What equipment i will be using

The camera I will be using will be the Nikon D3200 
















Tripod


















Lighting equipment 









Premiere pro 






Photoshop 

Memento opening sequence class analysis

How can we analyse the opening title sequence of a film?

A title sequence is the way in which films present their title, key production and cast members. The title sequence usually includes the opening credits and helps to create the setting and tone of the film.

Catch me if you can opening sequence film task:

Ingredient	Purpose
Production and cast credits	Tells the audience the companies, directors, actors, who the music is by, the costume designer, film editor etc. that are participating in the film.
Cartoon overview of the whole film	Gives the audience a really short overview about the theme and what is going to happen within the film, such as type of characters.
The main characters	Gives the audience a vision of what the characters are like.
Setting	Where the film will be set and how it will be linked with everything else.
Genre	Gives the audience an idea of what the film is about and the type of things that will happen.
Mood or atmosphere	This adds to the genre in that we see if there is conflict between characters.

Memento:
The opening title sequence for the film Memento begins with a credit sequence, which introduces the audience to the main cast and team of the film e.g., the main character played by “Guy Pearce” and the director of the film “Christopher Nolan”. The transition used to introduce the text is a slow fade and the text is presented in a blue font, which could be suggesting a theme like sadness of the character or a theme in the film. The mood that is created by the non-diegetic sound which is a contributor to the theme and atmosphere of the opening also suggesting the sad element as the music is slow and doesn’t suggest violence or happiness in the film. The music builds up from the start, increasing the tension and mood.  The character’s life at the start of the film suggests is full of violence and not exactly happy as he just killed a man therefore his equilibrium isn’t exactly normal and it also suggest that he is quite a cold and heartless person. The enigma in his life is that he has gaps in his memory therefore he took a picture of the man he just shot in order to remember it. This also is linked in with the title of the film as he keeps it as a memento in order to remember what he just did. In this opening scene it is going backwards in order to show to the audience how the man came to be lying dead on the floor and the character taking a picture. It starts off with the main character holding a picture and then the scene gets rewound back to it going back into his camera, then the guns goes back into his hand and then we see that he actually shot the man. This then makes more sense for us as it shows that the reason he is taking the picture isn’t because his characters is a detective or something but another reason which gets the audience interested as to what is going to happen next. In one part of the opening sequence is a scene where the character is in a room and the whole screen is black and white and the characters deep in thought and trying to piece together where  he is as he has the gap in his memory that need filling. 

Saul Bass research essay

Saul Bass research essay



Saul Bass was born on the 8th May 1920 and died on the 25th April 1996 aged 75.
Saul Bass was an American graphic designer and academy award winning filmmaker. He was best known for his design of motion picture, title sequences, film posters and logos. Over Saul Bass' 40 year career he worked for some of Hollywood's most outstanding filmmakers, those of which include Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick and also Martin Scorsese. 

For each film title his talent varied. For example with Alfred Hitchcock films he designed similar but memorable title sequences using a type of energetic typography for films such as North by Northwest, Psycho & Vertigo.

His wife Elaine Bass worked beside him for the most of his famous career and they made some of the most famous graphic design for film during those 40 years. They met while Bass was creating the title sequence for Spartacus in 1960, in which Elaine was directing and they married in 1961. After that they worked together for almost every title sequence. The first collaborations they done together were promotional films such as For Here to There for United Airlines in 1964 and The Searching Eye for Eastman Kodak. They then had their children Jennifer and Jeffery in 1964 & 1967. But later on in their career between the 1960's and the 1980's, they stopped making title sequences and concentrated on film making and their two children.

However near the end of Bass's career, he was discovered by Martin Scorsese. They then made title sequences for Cape Fear, Casino, Goodfellas and the age of innocence. These were his last title sequences of his whole career. 

Progress review - September

Introduction
After my first month of AS media studies my teacher Mr Allan suggested several areas for improvement which would help to push me up to my target grade.

Video introduction
For my initial practice video which was where we had to demonstrate our understanding of shot types by using camera equipment and premiere pro.  

One improvement was to check edit points. The reason I had to check edit points is because some video clips were overlapping meaning that parts of the video clip got cut off. I done this by adjusting the length of the clips and moving the clips around.

 

Another improvement was to add transitions to all video clips, this is to prove that I have a good understanding of how to use premiere pro. I done this by adding a transitions between each clip.  

One last improvement for the video was to mix up the sound, this is to make all the soundtracks audible to the audience, I done this by turning the people up and the music down.

Blog introduction
There were also several improvements for my written blog entries such as the posts on shot types, camera techniques, media techniques etc.

 

One particular improvement for the blog entries was to add images and examples to the theory posts. This is to show that I have an understanding of the writing and also to break it up so it isn't simply paragraphs of writing.

 

 

One last improvement for the blog entries was to make sure all descriptions were in my own words by using the correct media terminology.  



Media techniques - editing

Media techniques - Editing

Continuity editing:

• Continuity editing is the dominant editing technique found in the narrative feature films, TV and web content.
• It is used to unify a series of disconnected shots into a scene that plays out in a logical fashion.
• This editing is smooth, continuous and coherent and appears invisible.
• What makes films unique is that editing allows the viewer to see a wide shot cut to a close up. 
• This could make a story hard to follow, but continuity editing combined with solid planning allows the viewers to get immersed in the story.

Non-continuity editing:

• In continuity editing the effect is that the choices made are supposed to be invisible to the viewer whereas non-continuity editing tends to be visible.
• These effects call attention to themselves and violate viewers expectations of continuity.

Eye-line match:

• It is based on the premise that the audience will want to see what the character on screen is using. 
• The eyeliner match begins with a character looking at something off-screen, followed by a cut to the object or person at which he is looking.
• For example a man is looking off screen to his left and then the film cuts to a TV that he is watching. 

Match on action:

• Match on action/cutting on action is an editing technique for continuity editing in which one shot cuts to another shot portraying the action of the subject in the first shot. 

The 180 degree rule 

• The first rule that any filmmaker needs to learn before they pick up their camera is the 180 degree rule. 
• Adherence to his rule is necessary to maintain continuity in your scene.
• What you do is create an imaginary line across your set that you will not cross with the camera.
• This way if the actor is on the left side of the frame and the actress is one right side in the master shot, they will stay in those positions throughout the scene as the medium shots and close ups are editing together. 
• If the camera crossed the line and the actress appeared frame left and the actor frame right, then this would cause the audience to become disoriented because the established spatial continuity had been violated.
• Once the spatial distance and positions has been established, you should try not to violate it if you want to maintain continuity.