Animatic

Here is our animatic, please enjoy viewing it.

We didn't have enough time to find Jazz Sound but we will try to get some on it as soon as possible.

Sorry about the quality, but this is the biggest size that we can upload to blogger.

More comic book style fonts.

We have decided to have the titles for our opening sequence in a comic book style font.
We are also going to have the date shown in a comic book font in the beginning of our opening sequence like a comic book.
Here are some photos of cartoon fonts and styles.

Research on editing styles.

Cartoon effect from the website using line art and posterize.

For our opening sequence we want to have a comic book kind of look in some parts of our scenes when we are introducing the different characters.
We went on the internet and found a website explaining how to apply a cartoon effect on final cut.

The website is: http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/creating_cartoon_douglas.html

The only problem with this website however is that the person had used final cut pro which we do not have and therefore didn't have one of the effects (line art) that he had used in the tutorial.
So our test footage does not include line art but we looked and added other effects which turned out to give a black and white cartoon effect.

Our Test Footage:

Thursdays lesson.

Today our animatic deadline is due. Myself and Jon have been taking photos of our storyboard using the mac camera and now we are working on our animatic using final cut.
Soon we will be using garageband so we have a soundtrack for our animatic.
The animatic has to be about a minute long while our final opening sequence has to be two mintues.

 

Editing our Animatic

Wednesday's lesson.

On Wednesdays lesson we worked on our storyboards so we could start on our animatic which is due today (Thursday). We also did some research based on the feedback we got. We researched the 1920s and 1930s which our sequence is set in that time.
Jon worked on our storyboard while myself and Rob did some 1930s comic book research.

1930s clothing research.

We have set our crime caper opening sequence in the 1930s so we need to research the type of clothing that was worn in this era so our costumes for this sequence look genuine.

The great gatsby was a book written by Scott Fitzgerald and was set during the jazz age. The book was made into a film and some of the pictures from our research are from the film with the actors dressed in typical jazz age (1920s-30s) costumes. The fashionable haircut for the women was to have it short and crimped (see pictures). The trench coat was also very common for this era.

Research 1930s Comic Books

In response to our feedback we have researched comic books of the 1930s in order to gives us an insight into the life and culture of this era of time. Also to give us a look onto how we can edit our sequence to look like a 1930s sequence.

We have researched into various comic books like the Beano which started in 1938, we also looked at American comic books like Captain America and Dick Tracy.
We want to add some comic book affects to our opening sequence like the action signs such as POW and BANG.

Betty Boop started in the mid-thirties and Betty's style is similar to the 1930s era.

Jordan, Jon and Rob :)

Feedback from our film pitch

We got some constructive criticism from our pitch that we did on monday.
Overall we were told it was a good idea and that the cartoon theme we are going to do throughout the sequence was a clever idea.
Our audience of the pitch said that it will draw a wide age range of viewers because of the cartoon and real action theme.
We were also told that we were suggested to look into 1930 comic books to get an even better insight into our 1930s era and also what the cartoon sketches look like.

22nd January

Today we managed to explore the idea of adding effects to the video using Final Cut Express.

We also finished our mood board!

Jonathon is working on the analysis. It should be ready and done for Monday's Pitch!

The musical instruments represent the Jazz Age and this is the kind of sound we are going to have for our opening sequence.
The hat represents the style of costume we are looking at and for our film sequence as it is set in the 1930s.
The briefcase represents the stereotypical crime caper prop.
The alley represents the location we are wanting for our opening film sequence.

She's All That opening sequence analysis (Rom Com)

The credits in this sequence merge from paint that the main character squirts onto some newspaper. The paint can connect to what happens to the main charcter during the film(she has a makeover). The painting shows that this character is very artistic and by what she is painting shows she is different and sort of an out cast from her 'normal' stereotypical peers. This is very conventional of a romantic comedy, because the out cast is always the main character and is then transformed into a 'popular' person and also falls in love with a person who is completely opposite from them in the 'social school scale' and usually a jock. This is exactly what happens in this film and it can be seen by the opening sequence. The main character's appearence for examle her glasses shows the stereotypical out cast character.
In the opening sequence the location is shown and it's a high school which is again typical of a teenage romantic comedy, because this is where most teenagers spend most of their time. The other typical stereotypical characters are also shown in this opening sequence such as the 'bitch' and the popular jock chacter.
The music in this sequence is very typical for a rom com too. It's very up beat and appeals to most teenagers tastes.
Finally during the whole opening sequence each character/stereotype are introduced subtly like in conversation so the viewrs are aware of the socal stereotypes.
:-)

Opening Sequence Analysis of the Italian Job

For my opening sequence I analysed the title sequence of the Italian Job (2003 version).

http://tvshack.net/movies/The_Italian_Job__2003_/

Some details about the film:
The film was directed by - F. Gary Gray
Ensemble Cast of - Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, Seth Green, Jason Statha, Mos Def, Franky Go and Donald Sutherland.
Brief Narrative Description: This film is about an organised crime gang who plan and implement stealing millions of dollars worth of gold from the Italian mafia. The start of the film focuses mainly on this. Then a scene in the Alps turns the whole storyline upside down. During the Alps one of the organised crime gang turns out to be very selfish and have his own agenda. He takes the gold from the other members by force, using his own gang, and then kills the member who cracked into the safe. This leaves the other members extremely angry so, teamed up with the safe crackers daughter, plan to get even at the man who stole their money.

Description fo title sequence: This title sequence relies heavily on editing and camerawork to produce certain effects. The sequence starts off with a small horizontal gold line across the screen. This expands to fill half of the screen with an extreme long shot of Venice. The start of some percussional track is heard and overlays the whole sequence. The scene then cuts to a point of view shot of someone on a boat which is moving slowly through Venice. This appears in a small window of the screen. We then see different bars move across the screen revealing a map. This cuts to a shot of a boat with an over laid shot of the map. This technique of using bars and small windows to display images of a map and Venice continues throughout the opening sequence.

Analysis of title sequence: This sequence gives many references to the beginning of the narrative. The map that we see throughout the sequence seems to have various stickers and string added to it. At a glance the audience can't quite understand what the stickers say but they can focus on the times. This reveals to the audience that a crime is being very precisely planned. But although the title sequence seems to give away the whole narratve, it actually gives away a very small part of it, because this sub-narrative leads onto a much bigger and complex plot.

The camerawork in this scene is very clever in the way that it uses many different shots. During the title sequence we see midshots of travelling down the rivers of Venice, close-ups of the plan and close to midshots of Mark Wahlberg's Silhouette. But the camera also doesn't stay still. Every shot has a panning motion that moves across the map, to the side of Venice and up to reveal the silhouette of Mark Wahlberg. The shots of the map vary a lot as they show different angles of the map, with each revealing a little more about the sub-narrative.

The editing of this scene really helps to add subtleties to the camerawork. It does this by using small windows, horizontal bars and vertical bars. This makes the text less readable on the map but still allow the times to be clearly shown. The bars are also used as masks to only show the actual footage through the bar, almost like the audience are looking through a whole in the wall at the map. The pace of the editing changes depending on the speed of the percussional sound track. This combined with the panning and swirling of the shots of the map make it seem like the audience ar getting a sneak peak of the plan that its going into action. The titles themselves are positioned in normally dead areas of the scene or next to the bars/windows in the scene. This means that they aren't quite as noticeable as if they were covering the footage, which adds to the sense that not everything is going to be as it meets the eye.

While on the boat there is a relaxed atmosphere because the music is slower and quieter than on other parts of the scene. But there is also an anxious atmosphere due to the fact that the boat is moving along the rivers of venice by the unpopular channels through the buildings and staying in the shade, which isn't the normal path that people would take.

The staging of Mark Wahlberg is also very clever because the scene mainly has him in silhouette form making it harder for the user to identify it is him to start with. This makes us think he is a criminal by the way that he tries to keep himself disguised. But when he emerges from the gloomy shadows of the room by moving over to look at the final part of the map which is in a lighter area. We see a pleased look on his face as he looks at what he has accomplished. This then makes the audience identify with him more.

The percussional piece of sound that overlays the whole scene plays an important role. While the camera is showing the boat ride, the music has a more sinister and slower atmosphere to it, which tells the audience that something is going to happen and the characters are taking a risk because the camera is from the point of view of one of the characters. Then while we see Mark Wahlberg and the map the music speeds up creating a more tense atmosphere with elements that the character is trying to get this done quickly but also make sure that he hasn't missed anything.

So in conclusion, this sequence uses three micro elements of sound, editing and camerawork to portray hints and clues of the narrative.

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Jon

Rob's Opening Sequence Analysis

Opening Sequence of Quantum of Solace
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Mise-en-scene – At the start of the scene the main character upholsters his handgun from his pocket and points it ready to shoot. A gun used so quickly in the opening sequence is a figure of power and also seriousness. He fires a bullet from the pistol in which then the bullet is slowed down to watch its journey. This can signal to the audience more on the serious side of this movie, throughout the sequence the bullet and pistol is used.
Also, women are used to imply a lustful loving area within the movie.

Sound – The soundtrack to the opening sequence is called ‘another way to die’ the lyrics can be implied for reasoning within the movie but also the music itself has a catchy baseline which sounds very cool but also again, serious.

Camerawork – Extreme Close Up is used at the start, Long Shots, Birdseye, Mid shots, Extreme Long Shots, Tilts, zooms etc. These are all used to great effect.

Editing – Huge use of editing, slow motion used on the bullet (at beginning and end), on the shadows of people falling. Flames coming from the bullet, the backgrounds look all done on VFX (special effects)

Our Finished Ident Logo

Here is our final logo. It has been created in photoshop and then animated in final cut express. Rob edited the sound to make it fade in and out in garageband.

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Jordan, Rob, Jon