Our Title Sequence

This is our title sequence, the final draft.
I am really happy with it and think after the months of planning, we have done quite well. There are obviously some improvements that could be made, but I am happy with it and think we have got a good outcome and the hard work has been worth it.

Script

This is our script for our Main Task. Alice, Dulcie and I started the script one lesson, and I finished it off at home. There may be some potential faults as I haven't ever written a script before and did not really know if I was doing it correctly because there is minimalist speech in our title sequence. It was hard to do the script, because in the film sequences I analysed there was a lot of speech and I didn't have much to compare it to.

The script will help us keep an order to our film, and will help us when editing. However because there is minimalist speech in our title sequence, the script will be virtually empty of speech so there is little for the audience to recognise with. This will put a slight barrier between the audience and the characters, but the theme and atmosphere over powers this and so the audience understands there isn't supposed to be much speech.

We based our title sequence on this script but we did improvise slightly, and there are different words used in some of the takes when shooting, however we then decided on the correct words and stuck with them. We had to rerecord the sound and match it to what was shown on screen, so that is when the speech was really finalised.

Location and Set Design

When we decided to film, we knew we were going to have to film off site.
We originally planned to film at Alice's house and the forest behind it, but on the day we scheduled to film, it wasn't possible.
So, as ALice and I live locally, we knew of some forestry nearby, so in our Monday free period, we went here and shot the footage of the train, prison gate, pond and running scene.

We filmed the board and dark room scene and bag scene at college, for convenience because we were limited for time. However with the exception of the bag scene, they were indoor shots, so we chose suitable locations within the college.

The forestry we chose was was suitable because there was a river nearby and a train track and random scenery. The location looks quite scary but was a good location to film, as there was more going on in the scenery than just tree's and bushes.

In the indoor scenes, it isn't particularly noticeable that it was filmed inside the college. We had the idea of using the darkroom in random conversation one day, it wasn't originally planned, but made the film a lot better. It linked the storyline and made it a bit more interesting.

Equipment Used And Researched

We used a Sony DV Hand-Cam to film with.
This was good to use because they are simple to use and were easy to transport about for going off college site to film. The camera was good to use because we did a running scene, which needed a hand-held camera in order to complete the scene and make it believeable.

The camera was easy to use when capturing and with playback, and was just a good camera to use. I am not particularly knowledgeable on camera's, but from what we needed it for and for what was available to us, it was a good choice.

We also used a tripod to hold the camera still when filming most shots. We didn't use the tripod for the running scene, or some other scene's which weren't used in the final edit.

We used the same tape as in the camera before because this saved money and time.

Actors and Costumes

Tim

Dulcie

Lainey


Dulcie and Tim are the main actors in the title sequence. I will have a small part answering Dulcie's question. Dulcie and I are part of the group of teenagers who go camping, and we will find the bag belonging to Natalie Grey. There will be some speech asking who's bag it is and wondering who Natalie Grey is. They are supposed to be a group of clueless teenagers camping in the woods, oblivious to danger.

Tim plays the killer. There is no speech required for the killer, because we don;t see his face and don't directly know who he is. the viewer will understand he is male and tall and intimidating because of his physique, but because of these elements, speech would overpower the subtlety of his intimidation.

We chose Tim to play the killer because he is so tall and broad. The fact the killer preys on innocent youth is emphasised by Tim's physique, which is intimidating in itself. Tim will also be available to film whenever we plan to film, so casting was easier because of this factor.
We chose Dulcie to play the unknown girl running away from the killer because she was the most willing and has the right features for it. Long blonde hair and blue eyes, tall and pretty, and she looks like Natalie Grey, only slightly. There isn't too many similarities but there are some which links the unknown girl to the killer and Natalie Grey, like out of the two girls featured, who the killer was more likely to prey on.

The killers clothes are all dark and this shows how he is a dark character. The girls clothes are lighter and fashionable, teenage clothes. They are mainly what Dulcie and myself were wearing that day because the unknown girls are supposed to just be teenagers going camping, casual attire.

Props

We are planning to use some props in our title sequence as it helps to explain the storyline. The most important prop is the bag. The bag with the 'Natalie Grey' tag on it. This bag signifies something has happened to Natalie Grey and her bag has mysteriously appeared with the other bags in the wood by the camp. There should be a really obvious shot of this bag, and of the tag, to clearly show the importance of the bag.

Another prop we are going to use is the board the killer has of newspaper clippings. The board will have newspaper clippings of missing persons and have images. The missing persons are all quite young, so the viewer can make the link between the young persons from the board, and the developing photo. Natalie Grey will be shown on the missing persons board. There should be a close up shot of this so the audience can mark the importance of Natalie Grey and the killer, and the bag and the fact she is missing.
We will also have a close up of the killer circling Natalie Grey, so need a marker pen in order to do this. I think a black one would be best suited as it is opaque and is the darkest colour, and the killer is dark and mysterious and sinister; black is quite a sinister colour.

There aren't any major props to be used in the title sequence. The dark room may use props, but these are the proper tongs and equipment used in a dark room.

The props are strictly Natalie Grey based, so the viewer can make the link with her and the killer and her importance in the film.

Music

The music used on our title sequence is called 'Ghostpocalypse 4 Temptress'.

It is quite eerie and chilling, and it builds up, creating a little tension.

We looked at quite a few websites to get this music from. It took us quite a long time, but we found it in the end.

Final Lesson

We have finally finished a first draft of the Main Task.
It has been quite stressful. Getting it finished on time has been frustrating and time consuming, but it is done. We added some extra things today that wasn't talked about before, but the final outcome is quite good.

We added some natural background noise so that there was more audio than the music. We also added a scream at the end. This is quite a spine-tingling scream thanks to Dulcie! We re-recorded the audio and edited them back into the sequence because the original audio wasn't very clear.

We did a lot today actually. We put all the effects on. We put all of the credits on. We finished the shots and made some shots longer or shorter. For example, Dulcie Running. It is in slow motion, with heavy breathing as the audio. This creates quite a bit of tension and is good because it then contrasts with the speed of the train later and the Natalie Grey tag on the bags.

I am really pleased with the first draft of the Main Task. Hopefully it is satisfactory and it will be the only draft we do, as I really like it. Our group worked well today. It was hard work, but we got it done. This draft turned out better than I thought a week ago, I didn't think it would be that good because we had so much left to do. But, considering how quickly this week has gone by and how much we still had left to do, I am so happy it was completed on time and that it turned out better than I thought!

Credits

I didn't know the order in which the credits needed to come onto the screen. So, i went on to Wikipedia and typed in 'Opening Credits'. This is the list that i found, which will help us to complete the first 2 minutes of the title sequence. Tim and Alice had already done this, and Tim saved it on his 'Bookmarks'. He text me and told me, but I didn't understand the text, and so found it myself. It was only later when Tim showed me that I realised. How foolish.

Common opening credits order

While there are numerous variations most opening credits use some variation of the basic order noted within:

(NAME OF THE STUDIO)

- name of the studio that is distributing the film and may or may not have produced it (Buena Vista, Columbia, Lions Gate, Universal, etc.)

(NAME OF THE PRODUCTION COMPANY)

- name of the production company that actually made the film

- name of the investment groups or companies that financed a substantial part of the film (usually credited as "in association with")

(PRODUCER NAME) PRODUCTION or/and (director only) A FILM BY (DIRECTOR or PRODUCER NAME)

- director's or producer's first credit, often "a film by XY or "a XY film"

STARRING

- principal actors, ( Sometimes the stars' and director's credits will be reversed, depending on the star's deal with the studio)

(FILM'S TITLE)

- name of the film

Editing

Today was good in the sense we moved our project significantly forward. However, we did have a bit of tension along the way. Our group did not work particularly well today as a whole, but in couplets it was fine. Me and Dulcie found some more music and i think our group has pretty much decided on one bit of music now. Tim can edit music slightly because he does a radio show and has edited music before, so if this music needs editing, we may be at a slight advantage. Whilst we were finding music, Alice and Tim carried on editing the footage.

After the Media lesson, Me, Alice and Dulcie stayed for about an hour and carried on with the editing. We would have stayed longer, but I had to be home in time for a driving lesson and Alice had a lesson in college. Tim went home after the Media lesson.

Us 3 managed to satisfactorily get a lot more shots put on to the timeline and started putting the credits on. We want to put the credits and music on before we start playing around with effects because then we can see how long the sequence is and what the whole thing will look like with credits and audio on. I think effects should be the last thing, just because it is easiest, but i may be wrong and credits may be the easiest thing to finish with.

I have a free tomorrow, so i will be in Media editing the footage more. Hopefully Tim, Alice or Dulcie will have a free at the same time and we can edit together so there is a second opinion on eachothers ideas, but either way i am hoping to get some editing done.

I am slightly worried that this won;t be finished by the deadline, but hopefully it will be and then we can put this project behind us. It has been quite fun to plan and do, and act in and even watching the footage back was quite hilarious. But it has been equally stressful and frustrating.

Editing

We carried on editing today. We have built upon the footage we have already got, and made our sequence better. We have had guidance from both teachers on how to improve it and what the pace is like, if we are using the right shots in the right order, and so far, I think everything is going ok.

There were a few unspoken differences, but we worked through that and managed to find some music to use in the title sequence. The music needs to be approved by all the members of group, but we have time to find more music if this isn't the right piece for our title sequence.

We introduced effects to our footage today, and have decided on some that we like and where we could use them. We are aware we do not want to over-do it on the effects because that would undermine the atmosphere of the footage and make it incredibly predictable and cheesy, but there are certain effects that do look good, for example 'ghost' on the scene where dulcie is running as this shot is already shaky cam.

Editing

In today's lesson, we got quite a bit of editing done. Tim was a little late to the lesson, but we managed to log and capture the shots from Wednesday's filming and start editing whilst he was on his way from Salisbury.

We all worked well on Friday and we all got involved with the editing. There may have been some creative differences but we worked through them and have hopefully used everybody's ideas in the project and this will be shown with our Final Outcome.

We wrote all the shots down in order of what we wanted so that if anything went wrong, we had the shots already to put back again. Dulcie and Alice found a list of roles needed to be put into the credits such as 'Director' and 'Producer' etc. This will help and make the credits a lot easier when we finally come to putting them in.

Editing

Today we had a little panic. As a group, we decided we needed more indoor shots to contrast with the outdoor running, and so we had to grab a camera and finish filming in the college. Our filming occurred in 4 stages; one second half of a media lesson, where we got some footage of the 'missing persons board'. Once when we went off site and managed to shoot the main scenes of the project like the running and the train and Tim in the forest etc. Another time we filmed at the back of the college field, these are the shots with the bags and the Natalie Grey tag, where Dulcie and I are talking. And on the Wednesday we filmed some more indoor shots of Tim in the dark room, developing some pictures, and of Tim's grubby hands. We also shot some footage of Tim drawing on the missing persons board. All of these little indoor shots will hopefully just break the sequence up and disorientate the viewers slightly, which is the feel of the footage we are going for.

We do still have quite a bit left to do, and only a week and half left to do it. We are certainly feeling the pressures of the project and there has been some slight tension in the group, but that's natural and forgotten about now. We are going to hopefully come and do some editing in our free's so we can move forward with the project.

Logging/Capturing/Rough Edit

On Monday 1st February, we carried on editing the rough version of our film. We decided we didn't need to film anymore shots and so we had a little bit more time to edit. This calmed our group a bit as we were getting a little stressed over the project and if it would be completed by the deadline. Tim wasn't in Media today, because he was ill, but he phoned me before the lesson and text the college to let us know he wouldn't be in. This was a little frustrating for the group, because Tim knew the programme best and we weren't as comfortable using it. However, because of Tim's absence, we have managed to get to grips with the programme and can now all use it, which has sped the editing process up quickly.