Real Opening credits:

Below are examples of films which have their opening credits like ours, creating an atmosphere of suspense and anticipation for the film, helped by the main soundtrack...

BLADE RUNNER:
YOUTUBE LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbWNZkoQHuE
(unfortunately the embed option for the video has been disabled, so I will post some screenshots instead.)

Fonts

After looking through many different fonts on the website "http://www.dafont.com", we have decided on a certain font named seebreeze. We were looking for a plain simple font that wouldnt look too amateur. We felt this font fit perfectly so it was downloaded.

We'd also like to wish Tom A a happy birthday today!

Titles - Order

We weren't really sure about the order that the titles come in. 

In the Watchmen opening sequence, this the order. We plan to loosely copy the order, but we will not include some of them. The video could not be embedded, but here is the URL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=573XmVOdD2Q

• Distributors
• Local distributors
• Producer
• Director
• Watchmen
• All the actors
• Casting
• Visual effects
• Costume
• Music
• Co-producer
• Editor
• Production designer
• Director of photography
• Executive producers
• The novel, marvel comics etc
• Screenplay
• The director again

MUSIC RESEARCH:

Below I have embeded two different videos:


-The first is by composer Sean Callery, whom I admire for his work on the US drama 24. This track, from the 24 soundtrack, is a briliant and inspiring example of a suspense filled idea.


-The second is a track from the hit video game COD Modern Warfare 2. Hans Zimmer, the composer of this particular work, is one of my favourite composers/sound designers, having produced the music for films ranging from Madagascar to The Dark Night. This extract (skip to 2:20-2:45) is a great example of fast paced action music. I really like its focus on percussive timbres and the electronic/techno-style soundscape created.   



(Skip to 2:20-2:45)

This is a chase scene from the film 'District B13'

This is very cimilar to the style we are trying to achieve with our film. The use of certain shots we may attempt to mimic. The fast paced editing is also a big factor in what we are hoping to get into our test shoot. 

The colour scheme of the urban environment is directly related our film because the setting of ours will be similar. From this I can see that even in a dirty looking environment an epic chase scene can still be created.

Continuity Editing Techniques

Continuity editing refers to a set of rules that all fimmakers stick to. It allows the images to be stuck together to create a seamless narrative. We must also be thinking about these rules when we come to make our sequences.

180 degree rule

The 180 degree rule refers to an imaginary line which cuts through the middle of the scene, for example though the two main characters. The camera must stay on the same side of this line for the entire scene, otherwise the viewers perspective is changed, which may result in diorientation or confusion.

30 degree rule

This rule says that the camera should move at least 30 degrees when cutting between two shots of the same person or object to avoid a jump cut. An example of a jump cut can be seen at 2:40 in the linked sequence from Casino Royale. http://latymermediahughtomatomp.blogspot.com/2010/01/shot-references-james-bond.html

Match on action

This is where two shots are cut together so that the action in the second shot matches the action in the first shot. For example, a door opening, shot from both inside and outside the room, will be cut as the door is half-open, and will continue in the second shot from the same position.

Shot References: James Bond

2.40 - Jump cut editing

0.25 - Rear view mirror shot

0.29 - Car track/pan shot - hugh getting out of car, ends with close up of gun

1.03 - Reverse track

1.14 - Running pan to CU

1.46 - LA running pan

3.17 - Reverse track MCU

0.14 - CU of hand

2.17 - MLS of character hiding

These shot references are some examples of shots we wish to mimic in our opening sequence. Having thse will be very useful because it will allow us to have a guide while storyboarding and shooting our sequence.

Industry Film Crew

This is an example of an filming crew in an industrial context (filming for an advert on Glasslyn Road N8, 28/01/10).

As you can see they have masses of personnel and equipment, with roughly 30 people in or outside the house, and 5 large van-loads of equipment. Obviously, we only have a camera, a light, and and mic plus whatever else we can get our hands on, and a production team of 3, so filming all of our sequence in 2 days will be a real challenge for us.

There have been 2 or 3 other instances in the past year or so when film crews have been to shoot on this road, and many films have used nearby roads as locations, such as Shaun's house in  Shaun of the Dead and the driving instruction scenes in Happy Go Lucky.

Its kind of cool to think that houses and streets very similar to the one we are using for our shoot are used by the advertising, television and film industries.

Genre Research: Thriller

Genre in film helps both institutions and audiences. When films are grouped in Genres they are placed according to similar characteristics or features. This allows audiences to pre-empt which films they may enjoy watching and allows institutions and film makers to make films relevant to a specific genre so that it will definitely find an audience. Genre is usually broken down into 4 main categories as shown below on our brainstorm:

The aspects highlighted in a white oval are those which are present in our opening sequence. Since most of the aspects are highlighted our openign sequence does follow the normal convention of an action thriller.

Titles Research

For our opening sequence it is our aim to have impressive looking titles. We planned to do this by layering the titles onto our shots to make them look as if they were written on particular surfaces. An example of this is shown below taken from the film Hostage.

Although our film will not be in this cartoon style these stills clearly represent how we wish to place titles in our shots. We will be doing some test shots to see if this is possible but hopefully we will achieve a really good professional looking effect.

Genre: Action Thriller

Here is a small mood board that summarises how the genre of action thriller has influenced our opening sequence

This mood board shows a mix of guns, knifes and running stills. The movie Taken is prominent since it is one of my favourite action thrillers and has been a massive influence on my perception of our opening sequence. The Strangers is also shown since it is a very good movie at building tension which is what we aim to do in our sequence. 

Possible Opening Shots:

This short extract is from Season 6 (Episode 5) of the US drama HOUSE. I really like how the action is done in this scene but I was most inerested in the first 3 shots used. After showing this clip to the group we saw that this could be a potential way to film our character running through the metal gates around the back of his house.

Note: Interest is only in the very first 3 or so shots of this sequence. Ignore the police car and other characters. Focus on shots of man-running!

Posted By Tom A

Initial location photography

22 Jan 2010

Here are some shots of a possible location that we could shoot at.

Welcome!