Shooting New Scenes

In Friday's lesson we decided to take the the feedback seriously to improve our title sequence. We had time restraints on how long we were able to film/reshoot Christian's doctor characters new scenes. The decision was made to go a science lab class room in the school and use that to film in, luckily the equipment and environment was pleasing considering the lack of time we faced. 

Before we reshot we decided that this footage would be the new opening for the title sequence, this was because we wanted the audience to have thoughts and create their own ideas about this doctor before the story was shown. It is also before the cast and crew credits appear on screen. This increases our title sequence running time which was a benefit because of it only being 1:36 and the limit was 2 minutes so this has out me and my group in a more comfortable position. 

I strongly think that with this new footage we have improved the understanding of the what the film could be about to the audience and them being able to clearly identify the character of the doctor. This is because the use of scientific equipment such as: the syringe, test tubes and plastic rubber gloves.

Feedback on First Draft of Title Sequence

In Wednesday's lesson feedback sheets were hand out to all class mates to fill out on each groups title sequence which was everyone's first draft. Once our title sequence had finished playing the others had time to fill out their sheets then we discussed the feedback together,there were 4 sections to the feedback sheet : The rating of the sequence (out of 3 stars), The elements that work , Things that need developing and Things that don't work.
The overall feedback from the class was positive none believed it needed serious work which was happily appreciated by the group.

The main things that worked that people commented on was :the music, the shots and the black and white filter, I believe these are all things we have worked very hard on doing well and developing the most at and this has been noticed which makes me feel positive about our piece. 
In addition the things that people thought needed developing where: the voice over and the storyline. From receiving this constructive criticism we had a group discussion on these two areas that had been identified and we chose to delete the voice over from the title sequence as we were unsure once editing the sequence if it really helped or actually confused the story. The storyline was not said to be clearly shown in the title sequence but when we explained it to the other members of the different groups they understood. One comment was to add my evidence of the male character being a doctor. Yet again we discussed this idea and we plan to do some shooting of this in school in the science labs in Friday's lesson.
Finally the last section of the feedback sheet was the things that did not work only one main things were pointed out on this subject. Firstly one person thought that the typography which included all our group names for the title sequence designers and casting by was too. We as a group agreed with this and Sophie straight away went away and recreated these two crew names and she made up her own. 

I have chosen three of the six feedback sheets to add to this blog:

First Draft of Title Sequence

 
 The video above is the first draft of our title sequence, 'Captive'.

In Monday's lesson we used this time as group to create our first draft of our title sequence, 'Captive' to present and show to fellow classmates which were in separate groups and to our teacher. We made sure that the editing was working properly,all the text was in the right positions and the music and voice over were playing correctly. After these final checks we must of watched our title sequence a few times to make sure we was happy with it even though we knew generally there were things we wanted to improve.One problem we picked up just before playing the title sequence was the mispelling on the 'photography' for our typography and we told this to the class as we did not have time to change it. I believe when we have this  feedback discussion we would be able to have a more clear pathway on how to carry on making the title sequence better.

Black and White Style & White Typography

After nearly finishing our first draft of our title sequence to show our class and teacher for Wednesday's lesson I brought the up the idea of maybe changing the sequence from colour to black and white. I originally came up with this idea because I believe it will abide more to the thriller genre giving it a darker and more mysterious feel. In addition it gives it a more professional look to the title sequence which is what what and my group because it is a high budget film. After this discussion and with many ideas taken into thought we decided to change the whole title sequence into black and white as a group I believe this has enhanced the appearance and effect of the title sequence.

Once we had decided to change the title sequence into black and white we began to upload the text i had planned and Sophie had created with the groups choice of, 'Old Newspaper Types'. The original plan was to have black text on the colour title sequence but as we changed it to black and white we released that we wouldn't be able to have black. To overcome this we decided to change the text to white so it would stand out against the black and white scenes. Moreover this an authentic use of typography of white text on a black background that will now use.

Captive title text

As a group we want our title sequence to stand out and have individuality, so with this in mind when creating and designing the text for the title of our film. We decided to use the same style of text we used for our cast and crew names,'Old Newspaper Types'. In a lesson Sophie and Lucy began to design it, the design was jail bars with the text 'CAPTIVE' blended within the bars. all of the group members had an opinion on what bars and font to use.

Early Production of Text Design

Then Lucy and Sophie found out the format for designing the text/bar effect was wrong, they were using JPEG and PNG was the one they needed to use. Thankfully this did not take much to re correct and the design of the title was carried on with.

The use of colour of the text on screen we could not agree on and what would work best on top of the film footage, so Sophie decided to make the jail bars to light grey and the text of 'CAPTIVE' would be in white.After it was finally finished we uploaded it on Friday to the title sequence and we decided to place on Maria's eyes which foreshadows her mental illness ( but the audience does not know this). Me, Lucy and Sophie decided on this because we thought it would be hinting to the audience that the girl was a Captive and the jail bars represented her own mental cage but then her being held hostage by someone.I believe the use of the this personal designed title for our title sequence definitely makes us stand out and adds to the story itself. In addition it is good for us as a group to have different techniques included in our title sequence and techniques that we have picked up that has developed our understanding and hopefully future work.

Main Sound and Voice Over - Title Sequence

Before we filmed the title sequence I was quickly looked on different type of websites that had copyright free music on them.However I again looked on one website that i thought had the best range of music, 'Audio Network'. I found a piece of music called 'Dangerous Knowledge' and even the name stood out to me because it is two themes that run through out our film. I played the music I loved the start of it which sounded like maracas shaking to a slow pace given that sense of mystery, also the high pitch squeek noise inbetween increased the intensity I believe.

I showed the group this piece of music and they all agreed this was the perfect sound track for our title sequence.After we had discussed it we uploaded it to our title sequence and it worked perfectly. At the same time we uploaded the final voice over recording to the title sequence to work out the timing and where it should be placed, we did not think the voice over and music should be played at the same time would work and we would play the music after the voice over had finished. On the other hand we decided to play them together just to prove our theory was wrong, however me,Sophie and Lucy were happily surprised that the combination of the two worked great and we decided to keep them playing at the same time.

With all the final touches and additions being made to our title sequence I am really happy with the outcome so far which really pleases me that our group has worked so well together to produce this. Next lesson we are going to do final touch ups of everything,double check it all works and check for little mistakes. 

Sound Effects

In one lesson last week me and Sophie were both off school site on a trip and we had decided for Lucy and Christian to focus on finalising the sound effects for the title sequence.The voice over is now completely finished and them two decided to look at some sound effects for certain parts of the sequence.

Chris found the 'Jump' sound (which you can play above) from a music copyright free website and they both agreed it would have a great effect and fit in well when the doctor covers the screen with his hand. I agree with their decision with this choice of sound for end of the title sequence. Then the sound was added to the end of the sequence and it was perfect for it. I believe it adds a jump to the audience when watching and enhances the shocking ending we wanted to have, by using the professional sound effect i also think it pushes it to a higher standard. 

Editing for Captive - Title Sequence

Once we had got all the footage from filming in the half term finished and uploaded up on to final cut pro we decided as a group to put Lucy mainly in charge of editing the title sequence, for example: deleting scenes, cutting scenes down and putting them into the order the group wanted. From the feedback we had from our teachers and our personal opinions on the title sequence, we decided to re shoot my scenes of 'Maria' that were filmed indoors in my bedroom because the lighting of only a torch app on a iPhone being used didn't give the right feel.It gave it a dark feel and this was not meant to be felt by the audience till later on.

Before we went off to re shoot, we got Lucy to delete all the bedroom scenes that had dark lighting so it would be easier to upload and carry on with the title sequence once we had the new footage. Whilst this was taking place I put forward the idea of having the whole title sequence in black and white, to give it a more darker effect overall and to make it more mysterious which is what is included typically a code and convention of a Thriller film. In addition the use of the black and white filter on the film helps darking the outdoor scenes lighting because to get a clear picture we had to film it in the day and that day was particularly sunny,so by using the black and white filter it has helped us overall.

Me and Sophie was supporting Lucy with our opinions on the filters to create the black and white effect these were 'saturation' and 'levels'. Lucy set the saturation to -1 so there was no colour left and enhance the brightness of black and white in the footage. In addition Lucy also put changed the levels filter to:

• Input:50
• Input Tolerance:100
• Gamma:1.41
• Output:43
• Output Tolerance:68 

Moreover transitions were added by Lucy to a few of the clips so the whole sequence has a nice flow to it. The transition which was used was a 'cross dissolve', I believe this creates a slow peaceful atmosphere when at start when the contrasting shots are shown of Maria and the Doctor, compared to stalking, following second half of the title sequence. 

At first I was apprehensive about the time restrictions we had about re shooting a few of Maria scenes but after uploading them to the rest of the title sequence I was glad we did re shoot because it looks much better and more the effect we wanted to have. Lastly I think the continuity editing at the very start of the coursework project really helped us as a group to know what to do and what techniques worked best for our overall coursework title sequence, Captive.

Full Cast and Crew List

I was put in charge of another role in the title sequences production to a produce a full cast and crew list for Captive. I wanted to create a cast and crew list that would relate to other films within the same genre which is the 'thriller' genre.Also I then decided to look back at films we had looked at and that have helped with some ideas we have developed individually for the title sequence. After looking at films such as: Shutter Island, Saw and Hide and Seek, I came to the conclusion to base the running of the cast and crew on the thriller film, 'Se7en'. 

I then copied down the order in which the full cast and crew appeared in the title sequence of 'Se7en', the order was this:

• Star Cast
• Title of the film
• Casting by
• Music by
• Costumes designed by
• Edited by
• Production designed by
• Title sequence designers
• Director of photography
• Co-producers
• Co executive producer
• Executive producers
• Written by
• Produced by
• Directed by

After i went through the title sequence a few times to make sure I got the right order I decided to yet again look at similar films in our genre, Thriller. I decided to include the full cast and crew from a range of thriller films that were all included in the survey we created, these are: Black Swan,The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,Inception, Shutter Island, Alien,Se7en and lastly Hide and Seek.
However who the film would be directed by we already had decided on who is, John Polson who directs 'Hide and Seek' which has a similar storyline to our film 'Captive'. 

Once i had finished my order for the cast and crew, I then posted it into our online group chat so everyone could see and it and be more than prepared for Sophie to start actually creating the text with the name I had chosen.

Text for Title Sequence

Previously we had decided our own favourite personal fonts we wanted the cast and crews names to be in, however after filming we decided that the 'Old Newspaper types' would be the best choice so we conclude on the decision with these one. 

In Wednesday's lesson I began to create a cast and crew order list for the title sequence based on title sequence for 'Se7en' because this has ben a supporting influence on our ideas and title sequence. As i was doing this the whole Mac system shut down and I lost my list, however we knew how are two star cast are going to be before this: Emma Watson and Leonardo DiCaprio.  
As a group Sophie was chosen to type and produce all the cast and crew names in the 'Old Newspaper types' font for the title sequence. She began to start the Emma Watson/Maria font and because of the whole system crashing this was the only one she was able to finish in different styles on photoshop. 

These are two of the many designs Sophie created:

I am going to reproduce the cast and crew list, so Sophie can do her role in the final stages of our title sequence of doing the font. 

Feedback for Title Sequence Filming

Once we all retuned to school we got teacher feedback on the rough copy of our title sequence we had put together quickly from what we produce from the 114 clips we took from filming in the half term. When putting this rough copy together, we had to edit and view clips on the Mac and decided which ones we had took where the best (we had 3 maximum different shots of each scene). We end up deleting some because of the poor lighting indoors and the appearance of some group members shadows that were not meant to be included.  

• Sinead = She thought that the title sequence overall was good and only had a few critiques to help us improve it. However she commented on reshooting the first half of the sequence with the shots of Maria's bedroom and her getting ready because of the quality of the lighting and the pace compared to the second half. In addition she approved of our music choice 'Dangerous Knowledge' because she said it fits in with the genre of the film and creates the correct atmosphere. 

• Emily = Emily told us to reshoot the first half of the title sequence which ended up being in agreement with Sinead. This was agin because the pace was not correct compared to the second half which was the outdoor shots which she said worked very well. Also she agreed with the music choice saying it compliments the title sequence footage well.

I think me and the group have taken and will take this constructive criticism on board to improve our title sequence and make it the best it can be for the deadline.

Filiming for Captive

The week before we broke for half term we got a chance to to do some of the filming in the school, in a conference room. We used this setting for the Doctors study beacuse all the props we needed we easy access to such as : books, stationary etc, also the shots we took varied and we had a lot of them ,so we had a lot to choose.

Once we broke up for half term we had planned two days which we would all meet up to start and finish the filming, which was a Wednesday and Thursday. 

DAY 1 : We decided to film Maria's bedroom scene (her getting ready and writing in her diary) and her walking out the door (to go out with her friends) all in my house for the title sequence. In addition we filmed the Doctors shots for him leaving the house also. 

DAY 2 : On this day we went to Lucy's house to the outdoor shots for the title sequence of Maria being followed by the Doctor and their different points of view. We decided to film here because there was a quite road near her house were not many people passed and minimal cars passing by. In addition we was lucky with the weather for this day as it was bright and sunny where as the rest of the week had being grey and rainy. This benefited us when filming because we had crystal clear shots and did not have to worry about the lighting.