DARF Media: Dayna, Alice, Rebecca and Francesca : opening

Showing posts with label opening. Show all posts

Thursday, 1 May 2014

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.

Sunday, 27 April 2014

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.

Sunday, 2 March 2014

Opening: Context

Many horror movies give information/context to the audience at the very start of the opening (after production company titles etc.) This gives the audience more background and knowledge before the film begins, such as dates, events and sometimes characters. This would be effective as it is fairly typical of supernatural horror movies, and sets the scene for the audience whilst adding depth through background information. Here are some examples:

Paranormal Activity 4
0.09- Location, date
0.37- Date, event
1.54- Key information

The Devil Inside
0.06- Date, Location
0.07- 911 call dialogue (audio and visual)

'The film which you are about to see is an account of the tragedy which befell a group of five youths, in particular Sally Hardesty and her invalid brother, Franklin. It is all the more tragic in that they were young. But, had they lived very, very long lives, they could not have expected nor would they have wished to see as much of the mad and macabre as they were to see that day. For them an idyllic summer afternoon drive became a nightmare. The events of that day were to lead to the discovery of one of the most bizarre crimes in the annals of American history, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.'

This is the dialogue said by the narrator at the very start of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (slasher.) As you can see it hints at what the movie will entail (tragedy which befell a group of five youths,) and introduces some of the characters (e.g Sally and Franklin.) The 'facts' told at the start also allows the film to appear more realistic, making it more distressing for the audience.

Sunday, 19 January 2014

Opening Credits Practice

My task was to practice a variety of ways that we could have our credits during our final film opening. I put some clips together and added different credit styles to we could analyse what would look best. There is no audio as this is a small clip just showing credit styles.

I used iMovie as they have a variety of credit and title styles. I imported various clips that I filmed a while ago when we were searching for our locations as a basis for the credits.

As normal I split the clip to get rid of the large sections that I did not want.

I slowed a couple of the clips down in order to add some dynamics too the clip, and too see how credits looked alongside this effect.

I then detached the audio as there were un-necessary sounds such as wind and talking. I did not add any audio effects so that maximum attention could be paid to what is happening within the frame.

I added cross blur transitions and a fade to black transitions at the end so that the clip ran continuously and smoothly, with no jumpy straight cuts.

I then selected the credit styles that I felt would go best with our supernatural horror genre. I slotted them in throughout the clip to see how each of them looked as part of a sequence.

They were placed on top of the clip so they appeared during it, not in between sections of the sequence.

I added the text 'DARF' as this is just as a practice, in reality you would have production companies, actor names etc. The font, colour and size can also be modified, which will be done during the final editing stage of our opening sequence.

I am pleased that:

I was able to capture a wide variety of credit styles

I could improve:

By adding more title styles, as there was only really one at the end that would be appropriate for this
Played around with the font, as we already know that to link well to our supernatural horror genre, the font will have to be gothic and either red, white or black

A Nightmare on Elm Street Opening Credits

A Nightmare on Elm Street Opening Credits Deconstruction

0.0- American production company

0.4- Another American production company

0.6- Main actor starring as 'Freddy Kruger'

The typography of the credits is typical of the horror genre, using capital letters with pointed edges. The classic 'black, red and white' theme is also used, with the words being white. These features are followed all the way through.