These are the two sequences that Hannah, Yixuan and myself came up with using the storyboard we were given. During the editing there were issues when we realised that we broke the 180 degree rule, but we managed to edit out the dodgy shots in order for the audience to follow the sequence with ease. Everyone was given the same story board but it all depended on how the individual interpreted that story board with the environment we were set in.
For the preliminary task, we went up to the editing suite to see the three media teachers Matt, Matt and Mark who showed us a basic storyboard which involved different camera shots and dialogue.
We were then split up into three different groups and we would either film in the media suite, the studio or the media classroom. I worked with Hannah and YiXuan in the media classroom, but we all wanted to be on the camera so in order to get an actor and actress, we went up to the Private Study room and asked if anybody would like to film with us if they weren't too busy. Luckily one guy named Thomas was willing to help but none of the girls were available so Hannah offered to act instead.
When we went back to the classroom, we needed to figure out how we were going to set the room and the idea that we were going to use for the dialogue to work. As our first shot needed to be a wide shot, we needed to reset the room because all of the tables were clumped together and it was blocking the shot. We decide to clear all of the tables except for three. One table was used with the teachers chair as the main desk and the other two were just in front so that it gave the illusion of a full classroom.
After we set up the room, we made sure that the camera was level using the spirit level, set it up at the right height, focused the camera and white balanced the camera.
Once everything was in place and the camera was ready, we made sure that Thomas and Hannah knew their lines and set them up into positions which would have to be as close to the original image as possible.
Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule. Main Task: The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes. All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source. Both preliminary and main tasks may be done individually or as a group. Maximum four members to a group.
After filming our scene using the basic storyboard, we went back up to the editing suite to meet up with Matt so that he could show us how to use Final Cut Pro properly to make our scene flow. As my group wanted to try editing themselves, we split up into two groups. Hannah by herself in one group and Yixuan and myself in the other. Matt told us that although we followed the storyboard structure to film the scene, we didn't need to follow it for the final product. From the previous editing lesson, we had already learned how to zoom into our footage, cut and paste the footage using "I" and "O" and how to overlap the footage so that we could play sound over the top if we wanted to. At the start, we chose to have a different type of shot depending on who was talking because we thought that it would look effective, but Matt later said that he didn't want us to keep changing shots because it made the footage choppy and hard for the audience to follow. Instead, he wanted us to use one shot for two or three lines so that the audience could see the reaction of the actor depending on what was being said to him/her. This made our scene flow more and gave it a sense of realism. When showing Matt what we thought was our finished product, he was very quick to point out that we had crossed the 180 degree line. When choosing our shots, we had to switch the positioning of the actors against the storyboard because the door to the room was opposite to the storyboard's door. Although switching people around would have worked out, we forgot to carry this out into the other shots so to the audience, the characters kept swapping sides of the room. We thought that we wouldn't be able to edit our scene because we crossed the 180 degree line, but luckily for us, we had filmed enough shots that we had moments where we didn't cross the line. With Matt's help, we were able to cut out the moments where we crossed the line and we just used less shots running over the lines. This experience taught me how not to cross the 180 degree line and if I were to do the same again, I could now edit it in a way which makes it look decent. If I were to film again, I would make sure that I get more shots and from different angles so that we have enough footage to play with.
Kyle Cooper has designed many title sequences, adverts and corporate logos, but my favourite one has to be for Ghost House Pictures.
The reason why I like it so much is because of it's movement. As in a lot of films, we see the MGM lion appear after the film company is shown and we then get to see another association involved with the film.
When Ghost House pictures was associated with MGM, the lion started to go a weird blue/grey colour and started to freeze and jolt about. We then see the skull, which starts off far away and moves towards us. The skull starts moving around in a very uncomfortable way as we can't keep track of the movement. It makes it hard for the audience to look at one place and so they look even harder to identify the logo, which is clever because it makes the audience remember the company name.
I could also hear high pitched ghostly sounds and noises similar to when there is a signal interruption. These features all relate to the company as it is related with scary films, so not only do you know that a scary film is about to be shown, you also become slightly uneasy before the film even starts.
This is only one example of Cooper's work and his constant use of movement and special effects keeps the audience interested and is what makes him stand out as an individual and one of the best graphical designers for decades.
The Dawn of Dead opening title sequence is very disturbing and grabs the attention of the audience very quickly. It also doesn't give away any of the story. All it tells us is that something bad has gone wrong and it is affecting a huge part of the world. The editing was very effective in this piece, especially the length of time each shot had because it made me feel panicky and uneasy. It started off with a disequilibrium and from that moment on, all of the shots that involved the zombies were very choppy and all we kept on seeing was a hint of blood and someone up close to the camera. They way in which the audience was left with a few split seconds of scary moments made the audience think about what they just saw. The other choppy moments involved DNA and bacteria as if they were mutating into something horrible. The credits themselves even added on to the effect because they were the colour of blood and the way the credits entered and left the shot was slow and creepy, which is seen a lot in Cooper's work as the images never stops moving. The camera mainly stayed in one position which was a close-up, which achieved a lot because it forced the audience to look at the screen because it was hard to see what was going on as the atmosphere was chaotic. There were also a lot of wide shots which established the setting and portrayed the hectic behaviour to the audience as it showed crowds of people running around and there were a lot of news reports which reiterated that the issue is severe. The sound was very scary because the sounds were all diegetic and the news reporters kept asking questions as they didn't know what was going on. The idea of being unclear of the situation was passed on to the audience from the quick camera shots and the sound of the zombies. We heard occasional screeches from the zombies which were very random and caught me by surprise each time which heightened the tension. The constant screaming from the crowds of people also got me worried and so I knew that the film was going to be crazy. Everything in the shots were red and flashed on off the screen which gave the impression that there was going to be a lot of blood and violence. This made me feel disoriented and gave me the feeling that I was watching a real news report and the whole world was panicking. Cooper's use of non-stop motion and quick chaotic action shots set the tone for the film and trapped the attention of the audience without giving anything away.
Kyle Cooper is a director and designer of film title sequences.He holds an MFA in graphic design from the Yale School of Art, where he studied under graphic designer Paul Rand, as well as a BFA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. In 1996, he co-founded and named creative agency Imaginary Forces. He has directed and produced more than 150 film title and VFX sequences, including "Se7en", "Spider-Man", and "The Mummy". In 2001, he directed a feature film, "New Port South". He moved on to found Prologue Films in 2003, with which he has created title sequences for "The Incredible Hulk", "Final Destination 5", and "The Walking Dead". In 2008, he was a finalist in the National Design Awards. He has earned five Emmy Award nominations and one win for his work on the 81st Annual Academy Awards. He also holds the title of Honorary Royal Designer for Industry from the Royal Society of Arts in London.
For me personally, the Forrest Gump opening title is one of the most powerful and creative sequences ever made. As the feather was CGI, the camera would have had to film the whole sequence without a feather and to then layer the CGI version over the top. As the feather then went over cars, the editors would have had to make a reflection of the feather in the window of the car like it would do in real life. What was so incredible about this shot was that it was continuous and so it seemed as if the feather was real. Tom Hanks even picked up the feather so everybody thought that the feather was real. CGI wasn't very advanced at the time, so to pull off this shot was not only the hardest shot in the film, but one of the best shots of all time. The use of the feather was extremely clever as the camera had to follow it, which meant that we had a fantastic stabling shot of where we were and the time period this film was set. This shot also brought up a lot of questions, mainly about the meaning behind the feather. Some people thought that the feather was going on a journey through the years and as at the end, Tom Hanks releases the feather again, the film almost comes back into the cycle and because of this, people thought that the film was told backwards. Some others thought that the feather was foreshadowing the story because the feather was sometimes high and low and also in danger. My favourite aspect of the feather was that it didn't give anything away and it was only at the end that the audience realised that the feather was a metaphor of Forrest Gump as he is quite dumb, gets pushed around a lot and is a minority in the world. The music was very light and peaceful which supported the lightness of the feather, this gave the audience the feeling as if they were in a dream. This concept was also brought back at the end with the release of the feather as it was Forrest Gumps' way of saying goodbye to the audience. Other people have different endings for this film and some include Forrest dying while running to where he needs to be but I prefer the feather ending as it links the whole film together.
The opening title sequence to Se7en is extremely effective as the message isn't quite clear, yet there is still an unsettling aura around it.
The editing in this title sequence is personally the key aspect to its effectiveness because there are a lot of shots that have been composed in a confusing and distorting way. I could argue that the shots were composed randomly as that would have had the same effect but that would ruin the effect. We start off with an opening close-up shot of a tattered book which immediately lets me know that the film has some history behind it or that it could be some kind of diary. We then get a series of creepy images flashing quickly across the screen and we then get introduced to the credits of the film playing over the top of the title sequence. The credits even have a scary effect as the words are very vague and jump around a lot which enhances the distortion. We then get shown some disturbing images of bleeding fingers and a blade, foreshadowing the future horror in the film. A lot of the shots include some sort of a diary and a lot of writing which makes me think as if somebody is keeping track of something. I also saw that somebody was highlighting some key words such as "transexual" and "heterosexual" as well as putting a line through the eyes of an image of a young boy. This makes me nervy because this person seems weird and perverted and I get the sense that this person is stalking children.
The camera throughout the whole title sequence focused on close-up and extreme close-up shots. This was so that nothing was given away about the story or the who the person was and so an enigma was created. These close-ups also put me on edge because it forced me to look at objects very quickly and very up-close which seemed to take away my personal space and I felt very unsafe.
The music was very chilling as there was a constant tempo and it was quite high pitched which made it quite eery. The music blended well with the editing as it gave an overall thrilling feeling.
To add on to this cold, disheartening title sequence, the mise en scene is very clever because it forces the audience to focus on specific objects such as the needles, pictures, writing and the blood. As each frame comes and goes extremely quickly, the audience tries to focus harder in order to understand what is going on and therefore when the blood and needles are introduced, it has a bigger effect on the audience.
Today we had our first editing lesson which involved editing the sequence which we filmed last week. As I was in a group with two other people (Vogue and Rishad), we decided to split up to edit. I stayed with Vogue and Rishad edited with Hannah because she missed the filming session. Vogue and I looked at our original idea with Rishad shaking my hand to see if we could put together some sort of sequence, but not even the computers could fix the errors that we made. Moving on to our much better second sequence, we had plenty of shots to work with. We flowed from a wide shot - to a medium close-up of Vogue - to an extreme close-up of Vogue's face - to a POV of her watch - and then back to a wide shot for when she lay down again. For me personally, I loved the POV shot of the watch because it gave the sequence a sense of reality and showed the audience the time of day. I found the sequence especially clever because our transitions between shots were done while she was moving, so it showed that our continuity was perfect which pleased me because our original sequence had no continuity at all. From this session, I started to get the hang of the shortcuts used for editing such as the buttons "I" and "O" to cut and paste the footage. Overall I thought this session was productive as we managed to create a full flowing sequence and at the same time we picked up some editing skills.
When Ghost House pictures was associated with MGM, the lion started to go a weird blue/grey colour and started to freeze and jolt about. We then see the skull, which starts off far away and moves towards us. The skull starts moving around in a very uncomfortable way as we can't keep track of the movement. It makes it hard for the audience to look at one place and so they look even harder to identify the logo, which is clever because it makes the audience remember the company name. 
Kyle Cooper is a director and designer of film title sequences. He holds an MFA in graphic design from the Yale School of Art, where he studied under graphic designer Paul Rand, as well as a BFA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. In 1996, he co-founded and named creative agency Imaginary Forces. He has directed and produced more than 150 film title and VFX sequences, including "Se7en", "Spider-Man", and "The Mummy". In 2001, he directed a feature film, "New Port South". He moved on to found Prologue Films in 2003, with which he has created title sequences for "The Incredible Hulk", "Final Destination 5", and "The Walking Dead". In 2008, he was a finalist in the National Design Awards. He has earned five Emmy Award nominations and one win for his work on the 81st Annual Academy Awards. He also holds the title of Honorary Royal Designer for Industry from the Royal Society of Arts in London.