Title Research: Sport/Drama (Creed)

https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/creed-1/

During the opening sequence of Creed, a sports-drama based film, 26 titles were displayed. The film began with what I assumed to be some sort of flashback. In the opening sequence, still images of what was to come in the movie was also used. The still images carried a determined and intense, yet troublesome connotation. The genre throughout the opening sequence was reinforced multiple times through the still images. The still images showed the main character in action in a boxing ring and snippets of his troublesome childhood and love life. Intense score music was used to create its enigma, by creating an intense atmosphere to pull the audience into the film. Fade outs and fade ins were also common throughout the entire opening sequence as well. Together these components brought the opening sequence together. 

Watch the titles

https://www.watchthetitles.com/

I wanted to expand my knowledge on titles, so I decided to further my research. Another site I decided to use for my titling research is Watch the Titles. This site was helpful in many ways. From the start, everything was clear and simple to understand. I got to view certified published works of other students, which was amazing I might add. I watched a couple more opening sequences of films and they were all helpful. I learned a few new ways to display titles. I also learned that transitions such as fade in/outs were very common.

Art of the title

https://www.artofthetitle.com/

 Today I began my research on titles. As I searched the web, I stumbled upon this site: Art of the Title. Right from the introduction page, I grew amazed. This site features a ton of movie, TV show, and even documentary openings. It was extremely helpful. I was able to see the creative ways titles were used. There's an option to view the titles of many films, so I watched a couple. A few things I learned from this site would have to be not all titles use the same font. I also learned a few creative  locations for title placements. 

Genre research: drama

During the beginning of the school year, I was assigned a genre to research: drama. I worked in a group to deconstruct the elements of the genre. In the presentation above, you're able to see what we'd found. Drama is such a broad and popular genre. We researched the common camera angles, shots, and movement used to differentiate the genre from other genres such as action, romance, horror, and thriller etc. Further into the presentation, we switched our focus to the mis en scene and sounds of drama. We even provided a couple of film examples. Towards the end of the presentation we were able to add in our own personal thoughts on the genre's elements. An element that appealed to me in the genre would have to be the use of sounds. Personally, I love how in drama films, viewers are able to feel a character’s emotion through its soundtrack.

A pitch or a home run?

  I've managed to narrow down my pitch options. This was a bit difficult, considering my three pitches fit the thriller genre. While deciding on the two I'd stick with, I thought about many factors. Filming was one of my main factors, I also thought about a couple of mis en scene such as make up, costuming, and actors etc.

  The first pitch I decided on was "Tired of the torment she faces from her schoolmates, Grey, a devoted high school outcast decides it's time she takes matters into her hands. Her involvement in the murder of her nine classmates is traced through conflicting memories during a police investigation." While picturing how I'd film this, my thoughts were simple compared to the ones of other pitches. I alone could be the actress in my two-minute opening so, because of my preference of working alone, when it comes to assignments like these, I immediately decided on this pitch. Make up and costuming would too be simple. I would be able to utilize my everyday clothing and not change much about my appearance to fit the main character.

  The second pitch I choose was "A group of teenagers are suspects in a bank robbery, a crime they didn't commit. What will it take to prove their innocent?" Compared to the pitch I didn't select, this seemed to be more in my range. I wouldn't need to use any kind of excessive make up. I could easily use a couple of my schoolmates to play the role of the teenage group. Make up and costuming also wouldn't be too difficult to work on. I believe both of these are both really good for this assignment; they spark interest. The first one especially, which is why I've made my final decision to go along with it.

The final task

 I've participated in the making of a music video, now the time has come. Since the beginning of this journey, I've learned about many new things. From camera angles, to camera movements, sounds, and many more, it's time I put them to use. I loved learning about sounds the most, aside from editing techniques. While watching films and shows, sound was something I didn't directly pay much attention to. When you think about sounds in films, most people would think about how sound helps to create the mood. Although they are not incorrect, sound is much more than that. There are a variety of sounds and each has a different example. For example, 

 Today, I will be starting my final task, which is the making of a two minute, original, opening to a film. I also got to learn about pitching a film. A pitch is a Hollywood term used to describe an idea where a film is encapsulated in just a few words/sentences. The specific type of pitch I will be using is the elevator pitch. The vision used when it comes to elevator pitches is imagining oneself going up a couple of floors in an elevator alongside someone who is very important. You don't have much time to say your movie idea, and so this is where elevator pitches come in. You have 30 seconds to sell your movie idea. What will you say in that short amount of time? I've managed to come up with three elevator pitches. Although I'm still deciding on which one I'll be using for this project, here's what I've come up with thus far.

1) The life of Roman, a young boy who survives a neurological virus outbreak sets out to find a cure and discovers he isn't the only one.

2) Tired of the torment she faces from her schoolmates, Grey, a devoted high school outcast decides it's time she takes matters into her hands. Her involvement in the murder of her nine classmates is traced through conflicting memories during a police investigation.

3) A group of teenagers are suspects in a bank robbery, a crime they didn't commit. What will it take to prove their innocent?

Descript

Filming challenges

 This past week has been more challenging than anticipated. I ended up switching my storyboard around a bit. Sticking to it was much harder than I thought it would be. When it comes to the angles, movements and the type of shots I plan on using, I’m pretty confident. I’ve not had to worry about those just yet. Something I do indeed have to worry about is shooting my new scenes. I need to have solid back up plans if no one is to assist me with shooting. Overall, I was able to get a bunch of new shots, my music video is nearly complete!

 Over Thanksgiving break I spent the first two days filming morning scenes. When I woke up I made sure it was the first task I did. During my process, I realized that I wouldn’t be able to shoot every single take I was hoping to get from my storyboard. With me working alone, it didn’t come as a surprise. Therefore, as I was shooting, I made changes to my storyboard and continued on. Now I need to shoot a few more takes in a much different location than expected. I’ll be shooting some school and bus scenes this week, in hopes of sorting through all my takes by the end of the week.

 Furthermore, I never did get to purchase the mount I originally planned on using; therefore, I improvised. I made a tripod out of a toilet roll. I used a paper roll to hold it up and stacked a few boxes underneath. Now, don’t get me wrong, it was much harder than you think. Because I was shooting in different locations, moving the boxes were quite a hassle. My phone kept falling out of the “tripod” and the paper roll kept falling over.

 Moreover, my phone had been acting odd too. Whenever I’d place it at a certain angle, the camera would start glitching. It’s not as noticeable in majority of the shots I plan on using though. Even though this is occurring, it’s not ruining my shooting process. I’m still very much content with my takes. I’ve also already begun to edit my music video. I won’t be going far in depth with the editing, that I will save for another post. This journey has been interesting, yet difficult.