Day six of editing

 Today was the final day of editing. we started out colour grading our sequence luckily we could use the same grading for all of the external shots and then adjusted it for the church scene.    

There were still some ruff patches. For example after listening to the sequence with headphones we noticed that we still needed to adjust the audio in some parts which turned out to be a bit of a hustle because we didn’t record atmosphere sound on the day which led to the some transitions of audio clips just not sounding great. Especially because we had to boost up some dialogue audios but after trying a view different things we found a way to create a good sound design using some normal fades and the constant power effect. Because we shortened the length of the church bells I then suggested to adjust the duration of the establishing shot of the church otherwise the paste would have shifted in a wired way. 

 

We then focused on the titles in order to make them more stylized we used the font that we had used for the gothic title card now for all of the credits. This lead to some problems as premier for some reason mixed up some sizes so we had go through each one of them and adjust the size. Bert suggested to let the titles fade in and out which looked great. We then moved on to fade every first letter of a first and second name red after James killed the victim suggesting that the red text in the way is blood spilling on the credit. We then also changed the colour of the title credit from white to red this fitted the style of our scene and made the title more readable. We then decided to add a few blood drops to one letter at the end again adding to the hot fuzz over stylized vibe we were going for and suddenly we were done!

How are titles presented?

 The way and order titles are presented in opening title sequences can vastly change depending on genre and production size according to studiobinder.com the most common way of listing opening titles is in the folowing order:  

1. PRODUCTION COMPANY presents (distributor)
2. a PRODUCTION COMPANY production (producer)
3. a FILMMAKER film
4. Film Title
5. Lead Cast
6. Supporting Cast
7. Casting Director
8. Music Composer
9. Costume Designer
10. Associate Producers
11. Editors
12. Production Designer
13. Director of Photography
14. Executive Producer
15. Producer
16. Writers
17. Director

 

As success in the film industry often depends not only on knowing people but also to be known, all creatives would like to see their name first and most importantly clearly readable. This leads to discussions about placement of the credits being made even before the movie has been shot. Making movies is expensive, the people who finance movies or organise the financing tend to appear first.  

As previously mentioned, the way credits are being presented depends on the kind of film. For example in order to not disturb from the very emotionally charged opening of Inglorious Basterds, Tarantino presents the titles not during the opening scene but in an additional sequence. 

 

 Tarnation’s film are stylized. Inglorious Basterds is set in the second world war.  Therefore, the titles seem to be a heightened version of the popular typography of the time mixed with extreme colours like the Yellow which doesn’t makes sense in a historical context but hligthes Tarnation’s bowled style. This goes to show how titles alone can transport a lot of meaning even if they’re on their own.

A product more similar to ours ‘Zombieland’ demonstrates its titles in bold attention grabbing colours during the opening scene, they’re integrated. This seems to be happening quit often in the action/horror  comedy genre we are going for. For example ‘The suicided squad’ directed by James Gun presents its titles in a bright orange colour with small cuts within the typography. These suite the mood and feeling James Gun is famous for (,80s nostalgia). The titles are carefully placed to fit and enhance the framing and look of the sequence and partly present opposition to the dark lighting. 

Day five of editing

 We began the day looking at Bert’s idea for the credit’s placement when James walks down the street. He placed the credits on the ground and James would walk over them. While the effect was good, we all agreed that it wouldn’t suit the style of the video. Bert also did another effect the shot that reveals our title card starts out on a statue of Maria and Jesus and then tilts to a church window. Bert tracked the title on the window. Meaning that the text stays in one position no matter how the camera moves. This looked amazing we added a still frame as the camera started to shake and then a fade to black while the text would still be visible. Because the tile card is placed Infront of a church. window and the font is really stylized we added strong contour.  
 

Our teacher noted that the shoot where James walks down the street takes up to much time. So, we tried a very stylized of editing and only displayed the moments when he enters the frame, when he is at the middle of the road and when he is shortly Infront of the camera. This not only made the sequence quicker but also gave us a lot of extra time. I therefore suggested to add the bit with the dog in the same style. We only used a wide shot and show how James and the dogwalker entre the farm, how they meet and how they basically leave the frame again. This worked out great! The stylized way of editing we used for these scenes really highlighted the style we were going for. The bit of James walking down the street would make him seem scary while the dog bit would offer some comic relive. Later on I then had to adjust the tiles again as they were completely misplaced because of our reedit.

I wrapped up the day working a bit on the sound design. I added a scream when the victim first sees the killer. Earlier we discussed to use the techno beat first as a diegetic soundtrack wich would then switch to a non diegetic soundtrack. This worked great especially with this more stylized edit. But the soundtrack still needed to end once we got to the church so i tried a few different thing, then after looking at the scene with my teacher I decided to let the music fade out quickly during the esthablishing shot of the church. 

Day four of editing

 We started the session by finishing up the sound design. Our sound design features an additionally to the diegetic sounds and dialogue we recorded on the day, a diegetic techno beat which is muffled before he opens the door in order to make it seem as if the door is blocking the sound making the effect more realistic. Bert also added some stabbing sounds. We now had to find out how we wanted to score the end of our sequence. We tried multiple soundtracks for example a dramatic orchestral beat which would slowly become louder in through the entire scene and climax’s when the title card appears. We also found some single choir voices which we combined and tested if they would suit the scene. We ended up searching for some organ music like we planned. Bert and I found the same peace, Bach’s Toccata played on an organ, but we both agreed that the start of the peace would be to cliché. But while listing through the hole peace  I found a moment which would fit perfectly for our project. I screen-recorded it and we added it to our project at the end. I changed the timing so approximately two seconds before we cut to the title card the music would quickly fade in, making the sequence smoother. 

 

Pablo and I then came up with completely fake names and the timing for the credits. We had a list of different credits our sequence should included. I then tried to place the titles in a more creative and in the needed to find a way between practicability and aesthetic. Like we previously discussed I placed the first titles between James’s legs, Bert is going to work on the next titles in aftereffects as he wants to make it seem as if they were written on the street. In the church scene I looked at the framing and tried to find aesthetic way to incorporate the titles in the shot. In premier you can turn on a grid which will not only show you were the middle of each side of the frame is but also in which part of the frame you should place you credits. When timing the duration of each credit on screen it is helpful to adjust the duration to however long it takes you to read the credit three times.
 

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.