Practice Production Title

                  

Practice Production Titles

                    

Opening titles Analysed

Malevolent Phantom

Opening Titles Analysis

To help us in designing our own opening titles we analysed some horror films opening titles to get an idea of what works and what will look good for our production. The first film we looked at was cabin in the woods, they used red titles that connotes blood and danger, this is an interesting look for a film as most of the time the titles are in white or black. The red contrasts the plain, simple colours usually used in films and leads the audience to believe the film will have a lot of blood and death in it. They are placed off center which  is more aesthetically pleasing than them just being placed in the middle, this coincides with the rule of thirds which suggests that each image should be divided up into nine equal sections (two evenly spaced horizontal lines, two evenly spaced vertical lines) and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines on their intersections. This technique is useful as its claimed that placing an object with these points creates more tension and interest in whats on screen that simply placing the subject in the centre of the screen. Therefore I would probably copy this design pattern and also have my titles placed on these 'lines' or their intersections to make my titles more interesting and appealing. 

Another set of opening titles this time uses white text which I think looks more professional and still holds an aspect of horror about it. Red text can look cheap and unprofessional so I think we will use white text instead, therefore we can have a black or red background and the colours wont be contradicting and the white will stand out. This set of opening titles also uses the rule of thirds with the titles being placed in the low corners of shots and off centre, this reinforces how much better titles look if placed off centre and so I think it would be a good idea to copy this. The titles are quite small so not to drag too much attention away from the shot which I think is key but they are large enough and of a bright enough colour and clear enough font that they stand out and can be noticed by the audience. They are aesthetically pleasing to look at too as they glide over one another with a subtle enough movement that it doesn't steal the scene away from the focus of the shot but stands out enough to be noticed, also the font is clear to read so not to confuse the audience.

Out of all these features I think it is a good idea to have white text as red looks unprofessional and black would be too dark to work on any shots, especially horror as the scenes are likely to have low key lighting so the text wont stand out. Also coinciding with the rule of thirds and placing the titles off center is a good idea as it makes them look better and have a more interesting look for our film, as well as that having a large enough font is key so the titles can be read but not too small as you don't want them to overshadow whats going on in the scene. Another important factor is a clear font, nothing too swirly or jagged - simple but unique font to coincide with the appropriate colour, size and placement.

Media Checklist - Megan Young

	Done?	Comment?
RESEARCH
Genre Research and mind-maps (3 posts)	Done	Good depth
Uploaded YouTube videos of openings – analysed (10 openings)	Done	A lot of good key terminology and depth in your analysis
Opening titles analysed in detail – font researched		Had good detail try to include more key terminology
Uploaded YouTube videos of similar genre openings analysed in detail (3 posts)	Done	Good detail and explanation on how it’s similar to your film.
Costume and location research – google earth and pictures you’ve taken. (At least 2 posts)	Done	Good detail
Actors and props photos and interviews	Done	This was clear and well done
Soundtrack research (non-copyright music)	Done
Audience Research and Profiling (typical audience member and similar films)	Done
Institution research (Paramount etc)	Done
Certificate research	Done
PLANNING	Done
Own film idea brainstorm	Done
Own film treatment	Done
Relevant Online Tutorials (on filming and editing) and Comments (At least 2 posts)	Done
Documenting of influences on production	Done
Shot lists	Done	Good key terminology
Consideration of representation in your film and stereotyping – use theory from G325.	Done
Questionnaire (and feedback) Get some feedback on your initial ideas!	Done	This had good detail and clear questions and analysis of them
Diary of filming/editing etc with photos and screen grabs (At least 3 posts)	Done
Mood board	Done	You had good analysis to your mood board including a lot of depth in explanation to why each picture is on your mood board.
Script	Yes	You showed a clear script however to improve your script you could make the characters who are talking more clear instead of the first letter of their name or put a key so a reader has a clear understanding of all the content to your script.
Practice titles created and uploaded
Storyboard – animatic.
Time Management Schedule – what you did& when, problems you encountered& solved
Codes and Conventions featured in your Opening Two Minutes
Ensure that all posts have a title, detailed comments and relevant pictures which are commented on.

Planning of Costume and Props Planning

Costume and props

In our film our characters are wearing different clothing to show the importance of a specific character called ‘Lucy’ played by our talented actress Chloe Hicks. Chloe was wearing black jeans, black shoes, and a vibrant coloured button coat. The coat was a black and pink checked coat, we chose this so it would stand out from the other character and show the audience that she is the main character and focus of the scene. The other character 'Amelia' was wearing plain and simple clothing, to show she was less important than ‘Lucy’. 

The main and only prop that was used was the girl’s phone, in which the mother calls to tell her to hurry home. This then panics ‘Lucy’ and has no choice but to venture through the woods. The phone adds tension to the scene as ‘Lucy’ is forced to go into the woods. 'Lucy' is looking around deciding which way to go feeling cold and worried a call comes through to break the tension. This amerces the audience as they feel like they are 'Lucy' and therefore empathise with her as she has to take the dreaded walk through the woods.

Malevolent Phantom - Script

Malevolent Phantom

Script

[road noise, cars passing by - contradicted by silence of location the characters are now in, only the sound of tweeting birds and their feet walking]

L: Yeah so that was really good fun wasn't it

R: [overlapping] Yeah that was really good

L: Yeah so we're doing cinema tomorrow night aren't we

A: [overlapping] Yeah

L: Yeah right, see you then,then

[hugging goodbye]

R: Bye

A: Bye

L: Right See you

[sound of footsteps walking away - distant sound of traffic and civilisation]

L: [heavy breathing as music tempo rises, cut off by sound of phone ringing]

Oh hi mum 

[pause to hear response from caller]

Oh what you want me home now?! uuh [looking around, unsure what to do and annoyed by the information given to them] Okay [looks around, chooses woodlands path instead of road] Right well I'll be home in a minute, Okay [angered/anxious tone in her voice] See you

[sound of footsteps as Lucy walks away, sound of piece of paper hitting the ground]

L: uuh 

[sound of creatures footsteps as he turns to walk and follow Lucy]
L: [heavy breathing as MV appears to be following her]
[footsteps, rustling of leaves, as MV gets closer footsteps increase in pace until she's running at full pace, pauses for breath as she believes she has out run him]
L: [loud scream as MV grabs her]

This is a rough outline of what our script will be, as production continues we may choose to add or remove certain bits of dialogue or add more sound effects depending on whether we feel it creates enough suspense and is scary enough.

Mood Board

Mood Board

Here we complied a collection of images to do with our opening two minutes, the main image is of a woodlands - our setting, looking dark and mysterious and conforming to horror stereotypes. There's two separate images of a man lurking in the woods creating suspicion and tension as we don't know who he is - this represents our malevolent phantom. He is mysterious and creepy, hiding in the back of shots and stalking our innocent main character - Lucy.

Our main character will wear a colourful coat to connote interest and show the main character to be more vibrant than the other characters who are of less importance. The malevolent phantom on the other hand will wear a big, dark, black coat to hide under and to almost blend into the background of the woods so he is not as noticeable. He could also possibly be wearing a balaclava to cover his face and hide his identity even further.

A long shot of a person in the woods, all alone shows that our character will end up alone in the woods, surrounded by only darkness and lurking somewhere is the malevolent phantom - this builds suspense and links to the other picture 'suspense'. One of the main parts of horror we hope to achieve is suspense, making the audience scarred, feeling like this is actually happening to them.

A low battery picture shows that as Lucy's phone dies she is left alone and isolated in the woods (a key factor of horror) with no way of contacting people and is therefore truly alone in the woods. This makes the audience nervous and scared for her as they worry whether she will be killed by the malevolent phantom.