Certificate

The film we intend on producing (Fatal Motive) will be a 12 or a 12A. This is based on the following

• Drug use (Smoking)
• Violence and Gore (Gun, Blood)
• Implied Sexual Content

Were we to produce the full film, These issues would be shown more frequently, but not intensified or glorified. The decision to certify the film as a 12 or 12A is based on the list from the BBFC website (mentioned in this post: http://asmediastudiessamshepherd2013.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/bbfc-and-guidelines.html)

This does not affect our target audience in any way as we are producing the film for people our own age. This does not restrict the audience from viewing the film in any way. 

Props Continued

The Kershaw Penguin

 Since I have started to find out about where I can source the props for this film, I have found several potential candidates. The camera is the biggest example of this as I have been able to get hands on with several cameras from the era that I need. The first is a kershaw penguin eight 20 camera which is pretty much mint condition which is essential to make people believe it is in that time period. The second example is a Seagull 120 film camera which is also in excellent condition. These are both from the photography department within the school so these are easy to borrow.

The Seagull 120 film Camera

The issue is that the seagull was originally made in 1964 which is way past our proposed timeline and whilst it does look like a vintage camera, it does not fit into the timeline we had hoped and we have therefore decided to use the Kershaw camera.  This is quite a good decision in my book as the seagull is nowhere near as iconic as the penguin.

The gun has also been re-evaluated and we have found a viable alternative to the one we had before (which Max pointed out was unobtainable in the United Kingdom). I shall be obtaining this within the next few days.

Copyright

Copyright is the protection of intellectual property, this can be any form of media from songs to literary works. The use of said property without authenticated permission from the owner is breaking copyright and law.

This is no issue of ours as we are creating all the logos, film and sound ourselves. I have proof of this in terms of music as that is all we have produced. This proof documents me writing and recording the piece. We also intend on doing this sort of thing for all other pieces that we produce.

Studio Name and Animation

From the beginning of the storyboarding process, we have established that our company name is SMAX studios. We tried to play around with logos but we didn't really want to stray from the initial design shown to the right. This is because it looks classic and is a quintessential logo design. We couldn't come up with any other drafts that we were any happier with. We knew we wanted to adapt it but we couldn't think of a way to improve upon it. Max came up with the idea of someone shooting something to complete the x and we were given time to think about it. I created this picture to show him what it would look like:

This is when we started playing around with the idea of a live action sequence. We started to think about starting the film with a clip as most studios do. This is when I said it would be much simpler to create using animation rather than live action as we would not need to use green screen and we could always go back and edit minor details whereas live action would require filming again. We then drew up this storyboard:


This adds a bit of fluidity to the beginning of the film as well as establishes the genre. The easiest way to carry this out would be to animate it. I know someone that could produce a high quality flash animation for us or I could attempt it myself. This depends on the time I have and commitments to other sections of the production of the film. I still feel that if I tell the Animator exactly what I want and give him a detailed description of the look of the models as well as the storyboard, it will still be considered our idea and work.

UPDATE: I have chosen to get my good friend Ben Lynch to animate the opening, I briefed him in the video here: 
https://vimeo.com/82369598

This is the first draft he sent me a day after I briefed him: 

I sent him feedback and he quickly returned with this: 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByI99hlaIcanQ1pHdnYwX2JjdWs/edit?usp=sharing

An addition that he came up with and informed me about was the light movement and it add a slight feel of realism as the light would definitely move if shot.

Location

As Max is in charge of location, he has found several potential locations that we both want to use. The post can be found here: http://asmediastudiesmaxshearman.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/locations-for-filming.html

the locations are exactly what I hope we'd find as they are not very modern and fit in with our film's timeline.

Fatal Motive: Genre (draft)

Our film went through several changes (from Film Noir to Neo-Noir) so the evidence o the blog seems rather unclear. We are creating a faithful Neo-Noir piece. We are trying to remain as authentic as possible in terms of Mise-En-Scene and atmosphere. This means we want to use a similar sort of music. In a previous post (Linked here) I composed a piece of Jazz to fit with the ilm which was very successful. I may experiment with other pieces but I feel that this is a fit for purpose piece of music for the genre.

We will however be using less conventional camera techniques (such as Reverse Tracking) which I believe to be good looking shots. I experimented with reverse tracking (on a post here) and believe I can achieve a good effect. We will also be using flash animation for the introduction.

Animatic: Fatal Motive (draft)

In today's lesson, Max and I produced an animatic for the shots we have in mind as they appear currently. This helped the ideas we had in terms of flashes, credits and camera movement come to life and we were very happy with the results.

Fatal Motive Animatic from Sam SheepDawg-OEight on Vimeo.

We came across an issue with the music which I'm glad we flagged up as soon as it was. The jazz I came up with does not work for the scene I wrote it for. This is not an issue as with a couple more bars of drums at the beginning, the music fits perfectly for the later scene in which the credits start and it ends really well. In the animatic, the music is placed where it should end as opposed to where it starts. Apart from that, we are very happy with the results and we think that nothing major needs to be changed.

Music Consideration

I have created a piece we both believe to be suitable, I have footage of me creating it so that the examiner is assured it is all original.



Max wanted some jazz that built up to a climax, and I believe this does that quite well. Therefore, I think this piece will work.

UPDATE: Since the production of the animatic, we have found that the music works well as the end scene but doesn't fit well as the establishing scene. I will rerecord with an actual Bass guitar and maybe add more guitar layers.

Fatal Motive: Audience and Distribution

We needed to decide on an audience for our film and we were quickly on the same page. The audience we decided upon were teems (predominantly male) that have a relative disposable income. This is because of our proposed distribution method. We have said that if we were to produce the full film, we would stream it. This is due to the lack of hugely expensive equipment and lack of budget to distribute it elsewhere. We talked about art house cinema but we decided against it in the end.

Props

The list of responsibilities shows that we need a few props, so I have done some research into vintage cameras, I found a website that shows cameras first produced in the 40's.
http://licm.org.uk/livingImage/1940Room.html
This website is a vital resource for helping us get the right looking camera for the time.

I have looked at a flash for these cameras as this would improve the scene and found this:
http://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/166389687/1940s50s-pocket-flash-gun?utm_source=google&utm_medium=product_listing_promoted_en_gb&utm_campaign=vintage_low

This would add an aesthetic touch to the scene and would make in more believable. I do however believe that this is not an essential component.

I have found a potential prop for the gun:

http://www.airyear.com/revolver-shaped-windproof-lighter-with-jacket-p-38600.html

This is a cheap way to get an appropriate prop and I think it looks rather realistic.

I have emailed my friend James Ivett about a rotary phone as he was able to get hold of a replica last time one was needed, I have not got a reply as of yet.

The Zippo lighter will be courtesy of my friend Benny Herrington who has one and will happily lend me the item.

I will purchase herbal cigarettes so the smoking will look realistic.

The fake blood will be made with the techniques and items shown in this video:

The furniture, is something I am relying on people I know already having or worst coming to the worst, furniture will be hidden in darkness to stop anyone seeing that it is modern

Further planning

After last lesson's rough story plan, we decided to spend some time thinking about everything we will need to get before we can film. We have made some mild changes to the story just to establish a link between the shooting and the antihero (which will be evidenced in the storyboard) but this really doesn't affect the narrative. Here is a list we came up with all the things that we will need for the filming:

I have already emailed or contacted several people about music and props and I am now awaiting a response.


Initial story planning

Today, we decided who we were going to be working with and creating our final production with. I chose to work with Max as he seemed focused and capable and I believe that we work well together. The problem I thought we were going to encounter is his lack of media experience but it has yet to hinder us. He seems to be the driving force in terms of narrative and the storyline he has proposed is a really solid plot. We have made changes to weaker points in the plot to make it fit better with the noir theme but I really like the idea of the proposed plot as I think that we can experiment with lighting and produce a great looking piece.

The initial proposed storyline. We have added places for credits to go and changed minor details.

We then decided to plan the shots in the form of a condensed, brief storyboard. This was to get the narrative plot in our heads and to start to visualise the piece. Also, we got a better idea of how the shots would fit with one another and we could build upon our ideas from here. I found this helpful to grasp exactly what max wanted from the storyline and I could see what I liked and didn't.

 This is an example of changes we have made, I felt the knife wasn't in conjunction with the film noir genre and Max agreed. Since this photograph was taken, we added several shots that link the narrative better.

This will be the sequence in which the credits roll over, This is shown in the previous sheet with the post it saying 'Credits'. We have since refined what we want to put in here and there is more of a narrative flow. We have also decided to use a rotary phone and an old style film camera to cooperate with the expected mise-en-scene of the genre.

This is one of my proposed ideas for how we could introduce the street and the pictures could have replaced the jump shots. We discussed it's advantages and disadvantages and we decided there were too many impracticalities and it wouldn't have been a great aesthetic improvement. For this to work, we would have to either take original pictures or source photos from a third party and then style them as actual 40's photographs, then decide on how to film. For little benefit, it is a lot of work and we don't think it is worth our time.

All in all, I think this was a very productive lesson and we worked efficiently and effectively as a team. I am genuinely excited to get this sorted out and cannot wait to see the final film.

Foleying

Foleying is a simple process in which you recreate the sound effects of films. For example you can tap objects repeatedly against sand to produce a similar sound you expect to see along with horse riding. 

This is a video showing that example by a professional Foley artist called Gary Hecker:

I had a go with foleying a gunshot effect to see the ways in which I could use different objects for a sound effect completely unrelated to the sound needed. I chose the gunshot because you have to be creative if you want a gunshot effect as guns are hard to get original footage for and even harder to obtain one. The video shows the attempts I had at creating the sound effect:

I left some weaker attempts out of the video, for example an empty crisp packet as the sound was nowhere near enough to drown out the sound of me smacking it and the bang itself was weak. I chose the air packets as they had a nice echo that seemed like genuine diegetic echo and the bang was full and loud.

From this, I have learnt how to think creatively about objects and generally how important foleying is when considering sound you cannot create on the day of filming. I shall have to consider any foleying attempts necessary when planning and filming the final production. 

Continuity Task

We were given the task to produce the video below. The specification is detailed here:
http://asmediastudiessamshepherd2013.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/the-brief-continuity-task.html
The planning post can be found here:

This is the final production that we are presenting. I am quite pleased with it so far despite the lack of sound effects. I think they may not need to be added and the piece definitely works without it.
Continuity Task from Sam SheepDawg-OEight on Vimeo.

Neo Noir Analysis (Improved Draft)

We watched several neo noir and noted how they both follow and break conventions. We looked at three films, Blade Runner, Red Riding 1974 and Mulholland Drive.

I have created a HTML table for this blog using http://truben.no/latex/table/ and I found this a good way of creating blog friendly lists for comparison. One problem is that there is little way for me to elaborate on the points I am making in further detail. Another is that it is not very visual or aesthetically pleasing and this bothers me.

Conventional Of Film Noir	Unconventional Of Film Noir
Swing music	Tension building music
Shadows	Bright and Vibrant
Femme Fatales	Happy Mood
Starts at the end	Superimposition
Urban Setting	Two Femme Fatales
Typical 1940's Costume	Car Crash (High budget SFX)
Red Lipstick	Modern Handgun
Cigarette Smoke	Set in LA (Not Chicago or New York)

I have made a mind map for Red Riding 1974 and I found Mind42 an effective way of doing so. I may use this for the future. It does however have the same problem as the HTML table as it does not let me elaborate on detail where needed.

All in all, I found that Neo-Noir is very experimental with different conventions whilst keeping certain aspects(such as narrative and Chiaroscuro). The Iconography is something that seems to remain constantly faithful. 

In my final production, I intend to set it in the 40's, which means I need to focus on iconography. I will also use chiaroscuro and try to use 40's style music. I will also use typical Film Noir characters such as the Femme Fatale and Antihero. I will however be breaking convention by using colour

Makeup Considerations

As I have already done this unit already, I know where my strengths and weaknesses are in terms of planning aspects of the film.One of the areas I lacked was costume and makeup, mainly with fake blood. In our last production, we had to cut a scene from the cut because the fake blood looked too pink. We had put no consideration into testing the blood beforehand and it looked unconvincing. This time around, I shall be considering this as and wen the scene is needed. This video depicts a masterclass on how to represent horror makeup.

BBFC and Guidelines

The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) is a company responsible for certifying all films screened in the Britain according to how certain age groups will view it. The BBFC give certificates according to the content of the film. This content can include:

-Discrimination
-Drugs
-Horror
-Imitable Behaviour
-Language
-Nudity
-Sex
-Theme
-Violence
-Titles

They may also give warnings if it is obvious it could induce seisures or cause harm and distress to any viewers if they have trouble with Photo or pattern sensitivity, motion sickness and reactions to low frequency sound.
All of the guidelines as well as the research to which the guidelines are based on can be downloaded on the BBFC Website

Lucy Brett from the BBFC joins us for FILMCLUB Live from FILMCLUB on Vimeo.

Planning the Continuity Task

So initially, we had a few concepts and then we spent a lesson playing around with narratives and scenes that most of us agreed on (Georgia wasn't present but she did like the narrative). Whilst we were all giving Ideas, half the group spent time doing a very rough storyboard for scenes we liked or wanted to see if they would work. After this lesson, I decided to redraw the storyboard for a more concise shot list with better consideration for framing. I also created a rough draft of the script to establish lines of dialogue and discourage improvisation. 

The Brief: Continuity Task

We were told to get into groups and produce a video. This video had to be created to certain specifications. We were told that someone has to walk through the door and exchange a few lines of dialogue whilst showing our understanding of the 180 degree rule. We also had to be aware of continuity within the film.

I worked with Chris, Sam, Max and Georgia as we have a wide range of skills and I believe the film should come out well. I will be acting as well as Sam, Georgia will be directing and Chris and Max have chosen to operate the cameras. This is to highlight our strengths and to experiment with weaknesses we have to see if we can overcome them.

Storyboard Vs Animatic

As I am now planning out my continuity task, I thought I should compare planning methods. As I also did this last year I believe I have a good understanding of what is asked of me. Last year, we produced a storyboard and an animatic to plan our preliminary task so I thought these examples would be the perfect way to show the advantages and disadvantages.

The animatic is good for later planning once you know what you are producing and have already produced a storyboard and script. This allows you to show the length of shots and see if any parts last too long and need slight edition. Producing this does mean you already need a detailed plan of the film to produce and as I am in a small group, we all have similar ideas as to how it will come out. This means a visual representation may be unnecessary.

The storyboard for me is the bare minimum when planning a film's camera and composition. This means you can choose which shots to use where early on in the planning of the piece and discourages improvising. This does not however show any indication of editing etc and only detailed ones will have sound plans to accompany them.

So in my experience, I have found the storyboard most useful and the most convenient as you have to produce a storyboard, sound plan and script for an animatic. By then, I feel that you have a fair understanding of how everything is going to be edited and the time you spend divising that, you could be filming. I also feel that you rarely find a shot lasts too long or not long enough when you get this far in the planning stages.

Genre

This video explains genres, hybrid genres and sub genres and how it affects audiences as well as institutions and industries.

Genre and Sub-Genre from Sam SheepDawg-OEight on Vimeo.

Experimenting with Film Noir imagery (Draft)

We were given the task of creating photographs that explore the use of Chiaroscuro in noir as well as the use of noir imagery. This is so we can get a better understanding of how to use such techniques when we create our own film noir piece. The results we got were some quite interesting shots with the use of shadows and light. We also used props to create the feel of typical film noir characters. We then used simple editing techniques (E.g. Desaturation) to enhance these photographs to give typical looking noir imagery.

This shot is one of the best in terms of Chiaroscuro, this gives a really good backlight on the man with the gun pointed at him and gives just enough light to highlight the arm holding the gun. Guns are in a lot of films and they have become accepted as Iconography for the genre. I intend to experiment with backlighting and silhouettes in my film to add mystery to certain characters and maybe use them as an establishing tool.

This shot came out really well for how we wanted to experiment with light. We have a concentrated, powerful light focused on the girl in this picture and she is applying Lipstick in the mirror.  Not only does the light contrast extremely well, but lipstick is another signifier of film noir. I really like the difference in light and I think I will aim for an effect like this in my final production. 

This Photo really highlights some of the conventional characters in a Film Noir. It shows the Protagonist and the Femme Fatale and this usage of costume really gives a good effect. This picture has been desaturated and contrast has gone up slightly to really enhance the photo. When it comes to costume for our film, this style seems to work incredibly well and I see no reason not to try and recreate it.

Film Noir Characters (improved)

Film Noir is a genre that has many of the characters already predetermined. The characters are the basis of a generic film noir plot. Characters such as the Femme Fatale play a role in the film as she will usually corrupt or lure the hero or antihero whether she works for the villain or she is in turn, the villain. Each generic character is described below.

An example of an Antihero from Sin City

Male
Hero (Protagonist)
Villain (Antagonist)
Antihero (Transforms form the Antagonist to the Protagonist) - Redemption, lust, flawed
Sidekick (Police/ Moral Majority)
Extras (Side plots/Workers/Crowds)
Female
Femme Fatale - Sexuality, Danger, Risk, Antagonist, Forbidden.
Girl Next door (Redemptive Woman) - Salvation, Honour, Sacrifice, Courage, Redemption.

Sin city has examples of all of them, especially as there are several stories revolving around different characters. This film may help when writing the characters for my film

(from left to right) Femme Fatale, Girl Next Door, Antiheroes and sidekicks (female sidekick it unconventional)

WHAT IS FILM NOIR?

Film Noir refers to a genre of film that spawned in the 1940's. The term "Film Noir" simply means black film and refers to the experimentation with lighting (or chiaroscuro). The Films will usually feature guns, smoke, and overly sexual women for the time. The owner of filmsnoir.net described the genre in a way I completely agree with: "I consider a movie a film noir if it has a “noir sensibility”. This sensibility must have a redemptive focus for me to value a film, whether redemption is achieved or not. This is what the great films noir have in common: a profoundly and deeply human response to the chaos and random contingency at the edge of existence." The theme of redempion is a common factor in many of the most critically acclaimed films of the genre and in a way, this theme is what draws many people to the films.

The target audience for film noir  titles is discussed in the slideshare below. I agree with the presentation to an extent. I do think the genre is aimed at males with the violence, crime, and women. I believe that the target audience has greatly changed since the genre has been established. At this point in time, the audience varies way too much to distinguish a certain demographic. Back in the time these films were made, they were rather explicit for the time and likely not made for a young audience. I would therefore say that these films were aimed at men between the ages of 20-40.
  

Film Noir target audience from SFDobson94

Audience and Pete Buckingham

An audience is a group of people experiencing an event.
(From audience)
Active - Preferred: an audience that is targeted.
Passive - Oppositional: Not the expected audience.

Preferred and Oppositional refer to How the experience is recieved as opposed to how it is sent.

Distribution: How the media is shown to an audience Streamed/Cinema Ticket/ DVD bought/TV broadcast Buy DVD
Rent DVD
Illegal Streaming
Legal Streaming
Download
Watch on TV/Freeview/Cable/Satellite
Pay to view
Cinema (Art-House, Multiplex)

Exhibition: How the media is watched from industry to audience.

Traditionalists

Streaming/Rental - Modern technology allows cheap, easy, immediate access.
Audience capability: Digital Processes

Audience pete buckingham what people go to see from Elaine Humpleby

This presentation is a visual representation of Pete Buckingham's paper that I will be referencing throughout the rest of the post.

Pete Buckingham suggest that several factors effect audience patterns in the UK. There is evidence that most international audiences follow similar patterns. These patterns are as follows:

• Level of Education and job status - He states that more educated people and therefore, people with higher class jobs such as ABC1's make up a higher population of cinema goers than people in the other categories. He says "ABC1's represent 49% of the population, but 60% of the cinema audience which increases to 66% amongst heavy cinema goers." This implies that a higher level of education makes a person more likely to go to the cinema. This Is because they would have more disposable income to spare so they can afford the cinema more often than people who have lower paid jobs.
• Age - He shows statistics that suggest that younger audiences (ages 15-24) make up a high amount of cinema goers. This trend drops as ages 35-44 make up a lower amount than the previous group and 55+ represent a low amount. People of ages 15-24 make up 32% of the population but 40% of cinema goers. People of ages 35-44 make up 38% of the population and  35% of cinema goers. People of ages 55+ make up 34% of the population but only 20% of cinema goers.

According to Pete Buckingham's method of classifying audience, I am closest to the hero seeker as I don't watch many films at the cinema (around 2 or 3 a year) and I never go on impulse, it is always well planned. The problem I have with this classification is that the groups are quite stereotypical and not everyone that follows certain trends mentioned will follow others and therefore, make them hard to classify.

Buying films on DVD Is the most frequent way through which I watch Films. I usually watch these with family although I do watch some with friends or by myself, depending on the interest they have for the film. I spend about 4-5 hours watching these a week. I do this traditionally.

I use Legal Streaming to watch a small majority of the films I watch, I do this at home, on my Xbox 360 console or my laptop alone. I tend to watch about one film a month using this method. I do this Hedonistically.
TV is the third most frequent way in which I experience film. I do this both alone and with others. I will tend to watch one film a month depending on what channels are broadcasting at the time. I will never plan to watch films on TV, I will just happen to find films on different channels. I do this traditionally.

If I were to want to find out more about audience trends, I could use all sorts of means and tools:

• Online surveys (Primary research)
• Interview and vox pops (Primary research)
• Statistics from Cinema's or BFI ( Secondary research)

Representation: Double indemnity OTS (improved but still needs to add pictures)

As double indemnity was created in the 1940's, representation is very stereotypical of the views one might have in that era. I am analysing the Opening Title sequence of the film in terms of representation as well as Sound and Style and the form of the title sequence. I also briefly discuss industry and audience.

Representation 
All Male Cast shows a male dominance in work and high status as it is situated in what is obviously a
workplace of high status.
Trilby's, suits and tuxedos reinforce a high status
The man is in charge, He is dismissive and is the strong and silent type
Male is a juxtaposition of characteristics (Scruffy/Shot/Uses Slang/Status and Wealth)The car he has shows he has quite a high status
Black actors are cleaning which shows the status of black people in that era as quite poor
A lot of slang is used which suggests crime involvement
It is shot in a big city
Obsequious (overly polite and obedient) door man further states and reinforces the status.
Sound and Style
Quite expensive at the time of release
The music is Classical, timeless, contextual and reminiscent of music tastes at the time.
Form
The form is simply the order of appearance in the Opening Title Sequence.
Studio
Producer
Title
Director
Cast
Production Team
Industry
As this was a time in which there was little variation in film industries, the film is a mainstream example of cinema at the time
Audience
Male and Couples
Vicariously living through others experiences
Generic pleasures: The pleasures of the genre

Double Indemnity (Improved)

Double Indemnity by Billy Wilder is a classic example of the Film Noir genre and was originally distributed by Paramount pictures. This film was made in 1944 and was an adaptation from the novel by James M. Cain (written in 1927). Singer Kate Smith ran a campaign against seeing the film on moral grounds. This film was nominated for seven awards (Including best motion picture) but didn't recieve one.

This film can be found on the British Film Institute website.
http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/info_282.html

A scene from the film can be found here:
Double Indemnity (1944) from Kinoteatro on Vimeo.

This film has been a classic example of film noir for many media students to study and an example of a remake can be found here:
Title Sequence for Double Indemnity from Lizzy Barrett on Vimeo.

This is a clip from the opening of Double indemnity:


Here is a video in which I talk about the film, genre of Film noir and how I am going to apply what I have learnt into my OTS:
Double indemnity from Sam SheepDawg-OEight on Vimeo.

OCR Specification

This is the specification that I will be constantly checking to and evaluating my work against:
http://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/81037-specification.pdf

Sweded Film

This is the sweded version of the film TED we created for our media.
Ted swede from Sam SheepDawg-OEight on Vimeo.

This had a lot of issues when it comes to editing. The filming was the easy part, we decided key scenes (though we missed one) and we had achieved everything we wanted to in the filming. The editing was another issue completely. We all got together to work on my laptop and we compiled most of the footage there leaving me with little homework. When we needed to add text and export however, I had huge problems getting the film to work. The end result is a creditless, rather poor quality video.

I think this film shows a lot of strength in filming and in such a short space of time, I think this is a relatively good attempt at this task

The planning is another issue we didn't tackle very well. We had an idea of the key scenes we wanted to film and wanted to do it all in an hour or less so it was a bit rushed. We had no clue how we were going to film any of it in terms of camera angles and shot length which leaves a few of the scenes a bit long and uninteresting. We also missed the end scene which means that the film doesn't make sense entirely.

Conventions of an OTS: Presentation Analysis

Displayed below are four different presentations, each describing the conventions of an Opening Title Sequence. These were all prepared by former A level students and each have their good and bad points, I will analyse each of these and discuss their good and bad points.

Conventions of an opening sequence from emiliefreddie

This presentation first starts with a brief history of how the credits appear and when the content in the opening credits became an industry standard. Whist this is true, I believe they could have mentioned the general conventions before this change or modern trends that do away with opening credits (Batman Begins 2005).

They then show examples of each convention of an Opening Title Sequence. They don't mention a generally accepted sequence of appearance. Other than that, this is a relatively good explanation of the content in an OTS.

They mention what the credits are superimposed over and I believe this is entirely wrong. Whilst there are films that superimpose the credits on a blank image, More often than not, the credits roll over one of the first scenes of the film which introduces the audience to the story and some characters. Whilst there are exceptions (e.g. James Bond and The Pink Panther which create their own scenes with the use of animation) This is usually what you see at the beginning of the film.

The brief scene is usually a given for the opening title sequence and if the credits don't roll over this, it predeceases the credits.

All in all, I think the presentation is good at analysing conventions of an Opening title sequence for a different era of film, I am focused on more modern sequences and therefore don't think this is the best presentation. For talking about current OTS's, this presentation lacks several key points. For earlier Sequences however, this presentation is relevant and rather accurate.

An Analysis Of The Opening Sequence Of Vertigo from Media Studies

This essay is a very detailed, in depth analysis of Alfred Hitchcock's film "Vertigo's" opening title sequence. It identifies what the sequence set out to establish and explains scene by scene, how it does this. I think this is a very accurate depiction of what films used opening sequences for back in Hitchcock's time and what most films do now. This analysis is amazing at justifying the use of different techniques for establishing atmosphere and theme of the film but it lacks in visual aids so you have no way of seeing how these techniques are applied without a certain knowledge of the film. Other than that, this analysis is a greatly detailed way of seeing how an Opening title sequence is supposed to affect the audience and the message it should get across.

Conventions of a thriller opening from zubairkhan93

This presentation seems to state the obvious way more than actually giving a lot of information. Whilst this is correct, it is pretty much stating what we all should know anyway.

the presentation describes the sequence of the thriller "Se7en" and describes the importance of four key aspects; Camera, Titles, Storyline and music. While there is much relevance to these things within a title sequence, I think this is irrelevant when talking about an opening title sequence as these things are important throughout a film.

This presentation has it's good points despite all this. It goes into why these points are important to the mood and establishment of the OTS compared to the rest of the film. This shows how these films employ such tactics and in this sense, establishes the key points of an OTS.

Overall, this presentation is relatively good at exploring conventions but I had to sift through the obvious.

Codes and conventions of opening sequences from kcasmedia

This presentation is an analysis of the 007 Skyfall's Opening title Sequence, This does a pretty bad job of identifying the key components that make an opening title sequence. It explains what an OTS states and briefly shows what Skyfall's OTS establishes but really gives littl detail about what most OTS's are suppose to achieve generally.

Another similar analysis is then shown for Django Unchained in which, the shots are described adn these shots are briefly justified.

All in all, this presentation is pretty poor for anything other than a brief analysis of what these two films establish in their sequences.

Here is a video in which I talk about Opening title sequences:
OTS from Sam SheepDawg-OEight on Vimeo.


 

Conventions of an Opening Title Sequence

I believe the conventions of an OTS are as follows:

• List the Distribution company or companies
• List the Production company 
• Credit Director
• Credit Top billing Actors or actresses
• Credit Producers or other major crew members
• Show the title of the film
• Set some form of atmosphere for the film
• Introduce the audience to the story and some characters (even if the scene is as simple as the protagonist walking through rain.

Sweded Films, Definition and task

The poster for Ted, the film we are 

recreating. 

A sweded film is a remake of a film on an extremely low budget, this usually takes the key aspects of the story line and sums them up in a short amount of time.

We have been given a task to create a sweded version of one of our favourite films. I have chosen to work with Chris, Sam

A visual example of  a sweded film.

and Georgia and we have chosen the film 'Ted' to swede. We will look at key scenes of the film and choose scenes we believe are important to recreate the narrative.  This will give us an understanding of our current film making skills and weaknesses.