Thriller Research:

 Thrillers require a certain kind of audience, they don't appeal to a mass market- not all people enjoy watching thrillers. Stats for 2009 show that in the UK 503 films were released, of this only 31 were thrillers- this is only seventh from the bottom. Horror realeased only 29 however it made £60,228,063 in the box offices, the thriller genre produced 2 more films and made significantly less money than horror with only taking in £42,578,104 with Angels and Demons, Knowing & Harry Brown as its top three films.

Thrillers have become less popular over the years and I believe this is due to the fact more comedy and drama is being made and taking away the spotlight from a thriller. Drama films are becoming increasingly popular with Slumdog Millionaire, The Twighlight Saga and The curious case of benjamin button along with 173 others made £184,040,456. However, I feel Thrillers could easily climb to the top of the box office again and practicing making the opening of one will prepare us for that day.

The Watching Documentary: MY RESPONSE.

The watching documentary was a very useful thing to watch, it was aimed at the opening of movies and more specifically- THRILLER MOVIES. Since our task is to create an opening to a thriller watching this documentary helped us significantly.


WHAT DID I LEARN?
1) Thomas Sutcliffe stresses that the opening to a movie is crucial, with the opening we need to draw our audience into wanting to watch the rest of the movie. The opening is the first few minutes were an audience can see the skills and effort that should foreshadow the whole movie, if the opening is dull- the audience will leave.
2) I also learnt the risk of 'instant arousal'  a French director Jean Jacques Beineix states that with instant arousal it brings an instant climax. From this you must answer the climax and still be able to bring tension, this is risky because if you provide instant arousal the rest of  the movie could drift off and no more tension is built.
3) Finally, I learnt that the opening needs to not be to revealing. It needs to establish the given facts such as the setting, characters and genre but it mustn't give to much away. It could have subtle hints of what is going to happen later on but it mustn't be to revealing otherwise there is no point in the audience watching the rest of the movie.

This documentary taught me a few key skills in producing and making a thriller opening, I can take these skills onboard and use them to create a successful or even a 'classic'  thriller film opening.

Structure Of Openings:

Thriller openings can be structured in a way that resembles the thriller, there are three basic structures which can be used in a thriller opening. There is one type that is more stylized and involves very advanced editing that we can actually create ourselves with a lot of hard work on final cut pro. Here are the four different types followed by examples:

Narrative Opening: These openings have titles on them that run throughout, the titles are over the clips and not on a blank screen. The Stepfather & He Loves Me He Loves Me Not, are both thrillers which use this technique.

A Discrete Title Sequence: When watching, I liked these title sequences the best; I found them very stylized and highly edited & I believe they draw the audience into the movie. This title sequence is away from the actual movie, but reveals little hints about the movie in a clever and subtle way. Arlington road & Seven both use this technique, and I believe they have very successful openings; I specifically enjoy the effects used in Arlington road along with the music choice as it conjures up the imagination of the audience.

Titles Over The Blank Screen: This is basically what it says on the tin, a basic title sequence with a blank screen and titles, then the movie itself begins. I disliked this style the most, I believe it is quite dull and doesn't foreshadow the movie at all. It is used in Donnie Darko and I believe another style of adding the title sequence is much better than this style, this style is basic and doesn't involve many editing skills.

The Fourth Style: Stylized Editing: This has been specifically added because the above subtitles don't justify the work of the movies that use this style. The Taking Of Pelham 123 & Mezirine both use this style. I really like the editing of The Taking Of Pelham 123, its fast paced, highly stylized and uses titles and music that suit the opening entirely.

Age Certificates

After looking at various different films that we have looked at previously, I researched the age certificate of 10 of them. I found it very interesting how all the films I looked for were either rated 15 or 18. What this says about thriller audiences is that they are at least 15 years of ago a mostly male. In the majority of the films below the main actors are male so the audience that can relate with them are mostly male.

The stepfather: 15

Marathon man: 18

The Taking of Pelham 123: 15

What lies beneath: 15

Memento: 15

The Shining: 15

Psycho: 15

Fatal Attraction: 18

Enemy of State: 15

Collateral: 15

Cinema Audiences

Out of 503 films released in  the UK in 2009, 31 of them accounted for suspense films. Even though they accounted for 4% of box office takings and action, animation and comedy for more than half, the reason is because suspense films appeal to a specific audience whereas the other appealed to the masses. 

According to the 'genre by gender' diagram, women tend to go for romantic, period and suspenseful films whereas men go for crime, action and sci-fi films. Horror, however, is somewhere in between the two appealing to both men and women. Thrillers tend to be crime, action and horror based therefore they attract a more masculine audience.

The Art of the Title Sequence

I looked at The Art of the Title Sequence website in order to gain knowledge of the types of title sequences used for specific films and the effects of them. One that stood out to me a great deal was the title sequence of Max Payne.



This film used the discrete title sequence style and this was edited separately from the rest of the film. I think this worked well as it gives the audience an insight on the type of film they are watching as this title sequences helps to tell the story of the film rather than just the beginning. The sequence begins with the name of the director, followed by the production designer, the actual tittle and then the names of actors and actresses in the film.

The images that the titles are placed of are dark but violent. They are images of explosion, fire and weapons in a black background which connotes violence, war and lack of emotion in this film. The repetitive colour or red is used which connotes danger and particularly makes the writing stand out against the black background. Some long shots are used but the majority are close ups and extreme close ups so the audience feel face to face with the weapons and therefore face to face with the action in the film.

The "Watching" Documentary

 In the lesson we watched a documentary on different types and purposes of film openings. We learnt many different styles and effects film makers attempt to have on their audiences.

Thomas Sutcliffe quotes "Films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment. While there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistible."

This quote explains the idea that grabbing the audience in the first 5 seconds of the film is crucial, it makes them have to stay in the cinema to watch the film and 'a great sharp shock' is needed to do so.

A director named Jean Jacques Beineix explained that there are many risks of 'instant arousal.' A problem caused by instantly grabbing their audience full attention means that they take the risk of having to maintain and keep the arousal of the audience in what follows the title sequence and some film makers find that difficult to think of the next step.

It stated, " a good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn't know nearly enough yet, and at the same time make sure that is doesn't know too little'. This basically means that they want to entice their audience to keep watching and want to find out more about the film, because they have been lead on, not by too much but by enough that will keep them interested and willing to follow.

A 'classic opening' is described as a film beginning with an establishing shot and then a window shot and a character shot, this way the film follows the life of the character and can establish setting instantly. this is in the attempt of leading the audience into the nature of the story, although classic opening suggests long stories/sagas.The title sequence to Se7en was so effective as it wakes everyone up as it is upbeat and briefly tells the story and foreshadows the theme so the audiences are able to expect what type of film it is.

Orson Welles wanted to achieve by his opening a film that goes straight into the film with no titles, however Universal were not happy with this as they still wanted to be recognised.. "A favourite trick of Film Noir' is the idea that the beginning of a movie is then ending where something dramatic happens such as a death which instantly arouses its audience.

Finally, the opening to The Shining creates lots of suspense and the camera remains fixed on one object in a  high helicopter shot and follows the object in a predatory way. this connotes danger, a sense of no belonging and that whoever the character is, they are heading in the wrong way!



'Watching' Documentary on Film Openings

  

In class we watched a documentary about film openings which talked about the points of view of some directors, journalist and title sequence makers regarding what makes a good opening.

Thomas Sutcliffe believes that there is a need to 'seduce' the audience 'into a long term commitment' which menas that a film opening worked best when it hit you in under five minutes.  Like with the film 'Casino', Robert De Niro get in the car and it blows up.

However,director Jean Jacques Beineix didn't belive in 'instant arousal' and thought that if the beginning was so strong it meant that the standard had been set high and would not live up to the public's expectations. 

It was said that "a good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn't know nearly enough yet, and at the same time make sure that it doesn't know too little", which basically means that as a paying audience they have to feel that they get their moneys worth before starting the film. An example of a good opening was Kyle Cooper's title sequence for the 1995 thriller, 'Seven'. It was so successful because it tuned the viewer to the right pitch and it set the public up for the movie ahead so that they knew what kind of film it would be.

The great Orson Welles has been a source of inspiration for most if not all film directors because he would break with tradition and he tried to do that with 'Touch of Evil'. he wanted to plunge the viewer straight into a film with no credits, which was not normal for that time. However Universal Studios  wouldn't have any of it. They won the battle and managed to keep the credits in the opening.

We also saw what is called 'the trick of film noir' which is when a film begins with what seems like an ending.

Another opening which we have studied many time before is 'The Shining'. It is very long and the camera is fixed on a small white car from a birds eye view which gives the feeling that the car is being watched over. The car seems to be driving in to the mountains, so basically into the middle of nowhere. All of these elements, along with the disturbing one note music creates suspense.

Art of the Title Sequence

We were introduced to the website www.artofthetitle.com which is a website about title sequences.   There is a wide range of films and the majority of them have screen grabs of the opening sequence. I chose to analyse 'Panic Room'.

The opening of 'Panic Room' is like one big establishing shot. All the shots are clearly of New York therefore establishing were the action throughout the film will take place. The sequence starts of with the production information and then continues with the actors names which stand out more than the production. This is because the names are bigger and the camera pans and zooms in. Then the title appears and the music becomes more intense. From then onwards the sequence is more upbeat and prepares you for the film to come. 

The Structure of Openings

In class we looked at thriller openings for examples of different kinds of film openings. We learnt that there were four main types of opening sequences, which are:

A narrative opening with the titles running throughout:

e.g, The Stepfather, He loves me he loves me not, The Shining, Panic Room

A discrete title sequence:

e.g, Seven, Arlington road, Enemy of State

Titles over a blank screen, followed by the narrative opening:

e.g, Donnie Darko, Dead Calm

Stylised editing:

e.g, Mezrine, Taking of Pelham 123

Font Analysis: RESEARCH

There are two types of fonts used in title sequences and the font that is used for a film is carefully designed to match the film.

Serif Fonts: Such as Times and Courier- they are often described as traditional fonts and are often much more formal that Sans Serif Fonts.

Sans Serif Fonts: Such as Ariel and Comic Sans- these fonts are often more informal and modern, and are often used in Girlie circumstances- like in Magazines.

SERIF FONT USED IN: Pearl Harbor... ->
The classical font used in pearl harbor is a serif font which has been designed specifically to match this film. The CAPS and tall, lined up font connotes a regimental style- just like the men in the army. The font is mature and appeals towards older audiences- just like the film does. The font looks historical, like its something from the past, Pearl Harbor uses it font to represent its characters and style of movie and audience.

SANS SERIF FONT USED IN: Rocky... ->
The sans serif font used in Rocky also represents the film and type of character Rocky is. The big bold font which is just like the hard image Rocky makes himself out to be, is contrasted with the real Rocky who is a big softie, hence the holding of the girlfriends hand. Sans Serif fonts are often used in girls mags and the font for Rocky is showing the bold interior with his soft exterior.  The text is also packed very tight and almost looks clenched to the sides, it symbolizes a clenched fist trying to breakthrough.

Livetype & Soundtrack SKILLS

What Is Livetype?: LiveType is a software program developed by Apple along with many other editing programs, it enables people to create text which can be animated and designed in a way that completely suits what it is going to be added to or representing. In our case, it will be used on an opening to a thriller, using livetype we can design font specifically for our thriller. We can use many of the programs different effects, styles, animations or we can even keep it plain & simple, using this software will enable us to create the right font for the right atmosphere we want to create.

How Does It Work/ What I Learnt?: includes fonts, textures, objects, templates and effects. It works along side the editing software- Final cut pro, which we will also be using. We learnt how to customize fonts and add effects such as glow, bouncing, scrolling and even animated texts which can be taken from 'LiveFont' which is one of the programs main features.

What is soundtrack?: Soundtrack Pro 3 helps you edit and mix faster than ever, with new multitrack editing tools and easy ways to fix common audio problems. Whether you’re enhancing a single clip or crafting a feature-length soundtrack, you’ll find all the tools you need to create perfect sound for picture.

How Does It Work/What Did I Learn?: Soundtrack also works alongside Final Cut Pro, it has a range of professional features that can be used to create the perfect soundtrack or even audio track. This programme will enable us to create the perfect sound track or even sound effects for our thriller to make it as original as possible. We searched through the files and got a taste of how to use soundtrack. 

Font Analysis

The film poster is one of the most important things to a film as it says a lot about what the film is going to be like. We learnt that there are two different types of fonts:

Serif Fonts 

This type of font includes the traditional Times New Roman and Courier which have the little stroke at the end of every letter to give the text a more formal and serious feel

Sans Serif Fonts

This type of font, meaning 'without' in French, doesn't have the extra stroke on the end which gives the font a more modern and relaxed feel. Some fonts include Arial and Verdana

We looked at example of movie posters that used both Serif and Sans Serif fonts and the analysed what they meant.

We looked at the poster for 'Rocky' which was a very good example of Sans Serif font. The font is round big and bold just like the character of Rocky. this font was chosen for that so that the before you even see that film the font punches out at you that's why in the poster it looks like the font is about to burst out the image. Sans Serif fonts are normally associated with females and the reason why this font was chosen was to show that Rocky is actaully soft on the inside despite his tough exterior. 

Pearl Harbour being the example of Serif fonts, is classical and old fashioned, everything the film is. Instead of have the font as 'Pearl Harbour' they have all the letters in capitals as there is more of an impact, like a newspaper headline. Big, Serious and important. Because this film is of such a historical event it simply wouldn't do it justice and would look understated. The font is a more historical and military type font which appeals to the more sophisticated.

With the introduction to different types of fonts, it has given me more of an insight of which different fonts work for different films and has now given more of a clear idea as to which kind of font to use for my thriller and what it is that I want to portray with it. 

Introduction to Livetype and Sound Track Pro

We were introduced to Livetype because they have a wider range on fonts and you can do more with them than you can on Final Cut Pro,  so we got a short tutorial about how to use it so that those who want to be a bit more creative with their title sequence can. 

We were then introduced to Sound Track Pro an shown things like how to tweak the pitch of the tracks. We listened to the wide range of different tracks available which include sounds like explosions, the gallop of horses and babies crying.

Introduction to editing

Having been introduced to editing clips with Final Cut Pro earlier in the year this the opportunity for my group to finally test the out on our own clip. we also learnt a few more things along the way like:

• how to place the clips on the timeline and crop them
• how to adjust the viewer which allows us to cut the clip which detail down to the millisecond 
• how to add transitions so that the flow from one shot to the other is more interesting
• how to add titles and text and how to move them around over the clip

Introduction to cameras

In the lesson we had a technician come in a give us a basic explanation on the do's and don'ts of how to use a camera for the best possible footage.


We learnt to:

• make sure that we always film in manual focus NOT auto
• how to put the camera on a tripod properly
• not to touch or change and pre-set camera settings
• how to adjust the focus on camera for the best quality picture
• how to put in the battery and memory card and remove it correctly
• that we should always shot five seconds of nothing to that it will be easier for us when we edit
• not to zoom in while filming as it looks very bad 

We also learnt how to shoot successfully from high and low angles, how to pan and tilt on the tripod and off it, how to shoot over the shoulder shots; some of which we introduced that very day into our bag swap that we film.

example of a high angle shot which makes the men look vulnerable

example of a low angle shot which makes the subject look powerful

example of an over the shoulder shot as part of a conversation

The Structure of Thriller Openings

There are three basic structures of the openings of films.

1. A narrative opening with titles running throughout it.

The taking of Pelham 123 uses this style of opening. This style is very popular and clear in showing the action without distracting the audience too much with the titles, it works very well.

2. A discrete sequence.

The film Se7en uses this style of opening, this clip is often editing separately from the rest of the film. This works so well because it foreshadows themes later explored in the film, the use of extreme close ups in this creates suspense and intrigues the audience.

3.  Titles over a blank screen, followed by the narrative opening.

The film Donnie Darko uses this style of opening. I think this is effective as it creates suspense of the audience waiting for something to happen after the titles. Therefore they are left on the edge of their seats anticipating what will happen next.

There is another different style of film opening which uses Stylized Editing. When looking at The taking of Pelham 123 we noticed the title sequence was edited similarly to a music video, whereby its shot to the beat of the music. There are other types of stylized editing, such as split screen intros or cut offs. they are not as common and will grab the audiences attention because they stand out.

Thriller audiences

I searched on the internet a long time and i couldn't find anything to do with thriller audiences and the specific demographic, but using my own experiences and the lesson we had in class to do with this topic i have writtena paragraph about thriller audiences and my own favourite thriller movie which is "Disturbia".

The line between many genres in the film industry are thin and can someimes be blurred and so it is hard to pick out just thriller movies audiences without talking about horror movies because they have many features that are similar. As far as we have learn, thrille rmovies are mainly aimed at thrill seakers and this is usually men but is not limited to them and the ag range is a wide spectrum but is predominantly younger people but that also changes when we go into the sub-genres like psychological thrillers are aimed at a more mature audience. In my personal experience i enjoy thriller movies because they capture my attention quickly and if the movie is good it retains it like "Disturbia" which i love because it keeps me on the edge of my seat.

Font Analysis

We learnt the importance of fonts, there are two types of fonts:

• Serif Fonts - such as Times and Courier that are generally much more traditional fonts. It usually connotes formality and seriousness.
• Sans Serif Fonts - 'Sans' literally means without Serif and these are fotns such as 
  Comic Sans and Ariel. Sans Serif fonts usually connote informality, common, modern more 'friendly' fonts.

In class we analysed two DVD covers, Pearl Harbor and Rocky.

We looked closely at the fonts of the titles, Pearl Harbor is written in Serif font. This is significant as it is a quite classical, nicely spaced out title all written in capital letters. The font connotes that this is a historical movie and the capital letters refleccts the positions of the characters in the film, it expresses regimentation and order. The film is about an event of major importance involving the Us Army/Military, therefore this traditional, serious font it suitable. This film is probably aimed at people who read The Times newspaper such as older, more educated males.

                      When looking at the font used in the Rocky cover we noticed that the font is Sans Serif. The font itself is big, round and bold which reflects Rockys image as a huge, pwoerful man. However, Sans Serif is often recognised as a feminine font, much more curvy and softer. This reflects the storyline of Rocky, as it suggests there is realism behind this hard man, and that he still shares emotion, as the image of him holdin hands signifies love. The letters are tight together, this acts as though the font is almost 'punching' through the page as it appears they dont fit.

Response to the documentary "Watching"

In media tody we watched a documentary called "Watching" which was broadcasted on bbc 2 a long time ago, it is a good documentary for what we are doing now. We answered some questions on them:

Instant arousal means the first five minutes of a movie have to capture the audiences attention quickly and that is hwya Thomas Sutcliffe meant by saying "Films need to seduce their audiences into long term commitment. While there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistable." According to director Jean Jacques Beineix there are risks that come with "instant arousal" one being the fact that the movie may never answer the questions audiences ask themselves. " A good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn't know nearly enough yet, and at the same time make sure that it doesn't know too little" - what that means is the audience should stay intersted enough to watch the whole movie. According to Stanley Kauffmann (critic) the classic opening would be a shot of New York City from the east and then a zoomed image of a building, this works because it gives a sense of setting and allows a story to develop. There are many good reasons whay the opening of Sev7en was a good one;  It wakes the audience up and it feels like the start of the movie so it foreshadows certain events and it inisplicabily tells the story to an extent. Orson Wells the director of "A Touch of Evil" wanted the opening of the movie to be silent and it would tell the story through just images but that was denied by Universal studios because it was too quiet and they were afraid it would scare audiences so they added a nice score and credits which ruined his image. " A favourite trick of Film Noir" is having the end being the beginning of the movie like in "Casino". The opening of The Shining shows the angle from a bird of prey and is a warning they are heading the wrong way.

Live Type and Sound

Live Type and Sound is an additional programme we used when editing our videos. The programme enabled us to add music and soundtrack to our film clip, therefore creating a better effect. We will be using this when shooting our real thriller films so it gave us an insight on what types of sounds it has.
We were given another brief tutorial on how to use this and how to create our own soundtracks.

This video is a similar example to the tutorial we were given and explains the sort of things we were doing when using LiveType.

Introduction to editing: SKILLS

After learning about how to use the cameras we got the chance to put our skills to use. We were given a brief exercise to film a bag swap and then edit it using Final Cut Pro. We were to film a bag swap and Final Cut Pro is a programme on the Mac computers that enables us to edit our films and playback our pieces.
We were given a brief tutorial on how to use the programme.

We learnt how to cut clips and to move them around when editing. Final Cut Pro also enabled us to add headline to our clips, shorten them and playback what we had done. We were able to break clips up and make our film look more professional.

Structure Of Openings

In the thriller genre we are studying in media we saw many clips of openings and we learnt the names of each opening types and there are four main ones that are common in movies especially in thrillers for an effect.

Stylized editing: The Taking of Pelham 123 is very different to other types of openings because it is very fast paced and is intertwined with the music so it coincides with it fluidly too. The music matched what is on screen, fast rap music and the images move fast like trains on the track: a clever technique.

There are many types of opening and they are very common in movies and especially in thriller movies, they are not there by mistake they are there to give a certain amount of information on the movie. ]
Titles over black screen, followed by the narrative openingA discrete title sequenceA narrative opening with the titles running throughout
All three of these are common in movies but the stylized editing is a specific type of editing which is relatively new.

Font Analysis

There are two types of  main fonts used in movies generally, they both mean something different and usually the director chooses them carefully to convey a certain messge before the people even watch the movie so they have an idea. A font can tell many things about a movie and we have been studyin them in class too.

I have chosen to analyse the font of a classic movie "The Godfather". This movie is a classic crime/gangster movie and very well known, but apart from that it's font can tell us a bit about the movie even without us having to know what it's about yet. What the font tells me is that it is very powerful image and what makes it different to other movie titles is that it has an image on it as well as the title which tells us a bit more info. The background is black and the title is written in bold white letters that tells us it is important and also the image is of a hand holding a puppet holder which tells us the movie: that the godfather has got everyone on a string like he is the puppet master and he conrols the whole thing. And also the writing is not spaced out it's tightly put together which could also mean that he has got a tight grip on everyone.

Practice Film 1

It took us a long time to film our practice movie and we put a lot of time and effort into planning by making story boards discussing different scenes and puttin them into effect. Finally when we were done with filming the real big task of editing came and we started editing our movie using Final Cut Pro for video & Live type for music and dialogue. Our final movie turned out the way we wanted it to because of all the planning involved.

A screen grab of how we used the software.

A shot of the end result of our movie.

Types of shots

When learning about how to use the camera we were introduced to many types of shots that help create tension and uneasiness in a scene.

The Extreme Close Up shot in the title sequence of Se7en creates an abnormal suspenseful atmosphere as the image being zoomed on stands out and is abnormally close.


A high angle shot is used to show the vulnerability of a character and is very effective. A low angle shot is used to make someone or something look extremely powerful and superior.

These different camera angles are all helpful in giving us ideas of the types of shots we should use for our thriller. They are suitable and help create suspense and tension.

Introduction to cameras: SKILLS

In a lesson we were given a short tutorial on the new cameras that we would be using for our filming. We were shown the precautions we should take when filming, what to do and what not to do in order to create a successful piece. We began with some basic things such as:

• How to place the camera on the Tripod properly and to remove it safely. As well as adjusting it and rotating.
• How to shoot using the correct focus. Not auto but manuel.
• How to hold the camera correctly, put the memory card in and remove it safely.

We then moved onto things we shouldnt do, such as zooming, we were advised it does not look very professuional and we shoudlt use it. We were also told to use the tripod for the majority of our shots to create stability unless panning or tracking. We also used learnt terminology such as canvas viewer, timeline, razor blade tool and live type sound. We were advised to wait shoot 5 seconds of nothing asit would make it easier to edit at the end. We learnt how to use different types of shots, such as high angle shots, medium close ups, over ther shoulder shtos etc and how to position the camera so the shot would look good. Also the skill to make action enter the frame rather than using the camera to following the actors.

The tutorial really helped me understand how to use the camera properly and the practicing will enable us to gain skills in order to produce a good quality opening to a thriller film.

Title Sequence Analysis

In our group we were given the task of analysing the title sequence to the 1976 film Marathon Man. The main aim of the title sequence was to present key production and cast members as well as creating a suspenseful opening.

The clip opens with the production and distributions companies Paramount logo, which instantly promotes the popular company and lets the audience know who has produced the film. Next 'A John Schiesinger Film' comes up followed by thee names of the actors. at 0.24 seconds some footage is shown of an historical runner then at 1.01 minutes into the title sequence the actual title comes up. This shows that in this case the names of the actors and production company are thought higher than the title.

Following this there is more footage of the film shows from 1.11 - 1.24 until finally a list of the production team are shown until the ends which includes:

• Co starring roles
• Music composed and conducted
• Production designer
• Associate Producer
• Director and Producer

The title sequence concludes after 3.02 minutes.

PRACTICE FILM 1: THE BAG SWAP

This is our final bag swap, we edited it on final cut pro; doing this task enabled us to take into account the 5 a side rule to help us edit. We also found out that we have to make sure each clip clearly links so that the story makes sense.

Live type & Sound

Live type is a program that we are using in conjunction with final cut pro, but the difference is that this program is for music and not for video editing. this video explain the things we learnt in lesson. (detail)

Introduction to Editing

In media class so far we have started to use the cameras and already filmed our first trial movie to get used to the tools we will need in the acctual movie we are going to be making. We are using a program called final cut pro which is a software available on the Mac pcs we use to edit our movies. I have some prior experience of using video editing softwares but i am not familiar with this particular one, but we got a tutorial on how to use this program:

- I learnt how to add clips from my hard drive to the program and then delete, cut, order and move around the clips that we have to make our movie.

- I learnt how to use transitions to make the movie more interesting from scene to scene so that it flows better than the same cuts everytime.

- We also learnt how to add titles to our movies and much more skills that we can use to edit our movies to the way we want them.

This is what Final Cut Pro looks like and this is the program we are using:

Marathon Man Title Sequence

As each group was given a clip to watch our group watch Marathon Man, the 1967 thriller starring Dustin Hoffman, Roy Scheider and Laurence Olivier. We had to look at what point each title came up and annotate it and this is what out sheet looked like:

The title sequence lasted 3:02 minutes and that included the production and distribution companies, the information included in the sequence and the title its self.

0:00: start

0:02: appeared the famous mountain of Paramount

0:19: started the intro to the producers

0:22: introduced the film as a John Schlesinger film

0:24: the film actually starts and we can see old footage of the famous Ethiopian runner

0:46: the actors names appear

1:01: the title 'Marathon Man' slides across the middle of the screen

1:11: the names of the co-stars appear

1:19: the intro to the production team

Introduction to cameras

In our media lesson we had an expert come in to teach us how to use the very expensive cameras that we were going to use for our media thriller movie openings. I learnt all the safety precautions and how to operate the camera:

- how to put the camera on the tripod properly
- how to use the focus (not auto focus but manual)
- not to touch any of the preset settings
- how to adjust the camera for optimum screen

We got to use the camera for our bag swap after we learnt how to use it properly. EXTENSION: we are planning in our groups to use some shots that we saw in the extracts of the thriller movies to create suspense and tension. For example we are going to use low angle shots to show power.

This is an excellent exaple from "Inglorious Bastards" the movie of a low angle shot showing people in power, we want to incorporate these types of shots in our movies.