Wednesday, 29 January 2014

Research - Title Timeline

I have completed Title Timelines for 4 different influential films. This will hopefully give me a better idea of when my titles should appear, and how many I should have.

It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010)


It's Kind of a Funny Story had quite a minimalistic approach to opening titles - simply the logos, film title and a setting. I think this was to keep the audience concentrating more on the storyline and the scene unfolding, than the titles - this way, we will get a better idea of the characters involved.

Adventureland (2009)


The opening titles in Adventureland were much more developed than It's Kind of a Funny Story. This was achieved by the use of a montage of settings in the background while showing the titles. This gave us a variety of places that the film is set in, while also delivering much more information on the creation of the film - including a number of post production credits (such as "Edited by Anne McCabe").

Silver Linings Playbook (2012)


Silver Linings Playbook has used a very strange way to have opening titles... In the fact that it has none! It simply has a production logo, then a setting while the main character performs a monologue. It is very useful because it keeps you focussing on the monologue and the character, rather than the titles. However, it doesn't give as much credit to the main people involved in the creation of the film. This is a very interesting film opening - especially for me, because I don't particularly like opening titles too much (unless they are pretty amazing).

She's Out of my League (2010)


She's Out of my League also has a strange way to show their opening titles. They simply have the production logos, then a monologue from the main character (similar to the opening of Silver Linings Playbook) and a comical scene follows. Then the camera tilts up to follow an airplane overhead, where the camera stops and the (fairly simple) titles appear in front of the clouds. This is also quite minimalistic, like a lot of the influential films I have used.

Salesman Blues (2014)

In my film I have taken a mix of these openings to create my own. I will have the production logos, while the sound of the film start to play. Then I will have a fairly comical scene, that will be followed by a montage of scenes. This montage will have music being played throughout, then the titles being shown on top. Therefore I am using the montage technique used by Adventureland, while also having a comical scene like She's Out of my League, and keeping the titles quite simple and minimalistic like It's Only a Story. I'll also only have one production logo. like Silver Linings Playbook.

Wednesday, 8 January 2014

Progress Update - Christmas 2013

Over the Christmas break, I (as well as the people helping me) haven't managed to put much time towards completing this project. This is due to family coming down for Christmas/New Year, as well as the near constant rain that we have experienced. However we did managed to film for one or two days, but only part of the montage was shot.

During the next few weeks I will get in contact with the people helping me and we will film the last three scenes that need to be filmed. These scenes are: the opening scene (at the front door), the scene in the bedroom (with Mark and Carol) and the final scene in the converted garage. Almost everything is ready for these scenes, we just need to find the time to go out and film them.

After these last few parts have been filmed, I will just need to record the soundtrack and edit it all together, then the task will be complete!

I expect the task will be finished by the beginning of February. However I am participating in Drama School auditions (starting 22nd January) so this date may be pushed back a little. But I am trying my hardest to not let that happen - I am currently in the middle of learning my audition pieces. This all means that after my first audition, I will be working solely on this project, due to the fact that I will already know my audition pieces.