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.

 

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.