3: The Purpose Of A Title Sequence

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF A TITLE SEQUENCE AND FILM OPENER?

Purpose of a title sequence:

The purpose of a title sequence is to inform the audience about how a film is made or what's it about. Usually, the names of the director, producer, music producer etc are presented at the beginning of the film, so that the audience are aware of whose work it is and also, so that the directors and producers can have the satisfaction, knowing that they are achieving credit for their work. As well as telling us who produces and directs it, we are also introduced to the main characters, the location and genre. However, in some films, the characters are not introduced immediately to build tension and make the film seem more intense just like the introduction of the film "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo".
                                                                                 


Example: This is a screenshot from the introduction of the film "Legally Blonde" and it shows the name of the producer in the opening. The producer may be well known or liked for their films, which adds to another reason as to why their names are shown first. This is another way to convince the audience to watch it. 

Purpose of a film opener:

Moreover, the purpose of the opening on the film is the same to the purpose of a title sequence because it is what hooks the audience in and gets them eager to know what is going to happen next. It gives the audience an idea or clues about what the plot is but at the same time, doesn't give too much away in order to make an implication that there are more interesting parts coming up later. As Thomas Sutcliffe says, "Films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment." The opening of the film is also important because the audience's feelings or the crave to watch the film or not depends on the film opener. If there is not much going on, the audience may get bored and not bother watching and if there giving away too much, the audience may think  there is no reason to watch it if they already know what's going to happen. So, in order to avoid that, there should be a balance between having a bit of mystery as well as clues.

Example: This is the video from the introduction of the film "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" and this introduction has no talking or clear characters shown, just music. This is to maintain it's mystery and to make it more interesting, almost challenging the audience to watch it all. The atmosphere is also very dark and mostly of ink and dragons which helps to give the audience an idea of what genre it could be.

Task 2 - Prelim and Evaluation

Evaluating the Prelim Task

Firstly, the skills I feel I was good at while preparing and filming the prelim, was the filming and editing. From this, we all learnt many skills that helped us from lessons so that we could apply it to our prelim film. This consisted of:

The 180 Degree rule

The 180 degree rule is a type of camera position in which you can film 2 actors - usually having a conversation together. The purpose of this is to understand how 2 people can be filmed from 2 different view points, however with no confusion. This way, there will be no confusion with where the camera is. Due to our prelim -  I believe we followed this well and there were no confusions with it.

Match Cuts

Match cuts allow the audience or viewer to see points of view from different angles and perspectives. The purpose of this is to create a visual metaphor. With our prelim video, I believe this was also successful as we used this many times, and in the right way.

During our planning, it was quite tricky as we all did not have many ideas. As a downfall, we had changed our ideas twice, but eventually caught up and had a final idea. In order to be organised, we created a storyboard in which we included each scene, the dialogue (when necessary) and the camera angles. We also created a script so we had everything planned.

When it came to filming, we all had a chance to do so. However, we didn't entirely stick to the script or storyboard, but referred to it whenever we were stuck and eventually were successful. We filmed each scene many times using different angles so we could match cut and edit later on. 

The editing at first was quite tricky as we didn't know how to exactly use the tools, after a while we played around with the tools and got the hang of it. I think the editing was quite straight-forward once we got used to it and we all had a chance to edit too. Our editing was successful as we all agreed on each other's ideas and were all prepared to come in our own time to finish the editing off.

My favourite part of the completed prelim was one of the match-cuts at the beginning. It was filmed really well and when edited with other angle shots, looked even better. I believe this was a success. Also, the fact that we used close-ups to show the actors facial expressions was very effective.

If I were to film again, I would make sure to have a wider range of angle shots as many of ours were mid-close ups and not many closeups, low angles, high angles etc. We could have also used panning to zoom into the footsteps of when one of the actors were departing. 

Prelim video

Prelim & Evaluation

Prelim Evaulation

During this short course, I developed camera skills of match-cutting as well as using the camera at different angles such as close-up and wide angel shots for filming. As for editing, I did not know how to use Adobe Premier and making this short video realy helped me cover the basics skills of the program such as splitting the video, trimming it and adding music at the end which sadly we did not include at the end.

With the knowledge of the different camera angles that we learnt in class, I would say we were very successful at establishing and using the different camera angles in the video. For example, we showed the door opening before showing the girl in the red jacket approach her seat. We also applied the 180 degree angle rule when the two girls were talking to each other. In addition to this, we used shoulder shots for each girl during the conversation as shown in the video below.

Some good skills I was particulary good at was trimming the videos as well as cutting them to fit in the match-cuts. This made the conversation seem more realistic to the audience. However, one skill I was not good at was putting the different scenes in order which created some short cuts in the video. This is shown at 0.48 seconds in which there is a brief, interrupting cut when I stand up to get going. Therefore, this aspect did not work very well in our prelim video.

If I were to improve the video, some of the changes I would make is deleting the unecessary, short clips that make the video longer and unproffesional. I would also include a musical soundtrack at the end of the video as they are seperating paths for cinematic effects. Moreover, I would also make the ambient sound effects louder to make it seem realistic for the audience.



9. PRELIM. Neelam, Neena, Chifa, Anika, Aysha from 283goswell on Vimeo.

Task 2 - Evaluation&Prelim

                 

Evaluation

Before I began my prelim I made sure to plan my work; this helped me as I was aware of what I had to do. I made a storyboard of the different scenes I had to film and included the match cuts that I was going to include. My work was organised as I had a step by step plan of what to do and what order to do it in.

When filming I made sure to film the same scene more than once in case of mistakes, and I filmed the same scene from different angles to edit later on. Everyone in my group had a chance to film a scene in their perception of what they expect in a real film. We worked well together and took everyone’s ideas in mind.

The editing was the most difficult part of the prelim and also the most time consuming. At first we were all slightly confused as how to properly edit our shots but we played around with some of the keys and eventually understood what to do.

When the actress walks through the door match cutting is evident as you can clearly see the different angle that the scene was filmed in. The actress was shown walking towards the camera and walking away from the camera. The camera was also tracking her and moving along with her actions. When the two characters have a conversation, shot reverse shots are used to show that the characters are looking at each other, off the shoulder shots have been used in this scene. In addition, a side angle is again used to keep both characters in the shot and make it more obvious that they are having a conversation with each other. The camera stayed within the 180 degree rule to make sure that the viewer does not get confused as to where the characters are positioned.

I think that I was particularly good at the editing as I quickly learnt how to cut scenes and swap them around. Moreover, I was good at filming the scenes as I had a good perception of what camera angles would be best to use and if certain scenes needed to be filmed again. However, when it came to actually developing an idea of my own I slightly struggled and found it hard to put my ideas into words. This was my most difficult obstacle.

My favourite part of the completed film was a scene where one of the characters was drinking her drink and we cut to a shot where she puts the bottle down. This made a more dramatic affect and showed great use of match cutting. Then the scene went back to focussing on the characters face.

One of the most significant changes I would make is when the two characters get up to say goodbye the scene jumps forward. This is as that scene was not films properly and we did not have time to re-film it. Nevertheless, we meshed many different shots together to help it flow better.

When planning my big production piece I will definitely storyboard my ideas, as it is the best way to remember and organise my ideas. Shot lists are crucial to arrange my scenes on order and make my work flow.

2. My Prelim Footage

MY PRELIM FOOTAGE

EVALUATION

What I've learnt:

The video above is the prelim video which we created. I have developed skills along the process. During planning, I've learnt to judge and analyse other videos properly. During filming, I've learnt to use the camera; the setting up and down of camera, moving it around, zooming in and out etc. During editing, I've learnt to use a new software and how to edit it such as adding effects, titles and music in the background.

How successful is my video:

It's fair to say that our video has been quite successful because our video included a person walking to the door, through the room to the table and sitting down who then has a conversation with the other person already sitting there. We tried to get as many different shots as we could possible get which included close ups, wide angle shots, side angle shots and back shots.

What I was most good at and least good at:

The skills I was particularly good at was the camera skills because I have experience of using the camera before. It is also very simple to do. Watching a lot of movies generally also helped me with the shots we took during our filming because I am familiar with how movie shots are taken. During planning, we all shared ideas and made our own storyboard. So for planning, we all did good at. The skills that I were less good at was editing because I was not familiar with the software and it took me time to get used to it. Other than that, the rest of the planning and filming was good and simple to do.

What worked well and what did not:

I think the first half of the video worked more well than the other half because we took our time to take the shots at the beginning and there weren't much people around. However, by the other half, the surroundings start to get noisy and there were more people which is why it is hard to hear the conversation between the characters.

Improvements:

The changes I would make is the location and costumes. I would change the location to somewhere that is quiet and suitable for what we are filming to go with the whole theme and make it more believable. Also, so that there aren't anyone else talking apart from the characters. This will make it clear and easy for the audience to understand. I would also change the costumes to create a dramatic effect just to make the video more interesting.

Storyboards and Shots:

I've learnt that storyboarding and shot lists are very important because it makes so much easier for us to film as we already have an idea of what shot we are going to take. Also, it saves time during filming as we won't have to make decisions on the spot but instead, copy what we drew and wrote on our storyboards. It is very helpful and keeps us organised.

The software that we used to edit our video is 'Premiere Pro':

Task 1 - Welcome to Group 6 :)

We have Anika, Neelam, Chifa, Hasan and Neena!