CHECK LIST : WHAT YOU SHOULD BE DOING NOW

• Principal photography: the majority of your filming 
• Post your  call sheets as you do each shoot (remember to remove personal details from the blog once you've made a hard copy)
• Capturing your rough footage into Premiere or iMovie
• Checking light levels as you go: if the footage is too dark, re-film now
• Update your Production Log as you make decisions, plans, lists and revisions; do research or  planning
• Get feedback and post it on your Production Log. 
• Include photos, scans, screenshots into your Production Log as evidence of all your activity. Make your log easy for the Examiner to read: use colous to make key terms pop 

GENRE CODES

Remember that visual and sound codes signal genre. Your film opening must have codes that quickly and efficiently signal genre to your viewer. In class Group 3 looked at how to employ the horror genre convention of enigma as well as of false alarm in their film opening. 

For example, in their banshee film, a character may be startled by what appears to be a supernatural figure with a horrific face, but it turns out to be merely a teenager wearing hallowe'en make-up. This false alarm quickly establishes the the horror genre.

Another example that the group have devised is the false alarm in which one of the group appears to be missing, then a stranger's hand is apparently placed from behind on the shoulder one of the group, leading the viewer to fear that they are under attack, but it it is merely the friend after all rejoing the group.

CHECK LIST : WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE SO FAR

Prep over half term: Research The Art Of The Title (as explained in the last post) by watching 3 title sequences, posting a screenshot of each explaining what is significant about each (e.g. how the font is appropriate, how the blocking of a shot allows text to be seen, how colours / images / text are used.

THEN create your own planning document (9 square grid,  blocking out titles etc) in Word or in paper. Post it on your blog.

THE ART OF THE TITLE

Essential viewing for students choosing the film opening brief: The Art of the Title. This excellent site is dedicated to displaying and examining title opening sequences. 

1. You must TAKE 3 EXAMPLES (as below) AND COMMENT ON HOW THE OPENING TITLE SEQUENCE FUNCTIONS. This involves close observation of choice of shots, framing, mise-en-scene, colours, font choices, music codes...anything relevant. 
2. USE THIS GRID OF 9 FRAMES TO PLAN YOUR OWN OPENING TITLE SEQUENCE and post the planning on your blog.

DAYS OF HEAVEN (Terrence Malick, 1978)

Set in 1916 and telling the story of a tragic love triangle, this film evokes both the period and genre in its opening sequence, which reflects Malick's knowledge of photography and willingness to use little studio lighting. 


The film's cinematography by Morricone models itself on silent films, which often used natural light. Malick also drew inspiration from painters such as Johannes Vermeer, Edward Hopper (particularly his House by the Railroad), and Andrew Wyeth, as well as photo-reporters from the turn of the century, such as Alfred Stieglitz, Weegee (Arthur Fellig) and Jacob Riis. The street scenes capture the urban poverty of the period and explain the desperation of the film's protagonists whose future is precarious . 


We have studied Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange as an example of the power of photography as reportage and its use in social change; the close-up of the infant's and young woman's faces exert a strong appeal and tug on our heart strings. The films concerns with social difference and the need for financial security are hinted at by the stills of the girl in the wedding veil and the three young women drinking tea intercut by shots of manual workers of various kinds.


The subject matter gradually moves from the urban to more of the rural, reflecting the narrative trajectory of the film.


The enchanting orchestral music echoes the use of musical accompaniment in silent film to suggest emotion.


Period colors (brown, mahogany and dark wood for the interiors) and period costumes from used fabrics and old clothes to avoid the artificial look of studio-made costumes. The colours create the illusion of period photographs, street journalism: an essential part of creating verisimilitude or 'real life' on screen. As a result, the footage is imbued with the quality of documentary truth, of scientific 'fact' which allows the viewer to engage fully with the world of the film. 


Art of the Title comments: Firing a mix of critical thought and mesmerizing immersion, Dan Perri's title design for Terrence Malick's Days of Heavencombines street level photojournalism and credit-to-character inferences drawing the curious eye at will, the ears aswoon with "Carnival of the Animals - The Aquarium" by Camille Saint-Saens. You are nowhere if not here, with these people, in the Gilded Age of American history.'


'And then the last shot of the opening title sequence] subtlety shifts us from photos and into the world of the film. In a masterful move, the last shot perfectly replicates the same look of the previous images, but...it is one of the actors, Linda Manz (in a photograph taken by Edie Baskin.) It’s through her perspective that we will take this journey so it is fitting that she is the one who bridges the gap from the opening credits into the first shot of the film'. Read the analysis by Cinema Sights

SHERLOCK HOLMES (Guy Ritchie, 2010)

Watery cobblestone logos and longitudinal linotype layer, lace and lash Prologue Films’ opening and end credit work for Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes. The sequence creative director Danny Yount, a self-taught Emmy-winning designer/director, produced main titles for Six Feet Under and The Grid while at Digital Kitchen. He currently works at Prologue Films and has created titles for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Iron Man and RockNRolla.

SE7EN (David Fincher, 1995)

Se7en is a 1995 American thriller film, which also contains horror and neo-noir elements. The now classic opening sequence to Se7en that helped rejuvenate title design in mainstream cinema. The dvd has a long video about the making of this sequence. Title Designer: Kyle Cooper

MY CALL SHEET

Today we are organizing a call sheet for the shooting. You write this up on your Production Log, using the first person: 'Today I organized the call sheet for the first (second, third) shoot. I took responsibilty for scene.........Here it is:...' Here is a good example of a call sheet.

GCSE B324: Production Portfolio in Media Studies
CALL SHEET 1 (or 2, or3)


FILM:
LENGTH:
SHOOT DATE:
LOCATION: (add Google map here)


WHO IS NEEDED:(a list of people) and times (9.0am to 4 pm)

Name 1  contact details

Name 1  contact details




Name 1  contact details





Name 1  contact details


CAMERA EQUIPMENT:




LIGHTING:




PROPS:


COSTUME: (FOR EACH CHARACTER)

RESEARCH THE GENRE

Show that you have researched the genre by giving accounts of your investigation into film openings. 

For example, explain that you have watched the opening of Don't Look Now (Nicholas Roeg).  

Add a picture and explain what made it a good thriller opening: how were enigma codes set up? How did the music contribute? What did the dripping blood suggest? How was tension created by the editing (going between the interior shots and the little girl running to the pond, for example)?


PREP: Three film opening analyses for Monday 17 October in your Production Log