - holly's house (zoom in)
12. Close up - holly's window
13. Mid shot - holly sitting on chair drops bloody knife onto floor, walks away
14. Mid shot - holly's feet walking
15. Close up - sink with blood in it
16. Mid shot - holly's hands, washing blood off
17. Mid shot - blood dripping down cupboards (zoom in)
18. Extreme close up - blood dripping

New Film Opening

I have changed my opening title sequence, my film opening is still based on the same story and characters as my first idea but I have changed my sequence.
I thought that my first opening sequence was not a very strong idea and gave away to much of the story.
In my new idea it leaves a lot of unanswered questions that the first idea gave away;
- how well do they actually know each other
- do he know what she's doing
- does she know that he's watching her
Also this leaves the characters a mystery, it shows you them in a picture but you don't see any of david and you only see holly's hands and legs.

Location

For my opening sequence I am using 4 basic locations;

...my house (the boys house, where he walk into and where he watches the girl from)

...the street I live on (as the boy is walking)

...a street in sutton (as the boy is walking)

...my neighbours yard (when the girl is burying the trash bag)

Major Issue 1

One of my main major issues was that I did not have any idea what to use as fake blood in my opening sequence. In order to over-come this issue I decided to try a few different things that could look like blood, and see which is the best looking. I have now decided that I am going to use red food-colouring. I experimented with how red food-colouring looked on different objects, to see if it looked believable as blood. I also filmed the food-colouring to test and see if it looks as convincing, as blood, on video as it did in real life. I discovered that red food-colouring looks good on film and that it is my best option for using fake blood.

Now that I know what I am using for my fake blood, I have completely over-come Major Issue 1.

HD Continuity Task

This the continuity video that me, ash and joe made, and I edited.

As we were using the new HD video cameras we were not completely sure how to work everything, due to our lake of knowledge about this camera we did not record any sound, which is why the continuity video has no audio.

Costume

The costume in my opening sequence is very simple

David...school uniform (black trousers, white top with blue jumper over it)

Holly...jeans and a t-shirt

Props

Bonoculas

Backpack

Trash Bag

Shovel

Fake Blood

House Keys

Picture of the two characters together (in frame)

...this is the picture I am going to use for the frame.

Cast

This is David, he is going to be playing the main role of the boy in my opening sequence.

This is Holly, she will be playing the role of the girl that david is watching through his window.

Title Order

Long Road

Sexual Llama Productions

An Alie Faulkner Film

David Nicoll

Holly Myhill

Nichole Shipp, Matt leonowicz

Amy Taylor, Natalie Biscoe

James Young, Tara Cox

TITLE

Casting by Natalie Nicoll, Costume design by Hannah Howell

Editor - Natalie Nicoll, Director of Photography - Natalie Nicoll

Co-producers - Holly Myhill & Lisa Nicoll

Executive Producer - Natalie Nicoll

Directed by Natalie Nicoll

Shot List

Shot 1 - Mid shot (boy walking out of school)
Shot 2 - Long shot (boy walking down pathway)
Shot 3 - Long shot (boy walking from behind)
Shot 4 - Mid shot (boy turning a corner)
Shot 5 - Tracking (boy walking)
Shot 6 - Tracking/Mid shot (boy walks over to talk to girl)
Shot 7 - Close-up/over shoulder (conversation, girl)
Shot 8 - Close-up/over shoulder (conversation, boy)
Shot 9 - Close-up/over shoulder (conversation, girl)
Shot 10 - Over shoulder (boy walking to front door)
Shot 11 - Mid shot (boy opening down)
Shot 12 - Mid shot (boy walking through the front door, from inside the house)
Shot 13 - Long shot (boy walking up stairs)
Shot 14 - Mid shot (boy opening bedroom door)
Shot 15 - Mid shot (boy walking into bedroom, from inside the room)
Shot 16 - Close-up (of backpack being placed next to a picture and bonoculas)
Shot 17 - Mid shot (boy walks over to get bonoculas then back over to the window)
Shot 18 - Close-up (boy from the side, looking through bonoculas)
Shot 19 - Long shot (girl in her garden with a trash bag and a shovel)
Shot 20 - Close-up (boy from front looking through bonoculas, looking freaked out)
Shot 21 - Close-up (trash bag dripping blood)

Major Issue 3

Having to make the walk from college to my house, which are nowhere near each other, look as though they were walking distance apart.
I have to make the location, that my character will walk, look like they fit together other wise it will make the film look very ametuer. In order to work passed this issue, i will need to find location that look similar, and possibly have my character turn a few corners so that the changing of street looks as though that is how the street actually is.

Major Issue 2

Not being able to use my neighbour's yard.
Not being able to use it would mean that I can not shoot the shot of the girl in the yard the way I have planned, this would ruin the most of the point to the opening sequence, as there would be nothing to indicate the direction the film is taking. I have spoken to my neighbour about it and he says that it is okay to use it, but if there is suddenly a change of plan I will need a back-up location. I will ask other people if I can use their yard, as a back-up, in case I can not use my original location.

Major Issue 1

Not knowing how to make, real-looking, fake blood.
The blood is very important to the opening sequence of the film because without real-looking fake blood coming out of the trash bag then it doesn't indicate that there is anything un-ordinary about the the bag. To make the fake blood I am going to need to experiment with different things such as; ketchup, food colouring and fake blood. My friends can help me with the experiments.

NUISANCES/MINOR CONCERNS/MAJOR ISSUES

NUISANCES
...Getting Permission to use david in my film opening
...I don't have any Bonoculas

MINOR CONCERNS
...Loud dogs barking while shooting
...The performance of the actors
...The location wont look as good as I have planned
...Wont be 2 minutes
...Not being good at using camera

MAJOR ISSUES
...Don't know how to make, real-looking, fake blood
...Neighbour may not let me use his yard to film in
...Making the walk from college to home look like the roads and alleys join up

ANIMATIC

This is my animatic of my storyboard, I think that it reflects what I am going to film quite well. Although there are parts of it that I am probably going to change when making my actual film opening sequence and main part that I am going to change is where the film title is, in this animatic the title is not in a very interesting part of the sequence and when I make the actual opening I will put it in and more important and interesting part.

Production Logo

my production company logo.
SEXUAL LLAMA PRODUCTIONS

3 shots of storyboard

9 key shots

Mood-Board

This is my mood-board for my film opening sequence. 

The pictures at the beginning of the mood-board are picture of film in which my film is based around. It then shows two pictures of random streets that look like the kind of street I will be looking for to film my opening. 

The majority of pictures I used for my mood-board are used mainly to show that the character in my film is a boy who is very bored and lonely. The are quite a few picture that are also used to show that the movie involves a window and that there is a scary twist.

The music I used is music off of garageband called 'Jaracanda', I really like this piece of music and think it goes well with the pictures and the theme of the film opening.

ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS FOR A SUCCESSFUL OPENING SEQUENCE

-eye-catching

-name of film near beginning of the sequence

-institutional detail - distribution/production company (studio), named jobs/actor (convetions of order)

-show off production values

-taste of the rest of the film/makes you want to watch

-good soundtrack, relating to film

-don't let it drag out

-don't introduce too many characters/too much story

-'unique' storyline

-build-up (tension/mystery)/audience want to know

-introduce character or location or theme/story or mood or ALL

-title (minimalist or 'logo' style ) - appropriate to the film

-title sequence reflecting the film

Comparative Analysis - Brief 3

SON OF RAMBOW & RUSHMORE

Son of Rambow and Rushmore have two very different types of opening sequences, although both films are based around the theme of young protagonist.

The opening sequence to Son of Rambow is very fast paced, therefore this immediately gives the audience the sense that it is an up-beat film with quite a lot of action. The opening sequence is also used to show the differences between both boys in the film; one of the boys seems very shy and religious, the other is illegally filming in a cinema and smoking, this indicates that the boys are complete opposites. Another thing that makes this opening sequence more action filled is the fact that the film that the boy is recording in the cinema, this could possibly have some significants to the duration of the film.

Rushmore's opening sequence is the complete opposite to Son of Rambow, it is a lot slower tempo and does not have hardly any action. Instead of a lot of quick cuts and several settings, this has only one location and not a lot of shot variations. This opening sequence also has no music which makes it appear less intense than Son of Rambow. During the beginning of this sequence it shows the young protagonist to be a very brainy and intellectual student, but then you find out that it was just a dream, this makes the audience want to continue watching to find out why he had this dream and if he is actually as smart as he appears to be in his dream.

Although both of the opening title sequences seem to be quite different, they both show a lot of similarities; both show the differences between two characters, Son of Rambow being the difference between both boys and Rushmore shows the difference between the boy in his dream and in real life. Another similarity is that neither of these opening title sequence have titles showing the names of the actors, directors etc. they both just show the names of the companies who made the films.

RUSHMORE


Credits
-Touchstone Pictures
-An American Imperical Picture




SON OF RAMBOW
Credits
-Paramount Vantage
-Celluloid Dreams Productions
-Good
-Arte France Cinema
-Network Movie
-Soficinema 2 & 3
-Hammer & Tongs Film

Brief Feedback

Matt

...likes the unexpected plot in brief three. it was nice.

Alex

...popular ideas in brief one & two.

Mike

...like two & three, thinks three is the best. brief 1 will be to difficult with the lightning.

James

...likes brief two

Tim

...likes brief one

Brief 1
A ordinary man is struck by lightning on the way home from work, he then discovers that he now has the power to control everything electrical.
(I'm not really sure what else happens yet.)


Brief 2
A teenage girl, sharing her body with the spirit of a dead teenage girl. The girl has no control over when the spirit takes over her body, but the spirit can only use her body for short periods of time. The girl must stop the spirit from finding true love, if she doesn't the spirit takes complete control of her body.


Brief 3
A young boy sees the man who has committing a lot of robberies in his town, the young boy gets together a team of kids from the town to try and catch him. They have a lot of adventures and discover true friendship.


Brief 4
I have not got an idea for brief 4 yet.

Practice footage opening sequence.

Using some practice footage & music i created an opening title sequence to a film. I did not finish putting on all of the titles.

llama long road logo

I animated the Long Road Logo using After Effects.

Unsound Mind. Thriller opening sequence.

I really like unsound mind because they used a lot of good effects and made it appear very abstract. I also really like that the whole video is in black and white.
I think that having the title not be on the video parts of the sequence is a good idea, having the white titles on and almost all black background makes them stand out a lot more. Also if the titles were to have been on the video it would have distracted the audience away from it. I really also like the effect they chose to have the videos more off screen with, it fits in very well with the abstract feel of the video.
What I liked most about this video is that it makes the audience want to what more, to find out why its very abstract and how all these video clips link up with each other.

S2-55

I think that they could have done quite a bit more planning and research. They didn't really do a lot of research about the genre of thrillers or thillers title sequences. They also only spoke about one thriller open sequence on their blog, they could have put several and compared them.
Some parts of their planning were good such as they put everything thing like props into a list. Although things like mise en scene and location they wrote lists but didn't go into enough detail, that could have explained why they had chosen that things and places that chose.
The actually video I thought was good, although not very original, some parts of the video seemed to be a lot like the opening title sequence from the movie 'seven', which is the video that they chose to write about as an opening title sequence that they liked. There storyboard was not very well drawn, but they appear to have stuck to the storyboard, all of their shot resemble the storyboard very well.

Disney Pictures & Pixar Logo

The main layer of this logo is the castle in the centre of it. This castle is

 the outline of the structure of Disney's castle at Disneyland and Disney World theme parks.
Another main layer is the text saying 'Walt Disney Pictures'. Both the picture and the text seem to be designed to relate with the young target audience. The background layer is just plain blue which works well with the white as it makes the picture and writing stand out.

The Pixar logo is just a plain bluey/grey background with the words 'Pixar Animation Studios' but instead of the 'i' in Pixar it is the lamp from Pixar's second short film 'Luxo Jr.' which involves two of those lamps.

Walt Disney Pictures & Pixar Animation Studios

WALT DISNEY PICTURES

Walt Disney Pictures refers to several entities associated with The Walt Disney Company; 'Walt Disney Pictures' was established in 1983, prior to that they were named under a parent company then named 'Walt Disney Productions' . 'Touchstone Pictures' was created by Disney in 1984 to enable Disney to release more mature films than the regular content associated with Disney. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studio Entertainment and the main production company for live-action

 feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group. Animated features produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, and DisneyToon Studios are usually released by Walt Disney Pictures.

Walt Disney Pictures has hundreds of films dating back to the 1930s.
In 2008 alone Walt Disney Pictures released 11 films including;
College Road TripThe Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
WALL-E
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
Morning Light
High School Musical 3
Roadside Romeo
Bolt
Bedtime Stories

PIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS

Pixar Animation Studios is a CGI animation production company. Pixar began in 1979 and To date, the studio has earned twenty-one Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, and one Grammy, among many other awards, acknowledgments and achievements. It is best known for its CGI-animated feature films which are created with PhotoRealistic RenderMan

All of Pixar's feature films;
Toy Story
A Bug's Life
Toy Story 2
Monsters, Inc.
Finding Nemo
The Incredibles
Cars
Ratatouille
WALL-E
...as well as these Pixar have many short films.

The Walt Disney Company bought Pixar in 2006 through an all-stock transaction worth US$7.4 billion.

Monsters, Inc. Opening Sequence.

I find the opening title sequence to Monsters Inc very interesting.
I think the title sequence relates very well with the movie and help establish themes from the movie. The sequence begins with a lot of shapes which moves around to form a door, the door open and it is the inside of a closet, the second time the door is opened there is the inside of a monsters mouth. Immediatly this shows that the movie is based around monsters and closet doors. The sequence then continues along the lines of monsters and door.
The music in this opening sequence fits well, it is very upbeat jazz, which goes well with the speed of the sequence.
The sequence is very colourful and has interesting, easy to read fonts, which goes well with the sequence as it is an animation with children as its main audience.

Continuity Task

Continuity Task by Me, Tara & Matt.

We did a continuity task, where we had to have a person walking in a room and have a conversation with another person. We chose to have Matt walk into a room and talk to Tara about borrowing her phone to ring his mum.

The opening sequence of Life on Mars opens with a shot of Sam Tyler leaning through the window of a car, as he stands up, he is hit by a very fast paced car. This shot is very fast and bearly last for a second, it is quite hard to see the car that hits Sam, it is clear that Sam is going to be badly injured due to the speed of the vehicle. During this shot the dialogue begins with 'My name is Sam Tyler' which shows the audience that this is the main character and establishes that his name is Sam Tyler.

The next shot is of Sam Tyler laying in the road. The camera in this shot is positioned in a mid shot, but in a way that it almost looks as through the audience is laying next to him on the road. This then quickly cuts to a close up of Sam laying in the same place, and he doesn't appear to be conscious. The camera is still in the position on the floor beside Sam.

The shot that comes next is of Sam's reflection in the back of a car's side mirror. The reason he may be looking into the mirror is to check that he okay, and see if her has and visible injuries. This shot then cuts to Sam walking down the street, he seems very confused by the fact that the people, cars and buildings look as though they are from the past. The fact that he is confused is reinforced when the dialogue says 'am i mad'.

There is then a shot of Sam entering an office. Followed by a shot of his point of view, of him panning the office as if he were looking for something. During these shots the other people in the shots are all staring at him as if doesn't belong there, it shows that he is an outside.

The next shot is of Sam outside walking towards buildings. The camera is looking up at Sam and spins around as he walks closer to the bulidings, he looks around and walks as though he is still very confused about what is happening. This is when the main part of the opening sequence begins.

This next part begins zooming out on blocks of Sam's eyes and close ups of Sam as he gets up off the ground, he seems very confused in this. Across these blocks are the words 'life on' and dates that keep changing until it stops on '1973' the start away turns into 'mars', finally saying 'life on mars'. This then changes to Sam standing off of a bed and then him showing his police bag. Whilst these are playing there are still blocks of Sam getting up and his eyes around the botton and left side of the video.

The next shot is of Philip Glenister, he is smoking, this appears to be very calm and relax but then it cuts to a shot. that is at more fast pace and action filled, of Philip blocking Sam from punching him. This shows that he is not as calm as the shot before had shown, but he is a very strong and tough character.

The next shot is of a a car skidding, the car reinforces the year they are in as it is obviously a car from the 1970s. It the cuts to the shot that introduces 'Liz White', as the car skids she turns and looks to see the car. After that shot, it cuts to a shot introducing 'Dean Andrews', he is holding someone's head back and then holding up a gun whilst wearing a ski mask, he appears to be the toughest character so far.

The next character introduced is 'Marshall Lancaster', he seems to be a quite relax and calm character, the shot of him are just him speaking with other people. This indicates that he does not get involved with as much action as the other characters.

The next shots are a tracking shot and a shot from behind of Sam and Philip walking a prisoner down a hallway, the fact that the prisoner has handcuff on and is being leaded by Sam and Philip shows that they have a lot of control over him.

After these there is a pan shot of most of the characters standing in a circle, loading guns, this shows that they get involved in a lot of action. This followed by a shot of Sam and Liz standing next to one another, they both look like they are concentrating on something.

Next is a close up of Sam sitting in the passenger sit of a car that is moving very fast, he look very worried about the speed of the car and is holding on to be safe. It then cuts to a close up shot of Philip driving the car, this shows Philip to be quite laid back as he is driving whilst holding a burger in his mouth. Next is a long shot of the outside of the car as it skids in a circle, this is another thing that reinforces the year, as it is a car that looks like its from the 70s.

The next shot is of four of the character walking in a line. Which then very quickly cuts to a shot of Sam and Philip, both, punching a guy in the face, the shot is from behind Sam and Philip. The man falls to the floor and it cuts to the final shot, which is, a mid shot of Sam and Philip as they stand with two other people and watch the man on floor. This shows that Sam and Philip work as a team because they worked together when punching the man.

Lego tags

After watching some popular lego animations, the most common tags of all the videos are;

lego

animation

stopmotion

stop

motion

short

film

funny

toys

...these tags appear on most of the popular lego animation films on youtube.

I think to get a lot traffic to our video we should use tags like;

lego, animation, stopmotion, life, on, mars, tv, drama, opening, sequence, toys.

These are good tags because they are most of the words that someone is likely to search in order to find a video like ours.

LIFE ON MARS


Me, Tara, Matt and Kirk are doing the opening sequence from life on mars. I think that this is a very good opening sequence but seems like it will be quite difficult.
We may have quite a few problems such as; trying to find the correct lego, and also we are going to find it very difficult to recreate the background of the opening sequence.
I think that we will find ways around these problems though.

coverage & cut aways

COVERAGE
coverage when shooting a scene is the amount of different shot and angles used when filming a scene. it is important to have a lot of coverage for a scene, because if gives the editor more footage to work with, and gives the editor a wider range of shots to use when putting the final scene together.

CUT AWAYS
cutaways are shots not of the main action in the scene, but a view of an object or location. cutaways are often used mainly to add length to a scene. cutaways also help to show setting or surroundings of the scene main action.

hello Alie