Thursday 21 January 2016

Title Sequence Analyses Notes

Mission Impossible (Tom Cruise, JJ Abrahms, 2011)  - Low key lighting - conventional for spy film, following spark - makes feel like you're the spark, shows setting - city - conventional for spy films, fast paced, weapons - spy iconography, takes clips from film, fast car - spy iconography, dynamite 

Napoleon Dynamite (Jared Hess, 2004)- 70's feel, comedic, school setting, luch, America, books, high school, drama, typewriter typography, geeky

Children Of Men (Alfonso CuarĂ³n, 2006) - Drama, dramatic music, police suggests violence, dystopia setting

The Watchmen Title Sequence Analyse 

The title sequence for the movie The Watchman was designed by yU+Co and also the director of the movie Zach Snyder

The title sequence to the movie The Watchman (Zach Snyder, 2009) sets up the movie by traveling through several different time periods starting in 1939 and ending in 1985. Vintage looking superheroes are seen in slow motion within the sequence and many historical events are seen within the title sequence.

The sequence experiments with different editing techniques such as slow motion to create a vintage looking sequence. Slow motion could be used throughout the sequence to allow the audience to be introduced to characters from the movie by having a long time to look at them and also to show the time period of the movie. The slow motion also emphasis how much time has passed and with the sequence showing historical events such as the end of World War Two the audience can get a clear understanding of the time period and setting of the movie.

The typography used for the title sequence is a typical font for a superhero film as it is bright coloured and very bold. This grabs the audience's attention as it stands out and it is centred in the middle of the screen. Also, the font feels like it is coming out of the screen towards you which makes the audience feel the need to read it more as it is in their face.

Bob Dylan's song 'The Times are a 'changing ' is used for the soundtrack to the title sequence. This is an example of a contrapuntal soundtrack as the song is fairly upbeat where as the title sequence can be seen as bleak due to it showing historical events that are seen as bad times such as JFK's assassination.
Also, as the song is old it can show the movie will be set in the past due to the song being from the 60's

Wednesday 20 January 2016

The Incredible Hulk Title Sequence Analyse 

The title sequence for the movie the Incredible Hulk was designed by the famous title sequence designer Kyle Cooper. Cooper is known for creating many famous title sequences for big movies such as Se7en and Tron and also for may famous TV series such as American Horror Story and The Walking Dead.

This title sequence is an example of a prologue sequence. It shows the story of how the Hulk became the Hulk  and it is shown through a montage. This helps show the audience information about the back story to the film and it may hint at the narrative of the film. The use of newspaper cut outs also helps with this as it shows some insights into the Hulks backstory.

The title sequence is fairly fast paced which can signify to the audience that the movie is an action film due to speed being something linked to acton films such as fast cars. The titles shows information about the cast and crew behind the film. The costumes you see within the sequence such as the army uniforms can tell the audience that the movie t is an action film. 

The colours used are mainly green which represented the Hulk. This a colour which the audience can link the Hulk due to the character of the Hulk being green. The text was mainly centred in the middle of the screen which grabs the audience's attention.

Tuesday 19 January 2016

Lesson Notes 19/1/16

Genre
Naraive Iconography Characters Setting
Iconography = Visual elements that establish genres, eg-horror-blood.

Dr No- sillohettes- mysterious imagery, un barrel - action film, layering of images.

Splice- Horor, green- sci fi, aliens, house style, same typography through out whole sequence.

Back Up Plan- Chick flick, hybrid, rom com, babys, ultasound, flashing man, elegant typography, feminin colours, female protaganist.

Series of Unfortunate Events- Gothic family film, similar look to Tim Burton, black and white, children, animated- child like.

This Means War- Intertextuality- refeences a spy film, red and blue- oposig colours, authorative colours.
Lesson Notes 14/1/16

Saul Bass (1920-1996)

Saul Bass is a title sequence designer known for using simple, geometric shapes and their symbolism within his title sequences and he has designed over sixty title sequences.
Bass studied at Art Studens League in Manhatten.

Bass also designed movie posters and his posters had an uncanny ability to capture the mood of a film with simple shapes and images.
His posters often used strong colours that contrasted each other and his postrs were often hand drawn.

Bass's posters and title sequences sometimes references the film he was designing for.

Below is an example of Bass's work, his title sequence he designed Alfred Hitchcok's movie Anaomy of a Murder.
Lesson Notes 7/1/16

Typical order of title sequences:
Studio name
(director)
Stars                 Name
Crew                  of film
Editor
Writer (screenplay)
producer
(Director)

What do titles tell us?
Genre
Style/mood
possible charachter
production values
themes

Lesson Notes 5/1/16
What Is A Title Sequence?
A title sequence is the opening sequence of a film. A title sequence allows the film to make a good first impression on the audience.
A well made title sequence introduces the audience to the tone and theme of the film, the genre of the film, as well as the cast and crew of he film.

Things often included within a title sequence include;
details of the cast and crew
the film's title
a possible introduction to a character or character tpe
indication of setting
indication of historical period
informaion about the genre

Title sequences can also be used as a prologue. AN example of this is the title sequence to the movie Hulk.

Titles sequences have come a long way. Kyle Cooper broke conventions with his groundbreaking title sequence for the movie Se7en (David Fincher 1995,)

Thursday 14 January 2016

Se7en Title Sequence Analyse

Kyle Cooper is a famous title sequence designer and he is famous for his title sequences he has designed for big movies such as Se7en, Tron and The Incredible Hulk, Cooper's work is often said to be revolutionary for movie title sequence designers.
Cooper also designs title sequences for well known TV series such as American Horror Story and The Walking Dead.

The title sequence to the movie Se7en (David Fincher, 1995) was produced by the title sequence designer Kyle Cooper. The sequence is one of Cooper's most famous and it went onto inspire a generation of title sequence designers as it was so different the time it was produced. Before the release of Se7en many title sequences were rather simple and not very adventurous. Cooper broke conventions when creating the title sequence as it wasn't just a simple list of names for a title sequence.

The sequence features lots of different close up shots of books, cut outs, mugshots and this can make the audience feel like they are being introduced to a character with a strange obsession over someone or something.This gives the title sequence a dark mood as it is visually disturbing to watch due to the bizarreness of the images. 
The sequence is very fast paced and this can be quite disorienting for the audience as there are lots of different things to take in at once, also the layering of videos adds to this and you have to quickly try and take in two or more different things at once.This grabs the audiences attention as it makes you want to really watch the sequence to see what is happening.
The sequence has lots of flashy effects and filters layered over it which give the sequence a gritty feel to it which also makes it feel almost like it is cheaply made. These effects are very easily produced using software like Final Cut Pro as they are just simple effects found within the programme.
The typography within the sequence is like it is hand written and the spacing between the words is very large and this had quite a disturbing effect as the written almost looks like it was etched into the screen and and the spacing is very unusual. This is an example of Cooper breaking conventions within title sequences as it shows him experimenting with different typography styles to increase the effect the sequence had on the audience

Continuity Task


My continuity video includes a variety of cinematography and editing techniques and a number of different shots. I think this video can be seen as a success as you can seen through shots such as match on action and the use of shot reverse shot edit that i followed the task assignment and done what needed to be done for the task.
If i was to do the task again I would make sure the camera was always in focus as sometimes it wasn't during the filming. Id also make sure the people i was working with were reliable as i encountered a problem when I went to edit my video and realised that the member of the group who had all the clips on USB was absent and i had to get them from the somewhere else.
Assignment Brief 

Video
Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.
Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.
All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source. Both preliminary and main tasks may be done individually or as a group. Maximum four members to a group.