Finished Project

Today our final project has been compleated. On friday we compleated the editing and just needed the music to be added. As we didnt make the music, this was more difficult than we first thought as the project was saved to a disk, so that Tommy who made the music for us could see what our footage was like to fit the music around it, but as it had been saved in a different format, the music couldnt be added without getting rid of the voice over, and vise versa. So to resolve this problem, tommy saved the music he had made for us, onto a disk with the right time line for the opening sequence. And i took the music disk and the final copy of our project to Dan in the editing suit, and he mananged to take the music from one disk, and upload it to our final project, and so now the opening sequence has the voice over and the music for the thriller.

The music used was created using Logic Pro and a keyboard. And then saved as an iTunes format file.


Posted By Jo.

fargo opening

Fargo opening

In this essay im going to discuss the mis en scene and camera work in the thriller Fargo

The 1st shot which lasts over one minute 30 is of a faded blue background, which shows the credits rolling as it goes by. This shot is heavily influenced by the native music playing in the background, which slowly builds up as the credits progress. This ends with a crescendo before a car slowly creeps onto the scene, the way that the car appears slowly on screen lets you know that the setting is somewhere cold and snowy, this paired with the music allows you to gain an understanding of where the film is set. As this car passes you see that it is towing another car, this, paired with the second shot from behind the car makes you question the drivers motive, and also what has happened to the car to make it require towing. The next shot has become darker, and shows the car pulling into town. The darkness and lit street lamps show the viewer there has been a lapse in time. In The next shot, The man you assume was driving the car walks into a busy bar. You instantly know he’s out of place there, as he pauses before entering the bar, appearing slightly intimidated by the other men at the bar. This is further enforced, by the fact that he removed his driving gloves as he enters the room, This helps show the fact that he is possibly better off than the other men in the room. The shot after, shows the man approaching the table with two men at it, who have presumably been waiting for him, As he covers the frame, more beer bottles are revealed, making you assume they have been waiting a long period of time. There is then a shot reverse shot, showing the conversation between the 3 men, These shots show the man in the yellow sweater looking more confident in the environment, and shows jerry to be uncomfortable, even forcing fake smiles, there is often smoke passing his face, which makes him look more uncomfortable in this environment. The two shots are shot differently, with one being over the shoulder, which shows the two men overpowering him in the conversation, whilst the shot of jerry, shows his face, and more of his emotions. As jerry approaches the two men, The music slowly dies down, this helps show that jerry is engrossed in the conversation, and that it requires all of his attention. This scene is important for introducing the character of jerry, As it Shows you that His character must be in a large deal of trouble, in order to put himself through this.

Editing

On Thursday, Tom, Tom C and myself did some editing on the footage we have. Tom Brown was integral to our editing session as he carried out all the changes. We have layered the audio over the top of our conversation scene, which proved tricky. We also put together the beginning where Ollie is running down the alley. Jo said that she will be able to construct the music with a friend, so hopefully the music will be completed or we will have a small sample of the music. If all else fails we will use Garage Band. Frustratingly, we still have some filming left to do, as we have previously not found a slot where Ollie, Tom C and I were free, so we have had to put a couple of shots on hold. Hopefully, when we film on Tuesday/Wednesday, we can finally put all our shots together, and be able to get it in on time. It is all coming together slowly, and everythings gone against us including the los of a tape. It turned out to be not lost, but shoved under the cardboard trays of tapes. However, thankfully, this did not hinder our progress as we had the spare tape on hand to record our footage of Warren Gray who is marvellously acted by myself. We had to improvise the LS because the absence of cloud cover meant the sun was spoiling our continuity. Another point is that Tom C wanted to re-film his-blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance as Henchman 1, as we all felt he wasn't threatening or intimidating enough, so we are shooting that along with the shots we havn't done yet on Tuesday/Wednesday also. We also need to film the whip pan, which I hope will spice up our project, and the high angle shot at the end. However this may prove difficult as it is hard to build an improvised crane, so we may have to sit on the fence for that one, or try a different approach. I would also like another shot at doing Warren Grays shots again. Firstly because we havn't editied the footage yet so its no problem to re-film it. Secondly, we were lacking the costume, which will be brought in when we film and thirdly, as pointed out by various members of the group, my body langauge during the LS doesn't say furious boss, more mildly angry husband, so I'd like another shot at that; maybe even in a different area. We're hoping they'll be no more hitches in our supposed schedule, and that for once our stricken production will run smoothly. We also need to sort out our credits; style, size, colour, content etc. Furthermore, we are also lacking a name for our thriller, so we must think up a genius name that is relevant to our themes without being too cliched our whimsical.

Posted by Michael M.

Filming

Yesterday we filmed one of our final scenes for the final project. We used a different location to film the differnt scene. We filmed a couple of shots for each one of the sequences that we filmed so that we had enough footage to edit with.

Posted By Jo

Photo's of our final location

This is the location we have chosen for our final footage. We changed the location as the one before did not really fit with the storyline. This new location is better for the storyline.

Posted and uploaded as a group

Opening Credits 'Hollywood Homicide' Analysis

The movie starts off with a sequence with police dectectives at the shooting range to set the scene for the film and give theu audience an idea on character types. then the opeining sequence starts with the titles. It is a monatge of the iconic Hollywood sign set on the hills, the montage flicks through different settings with the sign then has 'Homicide' next to it.
Then these is another monatge of differnt buildings saying Hollywood, the opening titles tell the audience who is in the movie, Harrison ford, Josh hartnett etc. The opening then changes form building sign to california licence plates on cars before going into the film. So the titles are set against a mini narrative to set context for the film.

By Tom C

Opening Credits Analysis of Taxi Driver

The opening sequence of Taxi Driver, which was directed by Martin Scorsese, is brimming with atmosphere. The credits begin with throbbing music, and then we are introduced to a smoky street, with a NY yellow cab ploughing through the smoke. It is all in slow motion, and as the taxi leaves shot, the title is revealed in yellow and black lettering, which is very similar to the top of NY cabs that say their cab number/Off Duty. After a few names have come up in the same style, then it cuts to De Niro, whose eyes are in ECU. Bernard Hermann's score of a slow jazz sax starts, and De Niro's face has flashes of red on it, which suggests he is driving. Then it cuts to a POV shot out of the cab. It is raining, and the windscreen wipers are going. Then it fades into a further shot from inside the cab. This shot is very disorientating and alien, as the outside world is blurred, ambiguous and generally bizarre. Then it cuts to another street at night with people walking by, then it cuts back to the ECU of De Niro's eyes, as he slowly scrolls sideways, with lights flashing on his face. The credits are displayed through the mindstate of Travis Bickle, who feels alienated and isolated despite the fact he comes into contact with many people. As a result of this, Scorcese has blurred the images to create a sense of confusion seen through the eyes of the character.

Posted by Michael M

How our project is coming along so far..

Firstly we have filmed nearly all of our footage, and we just have the last scene to shoot, but we are going to have to film this more than once so that we have a lot of footage when we come to editing. We have uploaded our footage from the tape and loaded it onto computer seven, we have also began editing this footage even though we havnt compleated our filming, so that we dont get too behind with the work.
But so far the project is going well, our feedback from the rushes was that we didnt have enough footage, and so we are going to shoot some more footage, when we go to film the final scene. This should improve our footage and make it easier to edit as we will have a lot of different scenes to choose from so that we have the best shot for each scene we film.

Posted by Jo.

Costume changes

We have changed the costume slightly to our previous idea's as in our original ideas and photo's we featued the henchmen wearing a hat. But before we started filming we realised that it wouldnt really fit with the storyline and so we have changed that idea, and now neither henchmen wear hats, but they both wear trench coats, like our oringinal photo's showed. However they only change about these is the length of them, in the photo's shown on the blog they look slightly longer than they do in the film, as they are different coats from what is show. Also photographs of the other props tbat we have used have not been shown yet, just as the other costume decisions and the bag that plays a major part in the film, as that is what the first henchmen wants from our actor ollie. Photo's of these will be shown shortly to show exactly what we mean.


Posted by Jo.

Changes so far to our footage

The changes that we have made so far to our project, is the location and a costume change. Also the script has been changed slightly to fit the project theme better.
apart from this, we have stuck to our original ideas.

Posted by Jo.

Filming

New footage was filmed on wednesday including some footage previous footage that had to be re shot. The rest of the footage will be filmed on monday, even though all the filming isn't completed we have started editing the beginning of the thriller.

posted by Tom C

I filmed Olly, our actor running. This was a consequence of our previous footage being blue, which we didn't want. Therefore we have the correct footage, so we're all hunky dory here. we also filmed Tom Cox looking mildly dangerous for our shots of henchman 1. He was very good, and he got a standing ovation.

Posted by Michael Edward McGroarty

Location Changes

We have changed the location for filming from the photographs shown on the blog on the previous page. The new location that we have begun filming in is far more suitable for the storyline. Photographs of our new location will be posted by wednesday when we re-shoot some of our footage, and make the relevent changes to it.

posted by Jo.

Editiing

We have begun to Edit The film that we have shot in the editing suite We have Got all of the clips in order, And also cut down the shots too the correct Length, However, due to some of the shots not coming out as planned, We will have to Re shoot some of the footage, We also took several shots in Photograph mode Accidentally, So therefore we will have to re shoot this.

Mean Streets opening analysis

The opening credits is filmed with an old style camera. The footage crackles, and is not of a standard quality. We are led into the life of the main character, as we see him during different encounters with various other people. The credits themselves, are hyphenated, and spread round the image in the middle at random, which complements the gritty image the opening creates. The music over the top is seventies love song, which suggests nostalgia. It is essentially a mini narrative, in that it is a separate story, but still introduces characters.

Posted by Michael.

'The Rock' Opening credits analysis

The mini narrative accompanied with the credits sets the scene as to what the film is about. The mini narrative itself is based around one of the main characters and eventually sets up the storyline for the movie. The audience can tell from this that the film is about something to do with war and fighting, there are shots of helicopters flying in silhouetted against a sunset. there are also quick cuts to images of explosions suggesting again about war.
The credits themselves introduce and inform the audience of the main actors and director, the style of the writing used is formal and not inappropriate for the subject of the mini narrative. the color is white again appropriate for the mini narrative.

Posted by Tom C

Credits Analysis

I analyzed the opening credits of Dexter, a thriller TV series. Dexter is a serial killer, and the opening credits suggest he is so because of the way it is edited and filmed. The credits act as a mini-narrative. When he is shaving, he draws blood, which drips down, and is zoomed in on. Also, they way he prepares his breakfast, it could be seen as him preparing to eat a person. The slow motion shots of him slicing meat and oranges suggest bodily parts. The credits themselves are blood red, which is very apt for the shows content. They also appear in different places, which suggests the show is not formulaic.

Posted by Michael

Wednesday's Filming

Filming went very well. We filmed lots of different shots to make sure we had enough footage to edit. Ollie, Tom Browns actor friend, was not only professional, but willing to do anything we said. We managed to complete our shoots with Ollie. We experimented with some shots, and tried them from different angles to add some pizazz to our piece of work.

Posted by Jo, Tom C, and Michael

Vertigo opening sequence.

The opening sequence starts off with an extreme close up of a woman's face, she's half in the left hand corner of the frame, and low key lighting is used. The characters face is really dark and shadowy. The camera stays on this character for a few seconds and then pans to the left of the frame until the character is in the middle of the frame. But the audience can still only see half the woman's face. The text used in this sequence is white and pretty plain. This colour used for the font is a contrast to the dark background. The font used is mainly outline text as the font is not a block color.

When the text appears the camera movement zooms into just the characters mouth. And then pan's up to the woman's eye's, the character looks scared and worried.

The font movement moves down from above of the frame and into the center of the frame. This opening sequence is a bit long, and slow pace compared to the others, and audiences may get bored of watching.

Posted by Jo.

More research from other films.. The orphanage

Although this is not part of the opening credits of the film, it is the trailer for the film. I thought this could still be used as research, as it's still analysing the film, just not the titles, or font.

The opening trailer uses a lot of medium shots at eye level. Each shot is a quick cut to create suspense and enigma. Each shot always makes the audience want to see more of whats going on. The lighting used is low key to create a sense of mystery to the film. As if the trailer used high key lighting it would not fit with the sequence.

Reseach from other films...

Damages the opening credits




The opening credits starts off quickly, with very quick cuts to the next image, the music matches the pace of the images. The music is non diegetic, as its a soundtrack.
The opening credits are seperate to the opening sequence, but instead of the screen being plain black, they are set aganist images as a mini narrative of their own. Which helps to add to the narrative in some way. This also sometimes adds enigma.

The images being shown are mainly low angled shots, at eyelevel. and some medium close up shots of the status, and a characters hands.

The titles used are the same colour grey as the stateus, which is a great contrast between the black background and the grey of the stateus and the font. The style of the font fits perfectly with the images.

Posted by Jo.