Final editing day

 Finally we finished editing our opening title sequence, although it didn't go as planned exactly we are still very proud of it. We decided no to add any music to the soundtrack as it would have been very complicated to find a song that wasn’t copy righted and suited our opening title sequence. Therefore, we ended up just adding ambience sounds to our opening title sequence. For the titles we used a classical font and added them all before the transition occurred as we thought this would make the audience loose focus of what was happening in the actual scene. We also decided not to add any diffusion’s or transition to the titles as we thought it would have been too much for the sequence. After hours and days of thinking what we could name our film title, I had a idea of what if we call it Avoid, as we liked how simple and connected to the sequence it is, however then Zoe had the idea of separating the words and calling it “A void” we though this was a brilliant idea, therefore now it is called A void which we love. After watching the sequence thousands of times and improving some cuts and problems with the sounds we finally finished it and are very proud of how it turned out. 

These our some pictures of our last day of editing and how excited we were that we had finished the sequence after hours put into this and thinking over again how we could fix the last minute issues we had throughout the whole editing stage. 

style and order of titles

 Order and Style of film titles 

The order, it is very important to have a structured order and style depending on the film as this gives to audience a preview of what the films genre will be about. Our film in particular is a unexpected psychological thriller therefore we wanted to give a hint to the audience about this. 

Reference of picture: https://www.studiobinder.com/film-credits-order-template/

Film name: 

production company: pillback productions 

film by: Pulp Studios 

director: Jack Williams  

lead cast;

Jules: Lucia Mont 

Young Jules: Anna Zach 

real mom: Mia james 

fake mom: Maya Smith  

casting director: Oliver Murphy 

costume designer: Alison turner 

editors: Tom roberts 

executive producer: Ronald evans 

Producer: harry Philips 

Screenplay: Hannah Moore 

For our opening title sequence we took a reference and inspired ourselves with movies such as “Split”, “Shutter island” and “Black Widow” as we thought they had the same genre, psychological thriller, and story board that we thought our film had as well. For Split the whole story board is meant to be of this girl getting kidnapped and then she meets this guy that has personality disorder therefore although it is not the same story exactly it comes with elements that helped us influence our film and create the opening title sequence that we just produced. For the fonts, we decided to do something classical and quite basic as we have a lot going on in the opening title sequence anyways. We then also decided to put it in a white colour as this way by the end scene you can clearly see the film name.

Split Opening title sequence: 

We decided we liked the classical font and the white color that they used however thought that it was too confusing and extreme to add all the transitions and effects as out opening title sequence already includes Jules having her morning routine and then the action part starts. Therefore we had this as an idea as we liked the colour and font that Split had. 

Black Widow opening title sequence: 

We extremely liked this opening title sequence especially with the credits. i really like how defined and culturistas they look and how fine and classical but at the same time modern they look. I also really liked the color as it was a rusty white that foreshadows the film. Another thing i though could relate to our opening title sequence is the flashbacks as that is a main part of our. In general I thought they were a bit fast and a bit small to read so I would definitely have made them a bit bigger to contrast wiht what is happening in the movie. 

2nd day of editing

 For the second day our main focus was to complete the basis of the editing as we still had to get on to the music and the titles. Therefore we took turns the three off us into cutting and changing and snipping the shots. We saw that we had some problems with the transition shot which was a shame as this was one of our most exciting parts of the whole opening title sequence. The problem wasn’t going from Haley to Annie it was going from Annie to Haley. We edited and snapped the first part of the transition and it looked really good, however for the second transition the light intensity was different and the closeness of the shots were to distinct to get it correct so instead we tried adding a effect of a twirl for the transition so it looks like there was a flashback. At first we thought this idea was going to turn out bad however after we tried it we really liked it and decided to stick with it as it evoked the idea of a flashback and also showed the audience that its a flashback and it’s back in time. We also added a sound effect to it it was a high screeching sound just to add suspense and create tension to the opening title sequence. 

First day of editing

 For the first day of editing, we were all extremely excited and glad to be there watching all the footage we had filmed. the first day was very basic as we had to build the foundation of our opening title sequence, therefore what we did was go through all the footage and make sure that nothing was missing. We looked at all the shots and decided what we liked and the shots we thought were necessary. We started putting all the pieces together and using the cutting tool to start the motion and differing from close up shots to wide shots and mid shots. We started getting used to the process of selecting a shot and then cutting it in motion with another swift shot form another angle or different perspective. We didn't get much done as it was our first day but I’d say we got 1 third of it cut and edited. 

developing ideas

 developing ideas 

10 significant texts 

- money heist

- elite 

- were all liars 

- gangsta granny 

- high school musical 

- love Rosie 

- wolf of Wall Street 

- great Gatsby 

- 

Love Rosie + we were all liars 

Wolf of wall street + money heist + gangsta granny 

Elite + high school musical

Austin Kleon 

Writer and artists published a bunch of books on how to think of ideas.        

4th day ofediting

Editing the opening title sequence 

We have already edited the whole title sequence, at first it was too long as it was nearly 2 minutes and a half but then after some feedback and with help from Adam and Tom we cut it and watched it various time again and decided that it was too long and not catching out attention. Therefore we decided to cut a chunk of the morning routine to make it seem faster and catch on to quickly the action and suspense part of the opening title. We cut it to 1 minute and about 45 seconds and headed off to start the titles and the sound track. For the soundtrack we also has some issues and disagreements because we had no idea what song we wanted to play especially as it had to be not copyrighted so it could go on YouTube. Therefore we asked around and we were able to get a soundtrack from our dearest friend David that also makes music. We tried it and as david managed to give us 3 soundtracks we tried the first 2 and it didn't come out as great as we thought it would. Therefore we were quite worried as we were running out of time. As for this,  we tried the third soundtrack and it was great and fit perfectly with the sequence therefore we decided to stick with it. In the meantime, I was making up all the producer names and our film company name which we decided to go with Pulp Films. Here are some pictures from over the past few days of our editing: 

I did some research on what font we wanted to use as in the meantime my other peers were editing and finding the soundtrack, I used the website Da font to choose the titles font and I picked out a few of the most liked ones that I liked and some of these were, sour candy, royal vanilla and a few more. This way we had some option to choose and decide which one fits best with the opening title sequence. 

Mise en scene video

 Mise en scene video:

Shoot Day reflection video

 Shoot day reflection video:

This is a quick video with my team members Zoe and Vita whilst we are discussing how are shoot day went. 

Saul and Elaine bass

 Saul and Elaine Bass research 

Saul Bass is the key figure in the rising of opening title sequences in the Hollywood films. He had a huge impact and has influenced many other filmmakers for decades. He was brown 8th of May 1920 and passed away the 25th of April 1996. He was an American graphic designer, and was born in New York where he began his design for motion picture title sequences. He was born in the household of Jewish immigrants and attended the James Monroe high school where he graduated. He later on started his own practices in 1952 where a few years later he established his private firm, Saul Bass & Associates. In 1954 he finally had his big break as he was offered a job by the filmmaker Otto Preminger to design a poster for Carmen Jones. They loved his work and then came to realize that the title sequence can enhance and engage the audience to a visual level, and can help set the mood and theme at the opening of a film. After his debut work in Hollywood he produced the title sequence for ‘The seven year itch’ then he also made the title for ‘The mans with the Golden Arm’ where he earned his reputation. Another noticeable filmmaker he worked with is Alfred Hitchcock where he distinguished his titles for motion picture ‘North by Northwest.’ Vertigo and Psycho were also made by him. Bass believed his opening title sequences were designed as an art with unique purposes. His creation was based on lighting the audience and giving them a preview of what there are about to watch throughout the movie. This would also evoke their emotions and in an unfamiliar way. These are most of the opening title sequence that Saul Bass created: 

- psycho 

- Casino

- higher learning 

- the age of innocence 

- Cape fear 

- good fellas 

- big 

Elaine Bass 

Elaine Bass was Saul Bass spouse that was also a filmmaker and title design maker. Together they developed many project and worker for some of the most successful directors to create opening title sequences. They worked together for 40 years and created some of the most successful opening title sequences in the universe. They changed the film industry and inspired many film directors to contribute to what they were trying to portray to the audience. 

Cape fear: 

https://youtu.be/jIlEaBKjFaM

Cape fear is a signature of intensity and un settlement which engages the audience to a different level. It starts with a shot of water with a warm light and this already creates a creepy atmosphere which shows to the audience what is going to happen and gives the audience an idea of what the genre of the film is going to be about. The titles are in a bulky white font which contributes to what the gene of the film is about. In general the whole opening title sequence gives the audience a creepy atmosphere and what I liked most is the fact that throughout the whole opening title sequence there is a creepy vibe and that the continuity and slowness contrasts to the music this makes the audience want to keep watching and be invested in the movie. It makes the audience get read for what they are about to watch. 

History of opening title sequences

 Title sequences

Film titles are the bond between the art of filming making and graphic design - and perhaps visual culture as a whole. They serve a greater purpose to the film. A long time ago film titles - the graphic image or sequence at the opening of a movie were simply hand illustrated cards photographed and inserted into a film. Nowadays, they are much like a mini movie showcasing the art of graphic design with filmmaking. Although film titles are short they also serve a lot of purposes, besides introducing the title of the film and the main players that brought it to screen. 

Who invented title sequences? 

Title sequences were initially first invented by, vaudeville theatres, where main titles were originally produced by the first projector which was invented in the 1650s by a Dutch scientist, Christin Huygens. Thomas Edison was the first person to put credits at the start of his film in 1897. Then in the 1908 film Bronco Billy G. M. Anderson became the first actor to be credited on screen. After this this started the tradition to give credits of film starts. Most opening titles looked fairly similar up until the 1950s. they were all under a minute long and the general format was the same. They were meant to be boring and ignored up until 1954 when Otto premigner brought on graphic designer Saul Bass to design the opening title sequence for his film, “carmen Jones.” 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=I0OkcWIeg40&feature=share

After Bass collaborated again for the film “the man with the golden arm.” They sent a letter to theatre owners that required them to raise the curtain in front of the screen before the titles. This is when they became an essential part of the film industry. bass believed that opening credits could tell the overarching theme of the film or reveal the tone before an actor walked onto the screen. throughout the 50s until the 70s a variety of styles took over and established them as cinematic art forms. This is when realism and naturalism came nto style, so cinema intended to elaborate opening credits away from the public’s view. 

now, opening titles are like a film’s hype man, they establish the tone and the elements of films to come. they are purely an art form that celebrates the films and those who made the film. Some of the biggest blockbuster films such as “No time to die and many more films have amassing opening title sequences that have costs millions to make in the process this is due to the intensity and importance of the film titles nowadays. 

Examples of movies with the best opening title sequences: 

No time to die - opening title sequence created by: Daniel Kleinamn 

Vertigo - opening title sequence created by: Saul Bass 

One hundred and One Dalmatians - opening title sequence created by: Donals Halliday

Shoot day

Shoot day! 

Yesterday was our shoot day, we left school at 9:00 am gathered all the props and the camera set and went down to the hurtwood inn to film the first scene. We had the option between two rooms at the hurtwood Inn but decided to go for the second one as we agreed that it looked more like a bedroom. Here our some pictures of the bedroom:

As shown on the pictures we added fairy lights to make the room look more like Jule’s room and we added a lot of books and cute decoration around the whole room to add emphasis to this. I thought the whole filming process was insane. At first i was a bit confused as we had lack of time with some of there actors due to some miscommunications. We started shooting at around 9:30 and Hayley had to leave at 10:30 for an exam however she came back at 11. Then Beth our other actress that portrayed the fake mum had also a limited amount of time as she had to go back to school to teach. Therefore we filmed the beginning of the transition, where Hayley was picking up the jewelry box and scrolling around, we firstly did a wide shot showing how he enters the room from the bathroom and then looks at herself in the mirror followed by her picking up her bag and the jewelry box. After the wide shot we continued by a mid shot following the same process and then finally we did closeup shots to really see her expression in her eyes and portray the whole image. 

After this, Hayley had to leave to go to school and do her exam therefore we took advantage of the situation and started filming the scenes in which we could only see Beth. We moved the camera and placed it on a lower angle in front of the door because we wanted to create the POV of Hayley looking up towards Beth as she enters the room. We started shooting the scene and this took a while to get as the camera kept not focusing on Beth because it was a movement of entering the room and then her walking towards Hayley and needling down. Therefore it took as a few tries but by the end of it we managed to take the perfect shot. However, after we were about to film another scene of Beth I realized that I wasn’t holding the microphone, it was my bad therefore we had to redo the while shot because of my fault OOps. Although after that I never forgot to put the microphone ever again as my group were not pleased. Moving on, we then filmed an over the shoulder shot of Beth walking in the corridor of the hotel to the room. As this was a hotel where we were filming  the numbers of the room were outside of the bedrooms therefore we had to make sure that none of the numbers were shown on the shot. This was a fairly easy shot and then we quickly moved on. As we didn’t need any more shots fo Beth for now, we took advantage and shot some quick details of the room to add to the opening title sequence. We shot mid shots of the books next to the window, and the fairy lights to spice it up and take advantage if the time whilst we were waiting for Hayley to come back.  

Once Hayley came back, we had limited amount fo time to shoot both the scenes where both Beth and Hayley were in therefore we quickly set up the camera and filmed the part where Jule’s is hyperventilating because of what she just remembered, we did a extreme closeup on her eyes to show the emotion and as well as a mid shot and a closeup. We then also filmed the transition which was harder than we expected. We hand held the camera which was very heavy in my opinion and went from hayley’s face to then the camera moving around Jules and into her head. Then we did this the other way round as well. From Jule’s head to the camera moving around and finishing in her eyes. As we did not need Beth anymore we said goodbye to her and started changing aspects to film the beginning part of the opening title sequence. I gave Hayley pink silk pajamas and as she was changing the rest of us were moving thing around in the room and trying to get a mid shot of the bed with the twinkle lights and making sure the lighting was too dark or too light. Once Hayley had finished changin we started with the morning routine. We first got a mid shot  of her getting out of bed and then turning the lights on. For this process me and Zoe were standing on different light switched around the room so that when she turned the lights on the whole room would light up. Therefore Vita was on camera. We then continued to a mid shot of Hayley walking out of her bed and going into the center fo the room to stretch out her muscled. We also did a wide shot for this so that if we needed it we had it. I then had an idea to move the camera in the different direction so we could see Jules picking up her uniform and going into the bathroom therefore we changed the camera angle and filmed a mid shot of Jules o picking up her clothes and walking into the bathroom. We repeated these shots a few times just to make sure that we had a few options to choose of in case we didn’t like any. 

After this, we had to move the shoot into the bathroom, therefore we all helped out and started taking our bags away and placing some makeup in the bathroom and some towels. I brought a pack of paracetamol to duplicate the pills she needed therefore we put it the other way round and placed it in the makeup bag. 

We started by doing a mid shot on the mirror of Jules entering the bathroom. This took a couple tries but by the third get had it perfectly done. I was getting a bit stressed by this time because Adam had told us that we had very limited amount of time and that we had to hurry up because they were only letting us keep the room until 1:30. Therefore we started filming closeups of Jules lifting the tap and then of her washing her face. As all the bathroom shots were fairly simple and we got used to using the camera fairly easily. We had one last shot left to do and we thought we would be creative therefore Zoe had the idea that we should do a POV of Jules throwing the pills in the bed and act as if the camera was the bin. The process of this shot took a while as Zoe had to get in an edge of the bathroom and hold the heavy camera whilst me and Vita were checking the camera shot and directing Hayley on how she had to throw the pills. We filmed this shot about 4 times and by the 5th we had the perfect shot.  

As we had finished the longest and hardest part of the shoot we quickly packed up the bags and cleared out the whole room. We took pictures of the room prior to us changing and decorating it so we knew exactly where everything went. We had to cover the back of the front door with a calendar as there was a fire exit poster therefore we out everything back into place and packed everything. Adam then surprised us and told us that he had ordered pizzas and French fries from the restaurant downstairs, therefore we all went down and had lunch all together. Soon I realized that I forgot my water bottle so I quickly looked to see if I had forgotten it. Sadly it wasn’t there so I lost my brand new hurtwood water bottle. We then went back to school and had a quick break from 2pm until 3pm before we had to go to the turrets in Ewhurst and start filming the second part of the shoot. 

We all met up at 3 in the lower car park and headed off with Annie (young Jules ) towards the Turrets. This was only a 5 minute drive therefore it was very quick. When we got there we set up the camera and started changing things in the commons room (where we were filming ) to make it look like a rusty apartment. We took off all the fire exits on the door as the only thing that was seen in the shot was the front door and a bit of the side of the kitchen. I then gave Hayley some clothes, a red little skirt and a brown jumper to make her look younger and I also braided her hair to one side for the same effect. We waited for Karen to come as she said she was going to come at 4 and we were anticipated. Once Karen came We filmes a over the shoulder shot of Hayley and Karen walking in the room in a rush screaming “we have to go now we have to go” This was a very fast shot and took very little time to do. Then we moved to the POV shot of young Jules we had the camera on a low angle and had Karen hold the camera as it it was Jules she was holding, this way the detail of her pearl bracelet would be seen. We repeated this a couple times and then filmed the transition of young Jules.We did this the same as the other one and all had a go it took as a while to get the perfect shot but with practice we managed. We filmed it form her head moving the camera around to her eyes and then the same from her eyes moving the camera around to her head. After we finished the transition we had finished the shoot. It was a wrap! To be honest the second section of the sequence was fairly quick and easy to film therefore we were all pretty happy.

We packed up all the camera set and all our belongings and then quickly ran out of there as we were all tired after a long day of shooting. We all helped pack up and went to the van and then drive off to go back to school. In conclusion it was a great day and we all experienced so much and had so much fun in the making of this. We learned so many new things and in general had the best time ever , than you adam for the pizza and fries at the Hurtwood inn. 

Test Shoot

 We did a quick test shoot to see how the end product would turn out. This way we could also figure out how the transitions would look and how it was necessary to get the correct angles to shoot the transition from Jules to her younger self in another location. 

Shoot table

 

Final decisions for shoot day