Monday, 17 January 2022

Production Groups


Today the class was split into groups of 3-4 people, the groups were chosen at random by our teacher. I ended up in a group with Pablo and Bert. All of us pitched 4 ideas for an opening title sequence and at the end of the lesson we had five ideas left, which we all agreed on where doable and we all liked them to a certain degree.
  

The ideas: 

 

-The Concert (Cornelius): A performer walks by a stage and imagens how she performs with her band on the stage. During the imagined performance she is wearing and Egg costume. (For more details see previous post)

 

-Future Assassination (Bert): A hit man is right about to assassinate someone as a portal opens and he sees himself from the future. His future self tells him to stop what he is doing otherwise he would regret it.  

 

-The fun family function (Cornelius): A family is in the middle of an argument as the tension rises music sets in and they start shouting at each other. Spit filmed in close up flies through the air. 

 

-The local priest (Pablo): The village priest sits down in the confession booth; quirky strangers start confessing. But then a mysterious man sits down. 

 

-The news anchor (Cornelius): A tired news anchor sits in his car after he accidently presses the horn, he puts on his game face and walks into the studio calmy passing by stressed out people. 

Thursday, 6 January 2022

4 Ideas for an opening title sequence

THE EGG FRONTS 

In the sequence Martha the lead singer of the Egg Fronts walks by a stage accompanied by a non diegetic drum beat. Synchronous to the beat the video cuts to a concert performed by the egg fronts and back to Martha standing alone Infront of the stage. This is portraying Martha’s Dream of performing on said stage. The sequence starts out with a extreme wide shot of the stage as Martha walks towards it a close up of her faces interduces her to the audience. The camara then wipes to centre stage and after a few seconds cuts to Martha during the performances coming out in an egg costume. This pattern of a reaction shot of Martha which then wipes to the empty stage and then cuts to the performances repeates itself while the music gets more intense at the climax of the beat there is dolly shot closing in on the drum set which features the name of the band which is also the title of the film. The titles fill out the hole frame and appear on the empty stage. 






The lead singer of Egg front, Martha is convinced that she is three things: the next great composer, the next great virtuoso and already an amazing businesswoman. The other bandmembers are the passionate and talented Vienna and Berthold the unorganised drummer who they found on the subreddit r/ALLrockAFTERthe80sIScrapIMnotTOXICimJUSTrigth. Martha discovres a local music youth competition organised by the local radio station the winners song is going to be played on the radio. After weeks of preparation their song flops on YouTube. As the smart business Woman who Martha is she decides to simply buy the views and likes which are going to enable them to win the compaction. After wining the competition the manger Vicky Secrete notices them and offers them her services which if they were to accept would make them as she says local superstars and one day maybe regional superstars they could play at every supermarket opening. This creates a conflict and in the end splits the band as they have to dicicde between music and Fame because Vicky only wants them to play one song. Martha decides to go after the fame but during her big performances she cant get Vienna out of her head she stops the show and instead gives a speech about friendship. After the speech she notices Vienna backstage they have an emotional conversation and then go back outside and create one of the most amazing songs ever written. 




FUN FAMILY FUNCTION 


A gimbal shot starts out at Francesco’s face as he screams and moves to a midshot reviling him sitting at a dining table as he is about to through a sausage towards his sister she ducks away. ‘Is that all you got you little s....’ . Before she finishes her sentence the non-diegetic soundtrack takes over. The only thing audible from now on is a peace of classical music like The four seasons by Antonio Vivaldi. Kyle throws a glass of water in their brother’s face. Luigi who had enough stands up in an attempt to stop this madness but instead gets thrown the desert towards his face. Arthur hides in a corner but when he sees that his homemade ice-cream is being used as ammunition he runs towards the target and jumps like a Secret service agent to deflect a bullet in this case, he tries to catch it with his mouth. This battel climaxes when Kyle and Francesco run towards each other each holding a gigantic bread stick this is portrayed in a wide shot. The first title appears when the music sets in the titles are placed mostly obve the characters but they are sometimes part of the action. For example tracked on a object flying through the room in slow-motion. During the final shot the camara fades to black and the title card is revealed. 






An Italian Family living in the UK finds themself locked in their living room in the middle of a heated argument. Sitting at the table are Francesco who the other siblings are certain that he is the family disappointment due to his history of failed cyber business adventures which as he says are the reason, he didn’t have time to move out yet as he is to busy. There was simply no point in the last 20 years where he was free to deal with the stress. For some reason he is still the parents favourite child. He has tow younger siblings his sister Sofia, a 23 year old who just moved in with her boyfriend in London, her Boyfriend who seems like the default setting of a human being decided to join her for the family dinner on this faithful evening. Sofia studies law and posts to her vegan cheese and fungus blog in her free time. The other sibling is Kyle, this was the night where Kyle wanted to ask their sister if they could move in with her in London, as Kyle could not stand the rest of their family anymore, due to the families famously right-wing conservatives standpoints. Luigi Flavio Roberto or as his kids call him Papa Popie is sitting at the head of the table he is not only head of the village neighbourhood watch but also a local hero after he saved the life of a duck who was nearly killed by a dog, a picture commemorating this moment is sitting on the mantel. Currently standing next to the wine closet is Luige’s second wife and notorious stamp collector who was once called South Dorset’s pretties air plane enthusiast, a picture commemorating this moment is also sitting on the mental, Misses Reginia Ruby Rosie Riley Roberto. While the others are still throwing food around the room Sofia’s boyfriend Arthur who had to go to the toilet since they got here tried to escape to the bathroom. But he can’t. The door seems to be locked. Most likely because Luigi implanted again a new safety device that doesn’t work. He pushes harder and harder. He eventually runs against the door resulting in a loud ‘KABOOOMM’, which redirects the family’s attention to Arthur who is now lying on the ground, whining. As the family finds out that their locked in and cant leave the room Regina Ruby Rosie Riley Roberto grabs a few bottles of wine. Luige commands everyone to sit down. Due to the lack of options everybody sits down. ‘I will call a guy, this is certainly not ideal, but not the worsts thing to happen to the Roberto’s’ he says while trying to calm everyone down. An argument about what the worst thing that did happen to the Roberto’s started by Sofia and fired up by Francesco climaxes when kyle starts running towards the door as this trip through memory lane brought up some trauma hidden in the back of their brain. After this attempt to leave the room also fails Kyle starts crying. They collapse on the ground Sofia tires to catch them. Francesco turns to Arthur, commenting in a very inappropriate and bigoted manor on this situation, amusing Luigi and Regina. Luigi who tires to keep the peace starts one of many inspirational speeches of the evening while Regina is deeply moved and starts to cry, although this could be due to the previously consumed bottles of wine, the rest of the family seems to not be affected at all. Out of the bule another argument starts resulting in the until now quiet Arthur to scream before he moves on and divides the room in quoters. He explains that from now one Everyone should stay in one corner and just simply not talk to people outside of their corner until the repair guy comes and opens the door. In the next few minutes a devastating silence takes over the room. But slowly conversations start popping up through the room people move around this time around conflicts are handled in a understanding matter. They all end up smoshed together in a corner Luige breves in and out. ‘I’m sorry’ he says, ‘I truly am’. As everyone starts crying the door breaks open. Paul Penny Peabody stands in the doorframe ‘Ahhhhh LUIIGGGIIIII’. Everybody jumps up spreading apart. Luigi wipes his tears tries to play it cool and thanks Paul. After Paul leaves they all sit down at the table and continue their dinner.




MAKING ROADS


The sequence starts with a gimbal shot moving from Peter who is driving and focusing on the street to Ana his daughter who is sitting in the middle seat starring at him in disbelieve and then moving on to Patricia who is sitting next to Peter and is crying. Suddenly a song comes on the radio close up reaction shots reveal how the family members are getting more and more relaxed. When the beat drops everyone sings along and a sense of happiness takes over the car. Peter who is now in such a good mood decides to drive synchronous to the beat this is shown in a birds eye perspective of the car. The sequence ends with a shot of Patricia opening her door and vomiting the title card is being reviled. 





Making roads tell the story of Peter who tries to reconnect with his daughters after the divorce with their mother. Peter believed that a cross country road trip were he would spend multiple hours crammed together in a steal box would bring everyone closer together. Even though the first argument started even before they had a chances to leave the garage peter holds on to this dream of a fun road trip. 23 year old Patricia only agreed to this road trip as she owed her younger sister Ana a favour from years ago. As the trip progresses everything that could go wrong dose go wrong but when their stranded in miles between the last and next gas station they split up thinking that they knew the fastest way. They lose each other and don’t find each other for a while. nobody really knows what they’re doing and as they become more miserable they learn to appreciate the time they spend together. Finally a day later they all meet up again on accident. While promising each other to never do this again they do decided to travel through Europe by train next year. 



THE SCARLET STORY


A medium shot reveals James Nachricht, a news anchor as he is sitting in his car he is resting his head on the steering wheel. He accidently presses the horn and instantly jumps up. A close up shoes him putting on his game face and exiting the car. From now on the sequence is portraited in a long shot on a gimbal. James is filmed in medium distance as he walks to the studio he put in one headphone a digetic calm soundtrack starts playing contrastic the stress all around him, people run up to him e.g. people from the research team or the make up department. He walks into the studio passing by the hectic control room. He steps Infront of the camara. A voice counts down starting at 3. The screen fades to black and the title card is revealed: `The Scarlet Story’.

 

The scarlet Story is a film about the news anchor James Nachricht who finds that the station he has been working for is in the middle of a large scandal involving their CEO Sidney Scarlet.  As everyone around him loses their nerves and his job is at danger he tires to hold it all together which is not easy due to turbel at home when his late wife Johanna Nachricht died in a accident with her sisters she left him a nasty present her 14 year old niece who from now on would have to life with James. James will never admit it but he is scared of her ever since he saw a dog collapse right after she touched him. James has a very close connection to a god, he dose not believe in any popular religion but he still believes in a god and he believes in faith and karma. While his life is going to hell and he tires to safe a companey basically on his own he has face and question the decisions he has made, his believes and most importantly he has to cope with a 14 year old send straight from hell.

 

 

 

 

Monday, 13 December 2021

Polly- why it works



The previous Hurtwood opening title sequence called ‘Polly’ worked in my opinion really well. In the sequence a approximately 17-21 year old woman plays outside in the garden and then goes inside where she sits down at a table but her presumed family has been brutally murdered, she treats them like puppets. The nondiegetic soundtrack, a cover of happy birthday in a slower tempo, instantly sets the mood and hints that something is wrong even as the viewer just sees her playing outside.  There are multiple close ups of a table filled with birthday cakes at the start. A shot then reveals Polly playing outside she is alone and isolated a typical theme in horror movies which is highlighted as the shot is filmed at a wide angel proving her isolation as nobody else can be seen. The slow pasted sequence consists of simple cuts thereby not distracting form Polly. I believe the scenes simplicity allows it to flourish as the viewer does not really have to concentrate and therefore is likely to read the titles. A creepy and unsettled feeling is being created form the start and the lack of information presented to the viewer creates interest.

Key learnings from previous Hurtwood openings



When looking at older title sequences there are certain patrons in them that work and don’t work. Arial shot usually seem convincing and often offer stunning images. Narrative driven peace are often really entertaining but especially when they feature a lot of dialogue don’t really resemble a opening title sequence but rather a tow minute short film with some titles thrown into the mix. Sequences featuring no dialogue but a simple a to b journey most often stand out and hit the right nerve as there is a story which can be exciting while not being to distracting from the credits/titels. These kind of title sequences constantly present new locations or new parts of a location keeping it interesting. Many of the opening sequences seem in parts repetitive especially the ones shot in one location featuring a lot of close ups. These concepts work for mostly for half a minute, after this point in time they start to be reparative. Openings starring only teenagers often seem armature like, as it often seems unrealistic, it seems like the directors wanted to hide the fact that these are infect teenagers. Age-appropriately casting can elevate a sequence just like fitting locations. Scenes filmed on location with a few exceptions always feel real which again elevates the hole scene.
  Slower pasted sequences featuring excessive camera movement often intrigue. The placement of the titles can either ruin shot composition or raise the quotiety of the scene in general. Sequences featuring shots where the environment or characters impact the titles always stand out. 

Wednesday, 8 December 2021

Starting to develop ideas


 
Austin Kleon an US-American author is most famous for the quote ‘Steal like an artist’. He means to
combing impressions and ideas of creations to one new product. For example look at peace’s of media that had an influence on you, no matter if movies, books or any other kind of media. What do they have in common? What are the themes that appear through your list?
 

 

My list: 

-Juno

-Rocket man

-Star Wars

-Community  

-Tschik 

-Minecraft 

-The smurfs 

-Minions 

-Ytitty 

-Brooklyn 99

 

Many of the media texts on my list feature characters who cope with tragedy through humour. A sense of escapism is in most of the texts. 

 

Another way to start creating ideas is through playing the ‘what if’ game. Simply think of anything for example Toys, what if Toys could talk and have their own life? The result toy Story. Or Dinosaurs, what if we could bring Dinosaurs back? The result Jurassic Park. 


Sources:
https://austinkleon.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Kleon

Monday, 6 December 2021

Kyle Cooper


Kyle Cooper is a graphic designer and director of opening title sequins born on Friday the 13th and is quite ironically most known for his work on horror films like Se7en, which was covered previously on this blog,  or American Horror story series. He has produced a wide range of titel sequences differing instanly. Additionally to his work on horror he did multiple Super Hero movies or Familey comedy movies like Home Alone, cooper is also well known for his work on TV like for the oscars or ESPN and his work in the video game industry like for Resident Evil. Copper co-founded Prolog Films who since their start in 2003 established themselves as a well known team of directors and designers focusing on Title sequences.
 



His style isn't defined by a genre but rather by patterns. His title cards or rather his typography most often feature movement. This can differ from the hectic glitching movement of his horror work or the slow-moving floating work on pictures like Home Alone. 


The opening titel sequence of the  4th Mission impossible movie ‘Ghost Protocol’ by director was disgend by Kyle Cooper.

The sequence portrays a fuse being light which then passes by different parts of the narrative. The sequence interduces the multipale side carechkteres as well as the pratagonist Ethen hunt (Tom Cruise) allthough the audiance allready know these actors the sequence interduces the tone of the sequence as well as offering some exposition to viewers who havent seen the previous movies. The flashing colours and fast motion in the sequence is hinting an action adventure. The fast wipes highligth this. There is a non diegetic orchestral soundtrack wich is a version of the main theme wich ewokes memorys of the privious movise the soundtrack  througth the sequence connects the diffrent locations and acctions as it is consitent everything. The sound of the ligth fuse is pleonastic, reminding the audiance of the constant passing of time. The sequence is fast pasted and often hides cuts with fast pasted mvment therby intesifing the action. The white opening credit contrast to the mostly darker toned rest of the sequence making them easy to read. The opening titles are part of the sequence the ‘Mission imposible’ is being created through to fuses coming together connceting the titel and symol of the films. The ‘Ghost protocol’ appears like a typical ghost. The sequnce sucsessfuly interduces the genre and main characters of the movie while enableing the viwer to read the opening credits. 

Sources:
https://www.artofthetitle.com/designer/kyle-cooper/
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0178204/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyle_Cooper


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