Watching Documenatry

The 'Watching' documentary

'Watching' is a half hour documentary about film title sequences. They talk about the beginnings of films and how its really, a make or break moment, where you need to give the audience enough but not too much.

The documentary shows mainly film producers, writers and directors talking about openings, some saying that you should start the film with something that will really impact the audience, something that will really want to make them continue watching (as before, trailers were actually the opening of the film, and opposed to now were mostly the best bits, or what are thought to be the best bits are put together to form this exciting and audience luring device). Some believe that if you start strong you really set a standard for the film, and in most cases this is the best part of the film which the audience have already seen through the trailer.

The documentary also focuses on fonts and credits at the beginning of films, which can sometimes, in the opinion of some, can destroy their idea or vision for the opening. 

An opening should be about seducing an audience, but not smothering them. Starting too strong, too open, can really ruin a film, setting the bar so high, it can, most likely, become unreachable. If you plan on doing so, you really need to have a few more tricks up your sleeve to really shock or surprise or keep the audience interested. It is like, as many times, we go to see a film and we think it was great, and a while later, due to high success rate they do a second, or even a third film, and this can sometimes ruin the films reputation. A first film, will more often than not, be the best, and specially if it has a high success rate, making a second would just be like throwing away all of that. In conclusion, you should not be to quick to seduce an audience, nor leave them waiting, or they will bore quickly and get into their minds that you are not worth-it or you are not what they are looking for.

Here are the questions we worked on while watching the documentary (documentary and answers will be uploaded soon):

FONT ANALYSIS ON DVD CASES AND POSTERS

This is the  font on a movie with a target audience for young children. The font is Sans Serif and this goes well with the concept of the film. Just by looking at the poster it is evidently a friendly film. The text is kept very simple without the use of pictures. However, the bold and bight colours instantly grabs a passer-by's attention. As for children, the simple word 'TOY' is in CAPITAL LETTERS and easy to read so the child will be very ecxited to watch it as all children enjoy toys.

 This font is dark yet suspensful. It is Serif font and this goes well with the storyline of the film aswell as the picture behind it. The font shows that the storyline is on a serious matter- entertainin yet educational. The directores name is written smaller than the title so that the focus is on the name of the film.



 This is the font of a comedy movie. The font is Sans Serif implying that the movie should not be taken serious, incase sensitive people may take offence of the title. Comedy movies should have big clear fonts like this so that people remember the name and it shows that it is a less complicated film.  The use of a white background is good as the focus is on the title, actors and picture.

 This is a Poster for an Action movie. The font is San Sarif howerver it is still taken seriously. I think that the fact that it is in CAPITAL LETTERS and ITALICS helps do this. The text is kept discretly on the poster so the focus is on the photo. Since it is already a well known film the font doesnt need to be so big as people already know what the film is.

Other Fonts

FONTS

Aswell as using 'Serif' and 'Sans serif' fonts, many title sequences use other fonts. Many depend on the theme of the movie or what the creators want to portray to the audeince.
Here are some examples of other fonts:

This font is used in the James Bond 007 movies. Certain fonts can even be used as a form of identification. Anyone who would see this font will immediately identify to which film it belongs to.

This type of font is a lot more femenine which will usually be ina title sequece of a film that it's target audeince are women. This is a form of grabbing the attention of it's audience.

This type of font is used in more male targeted movies, however this font does not always target men but could target a variety of audiences who are interested in a sinister movies.

Fonts are very important in a films title sequence as it could show the theme of the movie but it also manges to engage it's audience. Many title sequences use very overwhelming fonts inorder for the audience to concentrate on the particular font, however other title sequences use very plain fonts like Serif and Sans Serif to make sure that the audience is more aware of the images behind rather than the actual writing. These plain fonts are usually used in a narrative opening title sequence as the audience is forced to focus on the film behind the writing.

My favourite title sequence

MONSTER INC TITLE SEQUENCE

 I like this title sequence a  lot because of the great editing and animations made. The music and vibrant colours encourge the audeince to view the film. Also the images shown are relevant to the movie and as a result the audeince can get a small insight into what the movie will be about. The font used is also relevant to the theme of the movie and so makes it more amusing towards the audeince. I think that this title sequence is very effective as it manages to taget it's audeince which are children.

Risk Assessment...

In our pitch we had to go include a risk assessment and outline any possible risks involved with our filming, for our own safety. During our pitch we did not know we had include this but after being told we included it after we got our feed back. This is very important to the task and requires us to be responsible and to be careful. 

we have to make sure not to leave anything unattended, especially the tripod as a lot of accidents are caused by people tripping over the tripod legs.

we have to leave our phone numbers with the teacher and make sure that the teacher knows when and where we are filming.

we have to make sure that we are careful when we are filming and respect the law and other people in the area, making sure that we do not break any rules and do not do anything that will endanger our safety.

Risk Assessment...

In our pitch we had to go include a risk assessment and outline any possible risks involved with our filming, for our own safety. During our pitch we did not know we had include this but after being told we included it after we got our feed back. This is very important to the task and requires us to be responsible and to be careful. 

we have to make sure not to leave anything unattended, especially the tripod as a lot of accidents are caused by people tripping over the tripod legs.

we have to leave our phone numbers with the teacher and make sure that the teacher knows when and where we are filming.

we have to make sure that we are careful when we are filming and respect the law and other people in the area, making sure that we do not break any rules and do not do anything that will endanger our safety.

Film That Inspires Me...

The Film 'Black Swan' Really Inspires me. The idea for our thriller film was from the black swan. This is a new thriller film that came out this year 2011. We were really inspired by this film. We did not want to copy the idea of a swan that is mentally and physically disturbed as this would be Intextuality We were also inspired by the title as this has to sides telling a story to it, The 'Swan' being quite pure and nice but the 'Black' is the negative and bad side. So for our title we gave it 'Sinful Wings', The word 'Sinful' being a negative imagery and the 'Wings' being quite girly and happy. If we kept the title as 'Wings', this would not inspire the audience to think and watch it as a thriller movie as it does not invovle nothing being suspenful of being scary or thriller like. 

The Art Of The Title Sequence

I've have been on the Art of the title sequence website and I have seen many title sequences that have inspired me.

This title sequence is from the movie 'Saturady night fever' where John Travolta plays the main role. The style of the titles are very plain but the audience are still able to see it through the bright red colour used. These titles start by introducing the title of the movie and then the main character, as the title sequence develops, the audience are able to see who the directors, musicaians and producers are.
The images on this title sequence constantly show the main character 'John Travolta', this is a way to advertise the movie.

The title sequence uses different types of shots like close ups, mid shots and establishing shots inorder to give an insight to the audeince of what's happening. Through this the audience can get a certain clue of the type of character John Travolta.

Final Preliminary

This is the Final Preliminary that i had to complete as i missed out on that lesson. I had to come back in my own time yo complete this. This is not as good as it is meant to be because we did not have an idea before hand on what to do, so we made this up on the spot. Then we used work shops and our spear time to edit this. 

Thriller Audiences- Who watches Thrillers?

1) How many suspense films were released in 2009? How many films were released altogether last year?
In 2009 out of 503 films released, only 31 were thrillers.

2) Action, animation and comedy account fro 52% of Box Office in the UK in 2009. Why do you think these genres are so popular?

Because a lot of children and teenagers tend to watch these types of movies. However when you look at the number of thriller films seen there's a big difference, this is probably because of the age restrinctions on thriller films.

3) why do you think Thrillers account for quite a low proprotion of UK Box Office takings (4% in 2009)?
Due to the age restrinctions

4) Looking at the 'genre by gender' diagram above, what information can be derived about Thriller audiences and gender?

Thrillers are usually seen as more of a male genre due to the sub genres of crime and action. However, thrillers also have a lot of suspence which by what the diagram tells us is more a female genre rather than a male genre.

5) Look at the age certificate for 10 of the films featured on the teaching blog. What does this tell you about Thriller audiences?

The Pitch

Pitch Presentation:

Copy of Thriller Pitch on Prezi

See it here too: http://prezi.com/yccvyud10vhk/copy-of-thriller-pitch/

Pitch Photographs:

                                      

Teacher feedback

Hello group 11
There are some great blog entries on this page, but there are also rather a lot of 'blank' blog entries which will let the blog down.  Saima in particular - you have about 8 blank blogs that you haven't filled by the deadlines set, which is a shame.
Remember to keep up to date with your blogging work as this carries significant marks.

The Effect of Editing- Virgin Atlantic Ad

The thing that really inspired me from this advert was the way everything just flows and how the use of props and the transition into the next scene. I also find the colours, lights and the way they play with size. Examples of this are in 0:52 seconds and 0:59 seconds. 

They also use different types of shots, medium close-ups and long shots, that really show-off well the way they play with size. The advert is for an airline, which are trying to present to consumers what they can offer, they show a femal air-hostess, (typical), that aids passangers, and also include warm colours throughout.

Camera Shots- ECU

When prowling the web I found this clip from the series Dexter. This series is about a psychopathic serial killer, all is shot in ECU ( Extreme Close Ups), which in a way show his point of view even though its from the viewers point of view, in a way his side, the way he sees the world, really getting into this psychopathic serial killers mind. Like in 'The Stepfather', this character has an obsession with perfection and routine. A nice example is when he cuts himself and dabs it with a tissue, which is also done in 'The Stepfather'.

More Fonts (Analysis)

As we were shown, different fonts are used for different movies. At first they may all appear to do not much at all, but they are somehow crucial. For our As Thriller, we are also asked to include a title and think about the font. A font should go with the film, for example, an old film (a film set in olden times) would have a serif font and a newer, more modern film (set in the present time) would probably use a sans serif font, the size (width and height) and the colour of the font.

So knowing that the font is an essential part of our thriller, as we will need to use it for our title sequence (for which we will use a program on the iMac called Livetype), I decided to do my own little bit of research into fonts to get a better idea of what kind is used for what type of film:

In this poster you can see a big guy, which is represented in the font. The two most significant words are big and bold and yellow, which matches the word fire and the fire in the background. This font seems to be used for a crime thriller.

This is a more sweet, girl-y font. Thin and sophisticated lines, make it look more of a film whose main character is a female.  It somehow portrays innocence but with a twist, this thought comes from the whole poster as opposed to just the font.

This font looks more like something used for an action thriller. The is 'O' shaped as an eye. And as the previous font, this one has thin lines, also representing a female, but using capital letters giving it a more action-type edge to it.

This font seems to be more for a psychological thriller. The black letter with the white background, and the ink sort of running down which may represent loss. The incorporation of a head in the poster really gives it the psychological thriller feel. The font seems as it if were typed, like a creepy letter with the ink running down, it really plays with the mind. 


James Cameron, Avatar- Font Analysis: 

 

Original Poster

The subtitles for 'Avatar' in Papyrus font

 James Cameron used the Papyrus font for his film title, and he also used it in the subtitles for his film, 'Avatar'. Critics say it was a little over the top, however, I think he deserves a little credit for doing something different. I do agree with the critics however, as the font does not really link to the film but we somehow, as viwers, have gotten used to the font and really relate it to the film. (Original poster shown above the text).
However, with all that taken into account, can you imagine if it was done with comic sans font? Well you can see how it would look (below).

The poster if it were in Comic Sans

The subtitles if it were in Comic Sans

The Effect of Editing- Pedigree Dog Ad

On the 18th of January 2011 we were introduced to editing, playing around with the effects and all the different things we could use to edit our clips. We used slow motion as one of the effects when trying to create suspense or show in detail a certain extract of the clip that would not be clear or very visible to a viewer if it was in normal speed.

This ad by Pedigree shown in Canada, shot a 1,000 frames per second, really allows the audience to see the details of the dogs body and the flight of the dog food into its mouth. The music also plays part in the advert, its slow and suspenseful and builds up as the food is launched and lands in the dogs mouth, as if the goal was reached (the goal being the food landing in the dogs mouth, to which they try to show that good food is important for a dog, and their brand is what their pet needs). Even though it is not a thriller, it creates suspense that is both effective and necessary to make the advert successful.

Title Sequence- Wall-E

 

I really like the title sequence in 'Wall-E'. I think the use of different colors, scenes, places, characters, etc. really separates it from other title sequences that use parts of the film itself and include the titles on top or put the titles on plain background.  It makes it a lot more fun and interesting, and I think it is really eyecatching. Sometimes people do not look at the credits, specially when at the end like in 'Wall-E'. However, for this one, the images and colors seem to lure the viewer in, really making them want to stay longer and watch them. To the left is the video so that you can really see it in full:

The Pitch Planning

 The Pitch should contain the details on the following paper:

Our pitch has been done on http://www.prezi.com/ and is ready to be presented.

Find it here:

http://prezi.com/yccvyud10vhk/copy-of-thriller-pitch/

Animatic

This is our thriller animatic, not great quality and not the exact shot lengths as it is quite hard do it with Lego people.

Storyboard- Sinful Wings

This is the storyboard for our thriller, Sinful Wings:

Thriller Plan- Sinful Wings

Fairy Wings is the first strong idea that Group 11 came up with.
As shown in our previous post about our thriller influences, we are keep on playing with the idea of innocence. The opening of Sinful Wings is about a young girl, portrayed as an innocent child, but maintaining a creepy side to her which gives it a bit of a twist, playing with the viewers mind.

Here is our thriller plan for our first idea. It is not completly developed but main ideas are presented (not in detail):

 

A very rough idea for the thriller:

Inpiration for our thriller

  Law Abiding Citizen is one of the film openings that have inspired us.  The sudden shock that is presented from the first few minutes of the film is the main attraction. The way that, like in the stepfather, all appears normal, the girl and the father, just sitting doing their own thing. The best part in my opinion, is when the mother shouts out 'Hey, I'm home', which makes it all seem so normal, and it's accompanied by the knock on the door which makes us believe that it's the mother at the door. 

   The Town is the second movie we looked at that inspired us. The idea of having people disguised as a nuns, etc. with full outfits. And also having a character that seems innocent, but really is playing with the viewer. The same way that a nun is seen as an innocent character but in the film it is used to play with the viewer and the other characters in the film.

 The Stepfather is another of our inspirations, as one of the films we have watched in class and analysed its opening title sequence and idea, we are fairly familiar with it. The opening shows the attempt of a change of identity of a man who calmly killed a family and took all of their money, looking for his next victims. We like the calmness of the character, the way he acts as if it is all normal, and suddenly you see the dead bodies of the family. Their are small hints that allow you to believe that this character is the 'evil' or 'bad' man in the film; the organisation of his kit in the bathroom shows an obsession, the silent night song, and the kitchen utensils with blood in the sink (which would be more understandable if it were one or two utensils, but there was more than two in the sink which made it all the more creepy). 

Lurpak Advert

The Lurpak advert is a intresting, exciting way of marketing Lurpak butter. The idea is simple, bland almost. A guy cooking a omlette. However with the combination of a wide range of camera angles, suspenseful music and excellent editing to slow down / speed up certain scenes, the 1.03 minute advert seems dramatic and susenseful.