My Film Opening Titles

Stage 6 films presents

A Garry Allmarsh Film

A Birnbaum/Barber production

Based on characters created by Emma Karin

Written by Chris Haughty

Directed by Ellie Burrell Bicker

Costume designer Frank Oman

Music by Kevin MacLeod

Gemma Willis

Gordon Vendor
Pretty Little Love

Film opening titles - Never Back Down 2

Never Back Down 2



Film titles in the order they appear:

'Stage 6 films presents'
'A Mandalay pictures BMP, inc production'
'Michael Jai White'
'Never back down 2 the beatdown'
'Dean Geyer'
'Alex Meraz'
'Todd Duffee'
'Scottie Epstein'
'Jillian Murray'
'and Evan Peters'
'Casting by Lindsey Hayes Kroeger' 
'Music by David Wittman'
'Music supervisor Jeremy Pleasant'
'Costume design Kim Martinez'
'Line producer Yoram Barzilai'
'Edited by Debra Weinfeld'
'Production designer nate jones'
'Director of photography Yaron Levi'
'Executive producers Alan Ameil, Bobby Ranghelov, Nick Thurlow, Gregory M. Walker'
'Produced by Craig Baumgarten, David Zelon'
'Based on characters created by Chris Hauty'
'Written by Chris Hauty'
'Directed by Michael Jai White'

All of the titles featured in this movie opening are in white font and bold letters. They begin to appear on a layer of black covering the screen, then a few titles in, the scene of where the noise in the background is coming from fades in to focus. The title of the movie is introduced extremely effectively, 'Never Back Down 2 The Beatdown' fading is as a character with boxing gloves punches another character; I assume they're in a boxing ring. 

It is evident that this movie could be based around fighting and troublesome actions, therefore making the font of the titles seem more understandable as to why they look the way they do. They look slightly beaten down as each letter has a tiny break in it and bits are smudged in corners aswell. The font is most certainly not neat and tidy but actually the complete opposite. This links with the movie because the movie is clearly about punches being thrown and people being bashed around, causing a persons facial features to then be inaccurate just like the font. This font also represents the feel of the movie exceptionally well and pairs perfectly with the genre. 

The font being in white is a colour that allows the text to be clearly visible to the viewer, as they're planted on top of extremely negative scenery. The scenery is dark and lacking in vibrant colour, therefore white titles was a good idea for when inserted against a dingy background.

Names and titles continue to fade in and out, appearing on screen in an assortment of places until 2:18 where they stop. A lot of titles were introduced in this movie opening giving the viewer a large amount of background information behind the film. 

My Preliminary Task

Evaluation

In Wednesday's media session, our preliminary task was set. The preliminary exercise is a 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. I believe that I fulfilled all of the criteria in this video, however one thing miserably let me down when I began editing. There was no establishing shot. Along with this, I also unintentionally filmed Frankie walking into the room from the left, then filmed her coming into the room from the other side. This was a fault that I would easily be able to change in future videos, but am disappointed with having done it in my preliminary task. 

On the other hand, there are many things in this video that I am delighted with. One of those being my shot switch at 8 seconds into the video. As Frankie was walking up the stairs, I then included a shot of Isaac looking at his watch and waiting, which portrayed the destination that Frankie was heading to when walking up the stairs. I filmed three different clips for this scene, and feel that including one of the watch was an effective choice for inserting after I'd filmed Isaac looking down at his watch. It allows the audience to see exactly what Isaac is seeing. I began the clip of isaac with a transition of a circle closing and then ended it with another transition of a circle opening, which was when it went back to Frankie continuing her walk up the stairs.

The beat of the music in the background partnered with Frankie's first step on the tiny floor perfectly. Her stride was in sync which I was extremely happy with.

I am confident that I was able to make each clip look as though it flowed with ease with the one before it. This took a lot of trials, however I managed to get it right in the end. I also like in my video how I filmed Frankie pulling out her chair and focused the camera on the chairs movement. As she sat down, her arms were in mid action when going down on the table. When i'd filmed a completely different shot, her arms then completely went down on the table. I appreciate how I got this correct, but am gutted that I forgot to include an establishing shot of them talking before they continued their conversation. 

I succeeded with the 180 degree rule, making sure that Frankie was always on the left of the camera and Isaac was always on the right. Although I may have got this feature correct, I shamefully left a bit of space in the shot of Frankie talking. To the left of her there was an area being wasted, where I could have actually used it to focus more on her face as she spoke.

My filming nevertheless is still quite shaky. This will always be something that I aim to perfect until I actually perfect it. With my titles, I feel that these never let me down. I introduced the audience to the video and the characters involved within it, and then finalised the video through mentioning who was behind the production, filming, editing and directing: me!

Film Opening Titles - Pretty Woman

Pretty Woman 

Film titles in the order they appear:

'An Arnon Milchan Production'

'A Garry Marshall Film'

'Richard Gere'

'Julia Roberts'

'Pretty Woman'

In the very first second of this movie opening a title is introduced, this being "An Arnon Milchan Production" in the middle of the screen. The words have been presented in tall capital letters that are lined up extremely close together almost making each word a type of illusion. They pop up out of nowhere in the middle of a magician performing a trick. They're in white letters with a slight black frame behind them, giving the white letters a 3D effect as they emerge from the black background surrounding them. The font is quite old fashioned and dated which allows the viewer to gather an assumption of the themes within the movie. It could be based in an older setting like the 1980's or 90's. This assumption comes from just the first title.

The man continues his trick as "A Garry Marshall Film" then pops up in the middle, in exactly the same style of font and colour.

At 3:20, the name of an actor is finally introuduced to the viewer as being "Richard Gere". It pops out of nowhere in capital letters, same font and colour as the beginning titles, after the driver gets trapped in a dead end. Could this driver possibly be the character being played by Richard Gere? These titles then fade out, as the next ones arrive, "Julia Roberts", at the same time as the beat of the music; creative. A male name, and a females name, then the title of the movie "Pretty Woman". From this order of titles, it's evident that the male actor and female actor are both the main characters in this movie, which indicates how it could be a film based on romance. 

I believe that the use of old fashioned font at the very beginning of the movie was a good introduction for the viewer to get an insight into what year this film could have been filmed in without even seeing many faces or scenery.

Film Opening Titles - The Vow

The Vow

(0:17 - 1:04)

Film titles in the order that they appear:

'Screen Gems and Spyglass Entertainment Present'

'A Birnbaum/Barber Production'

'Rachel McAdams'

'Channing Tatum'

'The Vow'

The first titles that the audience are welcomed to are "screen gems and spyglass entertainment present" which flickered up onto the screen. Each letter faded in at random times, all around the same time, whilst hovering over moving footage in the background. Each letter then fades back out whilst the camera is scrolling down, what looks like, a shop name in bright lit up letters. The font type is clear and easily readable and also in white letters which pairs well with the dark background. I don't think that the font style or colour has much of an impact on the movie opening because clear white letters don't really make you feel anything, they just want to be understood by the viewer. 

"A Birnbaum/Barber production" then flickers in on the screen the same way the first titles did, again in the same colour font and style whilst moving further down the footage. As they fade out, the area being filmed is evident in the background because a sign is being skimmed by the camera which looks like the entrance to a theatre. The real names of the two characters in the movie then appear on the top left hand side of the screen whilst they're walking out of the theatre and I think that this was a clever introduction to the two people who play the main characters in the movie. Seconds after the male then kisses the females head, the screen blurs and the movie title then also fades in right in the centre, in large capital letters "The Vow". As the couple exit the screen, the movie title fades out not long after. 

Now, after seeing the movie title, I feel that the clear white letters do play a contribution to the feel of the film. Vow's are supposed to be heard clearly when being spoken so that each word can create an impact on the person they're being read to; the film title is in extremely large white letters which are easy to read. Furthermore, vow's don't have to be anything over the top or 'in your face', they just have to be sincere and meaningful; not everything needs to be sugar coated. Therefore I consider the simple titles and the movie title to match the film rather well.

Film openings - Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging

Evaluation

(from 0:30 to 3:00)

The start of this movie opening begins with a confident bouncy tune that repeats during the duration of Georgia (the female character) walking down the street in the most hilarious fancy dress costume. She's extremely proud of it, calling it "the business", but us as the audience view it as being just a piece of comedy for our own entertainment. It demonstrates her character as being an outgoing teenager, so we know what to expect of her personality further on in the movie. When she tells her dad that she doesn't want her olive costume to get crushed, she bashes it on a lamp post in the street. This is typical humour, and one that actually gets the audience laughing. The titles coming and going at the bottom of the screen are styled in a type of handwriting that young female teenagers enjoy writing like (I most certainly did); cute and squiggly font. It pairs with the movie perfectly, being one for female teenagers.

The camera angle then alters so that we can finally see Georgia in her full costume in comparison to the size of the car; she's nearly half the size of it! As she mentions "I have to make an entrance", the scene of her actually making that entrance appears which I believe was creative and clever. We're able to view the people infront of Georgia as if it were ourselves looking at them because the clip had been shot as if it were her eyes scanning the room. A noise of a spring is then played, matching the awkward atmosphere amongst the peers in the room who are all dressed in cute costumes, and not stuffed olives. A clip of everyone laughing is played, then a clip of Georgia's three friends feeling a sense of remorse with guilt written all over their faces, and then it goes back to Georgia, a look of annoyance seeping out from within her. 

When Georgia confronts her three friends, who are dressed as the total opposite to her (an angel, sexy devil and a fairy princess) the different shot types were filmed in the way they're supposed to during a conversation. They switched from Georgia, to them, and back to Georgia again, her shoulder/head always in shot as they spoke. Music starts playing again as Georgia looks disappointed and waddles out of the room, a clip of her knocking over everyone's bowls and trays of food along the way.

I like the way they filmed her running across the street and the road until she was out of sight, zooming out as she raced across the shore front. The clip then changed to her running horizontally with the sea in the background, the cameramen following her and filming her as the film title then came up onto the screen, dissapearing when she passed a street lamp; a clever way to remove titles. A lot of clips were filmed from different angles, shaking the film up and absorbing all of the audiences attention. It almost felt as though we were running along with her, seeing her embarrassed expression and then seeing the public all staring at her. The lyrics then sing "I don't know, I don't know, I don't know how we'll making it through this" matching the situation in the film perfectly. 

The film opening finishes with her bumping into a woman on a mobiliy scooter, both coming from opposite directions as Georgia tries to slide up to let her pass but her olive costume is just too large and in the way. This is humour at its finest and the first two minutes and a half of this movie opening contained plenty of reasons to laugh. It introduced us to Georgia's character, along with her three friends who we'll probably be seeing later on in the movie. 

Film openings - Bruce Almighty

Evaluation
(from 0:40 to 3:00)

At the very beginning of this movie opening, the audience are introduced to a male voice; what they'd assume to be the main character of this film (Bruce). A female voice then speaks, where she mentions information about a large cookie that Bruce has to wear a hairnet around because of "health department". It is usually the women who would dismiss wearing a hairnet because they'd just styled their hair, but this time round it's the man who attempts to escape wearing it as he states "the hair is perfect" referring to his own. This is humorous, indicating that the movie could be possibly based around comedy. During that whole scene, the screen is pitch black, with white titles blurring in and out whilst the audience pay attention to the conversation taking place in the background. 

We are then introduced to the face of the male voice, popping his head into play with a hairnet placed uncomfortably over his 'perfect hair', and the reason behind the sarcastic expression painted upon his face. He then looks to the ceiling and asks God why he hates him - another piece of comedy - which was aimed to make the audience laugh. Different camera shots are then shown, displaying Bruce to be a news reporter with cameras in his face and a microphone in his hand. News reporters are stereotypically supposed to be mature, which is ironic because this news reporter has already been portrayed to be quite the opposite, faking a smile and beginning his roleplay, laughing at his own jokes along the way. 

Names behind the characters in the movie continue to blur in and out of the screen whilst Bruce performs his speech about the cookie which is a clever and subtle way to include titles. 

The chef in the background begins to pick his nose - gross. This reaction of mine was the perfect example of what the producers wanted the audience to have, and they succeeded. The relaximg chime that had been playing the whole way through this movie opening suddenly came to a halt, focusing the attention onto the unhygienic chef when Bruce spotted him. Bruce looks close up into the camera, pinging his hair net and making another joke "it's a good thing we're wearing these today, 'cause I wouldn't want any stray hairs to fall into the boogah." A comedy movie? Most certainly.

A whole scene is filmed of Bruce interviewing the old woman who wants to make buffalo's biggest cookie, "So tell me mamma, why make Buffallo's biggest cookie?", where she mentions people's assumptions of the large chocolate sprinkles being rat pellets. They then cut this, and re-film it all over again, Bruce asking the same question and expecting a more professional response. "So tell me mamma, why make Buffallo's biggest cookie?" Everything is very very comical.

The background music becomes a lot more dramatic when the large cookie is brought out, emphasising the scene and creating a larger impact on the audience. Without the music, the size of the cookie wouldn't be as overwhelming. At 3 minutes in (the end of the film opening) it finishes with the cookie being the world's new record for "the largest cookie". Who knew a cookie could create such an amazing film opening. 

Humour was demonstrated in many places throughout this opening scene, along with many different angles being shot and music being played in all the right places. 

Film openings - Harry Potter and The Chamber Of Secrets

Evaluation

The beginning of this film opening starts with a peaceful tune that then suddenly escalates into a dramatic, tense and mysterious one. The dragged out blurred transition eases us viewers into the movie where we are greeted with misty clouds. This use of imagery already creates an eerie atmosphere and it's only 6 seconds in. The film title has been styled in unique and chilling writing that slowly approaches us, creating an intimidating feel on the audience; perhaps giving them an insight to what kind of film it is that they're about to watch; a spine-chilling fantasy that will have their eyes glued to the screen. 

At around 37 seconds into the film opening, the producers have filmed a shot of the whole town where Harry Potter lives; a dark, murky and gloomy area cramped with houses. This introduces the audience to the kind of neighbourhood that Harry lives in. The town is filmed from a very high point, and then slowly lowered until we come into contact with Harry's bedroom window, filled with light as his upper body is on show. By this point the tense music from the beginning had calmed down, soothing the audience and allowing them to now sit back, relax and enjoy the movie. All of this was done in just under a minute. Personally I believe that this was an excellent start to one of the world's most famous film series because it captivated me at first and then began to intrigue me; I was curious as to what this movie was going to be about. 

We then see Harry looking at a family photo album, and then the camera angle is switched so that we can see the album from Harry's point of view. This switch of film shots keeps the audience on the screen as it makes them feel as though they are Harry, flipping the pages and embracing whatever's printed upon them. When Harry begins to talk to Edwig, a clip of the animal is included so that we are aware of who it is he's talking to. This routine continues for 10 seconds whilst they communicate to one another; from Harry, to Edwig, then back to Harry. I learnt in class that this type of filming must be done to portray a conversation, and that's exactly what's been done in this film opening. Excellent.

We're then welcomed to the people that Harry lives with: the ugly and selfish personality of the man that rasied him, the snobby and stuck up attitude that the young boy has towards Harry, and the woman who's portrayed as the type of female who goes along with whatever the old man says to Harry. The tense music begins again when all three of them isolate him from the plan that they have for when their guests come over, as Harry says he'll be up in his room pretending that he doesn't exist and all three of them are more than happy with that proposal. He's seen as being an unwanted being in their household which causes the audience to experience sympathy for Harry, immediately having them on his side for the duration of the movie.

An outstanding film opening if I do say so myself, as there was so much that I was able to analyse. The background music suited each scene, the family members were introduced, and Harry's character had also been portrayed. I have gained plenty of inspiration from this film opening. 

Door Opening

Evaluation

In my 'door opening' video I have managed to film a handful of clips that all flow successfully once put together, and this was the aim. Each clip has been filmed from a different angle and I believe that I completed this task effectively. 

This time round, I was able to hold the camera in a way that avoided shaky filming, so the whole video has been filmed in neat and tidy motion. The music that I chose paired well with the beginning of this video, however I don't think that it was suitable for the ending because Danielle's pace slowed down dramatically when she was walking away from the door. If I was to refilm the ending of this video I would have her walking at a faster speed in order to stay on the same level as the groovy beat. 

I noticed after watching over the video that I hadn't silenced out me saying "go" at the beginning or the squeakyness of the door when it opened, so you could hear that unwanted noise under the music. This tiny fault would be something I'd alter if I were to edit this video over.

I thought that having a shot of danielle's feet skipping down the stairs was a little more creative than just having her walking towards the door, and I found it extremely enjoyable filming these types of different shots. The little jump she took from the bottom of the step was in sync with the slight bounce she had at the beginning of the second clip. Because i'd filmed these both from a different angle at different times, I was proud that I managed to edit them together to look as though Danielle's movement flowed. 

Overall, I feel that this video was visual evidence of my progression from the previous videos as I'd steadied the camera more and created different shots that ran smoothly together. If I were to escalate this video further I would include more varieties of shots to make it a little more detailed and provide the audience with a more interesting video.

Conversation

Evaluation

Firstly, muting this video would make the appearance of Danielle's and George's conversation seem more realistic because sometimes their reactions don't match what they're saying. For example, when Danielle says "art" it looks more like she's pulling a shocked expression, and this looks more appealing to the audience because it changes the atmosphere within their conversation.

I began with filming a shot where both of them were in it to provide the audience with the two characters sharing a discussion. I thought that my attempts of filming 'over the shoulder shots' were a success because when I changed it from Danielle's shoulder to George's shoulder it still looked as though they remained in the same conversation, when realistically, they didn't.

Sliding the camera across from Danielle's face to George's face whilst they spoke to eachother was efficient footage for the audience so that they were always aware of who's holding the conversation, however it wasn't a smooth film and I probably should have replaced it with an 'over the shoulder' shot instead.

Concluding their discussion was done through Danielle exiting the scene where their social session occured. 

After studying this video further I noticed a few faults and jumps inbetween each clip. Some didn't flow very well together as a lot of angle changes became apparent in the last few filmings. I should have probably filmed a few move 'over the shoulder' shots to make the video portray more of a conversation. I also realised after a class discussion that I began filming George on the left and Danielle on the right, then at some point during the video I filmed Danielle on the left and George on the right. During a conversation, the people communicating must always remain in the same position on the screen. Although it was not a priority for the conversation to make sense, I would love to raise the quality of their communication skills next time in order to improve the video as a whole. 

My first video

My Evaluation

What went well in my video was the editing. I believe that I successfully edited the right parts to create a video that flowed with ease. I found the variety of shots to be a challenge but managed to mould them all together into my opening (this video as a whole); those shots being the long shot, the medium shot and the close up shot. I also found moving the camera around both of my actors' heads and zooming out from their feet to be quite creative as it allowed the audience to get a full perspective of them. The transitions, in my opinion, paired well with the clips and separated each one precisely; the blurred one being my favourite. I was able to fade the music out at the end of my video in order to create a sense of closure which is a lot more effective than having the music just cut off. Overall, I believe that my first attempt of making a short video was quite a success and I am happy with the outcome.

Nonetheless, there is always something that can be altered or changed in a way that the video is more impressive, and the main thing in my video that would be tackled with improvement would be the steadiness of the camera. When I was moving it around my actor's heads the shots were a little shaky and I would love to be able to recreate those shots so that they're filmed in a more steady manner. If I were to develop this video further I would film more shots, more scenes and perhaps include some speech which would escalate this average video into a higher quality piece of footage.