IDENT AND THRILLER TITLE

Devising our film title: 

Today we worked on the exact wording for our film title. We wanted the title to:

• establish the film’s genre (modern thriller, dramatic and realistic, with psychological and criminal dimensions)
• convey the key ideas (woman with a flawed personality and a dark secret)
• intrigue the audience (by suggesting an unresolved problem)
• tap into intertextuality through shared knowledge of cultural codes (through using terms or images that the audience is already familiar with

Our short list: 

Bouquet of Blood; Bouquet of Barbed Wire; The Language of Flowers; Bouquet of Brutality; The Black Rose.

After a long discussion with my group we decided that The Black Rose was the best name for our thriller film seeing as  it has so many connotations that work with our plot, in particular the central character of the florist with a dark secret:

• red roses are a traditional symbol of love and the woman in our film feels love and attraction for her victims
• she works in a florist and understands the language of flowers
•  a black rose is the opposite of what you expect because it is a contradiction in terms, an impossible combination (flowers are never genuinely black)
•   Black has connotations of death and hatred, from this it shows a clear view on how the thriller is going to be set out just through the message of one flower. 

       Design Process:

     

     We knew that we wanted to create our film title in Adobe After Effects so we set about researching visual imagery to convey the woman’s disturbed state of mind and forbidden, suppressed longings. We as a group then explored how visual imagery worked in the following:

- 

-        -  Black roses in photos and line drawings

 

- American beauty- film poster 

        - Fuselli Gothic nightmares

v     - William Blake Oh Rose, Thou Art Sick

-       -    This led us to a discussion of the symbolism of snakes, serpents and evil within, with the snake being a universally recognised symbol for Satan. 

Ideas for coursework

In the last period I made a start to my coursework, I firstly chose between making a print cover or a 3 minute extract to a thriller opening. In the end I chose the Thriller opening due to it relating to my interests more than the print. After this i then had to have a group discussion with my fellow peers and see what they wanted to do, and from this we came together as a group to help each other with the video. my group consists of: 

• Henry McPherson
• Jonny Fitzgerald  

This then led to group research. We all had a computer and firstly started to look through and analyse previous AS students work and see what conventions they used to revive their high marks. This gave us a clear idea of what sort of things we needed to do. 

Our ideas: 

• We decided on doing a thriller opening, consisting of a either a male of female on parole from prison. 
• She gets a job that substitutes her needs: e.g. killing and obsessing over children. Possibly a florist 
•  Nice innocent music to play in background, messages of violence only hinted to audiences through gestures and expressions given off by subjects. 
• As a group we are trying to make it as mysterious as possible. 

Further ideas: 

• Casting a women who we first feel sympathetic for at the beginning. 
• The opening is going to be a montage of different shots consisting of mostly panning and over shoulder shots. 
• Casting: 

           - An older woman, preferably a girl in our year or a year above. 

           - A young girl- who is around the age of 8 years old, maybe younger. 

• The music will be a piano throughout the whole sequence 

Montage ideas:

- Begin with an establishing shot of woman walking through a park holding some flowers, with the name of the florist. After this she gives a girl who is skipping along one. From this trying to make it as less suspicious as possible. 

-  Play ground scene: the cry of "mummy", turns her head to see a child running towards her mother, look of desperation.

- she carries on her journey and arrives to the florist where she works- this then leads to the tag of her parole being revealed then leading to a whole range of flash backs revealing her memories. For Instance her tag being typed up on the typewriter. 

- A dark room full of photos, with a 360 degrees pan showing a whole range of photos of children. This point after a southern american accent come into place, starting off with a famous quote of a person trying to justify what they are doing, 

Gone baby gone shows key elements that we will be using in our opening. For instance the slow editing is key to build up suspense and mystery for the audience.  

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pVcYfYhe4w

Art of the Title

300

 Jack Snyders film, 300 has in my opinion is very unique and a one of a kind title sequence. Unlike the majority of other films, he has chosen for the credits to be at the beginning of the film consisting of the main roles in making the it to appear first. For instance the first title: " Directed by: Jack Snyder". The whole of the sequence consists of CGI which is made up of one epic batle shown through a range of animated drawings. The drawings are silouetes of the soldiers and in contrast to this blood is "oozing" all over the screen which is very clever seeing as it is both conoting war, which is setting both the rythm and the theme for the rest of the film and also making up the titles seeing as they are made up of splattered blood.

Another key feature to the opening of this film is the soundtrack. It's a very high pitched sort of cry which symbolises the pain and suggests the era it was set in. It is very effective in the way is captures your attention 

Zombie Land 

The unique thing about this title sequence is the fact that they have incorporated the titles in the background of each clip. For example as the man is falling off the building hits the title: "Columbia Pictures" and it falls apart, as if it has been smashed, which is again a connotation of violence. The sequence is made up of clips of zombies attacking and in somewhat killing people in a comedic way, from this setting the scene for the rest of the film.

Another key feature which makes this sequence seem one if the kind is the way they have edited each clip. For instance they have slowed each clip down to capture the emotions given off by each subject depending whether it is a zombie or a human. They have slowed it down of a mid shot of a zombie throwing up blood, this would allow the audience to get a good look of the details of what they look like and ultimately grip them into watching more. In my opinion i think that Ruben Fleischer has done a fascinating job when it comes to trying to enticing the audience.  

This is England 

  Shane Meadows "This is England" has again a one of a kind opening sequence. For example the opening 3 minutes, is a montage of both titles and pivotal events in English history, take for example Margaret Thatcher being elected for Priminster. The sequence shows patriots of the British society sticking up in what they believe in through fighting and riots consisting of destroying both people and objects.