THE FINAL SEQUENCE

 The Final Sequence.

Our final product:

CCR TASK 4: HOW DID YOU INTEGRATE TECHNOLOGIES - SOFTWARE, HARDWARE AND ONLINE - IN THIS PROJECT?

 CCR Task 4: Technologies.

To answer the question 'How did you integrate technologies - software, hardware and online - in this project?' for my CCR task 4 project, I created a website using Wix exploring my answer.

LINK TO THE WEBSITE

CCR TASK 3: HOW DID YOUR PRODUCTION SKILLS DEVELOP THROUGHOUT THIS PROJECT?

CCR Task 3: Skill Development.  

I put together a presentation presenting the majority of the process of completing the opening sequence chronologically in order to explore how my skills have developed over time and answer the question 'How did your production skills develop throughout this project?'.

CCR TASK 2: HOW DOES YOUR PRODUCT ENGAGE WITH AUDIENCES AND HOW WOULD IT BE DISTRIBUTED AS A REAL MEDIA TEXT?

 CCR Task 2: Product Engagement + Poster.

I created a poster and blog post in order to answer the question 'How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?'.

In order to create a successful media product, we had to make our opening sequence with a certain target audience in mind; this helped us decide certain aspects of our film to engage them. For us, this was primarily a male audience within the age range of 21-25, using a 15 BBFC age rating.

We had previously chosen this through comparing our product to similar media products and research into BBFC age ratings (please refer to my previous blog posts)

TARGET AUDIENCES

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AGE RATINGS

I have analysed 6 moments in our sequence to explore the choices we made (both for our target audience and one for that of a general one)

ANALYSIS

One of the very first shots hooks the audience as the setting/location is rather odd when looked at upon close inspection; it is clearly quite isolated with woodlands that can be seen through the window. The strange combination of glassware, wood and dolls heads props intrigues the audience as it encourages them to question what is going on and what will happen. Additionally, the man cannot be seen (apart from his hands), which is a key convention of the psychological crime thriller genre where the villain is concealed (similar to Hannibal Lecter The Silence of the Lambs)

Another moment that engages the audience is the shot where the berry is precisely sliced with a scalpel. The manner in which this is done is extremely intricate and hints at the possible theme of gore (due to the fleshy, red nature of the berry) which is a key convention of the psychological crime thriller genre, attracting our target audience, and hints at the man's mental illness due to how obsessive he is being with the process of his preparation of the berries.

Next, a subtle enigma code (Roland Barthes)/cliff hanger is created; the man is shown through a pan through blinds, covering key aspects of his body such as his eyes. This hints at the narrative and how detectives struggle to investigate him, and also summons curiosity on behalf of the audience as little is revealed in regard to the man, thus engaging them as it encourages them to watch more.

Then, another, but major enigma code is created before the man opens the door. The lack of focus and ambiguity of the door makes the audience question as to what is behind the door, thus engaging them to watch more.

The only point in which a narrative point in the sequence could be considered as targeting our core target audience (men from 21-25), would be during the gory aspects of the piece, which was a key narrative feature as it is the most significant death throughout the whole film. Our target audience was aimed at because a woman is shown in a weaker power position and is of lower status (tied up, choked and in a chair in comparison to the man who is standing over her and holding her head).

This uses Jay Blumler's and Elihu Katz's 'Uses and Gratifications' theory which references media products needing to offer diversion/escapism/entertainment, personal identity, personal relationships/social interaction and surveillance/education to reach and engage an audience. 

The moment could be considered as a form of escapism as gore is not a thing of regular occurrence in the average day-to-day life, and is there for entertainment. Most of the other aspects, however, aren't really aspects of our sequence due to the extremity of the situation (not much can be related to for the most part).

The last shot of our sequence is of the man's face with half of it concealed in shadow; our casting played into the convention of older, male killers within the crime thriller genre, and also his glasses are rather stereotypical for that of a serial killer. The overall shot is rather menacing and threatening, creating tension and leaving the opening on a cliff hanger as the image is left lingering in the audience's mind before it cuts to black, engaging the audience to continue to watch the film. On a metaphorical level, we were playing into the theme of concealment and danger through the use of shadows, which once again hints at the narrative and encourages the audience to continue watching.

In a more general sense, our age group for the target audience (21-25) was aimed at through the Thriller genre as younger audiences tend to enjoy more adrenaline inducing films.

CONCLUSION 

I personally believe that we were as successful as we could have been in engaging our target young, male audience without creating something overly offensive; this was because of the power dynamics between the man and the woman, which was something we didn't want to make too stereotypical due to our modern day audience/society. The only way in which I feel it could have been taken one step further would be perhaps through casting an extremely younger woman to further emphasise the power difference but we wanted to keep a key plot in our narrative in which she is his sister. However, I do believe that we succeeded in engaging an audience in a holistic sense through our several enigma codes and portrayals of themes.

THE POSTER

I put together a poster by drawing on Procreate on my iPad in order to visualise possible marketing campaigns (may have to click on image for clearer resolution):

Within the poster, I included and hinted to moments within our film that would engage our audience (may have to click on image for clearer resolution):

I also focused on the style/theme, age certification, release date and key conventions to do this (may have to click on image for clearer resolution):

THE STUDIO 

I chose to use 'Strong Heart Productions' as the studio that would most likely distribute our film.

Based in New York (USA) and opened up by Jonathan Demme on the 13th of November, 1989, the studio have only produced one film, that being The Silence of the Lambs - though they have also released an episode ('Memorable Movie Characters') on the documentary '20 to 1'. I found this extremely appropriate for our film as the studio is independent and small, increasing the likelihood that they would fund our piece. Additionally, given the psychological crime thriller genre of their only film, this would mean that our film would match their usual target audience as ours is similar, increasing profit.

POSSIBLE MARKETING CAMPAIGN

CCR TASK 1: HOW DOES YOUR PRODUCT USE OR CHALLENGE CONVENTIONS AND HOW DOES IT REPRESENT SOCIAL GROUPS OR ISSUES?

 CCR Task 1: Genre Conventions + Social Groups.

I put together a video explaining the genre conventions we used in our opening title sequence for our specific genre, comparing it to similar media products, as well as discussing how we presented certain social groups in order to answer the question 'How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?':

EDITING THE SEQUENCE: PART 2

Editing the Sequence: Part 2. 

Once we completed mixing the soundtrack and cutting the footage, we began working on titles. We had pre-discussed the type of font that we wished to use; we decided on something minimalistic like Times-New-Roman in an off white colour. After browsing fonts, we decided on Didot, but then changed it to Bodoni 72 Oldstyle as we believed the circular rings on the end of the 'y's were too extravagant. Then, we worked on positioning the text within the different frames, fitting them in spaces between the subjects and adjusting the size accordingly. We used white guidelines to use for reference in regard to our borders and where we would have to keep the text. To come up with roles, we simply chose regular names and also used our own for the roles that we took on the shoot day. We also used Mike's name for our executive producer.

 A specific choice that we made in creating tension, was carrying on the choking/gargling audio into the title screen, timing its reveal with a particular cough. This was to draw attention to these sound effects, and to make the viewer feel uncomfortable as there was a lack of narrative for the viewer to link the sounds to. 

When colour grading our sequence, there weren't too many adjustments that needed to be

done. Initially, when rewatching the footage, we had presumed that perhaps we would need to change the shot of the man post titles as the colour was contrasting the rest of the sequence far too much. However, upon reflection, we realised that the contrast actually suited the change in titles and provided a tonal shift. Besides this, we increased the exposure on some of the berry shots, and close ups of the man's face for continuity reasons. 

Overall, I am very happy with the way our sequence turned out as it holds the same effect that I had imagined when drawing the storyboards and is quite similar to our test shoot. It was fairly easy to edit as we had no continuity issues and were pleased with all of the different shots; having Matthew as the editor whilst being a music technology student was particularly useful as well as we were able to make sound adjustments to our sequence easily (such as the timing of the beats, or when the music comes in). 

I believe our sequence is quite tense due to the intricacy of our shots as they are rather intimate and seem almost too perfectly composed, revealing the man's character. Our soundtrack choices also signify the emotional darkness of the scene, and work well alongside the dim colouring that we chose. 

EDITING THE SEQUENCE: PART 1

 Editing the Sequence: Part 1.

The first thing we did was review the footage we shot, naming the files that we wanted to use by their angle and action. This was to make the process smoother for us so that we could easily access what we needed to later on. Overall, this was relatively smooth; we were extremely happy with our footage and there were no continuity errors (that couldn't be hidden). Each shot was beautiful and the pans were smooth which made it rather difficult to choose between the takes!

After that, I began to book in slots in the editing suite outside of class as we still had a lot of work left to do with only 6 lessons left to do it in. For the first couple of slots, I was the main editor due to the nature of my timetable; in these slots I picked out the last of the footage and finished off cutting the clips and placing them in narrative order on the timeline. Out of all the different editing processes, this was arguably the longest one as I had to decide between takes based upon the smallest detail (such as where Ezra holds his hand when he is walking towards the woman, or where his eyes flick to when holding up the beaker to the camera), watching them over and over again to look out for what provided more substance to our sequence.

In regard to the fixable continuity issues mentioned earlier, we noticed two things: firstly, in the shot from within the storage cupboard of Ezra walking in, a fire escape sign could be seen above the door. To fix this, I simply cropped the video. Secondly and similarly, in the shot of the belt against Susannah's neck, her arm could be seen pulling it behind her. Again, to fix this, I cropped the video.

We also later added a black letterbox to our sequence, and again adjusted the clips by cropping/positioning accordingly. 

Throughout our lessons, Lila and I also browsed possible soundtracks; we all agreed that we wanted a cello solo classical piece. To find this, I went through pieces that I knew (as I have a classical musical background) and different playlists on Spotify. We eventually settled on Bach's Cello Suite No.5 in C Minor, BWV 1011: V. Gavotte. This was because it was melodic yet sinister, and wasn't too distracting from the sequence. To test it out before downloading it, we played it whilst watching over our cut. For the sound effects/soundscaping for the woman's reveal, we reversed a piano glissando, downloaded fizzing/drone sound effects off the internet and I recorded pouring water into a funnel into my mouth through voice notes at home (including some choking!) Luckily, Matthew is a music technology student so he had a software installed to mix the sounds together, and he also added heavy beats in time to the scene changes. We imported all of this from Matthew's laptop with his USB stick.

Below are the voice notes that I recorded (WARNING THAT THERE ARE REAL CHOKING/GAGGING SOUNDS). Though comedic when listening to them, we did in fact use the second take as it was as realistic as it was going to get. I did struggle to film these as I had not intended to choke on anything and had underestimated how quickly the liquid would go into my mouth. However, I am glad that I did this as it solved a big problem we had when finding audio clips.

Overall, though our narrative structure did not change, we did make some alterations to the intention that we had in mind when filming. The first major change was continuity; once we had placed all the cut clips together, we realised that we were 2 minutes over the time limit. To fix this, we did not focus on continuity (we could afford to do this as our sequence was revolved around titles) and instead cut out unnecessary clips that we had for continuity reasons (such as the shot from the doll's head, and the panning of all the berries after being cut). We also cut out the beginning and end of shots to get as close to the time limit as possible. This gave our sequence a montage effect, which worked quite well with the sound track. 

To still retain tension, we left the extreme close up of the fizzing within the beaker as the longest shot as we wanted to allow time for our pleonastic non diegetic sound effect of acid and for more titles to appear to cut out the music. This, in our eyes, crafted the sense that something was about to go wrong due to the sudden shift in tone, and added suspension as it would hopefully leave the viewer wondering as to why there is an interruption and what the liquid actually is.

Another key choice we made to create tension was having small interjections of the man's face, revealing him through short, intimate bursts to match that of the thriller genre convention. This not only provided contrast in our sequence, but also kept the man a mystery, encouraging the viewer to continue watching. 

MISE-EN-SCENE CHOICES VIDEO

 Mise-en-scene Choices Video.

I put together a video explaining our group's mise-en-scene choices in costume, lighting, sound, direction, location and props through a parody rap of Black and Yellow by Wiz Khalifa in order to present the information in a fun and entertaining way whilst still analysing the relevant/significant content:

SHOOT DAY REFLECTION

 Shoot Day Reflection.  

Immediate preparation for the execution of our opening sequence in fact started on the 28th of February: 2 days before our given shoot day. Upon our group's initial recce to the Beatrice Webb garden house with Luke Gilchrist, head of Film Academy and Hurtwood's creative director, he suggested that as a group, it was likely that we would need to come in the night before our allocated filming day and create the majority of our set for the shoot. This was because our concept was rather complicated in terms of its practicality, though simple to the external eye, and it was crucial that we maximise our filming time rather than spend it arranging our props/lighting effects (boarding the windows, sourcing furniture, clearing out the space, and creating the man's workspace). 

In response to this, closer to the date, I organised a meeting with Luke in his office to go over enquiries I had regarding boarding the windows - as I didn't have a great breadth of experience within practical lighting - and confirmed a setup evening that would work well for our group. We decided that it would be more logical to only have Lila Sturgeon and I join; her boarding house is on the main campus, and I am a day student, thus meaning I was more flexible within my schedule whereas Matthew Iveson wasn't. This also allowed for us to have more space in Luke's car for props, which was very much needed as we later discovered. However, our initial decision to meet on a Tuesday evening quickly changed to a Monday afternoon as we realised that it would be more practical for all 3 of us in terms of our schedules and timings. I emailed the housemaster of the Beatrice Webb boarding house for permission to begin to setup, and he kindly granted it.

To prepare for this, I began to package all of the props at home into boxes, taping them and numbering them so that I could keep a list of what items were in which ones for future reference if needed. The only props that I did not bring were the scalpel (as a safety precaution), cork board (I had not yet completed compiling artwork), and makeup, hair products, and ingredients for the fake blood and 'poison' (these were not a part of our set). I then proceeded to bring them in over the course of 4 days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday) in order to ensure as much ease for myself as possible. Thankfully, I happened to have rehearsals for a production on campus over that weekend and Mike was on evening duties, so he let me into his classroom to drop things off.

On the Monday, I brought in a large bin liner filled with cardboard, a Stanley knife, and a container of drawing pins for the anticipated work ahead of us. We met in Mike's classroom so that we could all help out in carrying the boxes and began to load them into Luke's car; Lila sat in the back with the fragile items, such as the skulls and glass jars so that she could keep a hold of them in case of any rigid movements during the journey there (a potential issue as we were travelling down small, country lanes). 

When we arrived, we dropped off all boxes off in the 'red room', a large lounge room adjacent to the garden house, and began to clear out the clutter in our shooting space. We moved boxes of books, film DVDs, sports equipment etc. alongside unwanted furniture such as the chairs into the red room. This was to allow for space for Lila and I to visualise our completed set, and on a more practical level, make room for our boxes of props and any excess cardboard from boarding the windows. We took extra care in clearing the room out as we were wholly aware that the belongings were of someone else's.

Once we completed this, I began to help Luke board the windows whilst Lila unboxed the props and set them up on the desk - boarding the windows was a process that required 2 people, and only Luke was tall enough to reach higher points of the window frames safely as we wanted to avoid bringing stools/chairs outside into the dry bushes that lined the outside of the room. Despite this, the job was fairly simple (though a completely new skill that I learned on the day and now is an effective lighting method I can use in my future filmmaking endeavours as an aspiring film school student): I held the slabs of cardboard to the window to keep them in place and handed him the pins, and he pushed them into the wood. Lila and I then alternated roles so that I got creative input as well; at this point, I was extremely thankful that I had attempted creating the set on my own desk at home and had taken a picture as I essentially recreated it. I also assessed the electrical situation in the space and where we would be able to plug in my lamp and Lila's turntable; I learned that we would need an extension, and informed Luke of this and he assured me that the media department would supply one for us. Then, we ran out of cardboard: this was not something that took us by surprise as we had roughly 5 large walls to cover (we had covered 3). Luke offered to bring in more cardboard for us on the shoot day as I simply didn't have enough, and Lila and Matthew could not source any as boarding students. With what we had, we experimented with what the lighting would look like on camera; we used Luke's phone and I stood in as a model to physically see the silhouette effect. This was incredibly useful as we evaluated whether any changes would need to be made, which there were: we used the Stanley knife I had brought in to slash cut-outs in the card to allow light to spill into the room from certain angles, crafting a shadowed and sinister effect. Though not complete, the lighting alone contributed heavily to the unsettling nature of the room that we desired.

Following this Luke, Lila and I headed to the theatre prop shed, shipping containers and greenhouse which were a 5-minute walk away. Here, Luke made some phone calls to other members of staff in order to ensure that we could have access to these props and the lock codes to open them. We firstly looked in the shed and after rummaging through large amounts of dusty furniture (and cobwebs!) we found a wooden divider, perfect to use to hide half of the room. From this, we also realised that we could potentially film from behind the divider as it was covered in wooden 'blinds' which served as an interesting angle and could perhaps give our opening sequence a voyeuristic element to it. Also, we found a small, dark wooden desk which was what we were seeking for the man's chemical workspace as it would provide more dimension to the room, filling up empty space, and also made more sense in a hygienic way. We then went on to look for a chair within the shipping containers which were more of a physical struggle; they were extremely cramped, yet we needed all 3 of us in them as there were sections of material/furniture that needed to be held back in order for someone to be able to pass them. However, rather quickly we found the type of chair we were looking for (a simple, wooden open-backed one with no arms and 4 legs). We initially had asked the theatre department twice if we could borrow these items from campus but never heard back from them, so I felt extremely lucky that we had managed to source them so close to the shoot date ourselves - this was not a pressing issue, however, as I had let Mike Niland, our media teacher, know well in advance of this issue and he offered to provide us with one from an external source. Lastly, we searched the garden room for the sole purpose of browsing any possible items that we could use to fill up the space, but ultimately, did not take anything.

It took us two trips to transport the props to the garden house (the first one being the divider, and the second one being the desk which Luke and I carried and the chair that Lila held). As Lila had a class that she had to arrive to on time, we dropped these off in the space but did not move them around and instead left them for our shoot day. 

On the morning of, I screen shotted the call sheet and potential shot ideas list so that I could access them without Wi-Fi on my fully charged phone (I packed a spare charger as well), then put my cork board and duffel bag (filled with snacks, makeup, the last of the props and a notebook and pen for us to write down the shots we filmed) in my car and drove to the Hurtwood main campus where I would be meeting the group, Luke and Mike at 8.30. Unfortunately, we forgot to specify with Mike where we wanted him to meet us so he had been waiting for 20 minutes in the editing suite before he found us which resulted in us leaving a little later than usual - nevertheless, once everyone had arrived in Mike's classroom, we headed to the studio and began to load mainly the camera accessories (tripod, microphone, extra materials, extension adapter and a blue light) and the rest of the props/costume into the van which was parked nearby. Luke loaded the actual camera (Black Magic 4K Mini URSA) and the rest of the cardboard into his own car due to spacing issues. The journey was relatively smooth; I sat near the front with the more fragile props (skulls and jars), as well with the tray of glass science equipment on my lap (petri dishes, beakers, pipettes, syringes) so that I could keep a hold of them. Our conscious decision to film at a nearby location became extremely beneficial as it meant that our travel time was shorter, thus maximising our shooting time.

Upon arriving to the location, similar to our pre shoot day, we placed everything in the red room (including the camera equipment) and resumed clearing out the space. It was extremely helpful that we had done the majority of the work on Monday as though the actors were arriving later on at 10-11am, we were not stretched for time and were comfortably setting up. Lila, Matthew, and I removed all of the suitcases from the storage cupboard and left them in the main Beatrice Webb lounge (as the red room did not have enough space), only emptying up to the line in which we had imagined that the camera would not cross (measured by one of the legs of the standing shelves in the space) so that we would not do more work than necessary. We then moved the chair into the cupboard, placed the divider where we wanted it, and brought in the rest of the props to setup on the desk. Lila and Matthew worked on the finishing touches of the man's setup whilst I helped Luke board the windows. Once this was completed, I began to work on preparing the practicalities of the man's chemical setup as Ezra, our actor playing the man, was arriving soon; I filled one of the mason jars with berries, assembled the scalpel, prepared the vinegar and baking soda, and organised the pestle and mortar/chopping board. Whilst I did this, Lila and Matthew began to cut through the green sheet of sheer cloth that we had brought into long strips so that we could hang them up around the windows to provide a green tint to our lighting and add more dimension to the space. I attempted to hang these strips by pinning them into the wooden frames of the walls and door with the remainder of the drawing pins but unfortunately was not physically strong enough; after a period of time, I asked Luke to help and he kindly did. As a group, I believe that we worked well together as we got a large amount done in a short amount of time due to our communication and the fact that everyone was focused.

The first shot we filmed was in fact our opening shot at roughly 10:30am; as we had pre-organised our roles, we had a clear guideline as to who would be doing what. Setting up the camera and tripod was fairly simple due to our existing knowledge from the camera workshops that we had done earlier on in the term; we worked from bottom to top, ensuring to keep a hand on the device at all times, and 'bubbled' it. We then placed the camera in the position we wanted it to; we initially had it unfocused, pointing at the vinyl spinning on the turntable so that symmetry-wise, it took up half of the frame, applying my understanding of the 'rules of three' composition idea, creating a beautiful, abstract image of waving black with the reflection of the vines against the windows where Ezra would place the needle. I then panned up to the chemical setup whilst Matthew performed a focus pull where the man would walk to. We practiced this before Ezra arrived so that we could mark the levels of focus on the lens and so that I became accustomed to panning. Luke gave me an extremely helpful tip that I had not thought of when performing a pan; it was to 'be one with the camera', ensuring your body is as close to it as possible without obstructing anything, one hand on the handle and the other body of the device to keep it stable (which I went on to do for the rest of the day). Once Ezra arrived, Lila and I directed him (Lila in the action and me in the positioning sense) and ran it a few times so that he too got an understanding of what we wanted. We then plugged in the microphone which was another task that we did with ease due to our dialogue workshop, connecting it into the first audio plug with an XLR cable; Lila acted as the boom operator for the majority of the day. When seeing the shot through the camera's screen (though we did not watch any footage back apart from a single test shot earlier without Ezra), I was incredibly pleased with the effect of the boarded windows - we had also at this point used my desk lamp for the purpose of the vinyl, shining it onto the material so that the vines could be further visible. The protocols on set of 'stand by', 'standing', 'roll camera', 'camera rolling', 'action' and 'cut' that we had learned during our camera workshops came in handy when filming as we wasted no footage (unlike our test shoot where we hadn't placed as much emphasis on it). 

We then went on to film the majority of our 'berry' shots (him pulling the berries out of the jar, placing the berries on the chopping board, pulling them off the stem and slicing them). With this, we took extra care with continuity, agreeing with Ezra which section of the stem he would be using and spending large amounts of time getting the positioning of the berries correct within the frame (as we were working largely in close ups) - Matthew was in charge of cleaning the workspace with a tissue as there were no focus pulls involved within these shots, wiping up any juice before it stained the wood of the chopping board and for continuity. I predominately directed Ezra here as I had a greater understanding of the mechanics of it as I had tested out working with the berries at home. 

Unfortunately, very shortly, lunch arrived and we had to head back to campus; Susannah had arrived and we still had not yet worked with her so we decided that we would prioritise her scenes after the break so that she would not have to wait around. Lila, Matthew and I ate lunch together to ensure that we were in easy reach of one another and waited at the buses 5 minutes earlier than the agreed meeting time so that we had room for any mishaps. We then returned to Beatrice Webb, Susannah with us and Ezra in his own car at 1pm.

Upon arrival, as we had decided that I would be in charge of Susannah's makeup (and I had sourced her props), Lila and Matthew went on to finish the last of the poison preparation shots (him crushing them in the mortar and pestle, extracting the juice with a pipette, and the fizzing reaction in the beaker). Once Susannah finished changing into her costume, I did her makeup in the red room; this was a rather quick process as I had practiced doing it on myself at home. I added a cream blush underneath her eyes, marking eye bags with black eyeshadow and cream contour, and then used a smoky eyeliner and smudged it (I also asked her to do some of this as I didn't want to hurt her). I then teased her hair, as practiced, and used a weak hairspray to hold it in place without making it look artificially messy. Then, I took her into the storage cupboard, bringing all of the woman's props with me, and explained what would happen in her scenes and what she would need to do - I also created the funnel mouthpiece in front of her, again, fairly straightforward as I had practiced it at home, so that she would feel comfortable and was wholly aware of how she wouldn't be physically hurt. I then began to measure up the zip ties to her ankles and wrists; this was when our first main issue arose. The zip ties had fit on me when I tested them out due to the angle in which I was fitting them but wouldn't on Susannah. So, to solve this, I wrapped them around her ankles and the legs of the chair, as intended, but added extremely small pieces of duct tape to hold them in place. They snapped a few times after she moved (which wasn't her fault), but eventually, they stayed. For her wrists, I pulled the group in for suggestions as the zip ties ends simply wouldn't touch; Luke here suggested to use a material of some kind to tie around her wrists and 'neck' (we 'cheated' this shot: a non-technical but common term I learned on the day used in filmmaking meaning creating an illusion). We attempted to use a strip of the green cloth that Lila had cut earlier, but this simply didn't have the effect that we wanted to as it didn't look like it was inflicting enough pain upon her. So, instead, we used Luke's belt; to cheat the different shots, when filming from the front of Susannah, she looped the belt around her neck and pulled it downwards behind her back to give the illusion that it was tied to her hands and was choking her. When filming from the back, Lila held a section of the looped belt above Susannah's head, pulling it taut diagonally, and I duct taped the bottom to her wrists. This made more sense in regard to our shot where the man opens the door, revealing her with her head already back as it meant that the woman would physically not be able to move without choking herself further; with her sat upright, the funnel looked almost comical - and as Luke said hilariously, looked as if she was about to "dress up as a penguin". We attempted to get through the shots quickly as the setup was extremely uncomfortable for Susannah (the belt hurt her neck, the zip ties on her ankles were tight, and the Blue Tack on the duct tape tasted terrible). 

Once we finished Ezra's scenes at roughly 4pm, we let him leave as we didn't want to keep him for any longer than we already had for his sake! We continued with Susannah's shots, filming her close ups, but at this point the sun was beginning to set (as anticipated, but blocked with the boarded windows) and there was a continuity issue with the lighting. Luckily, we had brought a blue light, so we used it to replicate day light; we adjusted the exposure on the camera and intensity of the light to make it appear as realistic as possible, and Matthew held a piece of white cardboard to reflect the natural light from the windows as Luke had suggested it (this was another technique I had not been aware of, and is now something I will most definitely use in the rest of my filmmaking projects).

After we completed Susannah's scenes, we also let her leave and provided her with makeup wipes. We then attempted to setup the shot involving a close-up of the liquid going into the funnel; we had Matthew hold the funnel, Lila pouring the liquid, and a beaker to catch any spilled liquid on the chair. However, the charge on both batteries ran out. There was not much we could do about this, so Mike granted us another day during the editing process for us to film the shot as it was a rather essential feature to our sequence and wasn't our fault. We then packed up, me boxing up all the props (as they were mine and I knew how to package them), Lila and Matthew bringing in the suitcases. Once I finished boxing it up, I left everything in the red room, and I brought in the boxes that we had removed from the room back into their original place and returned the furniture. Luke and Mike took down the cardboard as we were running short on time. Then, we all began to load the van, and headed back to campus, stopping at the recycling bin on the way and dropping all the cardboard off. We returned all of the camera equipment to the studio, and I loaded the props into my car and went home after a successful day of shooting!

Overall, I feel like our shoot went extremely smoothly - smoother than I had anticipated. This is because we had prepared an immense amount beforehand, every group member was on task and was aware of what was going on because of our workshops and communication. We placed a great emphasis on camerawork and silhouettes which resulted in us achieving extremely cinematic and beautiful shots due to our proactive lighting setup. I learned a great amount, from how to board windows, lighting techniques, camera handling and in general, came to grips with the process of filming a sequence. My favourite part of the process was finding the 'perfect' shot, experimenting with composition and exposure as it gave me hands-on experience and artistically speaking was the most interesting to me. In terms of what could have gone better, I personally feel that we should have planned the woman's setup in more detail and thought of more camerawork ideas as if we had not spent as much time experimenting, we could have filmed the last shot that we needed before the battery ran out. 

I look forward to editing our sequence, specifically picking out music and 'sound scaping' as soundtracks are a personal interest of mine. With editing, we do still have yet to think about making artistic choices in regard to font and text placement as we have chosen to create a title sequence rather than narrative, but we will gain a deeper understanding of this once we see the footage.

RESEARCH OF SAUL AND ELAINE BASS

 Research of Saul and Elaine Bass.

Saul Bass (1920-1996) was an American filmmaker and graphic designer, well known for his work in title sequences, corporate logos and film posters; he worked for other significant film figures within the industry creating title sequences, such as Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick, Otto Preminger and Martin Scorsese. Alongside this, he was incredibly successful in the creation of corporate logos for companies including AT&T, Continental Airlines and United Airlines. He married Elaine Bass (originally Elaine Makatura) in 1961 after she joined Saul Bass & Associates as his assistant in 1955 - another extremely successful American title and filmmaker. After the birth of their children (Jennifer, 1964 and Jeffrey, 1967) they instead began to place focus on their family and short films, one of which, Why Man Creates, won an Oscar. The pair were 'rediscovered' by Martin Scorsese and James L. Brooks in the 80s who encouraged them to return to title design.

Together, they developed many opening title sequences; the first project she co-directed/produced before their engagement was 'Spartacus' (1960). After this, the two worked in close collaboration and proceeded to create the sequences for West Side Story (1961), Something Wild (1962), Walk on the Wild Side (1962), Nine Hours to Rama (1963), The Victors (1963), Seconds (1966), Grand Prix (1966), Broadcast News (1987), Tonkô (1988), Big (1988), The War of the Roses (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Doc Hollywood (1991), Cape Fear (1991), Mr. Saturday Night (1992), The Age of Innocence (1993), Higher Learning (1995) and Casino (1995). Following Saul Bass's death, Elaine worked in collaboration with Pablo Ferro and went on to update Psycho's remake opening in 1998.

EXAMPLES SHOWN VISUALLY BELOW:

Their works were incredibly well known due to the fact that their title sequences captured the genre, mood, theme and narrative of the film effortlessly and in an aesthetically pleasing manner. For example, this is shown particularly well in 'Casino' (1995, Martin Scorsese):

The main character is introduced shortly after a black screen stating '1983' in a font closely resembling the 'Washington' font, indicating the time period in which the piece is set and somewhat elegant tone. He (Ace) walks out of a large building with well-built doors (copper/gold framed windows and polished wood), accompanied by iron garden tables and well trimmed plants suggesting that he is wealthy due to the casual manner in which he is moving around the space. Ace is dressed in a bold costume of a pink and white suit, holding the prop of a cigarette once again highlighting his wealth and perhaps the time period; the vibrant costume was a conscious decision on Scorsese's behalf, where he stated: "Oh, let’s put the apricot suit… right at the beginning of the movie. So it’s so ‘in your face’ [that] the audience will know what they’re in for, and they can leave the theater. Or stay.”

After this, he gets in his silver 1981 Cadillac Eldorado coupe (fitted with a metal sheet under the driver's seat which leads him to survive after it blows up) revealing a lot about his character as it suggests that the nature of his personality/status concerns that of murder attempts upon him. The early placement of the action heavy short segment combined with the overpowering character which triggers the titles is incredibly gripping as it leads the audience into wanting to discover more, and indicates the film's drama/crime genre and darker themes.

As mentioned, this triggers a more consistent title sequence, the text first accompanying the shot of Ace's body through the flames in a medium/small white font transitioned by crossfades (this format is used for the other credits) and intense, cinematic non-diegetic church/choir music. This gives the sequence an element of dramatic effect as it is overpowering, once again establishing the drama genre and tense tone of the film.

The font works incredibly well as it is highly stylised yet minimalistic, so attention is drawn to it but not so much so to an extent where the audience overlook the scenes shown behind them (a montage of close ups of gambling devices with neon lights, almost abstract). The Bass's choice with this is also effective as it hints at the narrative: the film will be set predominantly around a casino, presumably the owner of the casino as the character shown could be assumed as of higher status and has people after him. 

The use of darker reds, blues and purples not only gives an atmosphere of the 'night life' of the casino and its corruption (as it seems to be hidden in darkness and behind the vibrancy of it all), but also provides the overall mood with an emotional complexity which captures the film well. The colours are visually pleasing to the eye as they all compliment each other, making the sequence a visually pleasing one to watch. 

The sequence finishes with the screen being burned through and Ace placed at the centre of the frame composition wise, the angle from behind as he overlooks the room. This again suggests that he is the owner of the casino as he is the centre of attention in this scene, and that he is a morally tainted man due to the burning/ruining of the beauty of the casino lights.

Scorsese similarly uses this style of opening sequences in his other films (montages with minimal yet stylised fonts). A media product which seems to have directly lifted the action from this opening is the video game Mafia III: the ending involves Lincoln Clay being blown up in his car once he is in a high status position, shown below: 

BEHIND-THE-SCENES

 Behind-The-Scenes.

I edited a behind-the-scenes video containing a mixture of clips that Matthew and I filmed in order to present the process leading up to and during the shoot day. My evaluation will provide context to the different things that can be seen in the following:

   Matthew and Lila created a photo album containing some pictures that we took on the day: