Title Sequence - Research

My idea for our title sequence features the passage of time in a non-linear format. I wanted to compile a range of footage which plays backwards, of day to day activities so the audience can question what life would be like if you could control time and do things over, which is the idea and message of our film. I'd like the title sequence to have an experimental feel and feature music to appear like a montage. So I looked at music videos which featured rewinding and slowed down footage as they are in effect, a montage.

Coldplay - The Scientist

The song "The Scientist" features the lyrics, "I'm going back to the start" which is the theme of the video. When the video starts, it appears to be playing in real time, but as the footage continues it is revealed it is playing backwards. Chris, the lead singer, is lip syncing to the music as the song plays even though the footage is playing in reverse. The footage is slightly slowed. It focuses on Chris walking from place to place, including a railway line, forrest and finally a car. As the music builds, more events are revealed to make the video dramatic. It shows Chris crash a car causing the fatality of his female passenger and that he has left her at the wreckage. The video features transitions which fade to black to show the passage of time. Several camera angles and moments are used throughout, including a zoom from an extreme close up of Chris' eyes opening to his full body in long shot. It makes Chris look isolated and lonely. The shot is broken up with a jump cut in the middle which fades in and out. Many of the shots follow Chris is a medium shot as he appears to walk backwards using a hand held (strapped to body). It also features a range of pans and tilts. The video tells the audience a story in just a few minutes.

Madonna - Ray Of Light

Madonna's video features rhythmic editing and the change in pace of footage. The video features both fast paced and slowed down images of various activities. Here is a list of possible activities we could feature;

Sunrising, tying shoelaces, brushing teeth, driving, walking, trains, traffic, clocks, eating, the sky/clouds, drawing, dancing, sports, shopping.

Relevance to our project
The videos have given me an idea of how our title sequence could look. I'd like to combine the moving backward images of Coldplays video, with the high paced feel of Madonna's video. I also in particular loved the vivid colours of Madonna's. It grabs your attention. I'd like our title sequence to do the same and be interesting rather than just text displayed on a blank screen. It will give us a chance to use a range of shots and angles, as well as experiment with editing.

Character Profile: Emma

NAME: Emma
AGE: 17
ACTOR: Jennifer Penaluna
CHARACTER TRAITS/PERSONALITY: One of the two main and only characters in the film; she would probably be classed as the supporting character to Jacks main character as he is more prominently featured whilst she is the subject for the piece as his date. She seems like the polar opposite to Jacks offbeat nature and does not really get or understand him or the crude jokes he makes. Throughout the film she could be seen as being a bit uptight or having no sense of humour but this is probably not the case as it seems to be that she is only this way around Jack. We get the idea that she is constantly trying to make a good impression and make the date successful while Jack keeps messing up, however at the end it is revealed that she may have been messing up the whole time but as she has a rewinding remote too she has  probably been covering up her mistakes. She is clearly a kind person and likes Jack but the date seems destined to fail.
ROLE: She seems to be the calming influence to Jack's offbeat nature however she is also the catalyst that  makes him act so strangely as he gets nervous around her. She is clearly a down to earth person which grounds the film and she provides the opposites attract feel of the film.
WHAT MAKES THE CHARACTER APPEALING: She is a normal person in an every day scenario that people can connect to. Everyone has liked someone that turns out to be an idiot or wanted to be with someone but it doesn't work out as planned. People can put themselves in her shoes and relate to her as she is likeable.

Prop List

We will use a range of props in our production. Here is a list:
- A remote control
- A cardboard box with packaging
- A bunch of red flowers
- A bottle of red wine with wine glasses
- A white rug which we can spill a dark liquid onto

The Remote Control
The most important prop of course is the remote control which features as almost a character in itself. I research other films which feature remotes to see what we could use, what they could look like. One example is "Click".

The film has similar elements to our, a man down on his luck who had a remote which controls his universe. The remote he uses looks very futuristic in-fitting with the film sci-fi genre. It has several buttons and a screen which had moving images. Our remote needs to be more inconspicuous and hand held as Jack will hide it in his pocket. 

We could use a remote which looks more like a TV remote, something that looks totally ordinary so it is a shock to the audience that it actually works. It should be small with minimal buttons as we will only feature pausing and rewinding, not any miscellaneous controls.

I have a remote for an iPod docking station which suits this. It is small, and all black so it's inconspicuous and has a small clip so he could keep it in his pocket of clipped to his belt. It only has 6 buttons, play, pause, rewind, fastforward and volume controls. Here is a photo:

Jade also found a remote of her own. It has more buttons and a more unique shape and design. But some of the buttons would be irrelevant to the story. 

Flowers

Our film feature a joke about the red flowers he offers Emma as a gift. So I looked at films featuring dates where men give their dates flowers. The most typical were roses, but we get the impression Jack is down on his luck, so maybe roses would be too expensive. In "50 First Dates" Henry gives Lucy lilies because they are her favourites.  I think red daisies would be an appropriate fit. They are simply enough for a first date but still pretty. They are also quite vibrent and eye catching. 

Box and Packaging

We need a comically large cardboard box filled with packaging materials for Jack to riffle through. It will add to the physical humour of the film. We also printed the logo of our fake television shopping company to give synergy to our viral advert. Here is our box:

Wine, Wine Glasses and White Carpet/Rug

We used an old empty wine glass filled with red squash to give the "wine" a very strong red colour. We also purchased some plastic wine glasses for health and safety reasons, although they didn't look as good as real glass. We also purchased a small white mat to spill the drink onto which could be thrown away, rather than cause any damage to our filming location.

Logo Ideas

By using an image of a sketchbook with 'Bank Page Productions' written all over it, the logo is ironic and gives the initial impression that our film company makes films that people can chuckle at.

For this logo, I found an old sketchbook of mine and a pencil and took a photo of it. I added the production name on afterwards on the computer. I thought that a monochrome look would enable the logo to look simple and effortless.



Again, I thought a simple idea would be best suited to our production company name, so I wrote 'BLANK PAGE PRODUCTIONS' in pencil on a piece of paper, screwed it up a little and took a photo of it. The discarded and screwed up look of this logo gives the impression of writers block or ideas trying to be formed and made perfect, which is similar to the theme of our film whereby a man on a date tries to make the date go well but things keep going wrong so he starts again each time.




By combining two previous ideas, (the screwed up paper and the simple sketchbook) I tried to create a more visual and aesthetically pleasing logo, whilst adhering to the same idea of simplicity and and a blank page.

Logo design ideas

This is my idea for a production logo for our group, 'Blank Page Productions'. It features a typewriter with our name on the page coming out of it. To me the irony of our name being, 'Blank Page Productions', and the sheet actually having writing on it symbolises the fact that we will be making a sarcastic film that isn't afraid to break the rules or go against normal conventions in films. It is quite a simplistic logo and would probably seem quite formal if the writing wasn't so blotchy and unorganised which implies that the film is ambitious but also has a bit of fun. I think that it looks professional and would represent us well as a company but it may not give off the right idea of what genre our film is.

Analysing a short film

I have chosen to analyse the short film, 'Maybe one day' in comparison with our short film, 'Rewind' to show the similarities between the two and what we could take from this clip. The film is directed by Chris Cottam and is about one day in a mans life and how it changes his outlook on things. It features the man as the only prominent character but other people are shown in the background. Throughout the film there is no direct speech, only a voiceover provided by the protagonist which allows it to feel as though he is talking directly to the audience; this gives the film a personal touch and makes you feel as if you are reading his diary or getting a rare insight into the inner workings of his mind. He describes how he feels about his boring life and how predictable it is, this prompts him to make a change and do something out of routine for once; the events that unfold provide the story for the rest of the film. The film relies on both the interchanging visuals in the background and the running voiceover to present the story effectively. The main focus is on the mans face which is in the centre of the frame for the majority of the film and shows his range of emotions well. He dresses in pyjamas at the start of the film as he wakes up and changes into a suit as he heads to work, telling us that he must work in some kind of corporate job which he clearly hates as he seems depressed when he is on his way there.

The thing I liked most about this film is that it feels authentic; it feels like this man is filming a day in his own life which gives it a warm feel but also it feels as if the film cost the man hardly anything to make. This allows you to connect more with the character because he seems like a normal person; you can put yourself in his shoes because the feelings that he describes reflect our everyday attitudes. There are a range of settings featured in the film and we are taken from the city to the countryside on this mans journey, this to me reflects how he becomes more relaxed as the day goes on as the countryside is more peaceful and mellow compared to the bustling, rush of the city. He changes his attitude in the middle of the film and as he gets to do the things he actually wants to do instead of just the boring routine he is usually confined to. He goes to sleep with a smile on his face and says, "I joyed today", however we are left with the feeling that tomorrow he will go back to his normal routine yet this one day has made it that more bearable.

The film is a comedy-drama and as our film is a comedy we could take inspiration from certain moments in the film. I think that the depressing tone at the start of the film that changes into a lighthearted feel gives it its drama element while the mans sarcastic voiceover provides the comedy. Our film is also a mash up of two genres, (romance and comedy), and this film could show us effectively how to carry off a film with a main genre and a sub-genre. This film provides the audience with a lighthearted, happy plot and this is what we are aiming to present with our film. We also want the audience to identify with the characters as is possible with, "Maybe One Day". The film shows good use of sarcasm and I think that we could incorporate this into our film well as it would be perfect for one of our characters.

The title sequence fits with the film well as it is simple and reflects the tone; it compliments the music and introduces the film well. The plot is not complicated and neither is the font for the titles. We should be aiming to match the tone of our film with our title sequence as well as, "Maybe One Day", does. I also think that it helps provide us with an idea of what mood the character is in without him even speaking.

There are many jump cuts used throughout the film that show the mans journey more effectively than if it was full of consistent shots; this is because the film only shows the significant points in his day and leaves out all the boring in between bits. This allows it to seem as though his day is more eventful than it really is. The lighting is quite dark and dreary at the start of the film, when he is in the city and facing going to work but as he gets into the countryside and can do what he really wants to do, the lighting becomes more natural and bright and we see him light up with his surroundings. Our film will not be like this as we are setting our film in a house which will require normal lighting and our shots will be consistent. The music used is non-diagetic and compliments the film. Overall I believe that this is a successful and entertaining short film that we could learn a lot from, especially since it has such a simple story to it yet it manages to be really effective and gripping.

Opening Credits Research

Order of Credits:

• Production Company - “A Production Company Name Production.”
• Distribution Company - most likely to be an independent distributor that did not finance your film so will appear on its own. It usually is listed as “Distribution Company Presents,”
• The director’s credit tends to come right after this, labeling it “A Director’s Name Film.”

Research taken from here, on brightbulb.com.

TYPES OF OPENING CREDITS:

Animated:

Animated Opening Credits from 'Catch Me If You Can' which would be difficult for us to do.

Title Sequence:

Title Sequence from James Bond - Golden Eye, whereby the credits are incorporated into a separate sequence. To use this idea in our film, we would have to create a fully separate sequence of events that are not related to the storyline of our film, which could be potentially difficult and confusing to the plot.


Cold Open:

Ocean's Eleven demonstrates a Cold Open, which shows a part of the story pre-credits to hook the audience by creating a teaser. We could create a Cold Open for our film by showing time rewinding but not immediately reveal that the remote control is responsible, which would be the teaser for the film.

Minimalistic:

Title Sequence from 'Bunny Lake is Missing' which is a simple and minimal concept of showing credits. For our film, this could be done well with a lot of effort put into it but would perhaps be a little boring and be difficult to set the tone and theme of the film immediately.

Relative Theme:

As American Splendour is about a comic book creator, the title sequence is in a comic book format, giving an initial taste as to what the film is about. In our film for example, a similar idea would be to base the title sequence around a remote control, perhaps with credits on the buttons or on the TV.

Blank Page Productions Logo Ideas

These are my ideas for the production logo for Blank Page Productions. The first one is of a painter surrounded by a beautiful landscape but with a blank canvas with the words written on. It gives the impression that we are an artistic company who produce artistic films.

The second is a note book with the words at the side. This one is clean, simplistic and professional. Although you cannot tell anything about the type of films we produce. But then that maybe a good thing because if you cannot tell anything from the logo people might be curious as to what films we do, and it leaves us open to stand for whatever we want.

Treatment

Film Title: "Rewind"
Production Company: Blank Page Productions
Length of Film: 5 Minutes
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Audience: 12 Certificate under BBFC regulations;
- Moderate language is allowed. The use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’) must be infrequent.
- Sex references should not go beyond what is suitable for young teenagers.
- Mature themes are acceptable, but their treatment must be suitable for young teenagers.
Related films: "Click", "Date Night", "50 First Dates", "Groundhog Day".
Basic Synopsis: Based on the simple idea of having a remote control which can control the world around you. At the start we meet our leading male character. A voiceover explains this is his first date with our leading female character, but that they have had the first date several times. It then explains how he got the remote. Then jump cuts back to Jack who appears very nervous as Emma opens the door and invites him in. The gives her a useless gift and after her disapproval, he rewinds and discards the gift.The film continues and Jack makes several mistakes that our audience should relate to as classic first date cliches.  Each time he uses the remote to turn back time and recover himself, the entire time the female seeming none the wiser. He drops a glass of red wine onto the carpet, and rewinds it. He also mades a sick joke about illness, and she is very offended, he rewinds. On a trip to the bathroom he spills water on himself. He reveals an embarrassing secret and in panic reaches for him remote, but it has stopped working and the battery has run out. To his surprise Emma finds him charming and relatable and the date runs smoothly. It finally appears Jack is going to spend the night with Emma. They enter the bedroom, and the door closes behind them. Then all of a sudden, the music cuts off, as it would on a vinyl player, and Jack storms out of the room buttoning up his shirt. Emma chases after him apologising. The reason he is leaving isn't explained but is implied to the audience. He says sorry and leaves. Emma looks sad, but then gets out a remote of her own and it is reveal they have both been using a remote on each other.
Suggested Elements: Non-Linear Narrative, domino effect, Symbolic code and the Levi-Strauss theory of polar opposites (Man V.s. Woman, Man V.s Technology), rewinding footage, altered speed, Syd Field's theory (3 Act Plot structure).

Character Profile : Jack

NAME: Jack

Characters role: Jack is the leading male in the film. He goes on a date with Emma to her house, he is nervous for the date which he normally is, and brings a remote controller that can rewind time that he can use if things go horribly wrong...which they do. The idea of bringing this sort of device to a date suggests that he is not very comfortable around women. This character is who in the film generates a lot of humour and farcical situations (which he uses the remote control to do-over) that are crucial to the storyline of the film. Such as getting into uncomfortable situations and getting things very wrong. This then creates an excuse for Jack to use the remote control to rewind time. This shows that is is not very confident in himself and makes up for this by having something to fall back on should things not work out for him. In this way he could also be described as manipulative.

Description: Jack has put effort in for the date and so wears a smart shirt and trousers. Not a full on shirt and tie but not too casual either. His general personality is that he is a sweet, well-mannered, and funny, he would like to come across as being suave although this is not always the case. His somewhat lack of social skills basics means that when confronted with certain situations he is clueless at what to do. But along with that and what helps generate the humour is that he is clumsy, nervous, agitated, uncomfortable, and when he is uncomfortable he starts to nervous laugh, laughing at things that are not meant to be funny which he perceives as a joke. Throughout the film he grows more and more in confidence. Other people know he means well but he gets things wrong often.

What makes the character appealing to the audience? Makes mistakes and audience can sympathise with him, he is a relatable to other men and women who maybe have experienced something along the same lines before.

Analysing a Short Film

I will be analysing a 5 minute film to study possible cinematography, mise-en-scene, sound, editing, characters, storyline/narrative, genre, and titles elements we can bring to our film. I found a particularly good website called "Short Bay" featuring short films for all over the world, both high end budget for advertising purposes such as Mercedes and low end independent films. Each film varies in length and genre. To refine my search, I selected the "5 Mins" tag as our film will be restricted to five minutes and browsed the various comedy, drama and romantic films.

I choose to analyse a short film directed by Guy Richie called "Star". The film has two main characters, the Driver played by Clive Owens and the Star played by Madonna. There are also less important characters such as the Stars Manager, her entourage, another driver and the paparazzi. The film starts with non-linear narrative, as the Driver describes the Star. There are cuts to the Star as she performs simple tasks like cleaning her sunglasses. It concentrates on two of the Five Codes in Narrative from Roland Barthes theory, semic and symbolic code. It indicates the film will revolve around the Star, and concentrates on opposite, man v.s. woman, and to an extent, good v.s. evil.

The film has an expensive feel to it, as the male characters are all dressed in suits and ties. The Star is dressed entirely in leather and wears black sunglasses, and her jacket says "Superstar" across the back. It's a clique of a classic diva. I was interested in the symbolic code used, as we will also use the code for man v.s. women.

The film is classed as comedy, and our film will also feature a subtle humour, although classed more as a Rom-Com (mixture of romantic themes with comedy). The genre is clear as the characters have slightly outrageous behaviour and are particularly flamboyant. The Star is at first portrayed as a diva and is very serious, but as the film continues they make a foul out of her as the Driver escorts her in a crazy fashion, and she bounces around in the back seat. She also smear lipstick across her face, tarnishing her stylish demeanour, and in the end, spills coffee on her crotch making it seem like she has wet herself. They also use editing such as slow motion for comedic effect. It shows that comedy comes in different forms. We can treat our characters almost as clowns and create personalities for them. Our lead male will be making mistakes throughout the film so he need to be comical in his actions and speech. We can also use editing for comical effect.

The titles don't blend into the film and I wouldn't say the music matches, it gives the impression the film will be eerie or mysterious when it is neither. It features a simple text which transitions of the screen with a dissolve. It shows a photo of the Driver, and ends by fading to black. The film then fades onto screen. I will study another title sequence more appropriate for our production. I don't think this sequence has much relevance to the film. My idea for our title sequence will include editing features from in our film, e.g. images/time rewinding

Power is shown through camera angles. At first, we see a shot at low angle of the Star as she walks in slow motion showing her status. By the end, the Star is on the floor in a ball and there is another shot at low angle, this time of the paparazzi looking down on her, showing her as vulnerable. There is a variety of shots used, in particular medium shots in the car and close ups of the Star. In many of the medium shots, the Star is framed centre screen showing her as the key element. We can use this because Jack see's Emma as very important to impress. The film could focus on her, possibly even with Jack's point of view.

The use of music in the film adds comedy. There is rock music playing ("Song 2" - Blur) in the car chasing scene. The music cuts as the car performs a large jump and plays a classical song famous for dramatic scenes ("The Ride of the Valkyries" - Richard Wagner). The footage plays in slow motion as the characters pull shocked faces. As the car lands again the rock song kicks back in. It has a comedy effect because it makes the actions exaggerated. We could use music to exaggerate actions, such as when Jack spills Red wine on a cream carpet, by playing overly dramatic music.

The film features jump cuts from the Driver to the Star in different locations. We know the Driver is describing the Star because his voice continues to voice over, even when he isn't on the screen. We can use this method on our film at the beginning as we also have a voice over of Jack describing his first encounter with Emma. As I mentioned previously, in the car jump, the footage is slowed down. We can use speed editing in our production to highlight events, such as dropping items.