Day three of editing

 Today we cut the dog scene simply because we were overtime. We diceded to only use the hand healed shot at the start as it was more intense after we finished the picture cut there was still one shot that bugged us. It was a wide shit of James walking down a street That just took to long. So Bert had an idea he proposed to rotoscope James and we would then be able to place him on multiplae places of the frame at the same time. This would speed up the shot. Rotoscoping is like a masking but it’s partly automatic. In after effects you can highlight what part you want to be affected in our case James. After effects then analysis the fottage gram by frame and adapts the mask. With key frames you can adjust the mask. The good thing about doing this rotoscope is that even if we end up not using it to multiply him we can still use it to place text on the road on wich he can walk. This is likely to look really cool as a credit. 

Research on Saul and Elaine Bass

 

Saul and Elaine Bass are two highly influential Filmmakers who vastly changed the way titles are presented in films. Saul Bass born in 1920 who was awarded the Oscar for the best short film for his documentary ‘Why Man Creates’ in 1968. Born in the Bronx as the son of eastern European Jewish immigrants Bass attended Brooklyn Collage. Like many influenceial visionaries of the film Industry he started out doing advertisement, designed logos and a lot of different freelancer work. His career in Hollywood began when he moved to Los Angeles in 1946. Eight years later director Otto Preminger recognized his talent after Bass had designed a poster for Preminger’s 1954 musical romance Carmen Jones. Preminger asked Bass to create the opening title sequence for his movie. Bass´s goal was to not only present the titles but demonstrate the atmosphere of the movie to the audience. He aimed to turn the previously unobtrusively opening credits into an event themselves. His opening sequences are often beautiful short films themselves. Him and his wife Elaine Bass, who often is overlooked partly due to the stigma surrounding female filmmakers especially during the 20^th

century, joined in marriage in 1961. Together they collaborated with legendary directors like Alfred Hickock and Martin Scorsese. Saul Bass died in 1996, Elaine Bass who is now 95 years old and seems to be retired after she worked one last time on the remake opening title sequence of Psycho in 1998. But their legacy lasts, nearly all modern title sequences take inspiration from their work as they demonstrated how meaning can be conveyed within the opening credits how these previously bland titles can be a creative outlet creating mood and highlighting themes of the movie. 

 

From the start the Basses opening title sequence for the 1960 movie opening highlighted the movies setting in the Las Vegas. This is not only due to the music but especially because of the typography which looks like the dots on a screen the sequence is also fast pasted, contently changing the layout and thereby hinting the vibrancy of the casinos which is supported by the different colours pooing up on the screen. 

The movies comedic nature is displayed e.g. when a character on the a slot machine breaks the 4^th wall when he gets flustered  as he notices the audience watching him as he is about to kiss a woman,  this is. completely unexcepted, surprises the audience resulting in comedy. When a man floats across the slot machine because of  what seems to be a flying olive the Basses tie the films setting to its situational style of comedy. 

 

Elaine and Saul Bass highlight the movies class with symbols of wealth like the Eagle. But also with elegant shapes, these simulate ornaments often found in interior architecture of historical upper class establishments. 

More information about them:

 

Day two of editing

Today started out finishing up the church scene which took longer as expected. We had a lot of different material that we would be able to choose from. We experimented with the start of the sequence and instead of using the take shot on a tripod we used a hand healed on which looked great but now we had to redo the beginning. We then checked the time and our clip was 30seconds to long. Even without any titelcards.  We tried shorten the runtime by cutting down the start to a shorter runtime with stylized time jumps in time. Our challenge now is to get the runtime down which could be done by shortening a take where James walks down a road which durats for 30 seconds right now but we might sadly end up cutting the encounter with the dog.

 

First day of Editing

 Today was the first time we saw the footage we shoot during our shoot day! We started editing. We first watch back the footage we shoot and sorted out the takes which we want to use. We found out that all the takes where the murderer and the dog were shoot for some reason in slow-motion, but this is only a minor set back we just sped the scene up and we are going to ask James the actor of the. Murderer to rerecord his line which we will then add. Afterword’s we started editing the takes together. We got a bit carried away by details during this meeting so next time we got to ensure to stay focused and finish the first ruff cut. On the bright sight we stayed a bit behind and Bert taught me how to use masks in premiere pro. We all agreed to find music over the weekend which we would like to use in the sequence. 

History of opening titles and credits

 The first opening credits that would classifie as a opening title sequence were at the start of the 1932 paramount pictures film ‘A Farwell to arms’. Opening credits used to be simple cards with typography on them. These cards are a relic from silent films. A sheet with the credit (or title) used to be rolled Infront of the camara to create the title card. Later on transparent sheets were used for title sequences. The one minute sequence from ‘A Farwell to arms’ introduced a new trend of making these credits more exciting. Eight years later ‘Walt Disney’s fantasia’ was the first sound film to not use any form of opening credits. Todays opening title sequences have become their own art form. Studios often hire different creatives like Kyle Cooper who specialise in this filed. 

If we look at logos especially from big studios that have been around for decades we notice that they really haven’t changed much. Off course these logos have evolved due to technological advancement in computer generated images (CGI) but the logos stay the same this is done not only to be easily recognised but also nostalgia. 

Evolution of the Universal logo from 1912 to now:

 

Evolution of the Disney logo: 

The lion in MGMs icons logo used to be an actual lion:

But since 2021 the new logo is completly CGI:

 

The opening title sequence in Shaun of the dead a comedy horror film from 2004 by Edgar Wright is slow pasted the titles do not move with the camera but they are stuck in the scene adding to the unrushed feeling of the sequence these things in connection to the already slow moving humans foreshadow the zombies. The bowled ruff typography demonstrates danger. 

Zombieland’s (Zombie land from 2009 is a action horror comedy,) titles are destroyed by the violence on screen. In a way breaking the fourth wall which demonstrates on one hand the absurdity of what’s happening on screen but also intensifies the situation. 

The Suicided Squad a action comedy from 2021 features retro looking opening titles in warm colours creating humour through the juxtaposition of warm light heartedness to the brutal events on screen a theme that takes place throughout the film. 

When it comes to our opening titles I believe that we should take inspiration from these films and use bold typography using light colours and stylized text that is influenced by what is happening in the scene in order to highlight the light heartedness and comedy of the movie and the juxtaposition to its topic.

Preperation for evaluation questions

 From the company that presented you...

 

Pause. What studio would distribute (sell) our sequence if it was a feature film. If you search on the internet for distributing company’s it lists thousands of options. We need to first narrow down, what we are looking for? Our Media product is a Film. Most of the big Film studios have their own distributing company’s. The Walt Disney company for example distributes most of their products through a company called ‘Disney Media distribution’ (DMD).  Sony releases their productions through Sony Picture releasing. But there are also companies that distribute media products produced by different Studios.  Netflix has distributed a vast variety of media products. Netflix not only licences media products in order to present them on their website but they also produce in house and acquire exclusive streaming rights to content.

 

I started looking at similar media products mood and genre wise like e.g. Hot fuzz and Scary movie as our Film would likely be categorized as a horror action comedy. Scary movie a horror comedy movie from 2000 was distributed (to theatres in the us) by Dimension Films, who amongst other things released the Scream films. But they are focused on American markets and products and our film is set in a little British village and is likely to be more appealing to a UK audience. Hot fuzz a British action comedy from 2007 was distributed in the UK by Universal Pictures International (UPI) who have amongst other things released Inglorious Basterds. While UPI certainly are experts in their field they might be to big of a company and are likely to focus on products with large names attached to them. Therefore, looking at company’s who also publish Indi films is probably smarter. Kaleidoscope have distributed a wide variety of feature films of all genres and branded documentary’s world wide and in the UK and seem to be a suitable distribution company. Bulldog Film Distribution is a completely independent company that focuses on releasing films in the UK and Ireland they seem to mostly be releasing low to mid budget films. In comparison Bulldog Film Distribution (BFD) to Kaleidoscope BFD is likely to be the more effective in the UK due to their focus on the area but this might lead to more complications if we wanted to release our film world wide because we would need to find another company. Another note worthy distributing opportunity would be brit box, a video subscription service created by BBC and itv, as a local British feature would suit their niece programming. 

 

In the end BFD would most likely be most appropriate for a traditional distribution due to their experience in the UK and with Indi productions of all genres. But being acquired by Netflix for the exclusive rights would offer a lot of exposure for our picture to a large diverse audience in the UK and world-wide. Netflix is famous for their wide variety of original content form reality shows like the kissing booth to the critically acclaimed and Oscar front runner The power of the dog, and how they are able to find a audience for their products. A niche product in the great sceam of content like ours with no pre soled elements could profit from Netflix.  

Videos about the shoot day!

First video about the shoot day:

Credits: We as a group sat down and thought of the answers together. I then suggested to make the video seem as if were at a pressconfrence. Pablo and I set infront of the camera and answered the questions and Bert keyed the background and added a come-on backdrop and banner for the table. I then added subtitles. and music.  

Second video:

Credits: We as a group came up with the answers then looked for a room to film in and. We ended up filming the video in one of the media classrooms . Pablo and I answered the questions while Bert edited the video.