Monday 28 February 2011

Typography (Research)

 TYPOGRAPHY

Content: the word’s written meaning
Visual impact: use of type as a design element
Context: the content and visual impact of text in relationship with entire composition

Definition: The design and use of typefaces as a means of visual communication from calligraphy to the ever-developing use of digital type is the broad use of the term typography. However, the art and practice of typography began with the invention of moveable type and the printing press. Typography is sometimes seen as encompassing many separate fields from the type designer who creates letterforms to the graphic designer who selects typefaces and arranges them on the page


Anaylis of title sequence of Inspiration

The StepFather (2009)


One of the main inspirations for my groups final film opening sequence would be the stepfather. During the beginning of the sequence there is a relatively slow pan across some shaving tools this creates great emphasis on the objects. Being part of teh audience we know we are watching a 'thriller' so these tools to us already connote something bad, we expect the object to be used to do something bad. These expectations are put aside as we see a man using the tools there is a number of mid shots and close ups used at this point. The close ups and mid shots make the objects look bigger, and more dangerous...at the same time creating empasis on each of the objects and how the character uses them. The use of sound creates suspence and add to the suspitions of something about to happen.
The main aspect of inspiration from this sequence is the idea of a man living life as normal, and then we are revealed to the destraught truth with a camera tilt.

This title sequence follows the Mis en scene, Camera, sound and Edits which we might use in our opening.
The opening credits are shown on top of the action, this type of opening credits help not take the attention off the action because of the opening credits.

Tuesday 15 February 2011

Scary Bathroom Sequence

This video that we found on youtube uses sounds, music and fast edits which all will be very useful for us to refer back to.We were very captivated by the use of close ups in this video, we are going to be using a similar types of shots for the very beginning of our thriller title sequence to create suspense. There are non digetic sounds used to create more supsenseful veiwing, the digetic sounds used have been amplified to make sure each small sound give a bigger impact. The amplified sounds also give life to the objects, which is also done by the use of camera movement like fast panning, and extreme close ups and mids .

Monday 14 February 2011

Livetype and Sound: Skills

Livetype allows animated title sequence to be created. Livetype allows you to experiment with text, from being  able to choose colour, size, font etc, to change attributes of each title or character (ie changing size, outline and tracking of the text ect). Through Livetype you can create the title sequence for your thriller effectively.


We were then introduced to Soundtrack pro. This is a program which enables you to make a soundtrack in order to help to create suspense. It allows you to import sounds or use sounds such as laughter ect and combine it with other sounds which you are able to create yourself.


Intoduction to editing and skills.













On final cut pro, I learned to:
Place imported clips onto the timeline and make adjustments to them (cutting them ect)
How to add transitions, enabling the a smoother cut to the next scene.
How to add text to a scene.

Saturday 12 February 2011

Evaluation of prelim film

During lesson we were given a brief which was to create a prelim as a practice before the real thriller. This got us thinking of what we wanted ours to be about and what was going to happen in it. We all agreed that our prelim film sequence should be a psychological thriller.


Our storyline is a girl waits for the lift, she is unaware that she is going to be murdered by a psychopath who kills his victims if they do not take the lift to the stop at the fourth floor.


We encounter quite a few problems because we filmed it in college and there were many students standing around and getting in the way. Our film did not obtain any non digetic sounds, this was mainly due to the time limit we had. It is obvious that if we had more time we would have added sound and even a sound track to go along with the action.


I believe we have created a very good opening. We used many shots from different angles so that when we edit the film we will have a range of shots to work with. However I don’t think that the editing was up to scratch and personally I think that we need to work on this to ensure we can make the best out of our main thriller sequence.

Thursday 10 February 2011

PLANNING:Treatment

To me the treatment didn't feel clear enough on the power point we did so I am going to say it here to make it clear of what exactly were trying to achieve. Our opening clip is going to be a physiological thriller where we have a variety of shots of the kitchen, house and appliances when a woman comes home from work we see her making tea for two. While this is happening voicemails will be left for a man named Franklin. Some voicemails are left by the same person showing the continues ambiguity of what has happened to this Franklin. In the end we see him dead on the sofa with the wife giving him tea and stale tea cups are shown on the table next to him to show her mental state is not good.    

Tuesday 8 February 2011

shoot photos


















Jelly Babies- In breif

We were given this task which was to come up with a story line and take still shots of the jelly babies as they enacted our story. Obviously we had to move the jelly babies around and take many shots of them ensuring we had different angled shots. we had to ensure that we kept the camera at the same place and tried not to move it much, so we can make it into a successful animatic with a suitable storyline and hopefully with some digetic and non digetic sounds. 

Here is something we looked at as a group and we tried to acheive somthing as well as this 


Jelly Babies





Our Jelly babies did not portray our final final opening, this was a way for us to practise our camera skills and look at a wide variety of shots. We ave used sound to add to the continuity of the film. To produce our film we used different pictures and uploaded and edited them on Final cut pro. 

Saturday 5 February 2011

RESEARCH: Thriller adudience


In this diagram below shows that thrillers appeal more to males then females. However the suspense genre is positioned in the middle showing that it also appeals to females but not as much as it does for males.



RESEARCH: how suspense is created in 'The Stepfather'

A suspenseful moment is right at the beginning. The music helps build up the suspense. At first it is playful, but then it combines with the camera to reveal something is not right. The music combines with a Jump cut showing a dead body. This creates suspension effectively.

Another suspenseful moment created is when the Stepfather is in the middle of suffocating the father of the children and ex-husband of the mother. We are shown the struggle between the killer and the victim, during which the son of the victim is about to walk in the room and witness the attempted murder.

Lastly another suspenseful moment is when the son realises that the killer will make his mother the next victim. The fight between the son and the killer builds up sense as it looks as though either of them could be dead, and then they come back, whilst you are willing for the killer to be defeated.




(REDO)

Friday 4 February 2011

RESEARCH:Cinema Audiences


Today we looked at some figures for UK cinema by genre and we found out that

1.      31 suspense films were released in 2009 and 503 released altogether last year.
2.      Action, animation and comedy films account for 52% of box office in 2009 in the UK, I think the reasons why these genres are popular because they appeal to a wider audience as they are family movies meaning it is appropriate for everyone to watch.
3.      I believe thrillers account for such a low proportion of UK Box Office because most thriller films are 18+ this is because they include a lot of violence and some psychological issues which can be disturbing for many younger viewers, and mostly teenagers go to cinemas to watch these movies, and this does not allow a great number of viewers.

RESEARCH:My response to the 'Watching Documaentary

After watching this documentary I can draw the following information given:

Thomas Sutcliffe elaborated on an aspect about film openings which need to seduce the audience into long term commitment. What Thomas Sutcliffe meant by that term is that when creating an opening you have to ensure that it gets the audience’s attention straight away. Danny Boyle also says the fact that it must also show enough ambition and potential at the start engaging the audience in order to keep them watching the movie

In the documentary the director, Jean Jacques Beinex said that there are risks of 'instant arousal' which means that the audience don’t have the full satisfaction of what they are watching if too much is revealed or if things are rushed.

When making an opening to a film the audience should not know much of the information but should know enough to keep them interested and keep them watching and understand what is going on. For Stanley Kauffmann a classic opening would begin with an establishing shot of New York city, with a close up of a building, then up the building, to a window and through it, past the receptionist desk into an office and there sat a character. He states it works because it tells the audience where the action is taking place, what the occupation of the hero is and the organisation of the world.

Kyle Coopers seven title sequences is so effective as it shows quick segments outlining the filmmaker's intentions and setting up the expectations of those watching. He introduces the psychotic character doing weird stuff which clearly shows that he is not sane.



The Universal studios wanted to place the background music with the credits at the beginning of his film however Orson Welles didn’t want this as he wanted no credits, no music, but just dialogues. However he did not get his way Universal Studios ended up adding all of the above because they did not want to frighten there audience.


The trick is start from the ending this will be giving something away, like the film ‘Casino’



The Shining creates suspense by the aeroplane shots; this is where the audience is following the car from above, like a predator. This automatically allows the audience to think that the car is being watched.

Thursday 3 February 2011

draft2

Intertextuality

RESEARCH: Thriller audiences

In order to create a successful thriller, you must have research into the audience of cinema and in particular, thriller audiences. In 2009 there were 31 thriller/ suspense films created, this accounts for only 4% of that year's profits in the UK. However, thriller/suspense fims made a gross profit of around £42 million.
Action, Animation and Comedy accounted for 52% of the UK's box office in 2009. The reason for their popularity is probably due to the fact that they are suitable and 'safe' for families, who are more likely to visit the cinema. As these genres are considered more 'family friendly', they are more likely to do better at the cinema. I think that the reason as to why Thrillers do less well at the box office is because it is most likely that people go to the cinema in order to be entertained, but not in a suspensful way, they probably enjoy a calmer atmosphere, which a thriller doesn't allow to occur. Also the majority audience of cinemas are families, again this shows how thrillers only have a monority audience.
Thrillers seem to be preferred more by woman than men. This means that thriller's are more biased towards woman, and so there is more woman than men in the thriller audience. 
The age certificates are usually 18, showing that thrillers are most likey to be watched by adults.

Tuesday 1 February 2011

RESEARCH:Structure of openings with examples

There are three basic opening structures theses are as follows:

                       A narrative opening
Is when the audience is introduced to the location and setting and has the
titles running over it.

             The Shinning:


Another example or a narrative opening structure is "The Stepfather"

A discrete title sequence
Is separately edited, For instance in ‘Seven’ there are lots of close ups of everything, showing lots of weird things that a normal person wouldn’t do. The hand written fonts tells us that his mental state is not right. This all makes it spooky and gives it an edge.
                                                                   
Seven:



Titles over black screen, followed by the narrative opening
It has a titles running over a blank screen, they often include sound effects before the images and such are introduced.

       Donnie Darko:


There is also a forth opening structure which is

            A ‘Stylized editing’

Phelham 123