Final Pieces

Evaluation website:
http://meganpspelman.wix.com/meganspelmanmedia

Link to the continuity task:
http://mspelmanasmediaproductionsschs2015.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/continuity-task_21.html

The video below is the final version of our opening title sequence.

 
megan and chloe OTS from Megan Spelman on Vimeo.

Second Version Of Our OTS

This is the second edit of our opening title sequence. The main differences between the first and second edit is the addition of titles and music. It also features some of the changes that were suggested from our first feedback.

Feedback On Our First Edit

This is the video of our class watching and giving feedback on our first edit of our OTS. We took in their comments and suggestions about the colour and they also thought some of the shots didn't work/were't relevant. The comment we didn't really want to take on board was that they could see the femme fatale breath when she's supposed to be dead and that she didn't look drowned- the femme fatale isn't really dead because she fakes her death and she shows that when she opens her eyes at the end so it doesn't matter that she can be seen breathing, and the reason she doesn't look drowned is because she is working with the police so when she fakes her death, the police get her out of the water as they are in on it so she is there for a while and has dried off a bit. Also the femme fatale in existing film noir films, if they die, they still look made up and pretty and seductive, so with our femme fatale, her makeup is still on and her hair is still in place.

First Version Of Our OTS

This is the first edit of our opening title sequence. We edited the basics, putting the shots in the order we wanted and we also turned all the clips black and white, with some of the red colour kept in. Chloe worked on keeping the red, using the colour correction/ colour mask. At this point we haven't added any music to the OTS and we also don't have any titles although we have some ideas for what we want to do with them. We are going to show this to our class to get some feedback, to have suggestions on how to improve it.

Editing

Today when we were editing, we put in some transitions and we put some of our clips into slow motion.
We put in a transition by going to the transitions menu and clicking and dragging the transition (cross dissolve) over to the timeline and placing it between two clips.

We also changed some of clips to slow motion by selecting the clip then clicking the drop down menu on the little microphone looking button then selecting a percentage. We could then change the percentage from the timeline above the clip by clicking on the drop down menu where we could choose a custom percentage.

Filming Our OTS - Day 2

We filmed most of the other shots we wanted today, including the repeated 'shhh' and the shot of the femme fatale's 'dead' body.

Filming Our OTS - Day 1

We set out to film the shots by the river. The scenes were to show the reporter's 'final moments' before her 'suicide' as she looks down at the river. Chloe took up the role of the main character, who is also our femme fatale. She wore all black. Black tights, black top, black skirt, black shoes and a black coat, with black leather gloves.

Chloe's outfit.

Sound

As we are in the midst of planning our opening title sequence, we are starting to think about what sounds we are going to use for our OTS. We had a lesson where we watched a short clip of 'Priest' to look at the use of sounds in the film.
Watching the clip, we found that we could understand what was happening through just the sounds that were used. 

We found that there were ways of using silence effectively as a sound.

Planning Our OTS

We started by drawing our ideas on post it notes (so we could move them around) then we drew more detailed shots to be more specific when we film.

'Dexter' Opening Title Sequence

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/dexter/

The Dexter title sequence is haunting but light-hearted. Each scene depicts something that focuses on the little details, emphasising death and blood. Each move Dexter makes, is slow and prolonged, creating tension from the wait, yet the pace is quite fast, keeping the audience hooked. The title sequence shows his morning routine, shaving, cooking, and the things he does gives the audience a clue about the person he is. Each scene links to death and murder; the floss around his fingers refer to strangling, the knife and the meat refer to a more gruesome murder. The music behind the sequence is light but intense, moving the opening along. The diegetic sounds of Dexter shaving and cooking add a sense of realism to the clip, even though the focus on death is not usual during a morning routine.

"With a twisted lick of piano wire/dental floss, a favored mosquito going red, and food gone wild, we are able to refine and contextualize the shape, scream and vision of one Dexter Morgan. The butter of all that blood, shaving to bleed and the tang of hot sauce pyrotechnics, plays toward our tendencies of psychiatrist and sidekick."

Continuity Task

chloe, harley, megan continuity task from Harley Golder on Vimeo.

 For our continuity task, our initial plan was to create a scene from our Cindy film noir theme. The plan was to use Chloe (Cindy) and Claire (stepmother) to act in the scene and for me and Harley to record and direct.

Cindy storyboard.

However, on the day of recording, two of our group weren't there and so the footage that was recorded wasn't very good and had several problems so we decided to redo it completely and abandoned 'Cindy' to create a simple scene that included all of the techniques that were required.
The continuity task needed a match on action shot, a shot reverse shot, the 180 degree rule, and had to show a person walking through a door, crossing a room, sitting on a chair and a conversation between two people.

Plan for the scene we did.

Opening Sequence Presentations

Conventions of an opening sequence from emiliefreddie

Codes and conventions of opening sequences from kcasmedia

An Analysis Of The Opening Sequence Of Vertigo from Media Studies

Conventions of a thriller opening from zubairkhan93

These are existing slideshares and an essay about the conventions of an opening title sequence.

Existing Analysis Of An OTS

https://prezi.com/es0mcigmfece/analysis-of-an-opening-title-sequence-blade-runner/#

I found this OTS analysis on Prezi and it analyses the production credits, the crew credits, and how it fits the conventions of a film noir.

Film Noir Research

http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html

This website gives very detailed information about film noir films, giving examples, key conventions and going into detail about the femme fatale characters in the genre.

"Film noir films (mostly shot in gloomy greys, blacks and whites) thematically showed the dark and inhumane side of human nature with cynicism and doomed love, and they emphasized the brutal, unhealthy, seamy, shadowy, dark and sadistic sides of the human experience."

From filmsite.org

FIlm Noir Typical Narratives

This shows the usual typical narrative of a film noir.

Film Noir - Cindy (Cinderella)

Film Noir Plots

This is the typical storyline of a film noir film:

Film Noir - Cindy (first draft)

Film Noir Cinderella Storyboard

Film Noir Highlighted Essay

Examples Of 'Film Noir' Films

Most Popular Film-Noir Feature Films
List OF Film Noir Films

          

What Is Film Noir?

Film Noir is a genre of film that is stereotypically about gangs, detectives and murder. The classic film noir period was the 1940s and 1950s. The roots of the genre came with black and white cinematography. Though the more recent films mostly keep with the themes of a film noir, they are usually in colour.

Film noir definition

Some film noir films from Google

Die Hard With A Vengeance

'Die Hard With A Vengeance' is a 1995 action film starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson. It is the third film in the Die Hard series, following a NYPD Lieutenant fighting against criminals. In this film, John McClane (Bruce Willis) has to work with Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson) to play a dark game of 'Simon Says' with the Simon Gruber (Jeremy Irons), the brother of the villain who was killed in the first film (Alan Rickman). I love Bruce Willis and I love Samuel L. Jackson and I love action films, which is why I love this film so much. I loved watching the characters work out all the riddles especially the riddle about the water. The 'Die Hard' films are my favourite films to watch when I'm bored because they are so packed full of adventure; it's just that this one is my personal favourite. 

School of Rock

'School of Rock' is a 2003 film starring Jack Black and Joan Cusack. The film follows Dewey Finn (Jack Black), a musician/guitarist who gets kicked out of his band, as he pretends to be his roommate, Ned, who is a substitute teacher, and fills in at a posh prep school.  Although showing no attempt at teaching the students, after overhearing their music class, he put them together as a band and crew to perform at Battle Of The Bands to win money to pay his rent and get back at his old band. This is one of my favourite films because I could watch it repeatedly and still love it. It's a feel good comedy about school kids making a rock band and it's as funny as it could get and it shows just how important music can be to people.

The Holiday

'The Holiday' is a 2006 film starring Jack Black, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law and Kate Winslet. The film revolves around two women, one from Los Angeles (Cameron Diaz), and one from London (Kate Winslet), who swap homes for the Christmas holiday due to guy trouble. However, while at each other's homes, they find love (Jude Law and Jack Black). I love this film because the end of the film always leaves me smiling. I love Christmas films and I love Jack Black (as well as the others too) and I especially love that the characters have more than just one story happening as it makes the film more interesting. It's a feel good film with a great cast.

My Top 10 Favourite Films

1. The Holiday
2. School Of Rock
3. Die Hard With A Vengeance
4. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
5. Les Misérables 
6. The Croods
7. Beauty and the Beast
8. Frozen
9. Hairspray
10. Mamma Mia

Our Sweded Film - Frozen

Sweding Frozen - Behind The Scenes

Young Anna and Young Elsa

Royal Family

Kristoff and Sven

Making Olaf

Nose testing

Building Olaf

Troll

Doing Hans' sideburns

Sweding Frozen - Planning

Frozen storyboard

Making snowflakes

Ice castle

Sweded Films

Sweded films are short videos that summarise a film, using a simple camera and no budget to recreate the film. The films tend to be comedic despite the original genre as the low (no) budget requires creative thinking to compensate the actual film's props and costumes. Sweded films are inspired by the film 'Be Kind Rewind' starring Jack Black; this film itself has be 'sweded'.

        

      

http://swededcinema.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_Kind_Rewind

http://swedefest.com/

About Me

This is me. I am Megan. I didn't do media as a GCSE because I chose French instead at the last minute (I thought it was the right choice at the time). Media was one of my definite choices for A-Levels and although it's new as a subject for me, I watch a fair amount of TV shows and films and I spend most of my time online so my computer skills are pretty good. Music and fashion are two of my favourite things so I try to incorporate them into a lot of my work. I have friends who have done media and they loved it so I'm really excited to start it.