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.