Article about title sequences

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/1174230/the_importance_of_title_sequences_in_the_movies.html

Monday's planning presentation

As promised

Absent today (2nd December)

Due to the fact that my voice has not come back, I'm not in today. I would like you to undertake the following tasks, all related to the research and development of your final production:

• Decide who you are working with for your project (if anyone)
• Decide on the genre of your film
• Brainstorm ideas for at least 5-10 films from your genre (use the web to find ideas if you can’t think of any). If working in a group, you should look at 5-10 films each (although these could be the same films)
• Work out a schedule for the next two weeks (both in lesson and out of lessons):
• When are you going to produce analyses of your opening sequences - set yourself manageable deadlines?
• When are you going to complete your blog posts about:
• Audience
• Representation
• Institutions
• Your schedule should include daily goals
• Please note – you can use every lesson except Monday 12^th December
• By the end of the lesson, on your blog should be:
• Answers to the questions above
• A completed research schedule

Don't forget - you should also have completed your "movie opening" analysis by today

The answer is...

The answer to the question posed at the start of Tuesday's lesson is "research"

The articles for the first task can be found here.

The clips for the second task can be found here.

Opening Sequences and Title Sequences

Next week, we will be starting the final project. This will involve the production of the title sequence and/ or opening scene(s) of a movie. In order to do this, you will need to review and analyse the openings of a number of existent films. I have downloaded a selection of these, which you can access via my blog. You can find them here (opening scenes) and here (title sequences).

Your first step will be to decide which genre you would like to work in. You will then decide whether you want to conform or subvert your chosen genre. You might want to start thinking about plot/ characters etc. However, you should also make sure you research between 5-10 sequences in detail.

Your analysis should include a breakdown of the sequence (including screengrabs) plus comments on genre, representation and audience (all elements which will be important for your final piece). You should consider use of shots, camera-movement, text and editing. You should also go into detail about the content. Crucially, you should mention any elements which you intend to replicate and/ or subvert, explaining why and how they link to the genre/ representation/ audience of your film.

You might want to look at the similarities/ differences between some sequences (for example, between Soylent Green and Dawn of the Dead (2004). The vital thing is to make sure that your work links to the genre you have chosen. You will have a couple of weeks to do this, but remember that you can't access YouTube at school, so you will probably need to do some of your work at home. You can start planning now as well, but at this point the research is the essential task.

You are also advised to look at previous projects, to get an idea of the standard (although it should be pointed out that all of these were marked down a little). The two which are most representative of what you should aim to achieve are Jess Young's (Still Alive), Alahnna Gow/ Ruth Trigger's (Deception) and particularly James Corker, Lauren O'Brien and Craig Mullen's Animus Messor.

There is a useful Wikipedia article here which outlines the sort of credits which appear during opening sequences. There is also a site you could visit here which goes into some detail about the process.

James Corker, Craig Mullen and Lauren O'Brien - Animus Messor from Chris Earl on Vimeo.

Useful website

Amir has pointed us towards a useful website which some might find helpful in terms of developing their film-making skills. To quote Barry, "Thanks, Amir!".

http://www.indymogul.com/

Evaluating continuity projects/ additional tasks

Some students have expressed a desire to structure their blog entries with links to the final evaluation. For reference, the questions you will be asked will be:

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
• How does your media product represent particular social groups?
• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
• Who would be the audience for your media product?
• How did you attract/address your audience?
• What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
• Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Obviously, you can't answer the last question, but you could probably have a go at the others.

If you have finished your project, you could produce a director's commentary. You might also want to do some work on creating a credits/ title sequence in order to get used to doing this.