TITLES DESIGN

You need to start thinking about how your titles will look - they are an integral part of you opening sequence and should not be an afterthought.

Titles should reinforce the themes of your sequence - here's an idea of what's possible. See me for help getting you started.

PRODUCTION LOGO DESIGN

Here's an example of a production logo you could produce in After Effects. It's a little gaudy and on reflection the font was a bad choice - but all it took was downloading a texture from Google images and a bit tinkering. 

Editors... sketch out a design for a logo, then come see me for help with getting you started.

Ideas for good planning and research blog posts.

Research:

• Analyse opening sequernces (not trailers, not fan-made clips, not sequences from any other part of the film). The main idea here is to understand how openings work, both artistically and technically.

• Write a generic conventions report – a few paragraphs on typical characters, storylines, locations, props and style of your chosen film genre… include pictures and screen-grabs. Describe how they might influence your production.

• Audience research. The most important information here is how your research will inform your production. Whatever you do, don’t conduct the research then go ahead with whatever plan you had regardless of it.

• Skills… do some research into what skills you will need to complete this project. If, for example, you are planning on including titles which glow brightly, or appear on screen with a textured appearance or have some other effects applied to them – who will you achieve that?... Look up some tutorials, ask me, and most importantly, do some tests. (open up Premiere or After Effects and have a go – NOW – not a day before deadline.

• Planning:

•  Post ‘production meeting minutes’. If you have a conversation with your group about your opening sequence, that counts as planning. Who was there? What was said? What did you decide? How did you arrive that that decision? What were the other options? Why were they rejected?... during your evaluation you will need to account for your creative decisions, so writing them down now will help you.

• Write a treatment. That’s your idea for the sequence written down as a shot by shot account of what your sequence will look like.

• Script – this should be written in the correct format – see me or follow this link for the right approach to your script… you must write one even if there’s no dialogue.

•  Storyboard – this should be at least 15 panels and also follow correct conventions which essentially means including clip duration, transition/editing notes, camera direction (movement, angle etc) and a description of the action.

• Shot list – unlike the storyboard this is a checklist of each and every shot you will need for your sequence. If you are shooting a conversation for example you will need the whole thing from at least three different angles (master shot including both characters, and over the shoulder shot of character A, and an over the shoulder shot of character B – then you might get creative and include a low angle or canted angle to give you options in the edit)… all of these will appear on the shot list so you don’t forget on the day.

• Production schedule – this should be a detailed account of when you will shoot and edit the sequence and who will be required on which days.

• Create a production logo – as a group come up with a concept, then the editor should produce this using Photoshop or After Effects – look for tutorials or see me for how to achieve it.

•  Production updates – whenever you make some progress (when you produce the storyboard or script or logo etc) update the blog – has it been done to the required standard? How does it help move the production forward? Have you learnt anything useful along the way?

• Test shots – if you are ready to shoot – but don’t have your actor/costume/location or can’t shoot the real thing for any other reason, do some camerawork/editing practice. Use each other or use any available person to stand in as one of your actors and test your storyboard ideas with a few test shots… these can then be used to test out colour correction or special effects in Premiere Pro – these can be posted to the blog… both I and the moderator will be very impressed with your commitment to improving your production skills!  

•  Location Recce – grab a camera, go to a couple of potential location where you want to shoot and photograph them. You post these to your blog with a couple of notes on how you might use the location, any problems you may encounter. Consider the time of day you want to use it, what the light will be like, what other people/traffic might be around… is it on a flight-path, for example, with airplanes going overhead every 5 minutes? (that will create sound-mixing havoc in the edit!)

• Props/costumes list. You may well decide to just use whatever costumes your actors turn up in, but you’ll get a better mark for demonstrating some prior thought to it… record your ideas for what characters should be wearing, what make-up you might need, what props you will need and how you will source them… (remember – no guns/knives/weapons in public places!!!)

• Soundtracks – start looking for appropriate royalty-free soundtracks. Write a post on what mood you want to create with the soundtrack, find a few and post these to the blog. You will find a couple of links in the left sidebar of this blog under ‘useful links’

•  Lastly – A-grade coursework productions will necessarily have comprehensive planning. While quality of your work is the most important thing, quantity is the very first thing I and the moderator will consider – if you want an A-grade, around 50 blog posts across the whole project including the production and evaluation would be considered a minimum for you to achieve this.     

Audience Research

Conducting Audience Research...

“Excellent” research into a potential target audience is actually quite simple - it means demonstrating that you have considered 5 things:

1.       Who you audience might be (demographics)

2.       What types of media they currently engage with (films, TV shows, music etc)

3.       Why they like those films/media (audience pleasures)

4.       What they think of your opening sequence idea.

5.       How your findings for the above 4 questions will influence your own production... how you will cater to your audience’s needs/desires?

How to do it... Option 1: Questionnaire.

Design a questionnaire with around 5-10 questions which investigates some of the following:

·         Age/gender of audience

·         How they see themselves as a film audience member (Movie buff? Casual audience? Goes to cinema but other people choose what to see?... try not to simply ask how often they go the cinema which doesn’t really tell you much about them)

·         Favourite genres/favourite films – why?

·         Favourite directors?

·         Favourite/memorable film sequence – why?

·         Favourite actors? – why?

·         Other media (favourite TV shows/music/games)

·         Write your opening sequence idea down in a couple of lines – then ask for some feedback.... this last one will be the most telling.

Once you’ve collated your responses to the questionnaire – write a short report which summarises what you have learnt about your audience. The points you make will depend on how you interpret the responses. 

How to do it... Option 2: "Talking Heads"

Do exactly as above, only instead of keeping it paper-based, pose the questions to individuals or pairs of people on camera then edit their answers together question by question... upload to Youtube, embed to your blog and post a summary of your findings.

Final note... NO PIE CHARTS!

This is what I think of pie charts...