FINAL TITLE SEQUENCE

12. Alexandra, Lama, Selina from 283goswellg on Vimeo.

LAST EVER BLOG POST

This was such a great experience and extremely fun - especially filming and editing the title sequence. After doing this, I'm seriously considering doing a media related subject in the future.

The process of learning how to make a title sequence was very fascinating and expanded my knowledge on new technology.  

Thanks for the experience of making the title sequence,

BYEEE

Evaluation Question 1

• Conventions of title sequences:

1. Most film openings are around 2 minutes
2. Introduction of key characters, mise en scene.. etc. 
3. Introduction of key plot or beginning of narrative
4. Key credits 
5. Sound (diegetic/ non diegetic/sound fx plus) and lighting presents genre type.
6. Covers themes and topics (story within the genre)
7. Narrations and text 

• Purpose of a title sequence:

A title sequence is a method to attract the audiences' attention and grab they're focus before the actual film starts so they don't miss any bits. It is a short 2-3 minute clip that sets the story. The purpose of a title sequence is to present the key members that are involved in producing this film. Its also to entice the audience into carrying on watching a film.

Examples:

Narrative HORROR film opening:

• It tells a story, has a narrative structure
• Shots are connected, they have to be in a specific order to make sense.
• Could tell us about what has happened in the past that caused this to happen (a flashback)

A discrete HORROR film opening is where there is no story but there are shots of objects, cartoons, pictures or text, etc. 

• Series of shots that don't have to be in a specific order.
• In horror, it could tell us more about the characters, location or history of the story. Using evidence would make it look more real and attract the audience e.g. newspaper articles, family pictures.. etc.

Most importantly, the title of the film also appears in the title sequence, allowing the audience to know what they're about to watch. In the horror genre, sound is used in film openings to build up tension and the atmosphere.

Names of cast and crew can appear in title sequences. Although not all of them will be listed here, but only the main actors and crew members. e.g. director, main producers, main actors amongst many others. the title will also include associated production companies that helped produce this film. 

In a film opening we are introduced to the mise en scene, including setting, costume, set and etc. We are also introduced to the camera work and type of shots used.                   

• The order we expect to see them in and why do they follow this strict order:       

Title credits list the most important members involved in the production. 

We expect to see the credits in this order:

1. The Ident
2. The film producer company - S.A.L Productions
3. Director - Selina Dennis
4. Actor 1 - (Lama Alzughaibi)
5. Actor 2 - (Alexandra Prokhorova)
6. The movie title 
7. Rest of actors
8. Casting Director - (Jane Green)
9. Sound designer - (Luke Evans)
10. Music producer - (David Smith)
11. Costume designer - Lucy Jones)
12. Film editor - Amy Parker
13. Production designer - John Mills
14. Director of photography - Stewart Edwards
15. Executive producers - Neil Morris
16. Producers - Jake Cook
17. Author of the book the film is bases on (not with every film)
18. Screen player - Morgan Blue
19. Director - Selina Dennis


We see them in this order because usually, they're ranked  (first credit being most important, in other words a person that has  been mostly involved in the production of the film)


Showing the names in a strict order presents the hierarchy. 

• Explain conventions of the horror genre:
• Compare to real media products:

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

The Ring 



Uninvited



The Grunge



 Visited By


These are some gifts that I made (with giphy.com) to compare our film with actual real life films. I chose these specific clips as both characters from The Grunge, The Ring and Uninvited are similar to our characters in Visited By. As the evil characters have long black hair covering their face to hide their identity, it can also be a convention of evilness, grunge and death. Additionally, in these clips the evil characters are trying to kill the innocent normal characters. The genre of our film is a supernatural horror therefore we took inspiration from The Grunge, The Ring and Uninvited with our evil characters' mise-en-scene as it is a common convention of supernatural horrors therefore it makes it very clear to the audience what our film genre is.

Evaluation Question 2

These are some real life examples of films who have a similar characters to our film. For instance, both characters in each film is represents a positive and negative character: one normal and one abnormal, just like ours.

Evaluation Question 3

Distribution Company




This is our distribution ident we made called S.A.L productions which represents each member of the group, as it's the first letter of our initials. We used our ident at the beginning of our opening title sequence as that is were it had to be placed because of the correct order of title credits.

Furthermore, as we are a small independent which would mean that our opening title sequence would be a small scale release, that would get into local cinemas for a limited time, producing 200 DVD print run and online distribution such as a trailer posted on a website we created. 

However, ideally we would like to be a high budget distribution company in the UK, which can help with marketing, promotion and advertising, to allow the film to be viewed by the audience. This would mean that we, as distributor, will make deals with well-known cinema chains such as Odeon, Vue, Imax, and Cineworld, to display our opening title sequence, which would reach a much wider audience variety. Additionally, we would made deals with TV companies like BBC1, ITV, Channel 4, etc to help advertise our title sequence and reach a large audience at much quicker pace. Also, other companies such as DVDs: Netflix, Love Film, etc which have become more well-known and used nationally, can also display our opening title sequence.

One film that is similar to ours is 'Scream'. This particular film has a similar plot line of a young girl being stalked, like ours. The main distributor of Scream is Dimension Films, which is a major American film production, which was owned by The Walt Disney Company but it now owned by The Weinstein Company.

The marketing tools used to distribute the film was mainly: Facebook, posters and a website. The film scream was screened twice in cinemas/theatres, at different times, therefore the poster was distributed in cinemas to inform viewers. The website and Facebook page was also created online to connect to a wider audience.

The role of social media was to promote 'Scream' and to get viewers to watch the film. Facebook is a good way in promoting and informing many people about their film as millions of people have a Facebook account. Also a website is also a good idea because if people want to find out more information about the film, their own website would be a good way to inform them about it.

Scream had a wide release in 1,413 cinemas/theatres nationally.

The different formats the film is available in are: DVD, ITunes, Amazon (DVD), YouTube.

The budget for the film was very large consisting of $15million and the box office was $173million.

On the Scream website the distributer Miramax, which is a large American company, runs the website and distributes scream on their website. Miramax also distributes other films and TV shows on their website. Also the original release of the scream soundtrack was by TVT record and not the film distributer Dimension Films.

I think that the distributer would be likely distribute our film as it is the same genre but also because they have a similar plot meaning that our film will appeal to screams target audience. Furthermore, they will know that their is already an audience publicly therefore the film is more likely to be watched by the viewers of scream.

These are some examples of real life films that are similar to ours

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 3

Q3 pt 1 - Kizoa Online Movie Maker
We created our distribution company
This is our distribution, 'SAL productions' it represents each member of the group as it is our first letter of our initials. We chose to have our ident very simple. Our ident was at the beginning because we had to place it in the correct order to follow this title sequence convention in the horror genre.
SAL productions

• (We are a small distribution company) 

Media distributing 

I don't think many companies would distribute our film because its low budget and its a small independent release. Although its a small independent release it could still get into local cinemas, it could have its own 200 dvd print run or even online distribution. Youtube (sent for film competitors) is used to promote films, if we had a trailer we would be competing with other films. 

Netflix and cinema chains, DVD, TV companies, deals with cinemas, etc. They all allow the film to be viewed by the audience.

• Low budget films are usually released early and this might have an impact on promotion, as less people would know about the film before its released. 
• Partly marketing + promotion + advertising 

The Mothman Prophecies 2002 

 

Insidious 

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 3

Q3 - Kizoa Online Movie Maker

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/ address your audience?
Target audience: 16-25 year old females

• Mise en scene
• Main character= teenager (same age as audience)
• Genre type
• Sound -music used when lama was getting ready 
• Type of shots used -extreme closeups showed lamas eye makeup
• Props - makeup was from known brands e.g. urban decay

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 6

Evaluation Question 5

Evaluation Question 7

Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full production?

In this picture, you could see the reflection of the camera and the person holding the camera. We haven't noticed this until after producing our final film. I feel like now after practicing filming and editing, i could watch films from a different perspective. Looking at the different shots/angles used, different camera movements and the mise en scene.

The following pictures show how i was holding my phone in one shot, but not the other which was not supposed to happen. I think this is because we didn't take this into account and we didn't think it would matter. 

Another mistake is that we failed to film a two shot as both characters don't fit into the screen properly. 

The two pictures show how the phone was in my hand in the first shot but not the in following shot. This is a problem because the audience could notice the change.

Evaluation Question 5

Evaluation Question 6

Q6 alexandra from selinaxo

Evaluation Question 6

Evaluation Question 7

Q7 - Looking back at your prelim task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full project?

Evaluation Question 7

Preliminary Task vs Opening Title Sequence

This is a timeline from when we finished making our preliminary film to when we finished making our opening title sequence: Visited By.

Final Cut - Visited By

Finally finished editing!

We finally finished our title sequence!

Filming

I posted our filming sessions on Instagram.

EDIT

This is a screenshot of when we completely finished our title sequence.

Editing

 

 

Sound source

Horror film ambiance sound: (when Lama is getting ready)

Heartbeat sounds:

Rough Cut 2

Re-filming for Rough Cut 2

Re-filming on Tuesday morning - 

We had to re-film a lot of the shots because of bad lighting so we met on Tuesday morning and re-filmed what we needed to and we even recorded some foley sounds. It went really well and here are a couple of pictures:

 

Production Schedule 2

 

 

Feedback of rough cut

VISITED BY rough cut feedback

Positive:

• When the demon first appears in the title sequence, we blurred him and the whole class thought it was really effective.
  
• Lamas p.o.v on the stairs as she's falling down created a  good effect of our supernatural horror genre.

Negative:

• The first shot (establishing shot) needs to be broken down into different sections and zooming isn't allowed as it is hard to control.

• The stair cuts were uneven so it didn't flow - We need to even out the amount of steps they go down.