Main Post 1: Conventions of an Opening Sequence

Our main task is to create an opening title sequence for a film. In doing this we will need to research the conventions of opening titles in order to see what I should use and what I shouldn't use in my opening sequence.

FILM 1: I started my research looking at the opening scene of The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo.

The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo - Opening Sequence

here is the title of the film of which
gets covered away halfway through
the opening sequence.

The piece is full off non diegetic music, the rhythm of the sound tract is upbeat and has a fast tempo, which creates a sense of urgency  The sound effects used add more depth to the piece and create an irregular and uncomfortable feel for the audience to experience. The music has been chosen as gives an insight to what the film is going to be about, it also suggests that the film is going to be action packed and full of unusual things. Rock music with a twist has been used, it has a strong base and is very upbeat and modern. Also as it is a well known song (a cover of "immigrant") it gives something for the audience to relate too. I feel that the music works well with the piece as it creates a quite intense effect and contrasts well, with the unique and unusual images that emerge throughout the extract - which are all synchronized with the footage in one way or another with added sound effects to make the piece more dramatic.

Through out the extract of the opening scene their are lots of extreme close ups of which have been used to enhance certain, specific objects. At the begging of the piece its starts with a master shot of the sea in deep blue and mono chrome colours, this sets the mood for the rest of the opening, as the tempo speeds up the piece becomes more dramatic and exaggerated. Most of the piece would have been done using CGI as seems to come across quite fake and unrealistic, but is effective at the same time as creates a futuristic feel.

Low Key Lighting has been used throughout the opening scene to create a sense of danger and to create a sense of not knowing whats in the darkness. The body language of the people in the footage gives of a creepy vibe and the screen shot below suggests the film is going to be quite intense. At the begging of the extract quick flashes of images appear in unison to the music - this gets the audience involved as they are able to follow the beat as well as viewing visual unconventional images and makes you pay attention to whats happening on screen, which is effective.

Here are two screen shots taken from the opening sequence as examples of the colour scheme and a suggestion of the unconventional objects.

Information about Genre:

Suspense and Crime are genre's that are included and have been based around within the Girl with a Dragon Tattoo. Crime Fiction has always traditionally been seen as a male dominated genre but since 1990's there has been a witnessed boom in the crime fiction created by women and female protagonists. This is suggested in this film as it was quite popular within both female and male audiences. I would say that that the opening sequence to this extract is very male orientated as is very suspicious and dark. But from a females perspective i appreciate this open sequence and find it very open and set the audience up and put them in the right mind set for the film there about to see.



FILM 2: Research looking at the Opening Sequence of Avengers.

The Avengers - Opening Sequence 

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/the-avengers/

In the opening sequence for the Avengers, we are firstly introduced with intricate close ups, of moving images, of buckles and pieces of costume from the film itself.  The extreme close-ups allow the audience to be drawn closer and to get more involved with what is happening. The canted angle creates the feeling of disorientation.

The opening sequence is full of non digetic music and has a high beat consistent  the whole way throughout the sequence. I appreciate the choice for sounds and music as they come together and contrast well in a manner that they create a sense of adventure and get the audience in the frame of mind and excited to watch the film, which is the general expectation of any opening sequence. The  chosen sound tract for this opening sequence allows the audiences get involved and  creates an explicit atmosphere within the piece, when the  main bass drops it dramatists the sequence and creates the perfect opening sequence for an action adventure film.

The extreme close ups of images shown throughout the extract create the sense of the un-known and makes the audience think about what each element could be or represent, which allows the audience to get involved with the opening sequence,. The images of super hero costumes and aspects and weapons they use is effective as allows you to link each feature to main components and characters of the film. The dim lit and low key lighting used in some places of the extract contrasts with the sudden bright lights and fundamentals of the innaviative and effective piece.


Information about Genre:
 The Avengers is an Action and a Science fiction film. The Avengers is based on and around the marvel comic book series, and includes characters from each comic including Iron man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America. All of which have come together to create an epic big screen adventure, which consists of all the comic super hero's teaming up to work together  create a dramatic, action packed film. Overall I would say this film is mainly aimed at male audiences due to it being rather stereotypical that boys/men read and have a better acknowledgement of comic books. But from watching and analyzing the opening sequence It comes across as though it was made to target female and male audiences  due to the vast amount of inative designs and views also isn't dark or daunting but quite exuberant and exciting.

Post 12: Independant Work Towards Targets

Here is a table of which one of my group members created to help make it easier to find out what days and at what time each member were free so that we could all work together and help each other out. 

Post 11: Targets

Post 10: Evaluation Of Skills Developed

Here is our Finished Prelim Final Video:

Creative Skills

We have each individually developed are creative skills during this preliminary task, we have done this by developing solutions to our problems and being able to brainstorm and come up with different ideas, that we were able to finalize to make our finished film. We have also enhanced and improved our creative thinking and have been able to put and make our ideas come to life by creating this short film.

Technical Skills

I feel that I have personally developed my technical skills through this task as I have learnt many new terms such as about different camera techniques and have learnt all about how to edit a piece of work in Adobe Premier. I started with basic knowledge and have been able to slowly develop my skills over the last few weeks.  I also now know how to use a camera and capture footage from the camera to the computer and now have a much wider and better perspective about the editing suit and how to use the technology and programs within.

Personal Skills

After completing the preliminary task, I feel that personally I have widened my learning and have been able to develop my understanding and knowledge of media. I also feel that in the time period we had that as a group we have worked really well and have each developed are abilities to work as a group and get on and complete the task at hand, progressing through and over coming any issues and problems that arose.

Post 9: Post Production Stage

As a group we decided and organised what days we were free to edit, so that we were able to book the editing suit during a handful of our lunch times, free/study periods and the odd lesson time so that we had enough time to edit our footage appropriately and to a high standard. We set a rota as well so that there was always at least two members of the group editing to help minimize crowding around the edit suit. 

As I have never edited before, I wanted to take charge and be head editor, so that I got a better understanding as i went along and could learn all the new, interesting editing techniques with guidance from my group members. Once we finished capturing and had edited our shots together we locked our video tracks so that we didn't ruin or change our footage when we were adding in our chosen audio tracks and by using the dots sound adjusting tool, we was able to fade the different tracks and fade out unwanted noises easily without having to cut them out which would have lost us valuable footage. 

We have and are going to create and insert a title at the begging and insert credits at the end of our preliminary sequence, adding transitions so that everything runs smoothly into one another and has a finished look about it.

Here are a number of screen shots, of which document sections of our editing.



This shot shows Sally walking down the corridor, (from scene 2) In this screen shot we can see the layout of the editing suit and program adobe premier. In the lower section of the image, it shows the timeline of which we have started to edit and capture different shots and scenes, to form our final short film.

This screen shot shows an over the shoulder view of Paul talking to Sally, This shows the same as the above image, except is at a different point in the footage. Each little section/square in the time line is a different individual shot of which we will slowly put together to create and form each scene then moving on to edit together our short film.



This shot shows a zoom in of the adobe premier timeline of which we are editing our work in. We have put all of our footage in the video 1 row and put the audio for each shot in the Audio 1 row.  The red play line, is used to indicate and show where about, we are watching the footage and used to move around/along the piece, it is a key aspect used in editing and makes it easier to know where in the piece we are also is used to help razor sections of the footage as help get to the exact spot you want.



Post 8: Production Report

PRODUCTION PROCESS

How did the shoot go? and What problems did you encounter? 

The footage we shot as a group was generally okay. We came across a number of problems during filming, one being that we didn't leave enough time between the Clapper Board and the actors speaking, which caused problems during editing as our shots we captured were very short. Another problem that arose was that as a group we accidentally recorded  over some of our film, which meant we had to re-film certain sections making sure the actors wore the same costumes and looked the same so there were no continuity errors in our final outcome.

How did you over come these problems? 

We over come these problems by staying calm and organised, making sure that everyone in our group knew what they were doing and what needed to be done. We re-filmed the sections/scenes we lost as quick and efficiently as possible, so that we could crack on with our editing.

How well did you work as team?  

I feel and believe we worked well as team because we were able to plan and divide out the different aspects of the task between the four of us so we all had an even amount of work to do, also so that we could get the project finished to the best of our abilities as a group. We were able to help and guide one another and was easy and comfortable to share and contribute ideas and everyone listened to what each member of the group had to say.

What do you think of the footage you shot? 

Overall I would say our footage is generally okay for a first attempt, but now feel that after learning all the different techniques and aspects behind the scenes in media (such as camera skills and important tips and facts)  that we could have created a much better short film, but would have needed more time.

Are there any areas for improvement in the technical execution? 

- leave a 5 second pre-role in between each shoot which would have left more time between each line and director saying action, making it slightly easier to capture our shots during editing.

- Also there is one shot that is slightly out of focus, so if have enough time at end, will have to re shoot, if not instead will just have to make sure that next time we always check that the camera is fully in focus for each take to prevent and blurry or out of focus shots.

Now as a consequence of the footage we shot, we may have to re shoot certain shots from scene three due to that fact that one or two of the shots jump together which was not the original effect we wanted to create.

- An improvement for next time would be for the actors to repeat movements, too help avoid any quick, sharp edits/cuts, so that each shot moves smoothly into another, rather than chopping to next scene.

-Over filming sections and scenes from different angles would also help as would give more footage to work with and would have made the piece more interesting.

Have you abided by the rules of continuity? 

I believe we have abided the rules of continuity as we have not crossed the 180 degree line and have made sure that our eye lines match up. We have included everything that was specified in the brief which included of match on action, 180 degree rule and the 30 degree rule in our short film. We have tried to make each shot flow smoothly into one another to create a finished clean piece.