The opening title sequence of a movie sets the tone for the film, it also helps to build the brand for the story itself. Font choice is very important to the overall success of a film’s presentation. For famous films such as Jaws the font of their title has become associate with it as it looks blood tearing which happens in the film itself, and if they had chose a different font the mood of the film would have completely changed.
Fast paced action- Danger mode
Danger Mode is very Bold and hard that doesn't contain the films physical agrgression. It is very tough and intense and gives of that action film mood.
Science fiction- Aperture
This font looks very futuristic and the double lines makes it look like it is inspired by new technology and looks perfect for a science-fi film.
Comedy- Bannock Brae Gothic
this is a perfect font for a comedy as it is very quirky and different and as the letters look as If they have different shapes and angles it looks funny and humorous suitable for a comedy.
Horror- Cruller
The rough around the edges gives off that scary and unsettling feel, it is very creepy and easily associated with horror films and would not be suitable for pretty much any other genre
A foley artist is someone who mimics the sound in the scene with a variety of props as the sound cannot be captured well enough on set.
What difference does foley make?
In amateur films like ours the sound often isn't professional enough to match the scenes within the film. This is because there is often something thin about the sound if artificial sound effects are used (or none at all), the action lacks aural depth which effects the strength that a scene portrays.
Why do sound effect problems occur?
This may be due to the film makers not adding foley to the soundtrack of the film to put emphasis on the sound and make it more thick. For example, if you have a character walking alone on a dark night, you will want the audience to hear the footsteps to increase the speed an danger of the scene. Therefore, features like these can be added in post production by specialists in foley.
Why didn't we use a foley artist?
As we are amateur film makers we couldn't afford a foley artist as we are running on a low budget to make the film. Therefore we had to use artificial sound effects bought off the internet to create the different environments we wanted to portray in our film. This meant that the sound in our film would lack aural depth as it will lack the hollowness it needs to create the fullest effect.
What is an example of an artificial sound effect used in your film?
Throughout the opening sequence we used ambient sound effects to make the film feel more real, cold and alive as the chirps of the birds allow a sense of realism and makes the audience believe and connect to the story more.
Plan: This is the re-shooting off the first part of the first filming day failure we had. We had previously meant to have already filmed this scene which is the main part of our opening sequence but due to not having outdoor lighting with us, when we reviewed the footage at the location we straight away saw that it was too dark and we would have to re-shoot on a later date. As we had the outdoor lighting present with us we were now able to film the scene as we originally planned to.
My Role: I previously was always going to be the director as all the actors had already been casted, but as one of our actors had a foot injury and was not able to walk I had to step in and be one of the main actors instead. Because i have worked very closely with the injured actor by briefing him on what is needed to play the role i was very ready to step in and did not hesitate to do so. I was now also in charge of the Go-Pro camera and had to set the go-pro in different positions in the car to get close ups of me and my fellow actor.
How did it go?: This was a huge success as were able to film all the shots we planned to do on the first day. We started off filming all the car driving shots of the car driving past the camera with side angles and from behind. I was in the car at this point filming close ups while we were driving in the car, we went back and fourth on the road over 10 times until we were finally happy with the mix and quality of the shots. We then filmed us arriving at the location where the car would slowly park, this shot was a side angle and i had to turn the light off in the car as we pulled up. Then we were doing the main scene where my fellow actor and I had to get out of the car and walk to the boot, it was important it was done at a similar pace to look as if they are in this together. We had to repeat this shot many times as one of us would shut the door to quickly and it didn't look right but eventually we got it at perfect timing and we were happy to move on. Next was a shot from behind the two actors looking into the boot where the victim was in the car wiggling around. The next shot which was a low angle where are camera man got into the boot and filmed up at me so we could get a low angle to make my character look powerful when I was making the shot. We also did a close up of the gun when the dad gave the gun to his son.
Overall: We were able to get all the shots we wanted and this time there was no problem whatsoever with the lighting and all the shots came out clear. I really enjoyed being the actor as i knew how i wanted someone else to play the role and was now able to do it how i visioned it. Also being in control of the Go-Pro and in charge of that aspect was really enjoyable and gave me an important role.
Context: This is part 2 of the same shooting day as this took place straight after the failures of the filming at our outdoor location. We were all very frustrated that we couldn't get any footage done after we spent most of the day preparing for the outdoor location filming so we decided to film the second scene in our opening sequence.
Plan: Once we decided to do the filming that night we phoned up are actor who also lives at the location which was an office in his house if he was willing to film later which thankfully he agreed too. This filming session was always going to be a lot shorter then the outdoor location as it is a lot easier to film due to it being in a small room and only needs a few shots. We made sure our props were set up with the board of faces and the 'gun' all ready to be used.
My role: In this short scene there was only one actor involved so all the members of our group that were present were helping to film and make sure we are pleased with all our shots. I prepared the nail board with all the printed out faces for the scene and also helped Jack with the different camera angles making sure we were completely happy with what we were filming.
How did it go?: Very well! We managed to film the short scene very efficiently without any hiccups or obstacles. We repeated the whole scene many times with different angles and camera shots such as a low angle, wide shot and close ups. Our actor was very good and embraced the role which really helped make the scene look realistic.
Review: Overall this second part of our first filming day was a huge success, we were able to film all the angles and camera shots we wanted too in a very efficient and successful way. After the frustration of not being able to film the main body of our sequence like we earlier planned for we were still able to get a good portion of filming done which turned a non-productive day in to a highly productive one. From this filming session alone we also learnt a lot about how to use the camera and the angles to really highlight the message we are trying to portray about the characters and it just heightened our knowledge of how best to use the cameras for the filming of the large scene in the sequence that is to follow.
plan: We planned to film the main body of our opening sequence on that day. This took place at our chosen location at the end of Edgewarebury lane and scheduled to start when it was dark outside. This involved having our two actors who were in full costume (suits) and bringing all the necessary equipment we needed to the set.
My role: My job was co-directing with one of my fellow group members. One member of our group was acting so it was Jack and myself job to film all the different angles and shots that we needed to get.
How did it go?: We arrived at the location and me and Jack set up the cameras while Jared who is also in our group who was acting briefed our other actor on what exactly he had to do. once we were all set up we began filming, we started with shots of the car driving past at high speed along with shots from behind the car. Without really knowing exactly what a good shot was me and jack were satisfied with the filming so far. After we finished filming all off the shots of the car 'arriving' at the location it was time to film the main action part. We set up the camera on the left side of the car to show a wide shot of the father and Son looking serious and getting out of the car simultaneously. But we quickly realised when re-watching the footage directly after that the lighting was too dark. We did not get outdoor lighting and at night with very bad street lighting it was just too dark and not what we wanted. We decided straight away that we couldn't continue filming as it was just not worth it and we would have to come back with outdoor lighting and re-shoot the whole thing.
Review: I look back at that first attempt and cant help feel very frustrated as we had spent a lot of time setting up the camera and filming for well over an hour to end up with no real footage we can use. With hindsight we should have realised how dark the road was gonna be and that outdoor lighting was essential to our success. We could have avoided this mistake by visiting the location at night time before we filmed, as shown in our one shot run through video it was done in the day so we couldn't really grasp how the location was going to be lit in terms of the streetlights. But there were many positives we got out from it, we were able to practise setting up the camera, find the good positions to film at our location and it just added to the ideas of how to make it better. This was all set up to make are second re-shoot a lot more successful with the help of the failures of the first.
One of the biggest risk during our whole film process was the outdoor filming location mainly due to the extremely dark lighting. When we filmed at our outdoor location it was a road at night that wasn't very busy and was surrounded mainly by trees but there were houses behind those trees and cars did come past ever so often. One of the risks was of a car coming down the road quickly and not seeing us filming, we avoided this by making sure we were filming from the side and edge of the road and not on the road so if a car was to dangerously speed down the road we would not be in immediate danger. Another danger is if a civilian was walking past the dark road and we could not see them when we were driving in the car scenes. We avoided this danger by always having the headlights on in thecae so a civilian walking pass would be able to see us coming from a safe enough distance to react. Lastly the side road where we filmed was also extremely dark and could have led to us tripping on the curb or over something else. We avoided this by bringing lights and lanterns to put on the floor around us so we could clearly see where we were stepping.
Another risk came from the prop gun that we used. Although obviously not a real gun but there was still danger as it was a BB gun and these BB pellets if shot at you would still extremely hurt and in some places can cause high damage to someone. It was important for us to make sure there was no pellets loaded in the gun and the safety mode was on the whole time incase one pellet was lodged inside and could've still hurt someone. Another risk that came from the gun was because we spray painted it black. This was a danger as the prop gun looked very real and even more so in the dark so it was important that the gun was always hidden unless we were using it as we don't want to scare people thinking we have a real gun which could equally have put us in danger as a result.
