Research into Order of Credits

I have been looking into opening title sequences to see the formation of how the credits are placed within the screen and the way they appear in which order. It was quite interesting to see how different films have different lengths and have different orders to what name they want to start and end with. I have researched the opening credit scenes to three films which include Drive, The Usual Suspects and Law Abiding Citizen.
Drive:

What I noticed in Drive's opening title sequence was that it had a continuous soundtrack that played throughout. Every credit/name would appear after each beat which worked very well and the writing was bright pink which contrasted to the dark background. I really like this opening and I think it has a nice structure to it.

It started with the big stars names, then continued with the names of the executive producers, producers and music etc. and ended with the directors name. Here is the order of it:

Ryan Gosling (then shows a MCU of him and the camera focuses on him throughout)
Drive
Carey Mulligan
Bryan Cranston
Christina Hendrick
Ron Perlman
with Oscar Isaac
and Albert Brooks
Casting By Mindy Marin C.S.A
Costume Designer Erin Benach
Music By Cliff Martinez
Production Designer Beth Mickle
Edited By Mat Newman
Direction of Photography Newton Thomas Sigel A.S.C
Executive Producers Bill Lischak, Linda McDonough, Peter Schessel
Executive Producers David Lancaster, Gary Michael Walters, Jeffrey Scott
Produced By Marc Platt, Adam Siegel, John Palermo
Produced By Gigi Pritzker, Michel Litvak
Based on the Book by James Sallis
Screenplay By Hossein Amini
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

The Usual Suspects:

This sequence also had a continuous soundtrack which was extremely relaxing. It also had a dark background and the credits were all in bright white.

This sequence had many names. It started with the production and studio company names and then continued with the actors names, leading to all the other main jobs/roles credits as well, and also ended with the director. I personally think it was too overcrowded with names and was quite boring.

Polygram Films Entertainment and  Spelling Films International Present
A Blue Parrot/Bad Hat Harry Production
Bryan Singer's Film
The Usual Suspects
Stephen Baldwin
Gabriel Byrne
Chazz Palminteri
Kevin Pollak
Pete Postlethwaite
Kevin Spacey
Also Starring Suzi Amis
Giancarlo Esposito
Benicio Del Toro
Dan Hedaya
Casting By Francine Maisler, C.S.A
Music By John Ottman
Costume Designer Louise Mingenback
Production Designed By Howard Cummings
Edited By John Ottman
Director of Photography Newton Thomas Segal
Co-Producer Kenneth Kokin
Executive Producers Robert Jones, Hans Brockmann, Francois Duplat, Art Horan
Writtem By Christopher McQuarrie
Produced By Bryan Singer, Michael McDonell
Directed By Bryan Singer

Law Abiding Citizen:

I am looking at Law Abiding Citizen as it is relatively similar to our film and has the same similarities. This sequence is very different to the others as it only shows the studio and distributer names which I think works with this particular film as it builds tension. In this sequence the only music is the companies music and only lasts a few seconds each time.

Considering this film has quite a few of big names including Gerad Buttler, Jamie Foxx and Colm J. Meaney it is surprising that they haven't included any names. I do think that the short opening sequence does work well with the rest of the film.

Overture Films
The Film Department
Overture Films and The Film Department Present
A Warp Film Production In Association with Evil Twins

First Editing Session

We are using Final Cut Pro to edit our thriller and today was my first editing session with my group as I had missed our very first one.

I really enjoyed doing it and seeing what shots we had got. My group had already named and labelled each shot which made it clear and quicker when editing. I had also noticed some shots hadn't worked so they had been placed in a separate area as the ones we most likely wouldn't use. We all took turns editing and we also started to discuss other details like how and when we are going to create are muffled backing sounds.

We also learned that we don't have to use every shot, meaning we should really try and use the shots that work rather than trying to put in every single different shot as we now realise that it will look silly and won't work.

How the Shoot Day went:

Thriller - write up of shoot day
So my group and I had our thriller shoot and I can say that I thought it was a huge success. Here is my account of the day and what I thought went well and what could have been improved.

The day before the shoot my group and I chatted about all of our props and finalised every detail. When I woke on the morning of the shoot day, I felt eager to start as well as being excited and I had a slight feeling of nervousness. I knew that we had nearly all the props but still needed to finish the set and I realized that this may of effected our start time. I think our group was well prepared and quite organised for the shoot. We had to do a few things though before we could start shooting. For example, we had to hang the pictures on the wall, make the bed and finalize the room for the shoot. I think our set looked great and was pretty much exactly what we wanted. I think it worked well and I that we did get our American theme across. We also ended up not creating a bathroom as we realised we could use a simple technique of lighting and sound effects to create the same conception of the 'motel bathroom'. We wanted to all share responsibility and try and do as many different roles as possible, so we took turns in directing, assisting and capturing photos and videos of our shoot throughout the day. I personally think I directed really well as I listened to Luke's advice and often led my group through what shots we wanted to use.

It took a while to start as we had to get the lighting right, as we wanted to make sure the lights outside the window were realistic but once we sorted that we were able to start. We also noticed that it was quite a short length so we had to work around that and figured we could make it longer when we come to edit it. I think one of the most successful part of our shoot was the lighting. We managed to create a great atmosphere of our set and it particularly worked well when the police lights flooded the room and our characters body frame was outlined and it looked very cool.

I feel that we should have been more prepared for our actor. Up until the morning of the shoot my group and I thought we were having a different actor to the one we ended up having. Luckily he was my brother so before we came into school I managed to pick his clothing that we wanted him to wear.

Another problem we faced was that we slightly had different views towards how our character was feeling in relation to the action. So I feel that we all should have been more organised on that front so that we would have been able to direct our actor more clearly.

I really loved all aspects of the shoot but one in particular I enjoyed was shooting the wide shot at the beginning as I felt like all of our hard work was being put in place and it was a good feeling to see it finally come together and look professional. I think the close-ups of our actors face with the lights shining on his face is what I'm looking forward to and also the shot were we put our camera on a crane and had it directly looking at our actor, I think that will come out great.

I think we did end up working ok together, although I do feel that some members did not make as much effort in the day as others. I have learnt that it is good to take on responsibility's and to try and be as organised as possible in order for a shoot to be successful. Overall I really enjoyed filming throughout the day and thought it was a great experience.

Changes to shooting schedule

Overall our shoot went well, but my team and I soon realised that our shooting schedule wasn't actually accurate as we had misinterpreted timings.

For example we had predicted that it would have taken 2 hours to set up our set but it turned out to take 3 hours this was due to finalising props on the set and also driving to collect items on the day, which caused the timings to become longer. We also hadn't realised until the day before that we weren't actually shooting in a real bathroom but would just be adding sound effects when coming to edit our sequence. This also caused us to spend more time within the motel rather than the bathroom scene and having to adjust the schedule.

We also didn't realise that we had to run through the sequence a couple of times in a wide shot - this also added time and we also spent a long time making sure the lighting was perfect and that our assistants knew when to turn them off/on.

Second Shooting Schedule

Shooting Schedule

8:30am meet outside studio

8:30am-11:30am: set up final preparations for set, including prep actor

11:40am-12:30pm shoot wide shots three to four times- get a feel for the shoot

12:30pm-1:00pm lunch

1:00pm-1:35pm shoot scene in 'bathroom'

1:40pm- 3:45pm shoot whole sequence but using many different shots including ECU, CU, MCU

3:45pm-4:15pm set up crane with team and shoot, shot 1

4:15-5:30pm pack up equipment, sort out props, return items and overall tidy up

5:30pm finish

 

Narrative Action

• ECU of a man's face as he is lying on a bed in a motel room. There are the muffled sounds of a television and people in the rooms on either side of him. We see him being slightly agitated but bored like he is waiting for someone or something to happen.
• He sits up and takes his hat of and places it on his bed whilst then putting his hand through his hair. He then slowly walks to a door, opens it which is the bathroom and washes his face and stares and himself.
• He then walks back into the motel room, shuts the door and dry's his face with a face towel.
• In the motel room, he walks towards the window and turns to face outwards with one hand on the right side of the curtains, he looks out almost as if he is waiting for something and then turns to his right and walks towards the television.
• Once by the TV, he bends down and picks up a bottle of whiskey and a class. He places the glass on the TV and then unscrews the bottle and pours himself a drink.
• He drinks the drink quickly and as he does red and blue lights start to flash with police sirens approaching. He turns and pours himself another drink and drinks it and then places the glass onto the bible.
• He then bristly goes towards the bed side table were he gathers up his money and plane tickets and then reaches down to get his handgun.
• He then opens the curtains wide and sits directly in front of the window on the bed.
• He raises the gun to his head and the light switches from flashing police lights to a bright white light to signify a spotlight shinning in on him and his room.  

Storyboard 1

Here is our storyboard for our shoot. We may need to do another one if we end up tweaking a few of the shots. The reason why we need a story board is so it gives us a bit of structure when coming to film our thriller so we will be more prepared and it can help us if we need it.

 

 

 

 

Who's Getting What

For our shoot we need lots of items to complete our set. Between our group we have managed to list the items that we are able to get/ already have and the things that the school are able to provide.

Motel Room:      

• Brown bible - Dayo
• Bedside lamp - Dayo
• Wooden bedside table - Sarah
• Square TV- School
• Single bed (with simple patterned bedding) - School
• Plastic flowers - School
• Cheap art (including canvases & framed work) - Sarah/School
• Wooden chest of drawers - School
• Packets of food - American brand (e.g. Doritos) - Katie/Dayo/Sarah
• Out dated furniture (including a chair) - School
• Black handgun - School
• Window - Handmade
• Black/ or brown duffel bad - Sarah
• US newspapers - Katie
• Old carpet (preferably maroon) - School
• Curtains (navy/brown) - School
• Wallpaper (simple pattern including either stripes/flower print etc.) - School
• Glass for alcohol - Katie
• Bottle of whiskey/scotch - Katie
• Two doors (white and brown) - School/Handmade

Bathroom:

• Rectangular mirror - School
• Shower curtains (plain e.g. clear / white) - School
• White basin (including taps) - School
• White toilet -School
• Grey hand towel - Katie
• Hand towel holder - School