Adding Credits

Font Choice

Here are the fonts we've chosen to write our credits in.

Editing Sound

We added the music we wanted to our opening in Final Cut Pro

We felt the track was too fast for our liking, so we decided to slow it down

35% of it's original speed worked most successfully for us

Editing Process: Colour Correction

We used the three-way colour corrector to pick out the red and to saturate the background

This is the unedited shot

This is when we saturated the red

This is when we inversed the colours giving a Sin City effect

Editing a person

As you can see, it is difficult to pick out red tones without getting some of the skin tone. We got around this by deselecting the red tones in the face. 

Inspiration for credits

We based our credits on The Stepfather. We decided to go with subtle credits over the action in a discrete opening. We didn't want to take away from the action on screen with intrusive credits.

We used the colouring from Sin City to bring out the red in our opening. We feel this emphasises the artist's nature and focuses on the dangerous connotations of the colour.

Filming

Pictures

Sound Planning

This is the song we would like to use for our opening. We think it goes with the atmosphere of the setting and the action.

 

 Another song that might go well for the scene is this,

however it may be to tense and eery for the scene compared to the original song we chose.

Treatment

We decided on a Thriller/Horror film for our opening. This is the treatment for our film 'Stroke'.

• James Blackwell, 24, an art graduate working on commission, needs money to live.
• An art director, Julianne Lee, 42, offers him the opportunity to display his work in a horror/gore exhibition in Central London.
• Thinking this could be his big break, James produces painting after painting, but Julianne criticizes his work repeatedly for not being scary enough.
• Eventually, James snaps and takes it upon himself to capture, mutilate and paint members of the public, starting off small and working his way up until he kills his brother.
• The art director, unaware that James has become a killer, continues to criticize his work. Despite this, she books his spot for the night and gives him one last chance to produce a terrifying piece for the art show.
• James then kills Julianne and creates a piece of art out of her body.
• On the night of the exhibition, James proudly unveils his finest work of art to an unsuspecting audience; a tree made of limbs with Julianne as the centre piece.

We decided we wanted a stylized opening with long, slow close ups. We also want to create a false plateau to draw the audience in. We are aware that we don't want to give too much away as it is just an opening. It will be set in an art room within the college. We will light it differently as the room is currently too naturally lit.

Our Pitch Prezi

Stroke on Prezi

This is the pitch for our film. It includes our treatment, our story boards, our plans for the opening and our risk assessment. We presented this to our peers and teachers and were granted permission to book a camera.

Target Audience Profile for Stroke

Production Schedule

We plan to start filming on Friday 10th February. We think one day will be sufficient as our opening relies more on post production.We have allocated the rest of our lesson time, and any free time to editing and sound up until our deadline 9th March.

Stroke Animatic and Storyboard

Various close ups of James working

Close ups and extreme close ups of his surroundings

Julianne's reaction to his work

Props

Dolls limbs will be splayed on the work benches as James 'inspiration'. They symbolize the mutilation he performs later on in the film.

We are using several bits of art equipment including paint, paint brushes, an eisel and a canvas.

We are also using an anglepoise lamp to create the right lighting. This could be used within the scene as it could illuminate the canvas as he works.

We are also going to have print outs of photos that will be in the room as some more 'inspiration' for James, these are some examples that may be included.

These are unedited shots used in our preliminary filming exercise. We added slow motion and cut quickly between several different angles and positions to make it more appealing to watch.

Using Soundtrack Pro

We used Soundtrack Pro to add the sound effects we couldn't recreate ourselves such as transitions and animal noises. 

We added the sound of a dog barking and made it fairly soft to blend it in with the general ambience we recorded using our wild recording.

 We added dark tones to our soundtrack to express the character's sense of disorientation and to add to the thriller feel we wanted to create.

We exported the finished soundtrack and added to our clip on Final Cut Pro.

Creating Foley Sound

This is an example of foley sound that we created. We used this sound for the car door scene. It works well within the scene, and it is impossible to tell that it is in fact a regular door.

We used Final Cut Pro to match our sounds to the video. In this instance we are adding the sounds of the footsteps to the opening of the walking scene.

We changed the volume of every sound to suit the circumstances. This is shown through the red dots and lines which we manipulated. 

(CAUTION: LOUD) This is the shouting we used in the sequence. We edited and cut it to fit with the man's shouts. We had to repeat several "helps" as we did not have a sequence long enough.

Arlington Road Foley Project

This is our finished Arlington Road Foley Project. We added sound to our edited Arlington Road sequence using Soundtrack Pro and our own recorded foley sounds. Every sound within the sequence was added by us.

Final Preliminary Exercise

We filmed our preliminary exercise and edited it in Final Cut Pro. We once again used Soundtrack Pro to add additional sound effects such as the ambient sound of the prison and the warped sounds within the interrogation room. 

We changed and added several shots that we didn't originally include in the storyboard. This was done due to circumstances, timing and artistic licence. We feel this was beneficial to our final product as it became more appealing to watch and included better cinematography.

All in all, we were happy with our outcome and have picked up some useful skills and tips for our future thriller opening.

Preliminary Exercise Pictures

Match Cut Exercise: Video Diary

Sub Genre and Target Audience

The use of sub genre can be shown through the promotion of the film.



For example, by focusing on Naomi Watts it can be determined that she is the main protagonist in this film, appealing to women. The tag line 'Wife. Mother. Spy.' suggests that this film is targeted at women aged 21-35, but the thriller aspect still attracts a male audience.

 

This political thriller appears to be aimed at older men, around 25-45 as it includes well known mature actors and a more mature subject matter.

 

In Time is advertised as a romance thriller. This is shown through the use of positioning and props. The two characters appear to have romantic attachments, but a gun and city scape can still be seen. The target audience for this film is both male and female age 16-25. The romance element and the use of Justin Timberlake draws in a female fan base, whereas the action draws in the males.



The sub genre used in Tower |Heist is comedy. This is evident through the choice of actors starring in it. Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy are known for their comedic appearences in other films. The tag line 'Ordinary guys. An extraordinary robbery' promises laughs and excitement. This suggests that this film has a somewhat younger audience, predominantly male aged 15-21

 

The poster for this film hides the thriller genre well, suggesting it is more romance than thriller. This poster itself appeals to a female audience of around 21-35 as it features many romantic elements.



Preliminary Match Cut Exercise: Animatic

We were given a brief to film a match cut sequence. It must include a character walking through a door, sitting down and having a conversation with another. We must follow the 180 degree rule and include over the shoulder shots and shot-reverse-shots.

We based ours loosely on the psychotic elements of Se7en and the hard hitting action of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3.

This is the animatic for our Preliminary Match Cut exercise.

A blindfolded convict is dragged through the corridor of a prison and pushed into an interrogation room. Inside the room is the chief of police. The audience never sees his face. The convict is shoved onto a chair infront of the chief by a guard, who is then asked to leave the room. The chief begins lecturing the convict, becoming increasingly angry. He then stands up and rips off the convicts blindfold. The scene ends with the convicts horrified reaction.

FDA Yearbook Questions

1) Suspense films released in 2010: 38
2) Gross for suspense films: £42million
3) Highest grossing genre of 2010: Action/Adventure took £265million
4) Highest grossing family genre 2010: Animation

5) Amongst the 38 suspense movies released in 2010, Shutter Island, The Town and Wolf Man were amongst the most successful, for a genre that grossed over £42million. Action/Adventure proved to be the most successful genre of 2010, with an intake of over £265million. Suspense films proved less successful as the genre of Action/Adventure as it encourages audiences to be more focussed on trying to work out why the situation in the movie is occurring. In contrast, the genre Action/Adventure more explicitly provides moments that make the storyline clear to the audience, therefore engaging them easier.

Foley Sounds

My group and I had to create the sounds for our thriller opening remake of Arlington Road. We went outside to pick up sounds that involved the opening of a car door, footsteps walking unsteadily, running, heavy breathing, and cries for help. We then used this sounds whilst editing our remake, with this process also making us cut out unwanted sounds that we had picked up. Creating foley sounds will benefit us for our final piece, as it is an effective way of creating sounds that may not have been picked up during filming.  

Our Work So Far

Student Opening Analysis: Violet

12. Erika, Nathan, Poppy, Charlene from 283goswell on Vimeo.

I picked this student opening because I feel it was successful. I like the editing style, the handheld camera work and the choice of music. However, I feel it weakens towards the end, and it could be said that too much is given away for it to be an opening. 

I liked the effect added to the investigation shots. I think it made for an interesting contrast.

I particularly liked this overlay effect

This font works really well and I love the simplicity and subtlety when it turns from white to violet

This over the shoulder shot caught my attention. I thought it was well framed and clear.

I liked their display of Psycho intertextuality. I thought it was shot really well.

The weakest shots for me were the ones shot in dark rooms. Lighting was an issue. That's something we should be wary of.

Student Opening Analyse

The Paper Trail. I chose this student project as I thought it was well filmed, Its opening was simple but affective, they didn't go over board on the affects or pace of editing. 

The type of font used was also affective as it looks like crumpled paper

The fly caught in the web was an interesting shot to me.

The river looked at through a dirty window adds to the atmosphere.

FDA Yearbook

1)     How many suspense films were released in 2010?

38

2)     In total, how much did these suspense films take, gross, to the nearest million?

£42 million

3)     Which genre of film had the highest gross in 2010?

Action/Adventure (£265 million)

4)     What was the most popular family genre in 2010?

Animation

      In 2010, 38 suspense films were released, the most popular being Shutter Island, The Town and The Wolfman. Suspense films grossed £42,441,123 in total, 4.2% of the year's box office. In comparison, the highest grossing genre was Action/Adventure at £265,785,158, 26.4% of the box office with 71 films released, and the lowest grossing genre being Musicals at £256,847. 0.03% of the box office with just 3 films released in 2010. This shows that suspense films are currently fairly unpopular in the UK being the 8th highest grossing out of 11 genres. However, annually the gross percentage has risen suggesting that the popularity of suspense films is on the increase. Research shows that the target audience for such films is males age 16-25, but it often depends on the use of subgenre. Films such as Se7en and Memento could be considered more mature as they use the crime subgenre whereas romantic thrillers like Mr and Mrs Smith and Fatal Attraction target a more female based audience. 

Structure of a Thriller Opening

A Narrative Opening:

The story begins immediately, and the credits appear over the top of the action throughout. Narrative can be anything from setting the scene to a phone conversation.

A Discrete Title Sequence:

The opening credits appear separate from the rest of the film often in their own specially edited sequence.

Titles Over a Black Screen:

The opening credits appear before any action starts and is often followed by the narrative. 

        

Stylized Editing:

The opening credits are edited in a very stylized way, incorporated somehow into the action. They are most likely accompanied by upbeat or fast paced music.

Arlington Road

We ordered pre-shot clips of the Arlington Road opening and arranged them into the correct order on Final Cut Pro. We then added opening credits. It may have been more effective if we went step by step, putting in the correct credits one after another, instead of choosing positioning and timing of the credits at the end, after they were already edited into the clip in random timing/positions. This is something we need to consider for our opening.

Thriller opening ideas (TITLE DISPLAY)

For the opening title reveal, I was inspired from such films such as Marathon Man, where the title of the film interacts with what is on screen. In Marathon Man the title is seen next to one of the main characters while he jogs, mimicking his movements. I thought something similar to this might be affective.

Although not completely the same concept as the Marathon Man's title reveal, these mocked up stills illustrate some rough concepts of what I am trying to duplicate.

The wide angle shot appeals to me as it gives the affect of intimidation or importance, it is impossible to not notice the title of the film as it becomes the main feature on screen.