Wednesday 6 April 2016

Evaluation Part: 7 " Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? "

For our title sequence, I decided to work in a group along with Danny and Jacob. Danny decided to take the role of cinematography, Jacob took the role of finding the fonts, soundtrack and costumes, whilst I took the role of editing. Throughout the majority of the process, me and Danny decided to work closely together on cinematography, as well as editing. This mainly consisted of both of us just giving eachother feedback in general in order to help improve and benefit the outcome of our title sequence.

Overall, in my opinion, I feel as though I have learnt and expanded my knowledge in terms of the different varieties of skills and techniques on things such as Final Cut Pro, compared to at the beginning of the editing task for the title sequence. I feel as though I have properly learnt how to use the software correctly and to a higher and greater level. For example, I have learnt how to add effective colours and filters in order to either improve the lighting/colour quality of a scene or to tone it down. I felt as though it was essential for me to learn this due to the fact that on the day of shooting our 'Rebels' scene, it was an extremely bright and sunny day and our cameras managed to pick this up, meaning that this affected the overall look of the scene on Final Cut. So, by knowing how to correct the lighting and tone down the saturation/hue of this scene, I was able to solve the issue and overall make the tone much darker in order to fit the rest of the title sequence. Furthermore, I also learnt how to layer different filters and effects in order to convey across to the audience our idea of the plot through the title sequence. This proved to be most effective on The Rebels scene and The Scavengers scene, giving the audience a more found footage feel/effect, along with a CCTV feel/effective. Furthermore, I also took it upon myself to learn how to incorporate a video playing over an existing recorded video by using our green screen. I managed to learn to do this when our group was recording our 3 evaluation answers via video. I learnt to have our title sequence continuously playing throughout our responses. I did this by simply going on to Final Cut Pro, finding the 'keyer' effect and placing that over our recorded response. This them made the background black, which allowed me to them drag and drop our title sequence underneath allowing it to repeatedly by played throughout our answers.

Personally, I feel as though it is most essential and vital to prioritise planning time and, keeping track on times in terms of when everybody is free to shoot or edit. This is because at the initial beginning of the creating process for the title sequence, we didn't necessarily have a time schedule/production log to work with. However, we - as a group - learnt from this mistake, sat down and made a production log and we made sure that we stuck by this at all times, meaning that we achieved what needed to be achieved within reasonable time. I also found that planning and preparing is most essential as it meant that we had a clear perception, a clear image and a clear direction in terms of the route we wanted the title sequence to follow.

Looking back at our preliminary task, there were inevitably difficulties in working within a group. However, we learnt that it was important to overcome these difficulties and co-operate together as a team. Initially, at the beginning of the process, we didn't necessarily communicate appropriately as a team, resulting in some of the group members not appearing or coming to some of the shoots. However, to solve this difficulty, we made a group chat in which we all interacted with each other in order to avoid this difficulty occurring again in the future. Another difficulty we faced was that we would essentially have to re-shoot scenes for our title sequence (even after being edited). For example, our first draft version of our title sequence showed the same actors acting twice in the Scavengers scene and the Rebels scene. Furthermore, after the class feedback, we found that people couldn't distinguish the difference between the two groups. So, to solve this problem, we felt it was necessary to re-shoot the Rebels scene completely, with a new different set of actors and a different representation of them. Essentially, I found that feedback is key throughout the process of creating the title sequence as this gave me and the group an opportunity to listen to what our audience wanted and, for us to improve whatever is necessary in order to please the audience.

Evaluation Part: 6 " What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product ? "




Our group response via video

Tuesday 5 April 2016

Evaluation Part: 4 " Who would be the audience for your media product? "+ 5 " How did you attract/address your audience ? "

For questions 4 + 5, we as a group decided to answer them together due to them being very similar.



Our group  response via video

Furthermore, I also wanted to add that in order to attract/address our audience, we listened and read through multiple amounts of feedback from our classmates and teachers. We ensured that we took their feedback, listened to their wants and needs and made sure we made the improvements in order to please and appeal to our audience.

Friday 1 April 2016

Evaluation Part: 1 " In what ways does your media product use, develop or chalenge forms and conventions of real media products? "


 My response for this answer was via PowerPoint

Title Sequence Evaluation

For our title sequence, I made sure that I worked and followed closely to our given brief and specification for our title sequence for our movie of 'Genesis: The Uprising'. I decided to work in a group, consisting of me, Danny and Jacob (aka Bobby). Initially, for our title sequence and movie, we decided as a group that we wanted to essentially make a movie that would hold as a Dystopian/Sci-Fi movie - which is essentially a sub-genre. The narrative of our movie consists of a dystopian future with different cults and groups forming who aspire to take down the government of this society, however, the government is in fact one step ahead and are planning to overthrow and eliminate these groups and, they are tracking their every move via CCTV and found footage being sent to them. Our title sequence sets up for the rest of our movie as the plot/narrative is briefly introduced through the beginning of the movie via our title sequence.

 Purposely, the title sequence creates and sets up enigmas for the audience to question, hopefully making the audience intrigued and wanting to actually stay on and watch the rest of the movie to see what happens next, such as: why the government wants to overthrow and eliminate these groups/cults and why these cults wants to overthrow and destroy the government.

In my opinion, I feel as though the title of our movie 'Genesis: The Uprising' fits well with the narrative of our movie as genesis means the beginning or creation of a narrative. This links with the idea of the dystopian future society forming and creating cults in order to overthrow the government and, how this society simply has to find a new way of living due to the new world order set by the higher classed government. Furthermore, uprising is something I found fitting for the narrative of our movie as this links well with the cults rising upwards together in order to overthrow the government and, come out on top successfully. The genre of our movie is a sub-genre of both dystopian and sci-fi.

Thursday 31 March 2016

Title Sequence - The Final Version



This is our final and finished version of our title sequence for our movie, 'Genesis: The Uprising'.

Monday 28 March 2016

Editing our 3 Answers for the evaluation

In order to edit our 3 answers (via video) for our evaluation on our title sequence, we have decided that we will come into school within our own time during the half term in order to edit the answers using Final Cut Pro.

Wednesday 23 March 2016

Furthermore, today, me, Danny and Jacob have decided to begin recording and planning ideas for our evaluation for our title sequence. Today, we used a tri-pod, a camera, high-key lighting and, a greenscreen behind us. We decided to use a greenscreen for the recording process of our evaluation as we thought it would be best to screen our title sequence behind us whilst we provide our answers to the camera. We brainstormed all of our answers for our evaluation the day before and have now gotten around to recording 3 answers to 3 of the evaluation questions. This leaves me now to edit the recorded parts of our evaluation and, for the other remaining answers, we will be answering them in another digital and interactive format 
Today, me and Danny have decided to improve our title sequence by incorporating all of the feedback we had previously received and, improving our title sequence. We have changed the font to a more simple yet with a sci-fi tone, but we kept the Dark Underground font for the end titles of the sequence. Furthermore, we decided to space out where the names would pop up throughout the sequence. Finally, we decided to incorporate the found footage, cam-corder feel to our updated Rebels scene is this was what was mentioned during our feedback. 

Tuesday 22 March 2016



For our screening of the second draft, improved version of our title sequence, we received again another set of feedback from our class mates and our teacher in terms of what has been improved since the previous screening. We received praise on things such as: the lead government man (kaseem) pointing angrily at the CCTV board and, the re-shoot of our Rebels scene. Upon editing, I actually found that our original Illuminati sequence that featured a focus pull with Jacob was still on my Apple Mac. So, I decided to add this version into our improved title sequence. Classmates felt as though the narrative was conveyed much clearer than previously and, that the re-shot version of our Rebels scene looked much more fitting compared to the original Rebel scene. However, some feedback that we had received was that people weren't too fond of our font choices and, felt as though the appearances of the text on screen was out of place. Also, some classmates felt as though our Rebels scene should be similar to The Scavengers scene in terms of also including a found footage, handheld camera filter. All feedback on this day has been taken into account and will be added and improved to our official final version of our title sequence. 

Preparing for our Evaluation

For our evaluation, me, Danny and Jacob have sat down within our own spare time in order to start preparing answers for the 7 evaluation questions. We made a variety of mind maps for 4 of the questions that we decided to answer. We brain stormed ideas for each of the questions that we chose. The 4 questions we chose was:
  • " What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product ? "
  • " Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product ? "
  • " What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why ? "
  •  " How did you attract/address your audience ? "
After brainstorming our ideas for these 4 questions, we decided to present the answers for these 4 questions in particular through a fun interactive media technique which was to film it in front of a green screen. We decided to play our title sequence continuously on repeat through the duration of our answers. For the remaining 3 other questions, we decided we were going to experiment with other fun interactive techniques by using things such as: PowerPoint, Prezi and actually posting blogs on to Blogger. 

Thursday 17 March 2016

Mistakes Made Whilst Filming

Whilst filming for our title sequence, there was a variety of things that could be deemed as a mistake that occurred at different times. When going to film at The Shard building, we decided not to use the tripod in order to get the panning shot, tilting from the top of the building to the bottom. As a result, when it came to uploading the clips onto 'Final Cut Pro', we found that the shots we took came out as shaky as we used a handheld camera. When editing, I then had to find a different shot that we took and reverse it on Final Cut and, we used the 'Stabilisation' effect to ensure it wasn't shaky. 

Tuesday 15 March 2016

Government Leader CCTV Shoot

Today, me, Danny and Jacob managed to go to our schools library (the 'iBrary') and shoot an extra scene with the Government Leader (actor Kazeem). As I had previously created the 4 different pieces of CCTV for each cult and group and put them all together, I put a big red cross over each one to insinuate to the audience that Kazeem isn't of favour or the cults and simply wants to take them down. I created this using Photoshop. The scene we shot today shows Kazeem pointing furiously at the different groups, with over the shoulder shots and close-up shots of him done by Danny. Once the shooting for today was finished, I proceeded to go and edit the footage using 'Final Cut Pro'. I incorporated the recently shot scenes into the beginning of each cult members being shown within the title sequence in order to make it clearer for the audience to understand that what is being shown links together with the government scene from the beginning of the sequence. 


Monday 14 March 2016

CCTV Footage Scene

In order to make the Government scene stand out more and be more noticeable in terms of following the plot, I have decided to create a poster including all 4 CCTV footages from all 4 of the cults/groups. This part of the scene will be used when the leader of the government is delivering his speech for his hatred towards these groups and that he wishes to execute them all and take them all down. The poster includes all 4 of the cults through CCTV and will have big red crosses over them to show that the government will take them all down.


Friday 11 March 2016

Rebels Scene Re-Shoot

Today, me, Jacob and Danny managed to gather a couple of our sixth form friends in order to act for the re-shooting of our 'Rebels' scene for out title sequence. Due to having received not very favourable feedback a from our classmates and teachers about our previous 'Rebels' scene, we decided to change the original concept and re-shoot the scene with a different cast and a different locations. I decided to take in charge the cinematography so I decided to experiment with using different camera shots, different camera angles and different camera techniques like focus pulls and zooming in and out of different characters. This scene consists of the 'Rebels' group going about their daily routine, with their guns and masks at the ready but, they are actually being recorded through CCTV footage that is planted by the Government. We have decided to alter something quite significant within our title sequence and that is that the Government have indeed put in secret CCTV footage in order to view and keep track of each different cults/groups. In terms of miss-en-scene, this will prove most effective because previously, we used the original map that I created to establish each group. But now, we will be using CCTV footage that displays the names of the groups and, we will used props and symbols in order to represent the group/cults in order for the audience to have a clearer understanding of who is who. 

Tuesday 8 March 2016

Feedback on first rough cut/copy of the title sequence

Here is our first rough draft/first rough copy of our title sequence for our movie 'Genesis: The Uprising'.



Today I screened the first rough copy/first rough edit of our title sequence. We had to display our fist draft of the title sequences in front of our class and both of our teachers, whilst they took notes and provided me with feedback on what had went well with the first draft, what needed improvements and what completely doesn't work. I have taken the feedback from our classmates and our teachers and I will be looking to improve upon the faults that were being picked up upon.


I have decided to make a powerpoint in order to display the different feedbacks that I received from my classmates and from my teachers. I have reviewed and evaluated the feedback I had received and I will ensure that I take on board what needs correcting and what actually needs improving. The most common feedback that I received was that the use of editing and the cinematography used was mostly what people liked and enjoyed. However, what people mainly thought needed improving was that the camera was a bit shaky at the beginning of the sequence and, that the narrative isn't too clear. I will take this on board and try my hardest to improve the sequence. 

Thursday 3 March 2016

Me, Danny and Jacob have begun working on editing our title sequence for Media studies. Me, Danny and Jacob have been staying to edit the shots we've recorded for our title sequence over the past week using Final Cut Pro on the Apple iMac.

We have done multiple draft versions of our title sequence, ensuring that we can edit and alter what we already have so that it fits our vision and direction for the genre. In terms of altering certain things for our vision/direction, we found we had to re-shoot a scene. For our Illuminati sequence, we originally discovered that the file hadn't saved and loaded properly onto Final Cut, meaning that we unfortunately lost the footage. But, on Thursday 3rd March, we decided to take the initiative and re-shoot our Illuminati sequence again, using the drama room. We played around with the lighting equipments provided by the drama room in order to get our desired effect. 


On top of this, we decided to shoot the scene (again on Thursday 3rd March) for the Evangelists and the Illuminati scene. We again used the drama department and played around with the different varieties of lighting equipments that were provided. We used symbolic religious imagery in terms of Mise-En-Scene as the setting was brightly lit, almsot as if this scene was spiritual and illuminating. We also used the Jesus' Cross symbol again for the imagery aspect. Ultimately, we still have to shoot one more scene which shows the government leader entering into the building and meeting his secretary who directs him to his meeting and then, we should have the majority of the title sequence finished (along with any more re-shoots that may need to be considered).


Wednesday 2 March 2016

The Title of our Movie

In order to create the title for our movie, we used an effect on 'Final Cut Pro' called 'Tumble 3D'. This allowed the titles to pop up on screen and then slowly but appropriately flip away backwards into the blank background. We used the font of the 'Dark Underground' in order to get the dark, bold and gritty font, which fits the theme/genre of our title sequence. I also decided to use the 'flashing' effect over the text so that it stands out and is eye-catching   

The Order of the Credits

1. " 20th Century Fox Presents "
2. " A Film Directed by Ridley Scott "
3. " Tom Hardy "
4. " Gemma Arterton "
5. " Idris Elba "
6. " Matt Bomer "
7. " Produced by Sam Raimi "
8. " Edited by Tyrell Bibbiani "
9. " Cinematography by Danny Wright "
10. " Executive Producer Elina Roditou "
11. " Soundtrack by Danny Elfman "
12. " Genesis: The Uprising "

Thursday 25 February 2016

Shooting Locations

For our title sequence, we as a group have decided long and hard in terms of the variety of different locations in which we are going to shoot our title sequence. Initially, we want to shoot at London's Shard building in order to have an establishing shot for where our Government meeting will be taking place. This proved to be highly effective for out title sequence because it is essentially a very busy place, involving lots of busy people trying to get to their destinations.

For our Illuminati sequence/Evangelist sequence, we decided that we want to shoot these scenes within our school's drama room. This proved to be a very good setting and location for these scenes as the room has many features in terms of lighting that we could mess around with and alter to our likings. We used low-key lighting for the Illuminati scene and we then contrasted using high-key lighting for the Evangelist scene. The drama room essentially provided an essence of eeriness and darkness, which is the route we were looking for for our title sequence. 

For the actual government scene, we used our school's main library named the 'iBrary'. This proved to be effective as it had a wide and long table for all of our government/actors to sit on. We also had a projector which displayed the map behind the main government leader. 

Finally, for our Scavengers and Rebels scene, we went to Fanny On The Hill park, creating a wooden stick hut and involving our actors climbing upon trees. We then went around the corner to shoot our Rebels scene, which featured a graffiti wall and had a gritty essence around the location, which me and Danny thought was perfect for the theme we were going for for this scene.

Wednesday 24 February 2016

Our Fonts

For our font choices for out title sequence, I have done a bit of investigating into which fonts in particular best suits the dystopian theme of our genre for the titles. After spending multiple and countless times searching through the website 'Dafont.com', I came across a font in particular that I felt really stood out and fitted very well for the font on our government's map. I used the font style of 'Orion' to achieve this as I felt as though it was bold and eye-catching, which is essentially what I felt was needed.


For the titles and names that appears during the title sequence, we again investigated and looked into different fonts within 'Dafont'. We finally came across a font in particular in which we again felt fitted the theme of our title sequence, with this font being the 'Dark Underground' font. We chose this font as we felt it appeared to look very gritty yet bold and again, eye-catching.



Tuesday 23 February 2016

On Thursday 18th February 2016, me, Danny and Jacob decided to meet to shoot the scenes for our Rebels and Scavengers for our title sequence. Unfortunately, due to miscommunication, Jacob wasn't able to come and film with us on the day. So, me and Danny brought the tri-pod and the two cameras with us. We decided to use the location of Fanny on the Hill park in Welling for both of our scenes. Luckily, we managed to get 3 actors to act the parts. In the park near the woods, we managed to build and create a mini-set of survival things such as: shelters made of twigs, an amateur clothing line and an stack of twigs for a fire. We then shot this and took multiple angles and camera shots to achieve the vision we wanted for this Scavengers scene.

For the Rebels scene, we went to a back road near the park in Welling. Down this road, we saw a wall covered in graffiti, with the road looking quite desolate. We came supplied with 4 fake guns for our actors to use for the Rebels scene, along with scarfs and bandanas to create an atmosphere of mystery and, to make them look the part for this particular scene. We also experimented with different camera angles and different camera shots to help achieve the visions we had set. 

On Tuesday 16th February, me, Danny and Jacob traveled into London in order to capture the two establishing shots that we needed: The Shard and a Church. We took a tri-pod and two cameras. At the Shard, we recorded using both the cameras on the tri-pod and, the camera seperately to give a hand-held effect. We panned left and right to try and get the full effect of the Shard and, we titled the cameras going from top to bottom and from bottom to top. As we traveled deeper into London, we also decided it was necessary to record the outside of a church, again using the tri-pod and camera together and then the camera seperately. These two establishing scenes that we shot were for our government scene and for out evangelist scene in our title sequence. 

Monday 22 February 2016

The Soundtrack

For the soundtrack for our title sequence, we decided to go on to the un-copyrighted website 'audio'. We managed to find the soundtrack that we wanted from this website and use it as the soundtrack for out title sequence. Personally, I like this soundtrack because it is a soundtrack that builds, grows and develops as our title sequence progresses. The soundtrack at the beginning of title sequence begins very dramatically but slowly, but as the sequence progresses further, it becomes more intense and dramatic. Whilst editing, I purposely ensured that when each cast members names appeared on screen, it fitted well everytime the song peaked at particular points.





Sunday 21 February 2016

Production Log

In order to know when, what time, who will be there, where we will be shooting and what equipment's I will be needing, our group has decided to use a production log in order to maintain our time well and prioritise things that needs doing. We have decided to use a production log so that we can all agree on the dates and times for our shooting for out title sequence and we can all keep up to date on any recent information regarding this.


Storyboards

We have storyboarded our ideas for our title sequence by hand-drawing each different scenes. We have demonstrated roughly our ideas on the basis of what we kind of want each scene to look like. Although this isn't necessarily the final copy/version of the way our title sequence looks, it is a rough idea as to how we want the finished version of our title sequence to look like. 










Tuesday 16 February 2016

Our Map


For our title sequence, we have decided to create a map consisting of the different names of our cults and groups. It features a futuristic outtake of a city and includes highlighted areas of where the different cults are staying. We created the map using Photoshop and we managed to find the font of 'Orion' for the typography used on our map. 



Friday 12 February 2016

Yesterday, me, Danny and Bobby decided to go to the drama room and film our Illuminati scene for our title sequence. We made sure that Bobby was dressed in a dark black cloak, and with the advantage of using the drama room, we had access to the lighting equipment within the room. We used a standard camera on a tri-pod and we thought that it would be interesting to use the crane equipment to try and make a high angled shot. We used match on action to show Bobby walking towards within the dark room. We tried to use a focus pull at the beginning when Bobby emerges from the darkness. 

Tuesday 9 February 2016

Today, me, Jacob and Danny managed to gather a group of people who were willing to act and be a part of the process for creating our title sequence. Today we began to shoot the first essential scenes of our title sequence: The Government. Today we managed to shoot our main leader/minister of the government and his secretary escorting him in to the conference room in which a meeting was being held by the member of governments (MG's). As I created and finished the map for our title sequence, we were able to upload my map on to an interactive whiteboard and essentially have that present throughout the scenes. Today we managed to use a variety of different camera shots/angles (without break the 180 degree rule) and, used a variety of math on action shots, close ups, tracking and, zooming in and outwards when necessary.

Monday 8 February 2016

Today, me and Jacob decided to start work on the map for our title sequence. We managed to find a photo off of Google of a futuristic city style map and, we decided to put this on to Photoshop using the iMac's and begin editing the image to our specific tastes. After putting the image of the map on to Photoshop, we decided to use Google Images to search for symbols that could represent the different cults (The Evangelists, The Rebels, The Illuminati, The Scavengers and The Government) located around the city map. After this, we used 'Dafont' to find a font that we felt was appropriate and fitting to the style of our map and, the style of our title sequence. The font that we decided to use was the font 'Orion' taken from Dafont.
As we are getting closer to the production of our title sequence for the Dystopian themed move "Genesis: The Uprising", i will be documenting mine and my groups' process through Blogger in the form of a diary/journal. Every time we make a decision or creating/adding something new to our title sequence, I will update this process through Blogger. 

Saturday 6 February 2016

The Actors

The actors in which we will be using for our title sequence varies in terms of star power. It consists of well-known actors and a couple of unknown actors. We decided to use approximately 3 well-known actors because we don't necessarily have a huge budget range, meaning that for our film, we need to limit how much we spend on our budget.



  • Director = Ridley Scott 


  • Tom Hardy = 



  • Idris Elba = 




  • Gemma Arterton = 

  • Matt Bomer 
To act within our title sequence, we managed to gather a couple of our friends within our sixth form, with the majority of them used throughout our title sequence and ourselves (me, Danny and Jacob) also in a couple of our scenes. 

Friday 5 February 2016

The Budget

For our title sequence 'Genesis: The Uprising', we have decided to go for a budget of $156million. This is what most common dystopian-actioned theme genres budgets consists of (with the likes of The Matrix and I,Robot). This budget will allow us to venture deeper into the action themed route and will allow our movie to have a greater use of CGI and be able to cast the ensemble cast of famous actors like Tom Hardy and Idris Elba, resulting in star power. 

Research into Sounds

Our title sequence is shown to be very fast paced, full with different scenes happening. So, we fill that the soundtrack to go along with our title sequence should be adventurous and dramatic in order to go along with the events taking place within the sequence. 


  • The first piece of music I have been looking at that I feel fits our title sequence would be "Crime Against The Person" which i found on the website ' https://audionetwork.lgfl.org.uk/production-music/crime-against-the-person_11243.aspx '. I have taken this soundtrack in to consideration as I feel as though it is dramatic, eerie and fits well with the direction in which our title sequence wants to go in. 


  • The next soundtrack I have taken in to consideration for our title sequence is "Stratosphere". Again, I found this on the website of  ' https://audionetwork.lgfl.org.uk/production-music/stratosphere_25278.aspx ' . I have decided to consider this one as it is also dramatic, suspenseful and creepy, which also fits with the direction in which we want to go to for our title sequence. 



  • The last soundtrack I have decided to look at for our title sequence is "Death Blade". I again found this on the website ' https://audionetwork.lgfl.org.uk/production-music/death-blade_3328.aspx ' . I have decided to also consider this one as again it is gritty and eerie, full with suspense. 

Thursday 4 February 2016

Genesis: The Uprising Pitch

We decided to create a pitch for our classmates, outlining the plot of the movie, the casting, similar movies within our Dystopian genre and, what studio company would distribute our movie and, how much it would essentially cost to make our movie whilst having a set idea of how much money we will make.

The Production/Distribution Company

For our title sequence and for our movie 'Genesis: The Uprising', we have decided to use the production and very famous distribution company of '20th Century Fox'. The reason for this is essentially because this company is part of the 'Big 6' movie distributing and production companies. 20th Century Fox is the company behind many successful films such as: Deadpool, X-Men, The Maze Runner and the prequel Star Wars trilogy. We feel as though using a company as big as 20th Century Fox would be most highly beneficial for our movie as this company has proven to be highly successful in terms of producing and distributing huge and worldwide blockbuster movies. This company has also demonstrated its success for our direction for our movie. 

Wednesday 3 February 2016

Movies similar to our title sequence genre

As part of my research and planning into the genre of my title sequence, I have done some looking into and some research into other similar movies that I believe the genre of my dystopian movie/title sequence fits into.
 
I,Robot (directed by Alex Proyas) was released in 2004 and starred a very successful actor: Will Smith. The movie had a budget of $120million and managed to gather a total of $347.2million on the movies box office. This movie is about a detective who lives in a dystopian future who has a certain view point and stigma upon robots and machines - which has begun to take control over the futuristic city of Chicago. As the movie progresses, we see the robots eventually begin to take over control of themselves and causing anarchy and chaos on the streets.



The Matrix (directed by the then known 'Wachowski Brothers') was released in 1999 by Warner Bros. studios. The movie starred Keanu Reeves and Lawrence Fishbourne. The movie had a budget of $63million and managed to gather a total of $463.5million on the box office. The narrative of the movie is about a future dystopian world being run by machines with humans remaining as the charging power for the machines, remaining alive in a vessel. The humans body's are kept serving for the machines, but their minds are transported to the computer-fake world: The Matrix.
 
 
 

Equilibrium (directed by Kurt Wimmer) is a 2002 movie. The movie had a budget of $20million and managed to gather a total of just $5.3million. This means that the movie heavily underperformed and failed to make back any profit at all due to the very little revenue that the movie managed to generate. The plot of the movie revolves around the year of 2072 after the 3rd World War and we - as the audience - see how a dystopian society recovers from the traumatic experience and, how the world lives through the strong hold and control of the government and their rules.




















 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Tuesday 2 February 2016

Audience Profile for 'Genesis: The Uprising'


Title sequence designer + Saul Bass research:

Kyle Cooper:

Kyle Cooper is a famous title sequence designer and, is best known for the amount of distinctive title sequences in which he has created over the many years. He was born in 1962 and studied graphics design at Yale University - Massachusetts. He created many iconic title sequences over the years, ranging from popular TV shows such as: American Horror Story, Scream Queens and The Walking Dead, to famous movies such as: the Spider-Man trilogy, Mission Impossible, Seven and Dawn of the Dead.



Saul Bass:

Saul Bass is a famous title sequence designer and, is best known for his distinctive and recognisable style. He was born in 1920 and died in 1996. He was a graphics designer and was solely famous for his classic logo styled designs. In his earlier life, he studied graphics design at the Art Students League in Manhattan. He then went on to work as a freelance graphic designer. His posters consisted of bold and strong colours but, with basic shapes. Once he became discovered, he managed to take on 60+ title sequences. The title sequence he was best known for was for the movie 'The Man With a Golden Arm' and 'It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World'.


Monday 1 February 2016

What Actually Happens Within Our Title Sequence?

Our title sequence revolves around the idea of the Government (set in a Dystopian futuristic world) opposing and keeping track upon the different cults within the society and observing them, plotting a way to take each cult down one at a time. Our sequence involves shots of the map displaying the whereabouts of the cults. We then cut between different montages of the different cults with the names of the cast, production companies and the title of the movie being displayed throughout.

Friday 29 January 2016

Genesis: The Uprising, title sequence planning and evaluation

For our title sequence, we have decided to go for the theme of a Dystopian-action themed genre. The reasoning behind this is due to our budget (which is set at $156million). With this given budget, this allows our group to go for the route of a more action themed movie.

The narrative for our groups title sequence consists of the idea of a government owned society (set in a dystopian future) that is looking to be overthrown by different and smaller cults/communities. These cults consists of:
  • The Illuminati
  • Scavengers
  • Rebels
  • The Government
  • The Evangelists
Our title sequence involves shots of a high tech map, created by the government. This map shows where in the dystopian city these different cults and communities actually live in. The map is shown within a conference room which consists of all of the other government members, almost as if a meeting as to how the government can take out the cults. As the narration goes on, we will be shown the different cults through 10-15 second clips. The casts, production companies and, the title of the movie will be displayed throughout the title sequence.

We will be shooting at locations such as the London's Shard as this will be the location in which the government's meeting will be held. Then, once inside to show 'Tom Hardy' walking towards the conference room, we will shoot these scenes within Welling School. This is also where the map and conference will be held.

The Illuminati scenes will be shot within Welling School inside a drama room. This will consist of the Illuminati members walking along a trail of candles laid on the floor, walking toward the 'Devil's trap' on the floor. The Illuminati members will also be chanting at the camera.

The scavengers group will be shown in a location that appears very desolate and empty (like an abandoned building/factory) with a bin being lit on fire and, the scavengers using the heat from the fire.

The evangelists will be shot within an ancient/traditional church, showing a priest, people praying and, close up shots on the stained glass windows and, religious imagery within the church.

The rebels group will show the characters holding weaponry and, wearing scruffy clothing. The title sequence will essentially end with the title of the movie "Genesis: The Uprising".

Interestingly, when I looked at the other movies that are similar to mine - in terms of genre - their title sequences usually revolve around the style of the typography and, the style of the title sequence being either computer graphics based or, real life acting and gritty. For our title sequence, we have researched 2 other title sequences within the dystopian genre; The Matrix and Children of Men. The Matrix's title sequence is completely CGI based whereas the Children of Men's title sequence is real life acting based. So, for our title sequence, we are looking to essentially combine the two ideas of graphics based (the map) and real life acting. These techniques have both been shown to be useful and effective for them two movies so, we feel it is appropriate to incorporate these ideas in to our title sequence.

Wednesday 20 January 2016

Research into my own genre of my title sequence:

For my title sequence, me and my group have decided to focus around the idea and sub-genre of 'Dystopia'. For our title sequence, we want to focus on the idea of anarchy, chaos, the idea of the government and specific cults and - most importantly - the idea of a dystopian future.

  I have decided to have a research and a look in to the dystopian sub-genre and have a couple of notable points to include and discuss. For example, dystopian genres of movies usually consists of the idea of a futuristic world that has gone wrong. Essentially, a dystopian society is the direct opposite to a utopian society. This essentially means that this particular genre focuses on the theme of disaster and chaos, with a theme of darkness throughout. Interestingly, this title sequence gives the audience a bit of a backstory as to the events that have happened to this world. This saves the movie time of having to do an origin story.

A title sequence I feel fits within the theme of my genre is the opening title sequence for the dystopian themed movie 'Children of Men'. This title sequence provides an essential backstory for the audience through news reports and newspaper articles. We see a futuristic set world that has an issue with infertility levels rising. We get to see the P.O.V. of different social classes within the dystopian world, from rich to poor.


Another example of a dystopian themed movie is the 1999 'The Matrix'. The focus of this movie is that in the near future. humans have been taken over by the war of machines and, the machines now stores humans as a source of power. However, to ensure that the humans remain in a stationary state of mind, the machines have created another world in which the humans' mind can go to, a virtual reality world called 'The Matrix'. I feel as though this is a good example of a dystopian themed movie as this movie plays around with the theme of a futuristic endangered world. In terms of the title sequence, the production company 'Warner Bros.'is first established. Then, we are introduced to the CGI green codes of The Matrix with a dramatic themed soundtrack. Not much is given away from this title sequence however, it then goes on to the opening sequence of the movie. So, this means that the audience are straight away jumped into the matrix world and, the plot of the movie.

Tuesday 19 January 2016

4 Title Sequence Analysis

'Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol' (2011) - Directed by Brad Bird:



In the title sequence for the 2011 movie 'Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol', the title sequence begins after a short opening sequence played at the beginning of the movie. The title sequence begins with one of the characters igniting the fuse/spark which runs along the wire, leading to an explosion. What is significant about this is that this is key iconography that represents and establishes precisely what this genre of the movie is about... Action. The title sequence is completely CGI'd with key scenes taken from the actual movie.

Throughout the majority of the title sequence, there are a variety of different settings established. Such as, under water, through sewer pipes, through to the city and then, the spark that is running along these settings comes back to where it was ignited in the beginning at the end of the title sequence. The main title of the movie appears at the beginning of the sequence, along with the cast members names displayed afterwards. In regards of the genre of the movie being established, there are explosions displayed and, fast car chases, which again alludes to the audience what the movie consists of.

The purpose of this title sequence is to put the viewer through the perspective of this spark running along the wire. Throughout this journey, you get to see the majority of the settings in which the movies events takes place in. Furthermore, the purpose of this title sequence is to inform the audience what the genre this movie is going to be about, which is essentially action.

'Napoleon Dynamite' (2004) - Directed by Jared Hess:




In the title sequence for 2004's 'Napoleon Dynamite', it is obvious straight away that this sequence is essentially low budgeted. This is because the props, objects and style of the title sequence looks very cheap yet, very creative - compared to the typical title sequences that are displayed in higher budgeted movies.

What is interesting and, arguably creative about this title sequence is that the casting and the typography used is shown through different pieces of food and, different objects. What these different pieces of foods and objects represents is that this movie is set within high school, alluding to the fact that the genre of this movie is a teen comedy. The soundtrack used throughout it very funky and, has an almost 70's vibe to it. The colour scheme is very bright and saturated, keeping the title sequence engaging for the audience.

The purpose of this title sequence is to show the audience its creativity and quirkiness through the funky choice of music and, the way the typography is written on the objects and food. Although this title sequence hardly gives anything away about the plot of this movie, it is still clear enough to the audience that the genre in which this movie is set in is teen comedy/drama.  

'Children of Men' (2006) - Directed by Alfonso Cuaron:



In the title sequence for 2006's 'Children of Men', it is tangent that compared to higher budgeted movies title sequences, this one is lower budgeted. You can tell that the movie is about a dystopian city due to the news paper reports dates.

The movie is set as a drama and, a sci-fi movie - which is a subgenre. The news paper articles declares how infertility rates decrease, which is a significant point because these newspaper reports allows the audience to have an insight in to the plot of the movie and, provides a bit of background knowledge into this movies already established world. Scenes of anarchy is displayed towards the end of sequence. Interestingly, it could be argued that throughout the title sequence, it is from the view points of different montages from the rich side of the world/city, to the poor side of the society. This is most evident when at the beginning of the sequence, we see state of the art technology being used, whereas towards the end of the sequence, we see poverty and run down environments. The soundtrack used begins to pick up speed and become fast paced, with the typography of the casting being bold and gritty. It is interesting to note that when the main title of the movie appears at the end of the trailer, the writing is put together in the colours of white and red. This is interesting as the colour white carries the connotations of purity and good, whereas the colour of red connotes violence, evil and savagery - which these are the issues that are focused upon throughout the title sequence.

The purpose of this title sequence is to provide the audience with the essential backstory of the movie. The reasoning for this is so that the audience are not left confused when the movie jumps straight in to the plot and the action.

'Django Unchained' (2012) - Directed by Quinten Tarrentino:




In the title sequence for 2012's 'Django Unchained', it is clear that the genre for this movie is essentially western. The entire title sequence is made completely out of CGI and, features the cast members and of course the main title of the movie. The title sequence takes place through an old barn.

The iconography used throughout the title sequence is vital within this sequence due to the fact that this is the key indication as to the genre of the movie. For example, there are old fashioned carriages displayed, with barn houses and, classic + western guns shown. What is interesting to note is that we are shown an actual chain towards the end of the sequence which is a smart reference to the title of the movie due to it being called 'Unchained'. We then see the chain being broken at the end, again referencing the title. What also establishes this western genre is that the soundtrack on top of the sequence is very old school, funky and groovy - relating to the time period set within the movie.

Thursday 14 January 2016

Art of the title article for film title sequences

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/10/the-art-of-the-film-title-throughout-cinema-history/

"Words and lettering played an enormous role in films of the silent era."

Many films that were released during the silent movie era created title sequences in a more traditional and old fashioned manner. Usually, the title sequences would be created by placing text and cutting outs of writing onto a black screen board/title. This would then be recorded by the film stock and edited together in a simplistic way. Because of this, this made the particular words and lettering during this era very essential as the audience were becoming tired of the same generic title sequences back then. So, when films would experiment with different with different ways of reinventing title sequences back then, this was seen by the audience as revolutionary.

"As movies grew more popular, their titles evolved."

After the silent movie period, films were beginning to become much more popular as time went on and, as movies became more popular. With the popularity of movies rising higher and higher in time, movie companies during the mid 40's period were given more money and more of a budget in order for film studios and directors to invest more in to their title sequence. Given this advantage, this allowed film studies/directors to experiment more with their title sequences and create them with the inclusion of more graphics, making them more engaging and interesting for the audience, compared to the old fashioned silent movie title sequences.

"The incorporation of audio into movies — making them “talkies” — didn’t revolutionize how film titles were handled, at least not immediately."

With the inclusion of audio in to title sequences, this was indeed revolutionary as to how film titles were handled. This is because with the inclusion of audio, audiences now had something to listen to along with watching the title sequences. This made the viewing experience more engaging and interesting. However, I can see why this was revolutionary immediately due to the fact that having soundtracks and audio didn't necessarily relate much to the title sequences back in the 1930's-1940's as the title sequences didn't have much of a concept back then. Soundtracks and soundscores became very essential and revolutionary when the movie 'The Man With The Golden Arm' was released, due to the fact that the title sequence was very creative and the soundtrack related and went along with the sequence.



"Breakthrough ideas in titling, such as timing the typography to interact with metaphorical imagery or to create its own world, were largely innovations that came from outsiders to the Hollywood studio system. Figures such as Saul Bass, Pablo Ferro, Maurice Binder and Richard Williams arrived on the scene in the 1950s, at a time when the studios were starting to flounder in their fight with TV."

Due to the empowering introduction of television, film studios - back in the 1950's - had to create and think of new and innovating title sequences in order to attract and interest the audience. Ideas such as the typography of title sequences being metaphorical and having some meaning that relates to the movie were being introduced. This was successfully done by famous title sequence designers such as: Saul Bass, Maurice Binder and Richard Williams. They provided fresh ideas towards title sequences and had essentially changed the way title sequences were being viewed and created.

"Every sphere of contemporary life — and especially the film business — has been affected by computers. For designers, creating film titles meant participating in the apprenticeship tradition — learning by doing, on the job; that continued unabated into the mid-1990s."

With the introduction of technology being prominent within the film industry, this had essentially taken over the way in which title sequences were created. Film studios decided to include CGI even more in to sequences and, film studios essentially learnt to manipulate title sequences using technology. A famous title sequence creator during the new technology age was Kyle Cooper due to the fact that he created the majority of pop cultures most famous movies. The title sequence of the 1995 movie 'SEVEN' was again revolutionary due to its grittiness and innovating ways of displaying unsettling imagery - again created by Kyle Cooper.