Soundtrack Inspiration

shlohmo.

Target Audience - More on my target audience

A few lessons ago we each did a pitch to our classmates on the synopsis of our film (as I spoke about a few posts before) and they decided on what target audience each film would be suitable for. My film was put in the 25+ category as everybody came to the conclusion that my story was complex and also wouldn't be suitable for a young age because of this.

So after that discussion it helped me to decide on how I would make my opening sequence suitable for this target audience. Things that I looked at were films that I thought were rated like this. For e.g. My main influence: Se7en. And other films such as Schindler's List and Monster.

Screenplay for opening sequence : Signed, Anonymous

SCREENPLAY FOR: SIGNED, ANONYMOUS

BLANK BLACK SCREEN. PRODUCTION LOGO APPEARS ALONG WITH "CS MEDIA"

Another set of credits appear saying "A film by: Claire Stapley"

INT. DESK WITH A YELLOW LIGHT TINGE.
Birdseye shot of all letters and photographs.
-FLASH- (as if flash from a camera)
INT. DESK BUT DIFFERENT LIGHTING
Hand appears and hand writes the name of the film "signed, anonymous"
-FLASH-
Another hand appears and starts throwing down pictures quickly. Sound effect of a camera snapping.

EXT. Black screen. Credits Appear of some actors etc.

INT. DESK WITH A YELLOW LIGHT TINGE.
Hand folds over piece of paper with credit in capitals "MUSIC BY: ......"
-FLASH-
close up shot of picture being blacked out by a marker pen. over eyes.

EXT. Blank screen with a striped effect with credits saying "PRODUCED BY......"

INT. Mid shot of person sticking in and taking out photos from a book.

EXT. Black screen with more credits "Co starring"

INT. DESK WITH A YELLOW LIGHT TINGE.
Over the shoulder shot of hand closing up envelope with letter inside.
-FLASH-
birds eye shot of book with pictures of people in with their names underneath
-FLASH-
Shot of someone writing address of police station

EXT. Black Screen with credit : Directed by: Claire Stapley

-fade-

establishing shot of a landscape with the date written across the top.

Current Progress

So far I've been finishing up my final parts of my storyboard as you can see, and I've recently posted a more animated version of my storyboard along with timing so I can roughly see how long it's going to last. Currently the length is at 0:51. I first thought that this would be a problem as I don't want it to be too short, but after working out how long the shots could take me if I made them longer, I realised that my opening sequence would be over 1min30.

I'm currently working on finishing up little bits such as my screenplay which is only half way there and touching up on my logo when I have free time as I want that to look the most visually appealing as it's the first thing that is going to be seen by the viewer and the examiner. And lastly I'm working on the things that will appear in my film such as the letters and photographs, also pictures of my location will be updated on the blog soon!

Animated Storyboard.

This is my animated storyboard which I've annotated.

Storyboard!

Here is my storyboard, not everything is final but I've used my influences to create what I hope will be a successful opening sequence. I've tried to be as creative as possible and have a good balance between credits and images.

Storyboarding ( + also influence for my storyboard )

I'm currently finishing off my storyboard which will be uploaded very soon, all I need to do is finish off the last two parts then scan them in, i also plan to make an animation later on but at the moment I'm just working on the final parts of it!

The influence for my storyboard came from 3 different opening sequences that i watched, and i combined all aspects from them to help me create my storyboard. Influences were from:

- Bonnie + Clyde
- Se7en
- Psycho

Logo : Progress

I finished off my logo on photoshop today, it still needs a bit more work but im satisfied with the final product, all i need to do now is make the outline better, make some parts look a little smoother and then add in "CS Productions" underneath which I'm then going to animate in flash to give my logo a little bit more edge.

final product (still in progress )

as you can see the outline isn't as clean as I'd want it to be so I'm going to do some more editing on the different layers and then add in my text and animate it in flash!

Detailed Study Of The Structure Of An Opening Sequence

The opening sequence that i decided to study in detail the most was the sequence from the film "Se7en". The reason why I decided to choose this sequence is because it was the opening sequence that i felt appealed to me the most in terms of the fonts used for the titles, the soundtrack and the overall visual experience as you don't see any characters faces, just their hands and pictures, which is something that I want to do with my opening sequence as having actors doesn't appeal to me due to the fact that I know that I wouldn't be able to produce something that is high quality.

Before making notes on the opening in a timeline (like in the picture above) i watched the opening sequence twice through and made general notes so i could add them in later if i missed them whilst making my detailed notes. The third time I made a detailed analysis by writing out  a timeline and each time I saw a different shot or something that was particularly interesting I noted it down (more details in the picture above)

I also wrote down what credits appeared when, to give me some sort of an idea of when I would include mine, by doing this detailed analysis I now know how I'm going to structure my opening sequence and also how I'm going to write out my storyboard.

Current Progress

So far at the moment I'm half way through finishing my logo on photo shop and I'm going to be looking at two or more trailers in detail to help me with how I would like to structure my opening sequence. The two that I've definitely decided to look into is Se7ens sequence and Bonnie and Clyde's sequence as those were the two that helped me with my storyline and also with how I want my opening sequence to look like.

Pitch: Synopsis

Plot: A series of unsolved family murders in a small suburb. 50 years later, mysterious letters and photographs appear at police station from an anonymous tip off.

My primary target audience will be females and males over 25 due to the mystery of the plot and also the historical aspect of my plot. Some of my influences for this story line come from the films Se7en and Bonnie + Clyde.

I personally would rate this film as an 18 as i think any age under this would find it hard to understand the storyline and historical aspects behind the main plot of the film. I would also say that this film is more aimed towards a male audience if it was 18-20 year olds.

Logo 1: Work In Progress

I've recently started working on my first logo idea by starting to build it on photoshop. I may then choose to animate it in flash player depending on how long it's going to take me.

original drawing

                                                                     photoshop drawing.

Logo Ideas (Idea 1)

This is one of my ideas for my logo which will go before my opening sequence starts.

I've decided to simplify this design purely because i would like to make an animation of it on Flash Player where the snakes head does a full circle and when it meets with the tail there will be a small "flash" and the name of my company will come up in the second ring just before the star. If this isn't possible I'll scan the drawing in and trace over it and make it look more professional.*

* I'd only use this if i decided to do a horror/scary opening sequence as i don't think that it would be appropriate for any other genre.

http://www.satanic-kindred.org/images/baphomet11.gif

helping me with my logo.

Mood Board ~

Mood board

View more presentations from clairelilly1

I decided to do four different mood boards so I have a clear view of each section.
The first mood board reflects light, pastel colors and outdoors, I decided to do this as I felt it related well to the opening sequence of Up In The Air which was one of the sequences that caught my eye due to the simplicity of it.

The second mood board is black and white with a lot of dark images, i chose these particular images as it reminded me of the opening sequence of Se7en and also Psycho. It is also a color scheme that I like in particular because If i decided to choose a darker story line i would choose aspects from this mood board.

The third mood board is based on Sepia images/weathered old photos. This can be related to the Bonnie and Clyde opening sequence which also caught my eye as it was just a sequence of pictures with writing, but looked very effective.

The last mood board is based on scribbles/sketches/drawings which was originally my favorite idea and something i definitely wanted to do after watching the Juno trailer.

Inspiration: Little Dragon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yedD4JsZyT0

Looking At Different Title Sequences

The first title sequence that I looked at on my own was Juno's title sequence. The reason why I looked at this title sequence first is because I would prefer to do an animated title sequence as I think it will be easier to put together as i won't need to rely on actors at all. Another reason why I was drawn to an animated title sequence is because I really enjoyed watching Sweeney Todd's opening as I think that visually it was just as interesting as the opening to Trainspotting.

Juno's Opening Sequence: http://www.artofthetitle.com/?s=Juno

The second opening sequence that I looked at was the sequence from Up In The Air as it is a Title Sequence therefore we don't see any actors. The reason why I decided to look at this is because I want to have a second plan just in case the animation doesn't work or I just decide that it would look better as a title sequence. The things I like about this title sequence is the fact that it's so simple, and looks very classy which fits with the rest of the film as I've watched it. Also the simple movement of the text across the screen looks very effective and makes it interesting to watch.

Up In The Air: http://www.artofthetitle.com/?s=up+in+the+air

The third opening sequence that I looked at was the sequence from Forrest Gump. The reason why I decided to look at this is because It's one of my favorite films and I remember that the opening sequence was very simple and for a majority of it the camera was just filming a feather falling through the sky which I thought looked really nice along with the music played in the background. If I was to do something similar to this then I'd have to choose a really unique location as I really want to stick to having no actors/people in my opening sequence, unless I really have to then I'll consider using one person but I'd rather just have a title sequence with some sort of animation.

Forrest Gump: http://www.artofthetitle.com/2009/11/16/single-take-titles-part-2-the-individual/

The fourth opening sequence that I looked at was the sequence from Catch Me If You Can, which is another one of my favourite films. I had no reason for searching for this, I was just interested in what the opening sequence would look like, and to my surprise it was an animation. I'd say that this was my favourite so far as its very clean-cut looking and I have some ideas of what I'd like to do with it.

catch me if you can: http://www.artofthetitle.com/2011/08/22/catch-me-if-you-can/

Other sequences that I looked at also included:

Se7en*

Bonnie and Clyde*

Super

Freaked

Psycho*

* My favourites which I would consider taking ideas from/using as my main influences.

What Is An Opening Sequence?

In our first lesson we looked at three different opening sequences

• Office Space
• Sweeney Todd
• Trainspotting

We watched the first 2 minutes of each film and wrote down what we felt that we got from each opening sequence.

Office Space: I thought this was a comedy due to the font used which was blue, bubbly letters which popped up all through the opening with names of people that are in the film.

Upbeat music is used (quite jazzy)

The film looks less modern due to the quality of the film, the clothes that are worn, the settings and the cars as the cars are very old fashioned. You can tell the film is set in America due to the number plates on the cars.

the first credits that came up were the main characters. Jennifer Aniston was a name that came on first which could also link back to the comment that I made about comedy, as she is well known for the television series "Friends" so as an audience they would associate her with comedy.

Sweeney Todd: Dark, Sinister, Dramatic music at the beginning sets the tone of the film and makes us assume that this is a horror movie.

Dark Setting

A lot of blood used throughout the whole opening sequence which supports the point that this is a horror film.

The opening sequence is a title sequence so we don't see any characters faces, just their names when the credits come up. (Big character names such as Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are the first ones to come up)

Trainspotting: Bold, clear font for the credits

Really upbeat music which can excite the audience as everything is very fast paced

a lot of cuts which go straight into the action.

Voiceover whilst all the action is going on

Some comedic aspect due to the movement of some characters and facial expressions.

overall my favorite opening sequence would be Trainspotting as having seen the film I know how crucial the opening sequence is to set the scene for the rest of the film.