The Ring opening titles deconstruction.

0:03 Production company

0:09 Director 

0:14 and 0:21 Main actors

0:29 Film title

0:30 Actor

0:35 Actor

0:41 Actor

0:46 Actor

0:51 Actor

0:56 Casting director

1:02 Composer

1:12 Editor

1:22 Photography director

1:17 Production designer

1:28 Producers

1:39 executive producers

1:49 Screenplay writers

2:01 Director

This opening sequence is quite unconventional as it uses a series of strange images that do not seem to have any relevance to the film instead of starting the narrative. The starts slowly and softly and build pace and volume throughout conforming to the stereotype of horrors. The same image at the end and the start of the opening credits is very effective as it is repeated and therefore the audience will remember this easier. it also builds intrigue as the audience doesn't understand the relevance of this to the plot. The typography stands out simply because of the colour and also is it looks like a persons handwriting. this film opening subverts the convention that the film should be shown at the very end of the opening titles. 

Blumhouse Productions

As Blumhouse is a top production company which mainly specialises in horror films, we decided to do some research into how suitable it would be for our own opening.

Brief Background

• Best known for their micro and low budget films
• Recent productions include

- The Paranormal Activity sequences

- Sinister

- The Purge

- Insidious

The animation for Blumhouse is effective, especially when put in the title sequence of a horror film due to it's low key lighting and ominous atmosphere. As well as this, there is also a supernatural element as we see a ghost figure of what seems to be a young girl, which is in addition to the shadow effect (where the actual 'Blumhouse' name is revealed), therefore this suggests that Blumhouse would be a suitable production company for our genre. This is further suggested through the non-diegetic sounds of the flickering lights, a common convention in horror films as it further emphasises the idea of poor lighting and darkness.

Suitability for Audience

In order to try and understand what would be suitable for our target audience, we decided to list the types of age ratings and their restrictions recommended by the British Board of Film Classification.

U-Universal viewing which should be suitable for audiences over 4 years old

• Aimed at very young viewers
• Children animated films
• Shouldn't address any significant issues, e.g. discrimination, sex, violence, drug use
• Moments of emotional stress are quickly resolved

Examples of 'U' rated films:

• Up
• Despicable Me
• Rio

PG-Parental Guidance which should be suitable for general viewing, however some scenes unsuitable for younger audiences

• General viewing
• No themes unsuitable for children 
• But will explore challenging issues such as bullying and bereavement 
• Violence and bad language will be mild
• Passing references to drugs/sexual material, but no focus on this

Examples of 'PG' rated films

•  Underdogs
• Black Nativity

12

• Generally, not suitable for those under the age of 12 (unless accompanied by an adult in some cases)
• No dark or unsettling tone to upset viewers
• Use of strong language may be used
• Brief and discreet sexual material may be used
• Some horror films may be accepted in this category but only moderate physical and psychological threat is permitted. Also as long as the horror sequences aren't too frequent or have an overall disturbing tone.

Examples of 12/12A' rated films:

• Divergent
• Jaws
• Red Eye

15

• Strong threat and horror allowed but no sustained focus nor sadistic threat
• No themes are prohibited, but must be suitable for 15 year olds
• The following are likely to be seen:

- Strong language

- Violence

- Drug taking

- Nudity

Examples of '15' rated films:

• Insidious
• The Purge
• Cabin in the Woods

18-Suitable for adults only

• No themes prohibited
• Issues tackled may even be offensive for adults
• Strong horror
• Strong blood and gore
• No limit on use of strong language or violence

Examples of '18' rated films:

• Orphan
• Friday the 13th (2009)
• The Chainsaw Massacre 

Opening Title: Film Title

This was done on final cut pro, which is the software that we are using to create our actual film opening. 

I took the font that we were using for all of our other titles to make sure the opening title was in-keeping with the whole film opening.  

I manipulated the font to make it slightly blurred any more suitable to the supernatural horror genre. I then downloaded a font that allowed me to manipulate the font further, by changing the 't' in ritual to a cross symbol.

This links well to the supernatural horror genre of the film opening, making the title more interesting and effective.

Editing

Editing

We are now nearing the end of editing our film opening so I decided to finish some final editing sections to help improve both the quality of the opening and of my editing skills.  

 First of all I had the job to insert a title screen to inform the audience that the opening is now reverting back to a week earlier.  To do this I selected the T tab on the right hand side of final cut and inserted a black screen with the same text font as the named titles.  I chose a black screen rather than a picture in the background to put emphasis on the words and to create a caesura to build the tension.

 I then inserted a clip transition after the "1 week earlier" to create a smooth change before the last section of the opening.  I chose a blur transition because it ran the same time as the church bell sound.

 After reviewing the opening I decided that the second church bell did not sound completely right for the situation.  After listening to the final cut sounds of church bells I found a better noise layered it in.  After watching it a few times I decided to take off the increased speed of the girl turning around so it was back to normal pace.


We needed something to trigger the girl to turn around.  So to continue the story line we added in diegetic sounds  to make it seem as though she was being followed by the priest who is to exorcise her.
After listening to the sounds available on final cut I inserted male breathing and footsteps to seem as though he is following her.  The a snapping of a twig then triggers her to turn around, I then inserted a clip of the priest's eyes to inform the audience that it is him that is following her.  This looks quite effective as it helps to build up the tension and varies the camera angles.

Title Sequence

Title Sequence 

In order to conform to the components of a film opening, our opening would have to include opening credits; the titles.  I have previously completed many blog posts on deconstructions of supernatural horror openings so I used this research as a starting point for our titles.  A particular film that I liked for their titles was Insidious.

 

As I wasn't sure what exact titles to put into the sequence I watched the Insidious opening again and took down all the vital credits they used to apply them to our opening.  

To add in a title on final cut I went onto the right side bar and selected the capital T to view the selection of titles. After going through all the examples I found a title which faded out slowly which reminded me of smoke.  This was very appropriate for the genre and our opening as we used candles to reflect the religious aspects of the film.  The smoke affect also created a mysterious and ominous atmosphere which I feel adds depth and interest to the credits.  

 After putting in the main production company name that we created, I then inserted the associated production companies.  The font I chose for the titles was optima as it had a slight gothic look about it because of the slimness and points of the letters.









To manipulate the text further I decided to change the colour of the text to make it more genre appropriate.  After using the colour wheel and trying different combinations I finally decided on black text with a hite glow because mixed together they made a light grey.  This colour fit in with the smoke effect and the dark atmosphere of the genre.

 This is a section of the timeline with the titles fitted above the footage.  It includes the production companies, members of the group with a main film role and the two actors we used.

In conclusion I feel that the title sequence is fitting with the genre of supernatural horror and our specific opening themes.  They look professional and interesting which are two qualities vital for the success of our opening.  One thing I would improve on is the timing of the titles in correlation with the changing of the shots to make it look effective and smooth.

Finding background music

My task was to find and manipulate background music to our film opening originally we found a child singing and when we put it to the footage that we had edited it did not fit very well. Another idea that we had was to find s child singing hymns as it would be appropriate for the genre and work well as we have a priest in our film opening. But we could not find any legal free background sounds like this so I then looked for background music that was eerie and would work well with the visuals that we had. 


I found a website which provided this. I then downloaded the sound and layered it over our footage. 

The music did not need any manipulation as  it seemed to fit the footage very well. I also found another sound effect from the same website to add to the flashbacks. The sounds work well together. 

Editing

Editing

 Alongside editing with the group we have also decided to do individual editing to make sure we all participate equally.  On top of the already existing editing I started with getting rid of any background sound on the clips.  I did this by going onto audio enhancement, sound board, then reduce background noise to 100%.

 I then wanted to add in some diegetic sound to increase the realism of the piece.  For the forest section I went through the already existing sounds on final cut to find a foot step sound.  After testing out all the footstep sounds next to the clip I decided on Footsteps bare running.  I then adjusted the volume of the running on the sound board to make sure they were not too loud and would drown out any other sounds.

 I also found Footsteps Mud run which was very appropriate for parts of the clips so I layered it under the heavy breathing of the victim.  The combination of sounds makes the clip seem very realistic and fits well in conjunction with the running clips.

 To make this ending clip as effective as possible I wanted to find a non-diegetic sound which would make the audience jump.  After testing a lot of the sounds I decided on a thunder noise as it sounded very ominous and dramatic, in parallel to the scene and genre.

 I also wanted to increase the brightness of some of the clips to make sure the audience can see the possession scene properly.  To do this I went onto the colour board then exposure.  I only increased the brightness by a little bit to make sure it was still shadowy and dark.

To make the possession seem more supernatural and creepy I decided to make the clip run backwards to make the movements more unnatural and disjointed.  This looked very effective so I used the blade tool to break up the different camera angles then rearranged them so the possession was even more disjointed.