Tuesday 25 January 2011

Title sequence, first draft



This is the title sequence I put together as a test with the footage I uploaded over the weekend. I thought the footage would be useless with the camera shake, but when I cut up the sequence into small clips, it ran smoother.

I've also added a very basic edit of the two tracks which our line producer Kiara Michelini has got permission for us to use, from imonster, 'Heaven' and 'Who is She?'

the title effects were from some ink blot tests we did against green screen mixed with some animated masks and fades on After Effects.

The piece is far from finished. The moodboard needs a lot of work, swapping the print outs for colour photographs, adding the tarot cards etc as well as solving the camera shake problem and filming when we have more room to manouvre. However, looking at this test I can see that my ideas are taking shape are going in the direction I want them to. More tests to come!

In the meantime, I am going to look into the origins of the title sequence to hopefully further my knowledge of title design.

Monday 24 January 2011

Raw Title Sequence Test Footage

We attempted to create a mockup of the police moodboard we may use for our title sequence. A fig rig was used, however, the footage was very shaky, as there were no controls at the side of the fig rig to focus pull.

To add to that, we missed filming on Thursday due to a crew member not being available and had to film on Friday instead. Rob had a lecture on during filming and so we had to film behind a curtain ands so didn't have much room for movement.

Our next attempt should be more fluid, include a better moodboard and we should have all the equipment and space we need to work. I'll attempt to stabilize this footage and add titles.

Here is the Raw footage below before any editing takes place:

Wednesday 19 January 2011

moodboard images

Here are some of the images I doctored and found on google for the police moodboard title sequence test shoot:










Tuesday 18 January 2011

More Organic Titles

Over the Christmas and New Year I have been debating what kind of objects to use or what scene to set up for my title sequence. Obviously, it's a psychological crime thriller so I believe the imagery of the genre such as a mood board, surveillence photos, psychological notes etc should be prominent.

I first thought it would look good to have a camera walk through a detective's office door and head towards a table, panning down and over it so it fills the screen. I later thought as the title sequence can only be up to a minute maximum, I'd probably have to cut out the door shot and shoot straight from the desk, firstly to save time for cast names to appear, but also because it's very important I set the scene for the film in that short space of time during the titles.

I very much liked the style of 'The Walking Dead' title sequence where the camera always appears to be moving in a certain direction, but the scenes change to reveal props, photos of characters etc which tell a story. I want to make sure I achieve that with my title sequence, keeping the dissolving ink titles, but incorporating the movement and props.

An idea came to me when I saw the title sequence for 'Red Riding', http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL3qypfj8DY&feature=fvsr a very quick intro involving a mooodboard, it got everything across to me in one clean shot. It made me want to drop the idea of using a desk at all and rather have a large mood board on the wall, to focus in on different points telling the story then zooming out to reveal the full thing. The moodboard could include any of the props I described earlier and not look as out of place as perhaps the desk shot might have been. It can be a real tangled web to weave through and almost signifies the narrative of the film itself with it's twists and turns.

I have organised to shoot some test footage on Thursday with a few of the film crew, using a Canon 5D and testing my co producer Richard's Fig Rig. It should give crisp, clear images with a smooth ease of movement to capture or scan all the details in fluid movements. I will also develop and post on the blog a storyboard of how I want all this to look which will be very useful when we come to shoot.

We have firmly decided who to cast now and a final draft of the script has been sent to the actors, so not only can the production finally get off the ground, but the title sequence can be finalised. I am looking for photos of cast members etc to use in the moodboard, so the actors will come in great use now they've been selected.

The production composer, Josh also needed a copy of the final script so he could get a feel of how the music should be for the film. Now he has the script, it won't be long before I can take the track and incorporate it into the titles. I think these next few months will certainly be the most productive for the piece now we finally have access to the vital components needed.