Final sequence

 Monday 30th May 2022

Our completed title sequence:

Creative Critical Reflection Task 4

How did you integrate hardware, software and online in this project?

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Creative Critical Response Task 3

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Creative Critical Response Task 2

How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

Who is our primary target audience?

I intend that our primary target audience would be for adults between approximately 25 and 45. I think this due to the age ranges of the characters in the film are all over 35 and have families. However, this film could be watched by a teenager who is sitting with their family on a weekend.  As our sequence includes a wife that is under the illusion that her husband is cheating on her and the wife kills the lover, I think that our film could also be targeted to people that like police dramas. In our group we knew that we didn't want the whole plot to be based around a police department trying to find out the murder of this lady however, we knew that we wanted to get the wife to frame her husband and blackmail him to help her or she will expose him for 'his' murder. Using police in our film means that we could market our film to many different audiences. Our primary target audience are to families or to people over the age of 25, but, we could also market our film to younger people and communicate the film as a crime thriller where someone is framed for a murder. 

How scenes in our sequence would engage our audience and our target audience:

Location:

We decided to film our opening title sequence in a small village in the countryside called Shere. We chose Shere due to its village feel as all of the shops are close together and the houses all look like beautiful cottages. Even though our film is set in the present time, I think that our opening title sequence gives the idea that it could be set in the 1960s like the series Heartbeat. Heartbeat was based off books and was a crime drama about a police department in a small village. Many things in the program appeal to their target audience which is the older generation due to it being set in the 1960s. I think that could also draw the older generation to watch our film. Even though the rest of the film will be pretty modern I think that setting the film in a small old fashioned village would appeal to our primary target audience. Blummer's and Katz theory of uses and gratification is a theory that communicates that "media uses play an active role in choosing the media." I think that having a title sequence that appeals to many different generations due to the locations, ages of actors, thriller and crime themes means that more people will enjoy and watch the film.

Narrative points:

In the end scene of our opening title sequence we used 2 POV shots which were edited to cut to the person who we want to show the audience about. For instance, when we showed ...(the victim) we wanted to show the audience that she has been attacked by the wife and is not in a good state as she has blood and bruises. When we used the POV shot looking up at Cassie (the perpetrator) she is holding a bat which shows that she is the one engaging with violence. The camera is also tilted up to look up at Cassie to show that she has to power in this scene. in the other scenes however, Cassie doesn't have much power as she is under the illusion that her husband is cheating on her. She thinks that her husband is going on dates with another lady and that he is showing off his son to the new girl. we show her lack of power by filming over the shoulder whilst having her in the right composition and showing the action with the husband in the rest of the shot composition. 

Casting:

In our opening title sequence we had to cast four people, the wife, the husband, the lover and the child. I wanted the wife and the husband to dress like they are generically over 35. I chose this because I wanted there to be a huge difference between the wife and the husbands lover as I thought that it would make the husband even more disliked as he has gone out of his way to get a younger lady. We told Nikki to come wearing a long coat and a scarf as that's what we initially pictured Cassie to wear. Other than those two items we let Nikki choose the rest of her costume. For the character of Cassie we didn't want her to look generically scary in any way as I thought that it would be more of a surprise for the audience when she kills the lady. I also thought this as I wanted some people that are watching it to relate to what's happening to the wife. The wife is under the illusion that her husband is cheating on her and is introducing their son to her. For the husband we didn't give Adam too much of a brief to wear as his normal outfits for the character fit well and due to them being in the same age range. Adam on the day wore a jumper and a jacket for the pub scene and then wore a black t shirt in the cafe scene to show that its another day. I also wanted some audience members to relate or understand the Husband as he is cheating on his wife. We wanted the husbands character to be disliked throughout the whole sequence whereas in the first half of the sequence we wanted the audience to feel sorry for the wife. The way that the cheating scenes are filmed makes the audience understand why she ended up hurting the lover in the end. I didn't want the audience to hate the wife so we filmed over her shoulder when she is looking at her husband cheat to make sure the audience understand how what she is watching. For the lover I wanted her costume to completely contrast with the wife. I chose Freya to wear a baggy knitted sweatshirt as they are mainly worn by ladies in their 20s. I wanted her character to be liked by the younger audience watching and then I wanted them to feel sorry for her at the end. For the Childs character we chose for him to wear his school uniform as it could portray that the husband has taken his child after school to meet his new girlfriend. This would make the audience dislike him even more. 

Violence and cliff hangers:

Our whole opening title sequence is building up the tension for the climax at the ending where the wife kills the husbands lover. We mainly did this through our music choice. We used the song Babushka sang by Kate Bush as its about a wife trying to see if her husband will cheat. The opening lines are "she wanted to test her husband". Even though our sequence isn't about the wife testing her husband, she is still under the illusion that he is cheating on her. The song is also really good as it has a climax for the chorus meaning that we can use the chorus for the death scene. The beginning part of the song sounds like it's foreshadowing something bad is going to happen. The end of our sequence is where there is the most violence as its where the wife kills her husbands lover. To set the atmosphere in the studio we used a red LED to create shadows and silhouettes. In the photo above you can see the wife with a bat. We positioned her in front of the light to create a red silhouette around her and to make her seem terrifying. The red light also made the room feel like a caller or a warehouse which is the type of location we wanted to portray. To portray violence even more in these scene's we filmed using POV shots. When we wanted to show the wife looking powerful we used a POV shot from the lovers place. We tilted up the camera to look as if she is staring up at the wife and it also gives the wife status. When we wanted to show that the wife is looking at the lover we used a POV shot tilted down. We either filmed the lover in mid-shots or close up shots so we could capture the pain on her face. Another source of violence in this sequence was the bat which we covered in fake blood to look as if the wife had used it previously on the lover. To build up tension the wife dragged the bat down the stairs creating a crash each time and it got louder when she got closer to the bottom of the stairs. The end of the scene ending in a cliff hanger where there is a POV shot looking up at the wife holding the bat (look at image above). The wife makes a swing at the ladies head and when the bat is in front of the camera creating a black screen, the title 'My Love' comes up. I did the make up on Freya on the day which I practiced previously. I wanted to create the illusion that she had been beaten up multiple times before. I showed this by using purple, blue and pink eyeshadow to create bruises and uses wax to create deep cuts. We also had a bucket of fake blood to pour on her clothes. 

Practicing the make up:

I practiced the make up that I wanted to use on my friend Liv. I used wax on the edges of the cut to create a lifted area. I then used a brush and put the fake blood in the cut to create the look that she had cut her head open. I also practiced bruises with eyeshadow around her eyes. 

Here I am doing the make up on shoot day: 

In this photo I am pouring fake blood on her t shirt to show that she has cut open the bat of her head and its dripping. To show that she has been previously hurt I used eyeshadow to create the look. I put it around her under eyes and on her forehead to show that she has been punched. I also used the wax to look lie she has bust open her lip. I thought that the make up looked very effective when the red LEDs were on and we filmed close ups of her face. 

Romance:

To engage different types of genres I wanted to show romance as it would appeal to all ages especially including the younger ages that watch the film. In our sequence you see the connection between the husband and a younger lady that he is on a date with. Even though the audience are under the impression that the husband is cheating on his wife to be on the date with this girl, I still want the audience to like her. We accomplished this by showing scenes of them laughing together on their dates and her talking to the husbands child. She is also much younger than Adam so the younger generation might relate to her more than the wife. In the first pub scene we see them both on a date drinking together. She is drinking wine and the husband is drinking beer. Even though these are normal drinks to drink on a date, I wanted what they are drinking to show their age. The whole of the sequence is about romance and obsession. The wife is completely obsessed with the idea that her husband is cheating on her with a younger lady which leads to her killing her at the end. We see that its an illusion through the way we shot the scenes. When she sees the couple through the window of the cafe she turns away which makes them disappear behind her. This highlights her obsession. 

How successful were we to engage our audience:

I think that we were very successful to engage the audience for adults aged 25 and over. I think that to engage this audience you need the film to include romance, violence and tension whilst also being educational in a way. For instance, Line of Duty is a crime series on BBC about a police department who's audience is around 40+. The program includes lots of violence, tension and romance whilst also being educational. They did this by using the correct terminology that the police department would actually use. If your target audience was for teenagers you wouldn't want to have loads of information and wouldn't have to care too much about facts being true, where as, adults focus more on those parts. I think we could of possibly added something to do with the police in our sequence to foreshadow the rest of the film. 

My film poster for My Love

- The picture I used was from the film Gone Girl featuring Rosamund Pike. I DIDN'T TAKE THE PHOTO!
Movies on WeekendsIn Celebration of Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl – Movies on Weekends

How would my poster engage my audience and choices to help distribute:

I chose this picture from Gone Girl as the women in the photo looks a lot like Nikki who played the wife in our sequence. I also really liked how it looks like the wife it death staring something or staring into the camera at the audience. I felt like having the title only include the wife would be good as it shows the audience who is the protagonist for the rest of the film. I used red as the title colour for "My Love" and "coming soon" as I wanted them to relate to the one used in the sequence and also make them stand out. The red writing is used lots on thriller posters as it forebodes that something bad is going to happen in the rest of the film. I decided that it would be good to state some critics from news papers as I want our film to be predominantly marketed as a British film. However, I still used the New York Times as I wanted to show that its a worldwide film. At the bottom of the poster I used a quote that will be used in the film. I use the word killed to emphasise that that will be a huge part of the rest of the film. I thought that the film would be rated a 15 due the violent themes. We thought that releasing it in January would be the best idea as we didn't want to release it in a holiday due to the competition from other films. We then thought that it defiantly wouldn't be a summer film so it would be beneficial to do it in a winter month such as January.

The BBC:

I think that our film would be distributed by the BBC as its a British independent company which distributes films, series and documentaries. The BBC produces over 12 films per year such as The Imitation Game, Baptise and Killing Eve. I think that they would be the best place to distribute My Love as its a British company and would show the film on weekends. The best time to show the film on one of the BBC channels around 9pm as that's when you can show violent films and when most adults sit down and watch TV. Our film also fits in with the majority of films that BBC produce such as their thrillers and crime dramas. They also produced Line of Duty which is partially like our film and it was very successful due to when it was shown every week. It is proven that they have an audience of over 489 million adults per week and is 10% more popular than britian's other streaming service ITV. 

Our marketing campaign:

Our target audience is for adults over 25 but mainly marketing to adults around the age of 40. This is due to the thriller themes of violence and romance. I would distribute our film on BBC player as it can be streamed on BBC iplayer and also on the weekends on one of their channels. I would distribute the film around 9 o'clock as that is when our target audience is sitting down watching TV. Another benefit to distribute the film on BBC is that it can be marketed on adverts on everyone of their channels. Most British households would have the BBC channels on once a day so it would be so beneficial to be able to market through adverts throughout the day. I think that our film would also have a cinema release however, I wouldn't make this the main priority due to the fact that we are targeting to adults that wouldn't go to the cinema as much as the younger generation. I would also directly put the film on BBC iplayer as it would encourage the people that have liked the adverts to go and stream it easily. If the film did well after the release in Britain I think that it would be beneficial to stream on Netflix and Amazon Prime as it releases the film to the rest of the world such as Europe and America. Americans really like BBC drama's such as Killing Eve and Line of Duty. They also really like British costume drama's and British comedies which they normally remake, such as, The Office and Shameless.

 

Creative Critical Refection Task 1

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Saul and Elaine Bass

Thursday 17th March 2022

Saul Bass

Saul Bass was a graphic designer and an Oscar winning filmmaker from America. His job was a best
known for his motion picture title sequences and film posters. He worked with many famous film directors and produces such as Hitchcock, alley Kubrick and Billy Wilder. His first very good piece of graphic design work was the 1954 film of Carmen Jones. The makers of this film liked his work so much that they asked him to return and design their title credits as well. He became famous for turning old techniques of making traditional title sequences into exciting moving titles. He is also credited as pictorial consultant for his input on the horror film 'psyco'. He also was the person that designed the opening title sequence for the film. He was famous for creating sequences with distinctive shapes which were unique to the films. He wanted to show a message in all of his work. For instance in Casino Royal he incorporated a coin to show that money was going to be talked a lot in the film. As you can see in the Requiem of Dream it shows an eye and a skull. The themes of the film are going to incorporate death or solving a case of some kind.

Elaine Bass

Elaine Bass was also a opening title sequence designer who worked with her husband Saul. She is known for her design of the titles in Goodfellers, the title designer in Casino and being the title design consultant in Physco (as well as her husband). She also directed a few short films such as a film named Quest. Even though both her husband and her worked along side each other to produce the work that they were famous for, her husband was credited for many more projects than her. Both Elaine and Saul worked on the title sequence  of West Side Story and Grand Prix. I really liked the way that they both contributed to the opening title sequence of West Side Story. It was very effective how that added the themes of the film into the title. The prominante red colour of the cover was used as it was the colour of the jets in the film. Once Elaine had her children she stopped working for a few years and Saul took over making the titles. She was 're-discovered' by James L Brooks in the 80s as she was asked to create the titles for The War of The Roses and The Age of Innocent.

Awards and jobs 

Elaine is praised for her diverse style to work with a verity of styles. Saul Bass won awards for his design of legos, title sequences and commercials. He won an Oscar for the academy award winning "Why man creates" in 1968. He won another academy award for best documentary in 1969 and a "Lion Of San Marco" for best film in 1965. Around 1969 he started creating logos for companies such as A T&T,  Continental airlines and United airlines in 1974. 

Saul Bass opening title sequences:

Here is a video that I watch when researching Saul and Elaine Bass's opening title sequences. It includes some of their most famous ones such as Casino, Goodfellas, Psycho and Vertigo.

History of opening titles and credit

 Friday 4th March 2022

History of title sequences

The first title sequence appeared in 1897 by Thomas Edison. Edison decided that to stop anyone copying his work he would use credits at the start of his film.  From then on titles were introduced in many films as a way of copyright and then became a way or branding and promoting the actors in the film.  Another famous opening title sequence that influenced others was the 1932 film of 'A Farewell to Arms'. His film 'A Farewell To Arms" is about a love affair between a Lieutenant and a nurse in World War 1.  The film focuses on masculinity and femininity whilst also showing the passion and love between a couple. At this time actors and actresses were just becoming a very famous career choice where globally their names would be known. So, using titles would also bring attention to their films if somebody famous's name was in the title. Also around this time jobs such as director's and producers were also getting quite high paid jobs so this also meant that they could get the proper recognition of their work. 

Examples of Titles in recent films and tv programs

No time to die

I really like the No Time to Die opening title as the titles represent what is going to happen in the sequence. As the genre of the film is action and advective I thought the font that they used was good as it isn't too big and bold. I also really liked how the titles went on and off the screen in time with the music. As our opening title sequence features a song with a repetitive beat I think that it would be cool is ours also come on and off in time with the music. I also would like to use a font like theirs but smaller as it doesn't block the action in the sequence. All of the James Bond opening title sequences link to what the film is going to be about. It has been used since the first one to have the song name of the title of the film as this is a good way of marketing. The no time to die song by Billie Eilish was released months before the film came out which meant that the profits were higher before the film even was released.

Catch me if you can

The way that the titles mould into the drawings is very effective. I really like how the sequence only contains blue and black colours as it makes it more rememberable. I don't think I would use the font that they used in our opening title sequence as its very big and obvious for the audience. I however liked the speed that the titles come up which I would consider using for our sequence. The pictures in the opening title sequence also represented what was going to happen in the rest of the film. Catch me if you can it's about a boy who wants to be a con artist and changes his identity and jobs to earn money and to escape the police. For instance, he becomes a pilot, then a doctor and also an FBI inspector. 

Euphoria

I think that the Euphoria titles are the closest to the ones that I would choose for our sequence. I think that the thin font and small size if perfect as it isn't too visible. I liked how in this title sequence the attention was on the names of the cast and the crew as it made the audience focus on it. This also worked with the background as it stayed the same meaning and was simplistic so that the audience wasn't drawn to it. For our sequence we want the opposite. We want the audience to mainly focus on the action rather than the titles. I think that we will probably achieve this through using thin white text and position it on the sides of the frame.

Production company logo's

All of the 'Big 5' conglomerate companies have changed their logos since they first were invented. This is mainly because the companies have been bought by other companies meaning that their logos get combined or updated. When Disney bought Pixar their logo was updated to be Disney-Pixar however it still included the original lamp shade. Warner Brothers changed quite a lot when A T&T bought it however it now seems to be staying the same. 

- The IndependentHere's how the major movie studios' logos have changed over time | The Independent | The Independent