Preliminary Task

Actual coursework task defined

Video

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source. Both preliminary and main tasks may be done individually or as a group. Maximum four members to a group.

Editing prelim task

In our last lesson, we were in the editing suite and used Adobe Premier to edit our preliminary task. We started off by looking through all of the takes that we made on the camera, in order to get an idea of what we wanted to use and how we wanted to incorporate the close ups into the sequence. We had decided on starting the sequence with an establishing medium long shot in order for the audience to get familiar with the setting and the action happening. It was very useful for us to have two screens, one was for what you have specifically selected and the other one was for the final product. We used the crop tool quite frequently, also known as the in and out. Throughout the process of filming and editing the prelim task, I have discovered that the editing part is definitely the most difficult and time consuming in the whole task. There were a couple of things that we would change if we had another shot at filming. For example, we found that we were missing an essential shot of the dead body as a full long shot. We thought that it would be quite useful to use it in the end of the sequence, as it would be a dramatic ending to the story plot. Another thing that we would have changed is that whilst we were filming we included the scenery at the top of the set. This was a very amateur thing to do, but we will not make the same mistakes throughout the year. I thought that this task enabled us to work jointly as a group and individually at the same time because everybody had their separate roles. Whilst editing the clips I had practiced my editing skills and reinforced the knowledge that we had learned previously.

Kyle Cooper - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Similarly to Coopers previous title sequences, in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang we see a vague outline of the story line. Like many of Coopers' opening sequences he doesn't open much for the audience to be able to observe, he believes that the opening should always hook the audiences attention to watch the movie. As we see in this particular sequence, it is very important to give the viewers a taste of what they are going to watch.

I picked this opening sequence in particular because I felt that all the graphic effects and the Cooper laid it out was in a very unique and specific way. For example, when we see all the plants and flowers spread around the screen and then it suddenly changes into a building with small stick men dancing around it creates a sense of reality portrayed in an abstract way. The music used in this piece is non-diegetic and it creates a very heavy, mischievous atmosphere. It gives the audience time to relate the music to detective or spy movies. The music builds up the plot of the sequence. All of the work displayed is animated, we mostly see silhouette's. Shots constructed mostly open with urban areas and over-simplistic outlines of buildings. When the gun appears on the screen the movement of it slows down in order to display the high significance of it. Adding on to this, constantly we see a change in set, which gives us an idea of the setting of the movie and possibly even the genre. I personally think that Cooper's creation of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang makes the audience question a lot of cases throughout the opening sequence and this enables the public to continue on with the movie with  a great deal of interest. 

Kyle Cooper - Spiderman 3 opening sequence

" Forget the film, watch the title" is a quote from Kyle Cooper himself. In Coopers opening sequence for Spider Man 3, we see an outstanding phenominon that has undeniably precise dynamics and flow to it. One thing to notice about all of Coopers' works, is that when the title's come up the text is always edited in a special way and is moving. This is a great effect as the audiences' eyes immediately catch the title because Cooper puts it specifically in a particular place to attract attention.  In the beginning we see a montage of lots of cartoons overlapping each other very fast. The music dominates as we hear a build up of action. Through this the audience is able to see small hints of the story line and plot, but it is merely a glimpse as the clips or page flipping in this instance are increasing the pace.There is a huge amount of visual effects used in the title sequence. The fact that camera was moving around in circles around the spiderweb was very clear, as it implies that the the audience is the spider crawling making the web. Also, when we see the scenes in the spider web from the previous movies, it not only refreshes our memory but also doesn't reveal anything about the movie. This is a very important technique that Cooper used, he believed that the title sequence should only give hints about the movie, but shouldn't reveal too much.

Kyle Cooper Introduction

Kyle Cooper is one of the most respectful and established Graphic designers in the world. Cooper studied graphic design at the Yale School of Art and he is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale. It is often that Coopers work is compared to Saul Bass. He has directed over 150 films, some of his best work include: Se7en, Spiderman and The Mummy and so many more outstanding movies. Also, in 2001 he directed a feature film, New Port South. Later on Cooper moved on to found Prologue Films, in which he had created title sequences for The Incredible Hulk, Final Destination 5 and The Walking Dead.


                                                            Kyle Cooper demo reel 

Prelim Task

In our last lesson we were given a task to film a short scene, the story outline was given out in order to indicate what type of shots we should film. The purpose of this task was to practice our individual abilities to either filming, directing or pitching in ideas. In the beginning it was important for us to clarify everybody's roles in the film making process. We had Ben and Vogue acting on set, Ashen was in charge of filming and I was the director. After we had decided on the roles, we set out what shots we were going to take. There was a variety of long shots, establishing shots, medium, close ups and some where taken over head or on the same level as the actor. Before we started filming blocked the scene in order for us to shot everything fast and snappy. It was important for us to take full takes of all of these shots, as when we will be editing we could always use different bits from each clip. We made sure not to cross the 180 degree line, as this would effect the continuity of the shot. Close to the end we decided to incorporate some of our individual ideas into the production.For example, we filmed a shot that was taken from the bottom, so the perspective of it is completely wide and we are able to view the whole scene.

My role in this task was to direct the whole process. I had to make sure that the set was the same as the previous scenes and organize the cast in order for everything to be in its place. I think our group was quite speedy and on task. I called out 'standby', 'rolling' and 'cut' in order to give the other members of my group a sign that we are filming or have stopped recording. I found that communication and decision making was a big part of my role as a director. My group and I managed to complete the given task around 20 minutes earlier, this gave us time to add some shots that we thought could work in the format of our shooting. An example of this would be a shot that is was at the same level as the actors. This we assume created a eye-to-eye connection, as the audience could connect and evaluate the situation a lot more close up. I think I could have improved my role as a director by being a bit more precise of how I wanted the shots to look like. Also, by re-evaluating the hidden errors that the actors had.

Opening sequence review for 'Watchmen'

We assume at the beginning, that the opening sequence starts with a freeze frame, until we see slow movement between the two rivals, as one of them pulls the trigger and shoots, the other character punches tried to punch him. The whole sequence itself has a slow flow to it and tells the audience the pre-story, by incorporating as minimal action as they can. Although each scene that they show in the beginning looks like a lot, it not only tells the story but it also gives a sense of the film and merges the titles in.


Camera - The sequence shows a variety of shots that implement the storyline, for example, most of the shots used are either mid-shots or long shots. The long shots are used in this sequence to set the scene and allows the audience to understand the background story behind the movie itself. The whole opening consists of short snippets of clips that create a generic storyline of the pre-story, the director, Zack Snyder we assume made this in order to give the audience a feel of the type of movie that they are going to be going into. Most of the shots have either a zoom in, or a zoom out to show the detail or see a clearer picture of the mise en scene.

Mise en scene - It is difficult to evaluate how the director decided to conduct and show the mise en scene, as there are so many shots that include so much detail and precision behind them. We can see how each scene has a completely different scenery, each set has a different element to it. For example, it is clear to the viewer that the location of this movie is probably going to be in New York City, as we see the sky scrapers in the background and also the New York Times magazine popping up in almost every scene, this indicates that these so called 'superheroes' are famous and get gratification for what they do to the society.

Sound - Throughout the whole opening sequence there was one single song playing on top of the action, it was a diegetic sound track. At some point the lyrics matched up with the action happening on screen, for example, when we hear 'for the times they are changing', a couple seconds later we see how a woman and another woman are hugging, implying that they might be lesbian. The song itself was by Bob Dylan, called 'The times they are changing'. In a couple of scenes we here mumbling of the characters as they are speaking to each other, this was done for the audience to understand that they might be having an argument.

Editing - Most of the scenes were snippets of these superheroes lives, it created a nice base storyline for the audience to see before the actual movie starts. Throughout the sequence, the scenes are all in slow motion, it allows us to focus on all of the facial expressions of the characters and the whole situation on the whole.

Opening sequence review for ' Se7en '

Camera - During this opening sequence we are able to identify that most of the scenes have a cross fade. The majority of the on screen images, we assume are some types of hints and clues to the actual movie. Because most of the images that we see are close ups, we can see how the director used the specification of depth of field. The director creates suspense because the opening sequence is made up of close ups and we are unable to see the identity behind the camera. This is why we do not have any other types of shots.

Editing - The opening uses a montage format, which is putting lots of different clips together. The transitions in the opening sequence vary from straight cuts to cross fade. By having all of the clips fade into each other, it almost made the all of the fades interlink between each other. In most of the shots we see animations of flickering and subtitles, this could be used to create an eerie effect.

Mise en scene - In this particular opening sequence, we do not see a single long shot. By this, we assume that the 'investigation' or setting is either at somebody house or an office of some sort. We are able to identify this as the props that he is surrounded with would suggest so. However, throughout the whole sequence we are unable to see a full image of the surroundings or the person himself. The props that the person is using, such as a pen, paper, books, files and photos suggest that the person must be putting together a scrapbook or diary for an investigation. Because we are unable to see the full image of the guy that is behind all of this, the fact that we see close ups of the objects creates longing suspense. The fact that all of the shots are reasonably dark connotes danger and that the movie will be quite dark and severe. The lighting in the sequence suggests that the person is doing something he isn't supposed to be doing and that the movie will have a dark twist to it.

Sound -  At the beginning the music is quite slow, we can see that some of the shots have been put under slow motion. Overall, this creates an ambiguous effect, as the music is dissonant. As the scenes and music get faster towards the end, it creates tension for the audience. This tells us that the movie will be tens. The sound in the sequence is non-diegetic and therefore creates the mood and feeling for the first couple minutes of the movie. It also creates a longing line of mystery.