Title Sequence Research

For title sequences, the font of the wording, the color of the font, transition between titles, any animation created for the title and overall location of the title in the screen must comply with the vibe and aesthetic of the film. As I mentioned in my previous blog, I am looking to make my project very colorful and aesthetically pleasing. I do not yet have a color pallet planned but I am thinking of concentrating on primary colors. I am creating a suspenseful and mysterious film introduction which has a combination of bright colors and light in addition to suspenseful music and sounds. The idea is to made the audience feel uncomfortable. 

The film will showcase various close ups of hands preparing something. As the close ups are used to show detail, I do not want the titles to take over much of the screen. An example of a title sequence I admire is from the series The Bear (2021) directed by Christopher Storer. 

    - The titles are shown in the edges of the screen in a simple font. The color purple is a cool toned color which matches the aesthetic of the series as the show has cool tones and is concentrated on the color blue. 

I am looking to add the titles and have them jump to different corners of the screen. I would want to have the title transition in and out with a fade from different corners of the scree. A series that includes their titles in different corner of the screen is The Last Of Us (2021) directed by Ali Abbasi and Jasmila Zbanic. 

    - The following title sequence demonstrates the names in the same simple font transitioning slowly from one corner of the screen to another. This is the same way I would like to demonstrate the titles in my project. 

Something that I find very neat and aesthetically pleasing is the way the titles are in The Beekeeper (2024) directed by David Ayer. 

    - The titles in this movie mention have the job description in smaller writing and the name of the artist in bigger bold lettering. I feel as though this gives the name of the individual more importance and remembrance. 

Overall, I have come to the conclusion that the titles in my film will consist of smaller font for the job description and bigger wording for the artists name. The titles will transition in and out in a fade while appearing in different corners of the screen aligning with whichever corner it is located on. The coloring and font will depend on the overall aesthetic of my film which has not yet been determined. This title sequence idea may change but I am glad to have an idea set from the beginning. 

Film Openings Research

Today I was focusing on researching examples film openings for the genre of suspense and mystery. I am looking to make my project about a crime occurring leaving the audience with little to no details of  why or how this is happening. I want to emphasize fear of the unknown throughout the film which will be highly reliant on sound and music production. A film opening that is very similar to what I want to establish is from the movie Goodfellas (1990) directed by Martin Scorsese.                                              ( https://youtu.be/WphqOW0E-2A?si=43-h3_Cg9NNpMMqa ). The film begins with a crime being committed followed by a narration from the main character explaining how and why he got there. That's what I would want my introduction to show. Another example is Baby Driver (2017) directed by Edgar wright. ( https://youtu.be/6XMuUVw7TOM?si=01cLFkEoJ_KY95X2 ). It came to my attention that these suspenseful films begin with characters in the middle of an important event and the explanation becomes unraveled as the film progresses. 

As my film will focus on a group of girls playing around and a murder occurring I like the idea of playing around with color. Most horror and suspenseful films are dark and show little color. For example, the film Midsommar (2019) directed by Ari Aster is a horror film but contains a lot of bright colors and constant daylight. I feel like the mix of bright colors and suspenseful music and sounds makes the movie uncomfortable for the audience as it shows the evil hiding in plain daylight in comparison to what is usual. 

The two movie opening examples I just gave are highly produced and include a lot of action which are things that as a student I can not develop for a film opening. However, another suspenseful example of a more calm film opening is from the series Dexter (2006) directed by Michael Cuesta. (https://youtu.be/ej8-Rqo-VT4?si=tEnrqHC1rISE3I54 ). The opening shows little of the characters and mainly hands preparing something dangerous. There are various examples of horror movies with openings like that one such as A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) directed by Wes Craven also focuses on mainly close ups of hands preparing something. 

For my film opening I am looking to create a combination of both ideas. I will have the group of girls repairing something sinister but the use of bright colors and their laughs in the background will make the scene uncomfortable. The preparation would be interrupted by an important event like the arrival of a new friend that results in more of the unknown leading the audience to remain intrigued and want to know more by the end of the two minutes. 

Brainstorming film genres and plot ideas.

My approach to this project was to initially decide the aesthetic I want my film to show. My favorite type of movies are more organic using a lot of hand held camera technique like Project X. However, I realized if I produce my film this way it would not help my grade and it would probably look unprofessional and uncared for. I must focus on showing technique and strategy. I have many long term movie ideas but I need to think of a proper introduction to one. 

I enjoy horror films so most of my ideas are resulting in such genre. I am looking to create an introduction to a drama or a horror film. Films in these genres tend to have very strong sound edition and music production. Horror films often explore themes of unknown which is something I would like to integrate into my film. 

Around 3 years ago I had watched the comedy movie TAG directed by Jeff Tomsic. The movie shows a group of middle aged men meeting up after years of not seeing each other just to play a very competitive game of Tag. This movie happens to be based on a true story. This inspired me to do something similar with my old group of friends. We had made a contract with rules. Every first week of April we had a prank war, the pranks had to be filmed in order to count, players were allowed to team up but only in pairs... etc. With this, I had come up with a movie idea in which one of the characters dies because of a prank that was pulled and the whole movie focuses on personal issues each friend had with that girl and who actually killed her and was it an accident?

Beginning my Cambridge Portfolio Project

Yesterday, I was in my Aice Media Studies class when the project instructions were introduced to me. I love film and I have always wanted to make short film so I am excited for this project and I am ready to put in so much dedication to it. In my project I already know I want to add a production title. I dream to have my own production company some day and it would be called "Pitata Productions" When I was a baby "Pitata" was a word I would say constantly and it is now an inside joke with my family. "Pitata Productions" is a sentimental name that I would never get tired of or regret. 

I really admire the way A24 productions always presents their name in a movie with the same font but a different design according to the movies plot. For example, Midsommar produced by A24 the way it was presented included flower decoration as the film is based around nature and those same flowers. In comparison, the movie Talk To Me produced by A24 focuses on a "toy" hand which A24 uses to design their name by forcing the hand to make a number 2. I would like my production name to have a similar effect. I sill need to plan the font and design I would like but once I have that I can adapt it to part of my film. 

Trouble by Cage The Elephant_Music Video Production_Behind The Scenes Video

 

My Research and Planning Process for the Music Marketing Project

          For my groups music marketing project we learned three different types of music videos. Promo videos like The Pretender by Foo Fighters show the artist or band as the primary focus of the video, a way of advertisement. Story videos, very common in the 90s, tell a story following the lyrics of a song. An example of this is Cryin by Aerosmith. Finally, another type of music video is animated where the director takes a more creative spin on the edition and overall idea of the video like Adele's video Send My Love (To Your New Lover). It is usual for there to be a combination of two of these genres, the most common being a combination of Promo and Story. 

          Following this lesson, my group and I were assigned a genre of music to study. We had to pick two record labels and a total of five artists that are part of those labels and fall under our genre of indie alternative. Our choices consisted of Interscope Records who take part of artists Billie Eilish, Boygenius, and Tame Impala. The second company was Deadoceans that are associated with Mitski and Japanese Breakfast. The specific artist I was assigned to research was Billie Eilish. I learned some of her brief history as a musician, her target audience/brand identification, and her digital and non-digital marketing distribution techniques. 

          After conducting our research, the group was given a total of 4 songs to chose from under out genre of indie alternative and we had to pick one to use and recreate a new artist and make the first music video for this artist using one song from our four choices. My group and I chose the song Trouble by Cage The Elephant. Entering our pre-production stage, came together and repaired a chart in which we added dates and assigned work to each partner so that we know where we should be every day in order to be ready for our due date. 

          My group and I already decided to create a combination video combining promo and story. The idea was designed in a storyboard and planned out with time stamps. Today was our first filming day preparing the story part of the video where we record a girl stalking her boy crush that she later kills in the story out of jealousy for talking to another girl.

Sound Project

 For this project, my partner Victoria and I had to create a 1-minute-long scenario only using sounds. The goal for the video was for the audience to understand what is going on without needing to visualize anything. 

In this project I learned to layer sounds on top of each other to create a scene. I also learned about something called the Foley technique. The Foley is a sound effect technique that involves creating custom sounds for movies, TV shows, and video games in the post-production stage of a project. 

When preparing the project, Victoria and I were brainstorming locations and situations with a lot of sound like concerts, car crashes, or a cafeteria. We ended up choosing a club scene. We created a scene where a person gets out of their car and walks to the bouncer outside of the club and gets let in. We thought this event would include a lot of different sounds on top of one another like chatter, music, footsteps, walkie talkies, birds, wind, fabrics, doors opening and closing... etc. 

Our outline consisted of the story we wanted to tell which was basically just a girl getting inside the club and ordering a drink just for her to get bumped into someone and drop her drink, eventually she gets kicked out of the club after arguing with the person that pushed her. When editing on Adobe premiere, we realized this scene would have been too long for our assignment, so we only included the entry to the club and ordering a drink. 

https://youtu.be/DMW70D4hu9o?si=8TLa83-sT_nTm2is