Evaluation

Our product, an opening title sequence uses the forms and convections of a real media product due to the nature of it’s being - it conforms to the general ideologies of an opening title sequence, whereby it gives a brief introduction of the protagonist, and introduces the theme and genre of the film. It also challenges the forms and convections by the very content and the method of its production - it was not filmed by a camera and cut into a sequence; it is a series of photos places into an animation.
Our opening title sequence does not represent any particular social group - it does not address upper, middle, working or lower working classes, race, age, gender, sexuality etc. It is simply introducing the protagonist to the audience, who happens to be a young schizophrenic murdered, hardly a commodity in our society.
The film production/institution, such as Pathè , who specialise in horror films; would be interested in our product, as it is an opening title sequence for a horror/thriller film.
The audience for our title opening sequence, and the rest of the film, would have to be aged 18+, due to the content of the film - horror and gore. They would have to have an interest in horror films, and the title sequence would be better suited to them if they preferred to look at films in depth rather then at face value, and the opening title sequence contains a number of small subliminal messages that will relate to the content of the film - for example, the flashing imagery of spiders etc.
We didn’t really have to work hard in order to attract an audience, as we had a screening of our title sequences in lesson. We discussed our method and approach to our title sequences to our audience, who them seemed very eager to watch it. I believe it was the original idea we had, and our unique approach that developed an interesting response.
During the developing process, I learnt how to use Photoshop, to edit our photo’s into a chalk and charcoal effect, in a large quantity/batch. I also learnt how to collect and organise the photos we took on iMovie, and assemble them into a sequence, with additional effects, such as the subliminal images etc.
From the continuity piece up to the end of the title sequence, I have learnt that continuity is essential for a successful piece - if it breaks the 180 degree rule, it does not work. I’ve also learnt that it is not essential to follow the generic methods of approach, and it you dare to take a challenge and experiment, you can produce far more interesting results.

FINISHED

Our title sequence is complete :) however, it is not yet on the blog/youtube, so unfortunatly you won't be able to view it until 23rd February! :( sit tight!
(I'll post an evalutation once I've finished cooking dinner... haha)
Happy blogging.
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STUFF

Considering my audience..
Our title sequence/film is a horror/thriller about a Schizophrenic murderer, henceforth, making it unsuitable for young audiences. Therefore, I feel certificate 18 is appropriate. In reality, the title sequence/film needs to be designed to appeal to audiences who enjoy viewing horror movies, and therefore must reflect that the film will endure horror and gore.

Music..
I think the piece of music I wrote was very fitting, and suited the style of the title sequence very well. However, I don't think that the recording did the music justice, as it sounds much better live. If we had enough time, I'd consider re-recording it, but sadly, we don't have enough disposable time, so we'll have to make-do.

The development process..
Despite being absent for two weeks of production, I'm confident in saying that I didn't miss much at all, putting the video together. In my absense, my team got the footage, so I was there to piece it together with them. Unfortunately, it took us such a long time to get on track, and set the wheels in motion. This is due to alot of technical difficulty, converting all the images, and finding enough storage capacity on the computer. But we got there in the end. I think the second to last day of editing was really the most productive day. It took us about two hours to get all the pictures in place, and into a successful title sequence. I think, generally, the development process wasn't at all smooth, it was very stressful and time consuming - animation was a lot harder then me and my team had anticipated. But, we now have the skills and knowledge to be able to do it in the future, without as many difficulties.

Title sequences? Why are they so important?..
A title sequence should instantly grab the focus and attention of its audience, in a captivative manner. It should also suggest some of the plot of the story, and perhaps introduce the protagonist(s) - (main characters), and set the location. It should also give credit to the directors and producers of the film.
Without a title sequence, a film would be very un-presented, the directors and producers would not be identified, and the scene would not be set for the audience - giving the film a very sloppy appeal.

MEGA UPDATE!

I'm fully aware that I haven't posted a blog for quite a while.
Basically, I had my tonsils removed, which put me out of work for two weeks.
But, in my absense, my team Ross and George managed to go out on another photoshoot, with Ross' little sister, and between them, collected around 7,000 photo's. I was so proud of them :')
When I finally came back to school, we decided that we were going to edit between us, the majority of the photos (the ones we intended on using) into 'Chalk and Charcoal', which is an effect on photoshop. If I'm being totally honest, poor Ross edited the majority of them. Infact, he spent practically an entire day in the editing room. He's been so commmitted to getting it finished, and I couldn't possibly begin to thank him enough.
So today, we pretty much put all the video together. We chose a selection of the best photo's and arranged them to fit in time nicely with the music I composed. We also managed to encorporate the flashes of images disscussed previously, in the breaks between the music. It's pretty effective if I do say so myself.
Tomorrow, we will be fine tuning all the timing, and adding the titles and credits. Hopefully, that wont take too long, and we can upload it to YouTube. Horray! :)
Happy blogging.
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Storyboards

These are the storyboards drew up by Ross. Due to the nature of our title sequence, these storyboards are very vague, to allow us to play around with the photo's, and fitting them into time with the music.

Photoshoooooooot!

We did our first photoshoot yesterday, and after much experimentation, I figured it would make more sense if we took each photo 'step by step' instead of repeating each little sequence 6 or so times. This also ensured that we got a photo every step so that there was no gaps or jump. We played what photo's we took on George's computer, and they look really effective.
Kudos!
Happy blogging.
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Digitalism!

This is part one of an experiment me and Ross conducted today. We we're trying to work out how many photos a DSLR would take in a second. It works out at something like 3 a second without a flash, which isnt too bad. It just means when we actually shoot the video, we'll have to repeat the same thing several times, so we have enough frames to prevent the video looking too sketchy. We don't mind a little bit of sketchyness, cause it'll give the title a bit of edge ;)
We were also looking at having flashes of inverted colours, just to really eccentricate the split personalities. I only want to have one or two of those though, because we're already using flashes for another purpose.

We were also discussing using spidery props instead of real spiders, to prevent any horrible mishaps :) I went to Bexleyheath with a pal after school, and had a look in Hawkins Bizzaire, but there was none in there :( rubbishhh. I'll keep an eye out for some. And that's about all I've got to write about. Storyboardinggggg as soon as George comes back to schooooool!

Happy blogging.

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