Location

Finding appropriate film locations are crucial to the making of a good film, in order to do this we became location scouts for the day! We travelled to various possible film locations that we included in our storyboard and photographed them. 

The first location we are planning to film at is Clapham common, this is due to the fact that there will be a funfair there during February half term which is where Faith goes missing and is also when the actors who will be playing Cassie and Faith are available. 

The poster!

This is a nice establishing shot that we would include include in the home video section.

This is a quick clip showing the location in it's full glory. Enjoy!

Another one of our locations is a dimly lit, bleak garage where the opening sequence starts with Cassie sitting watching home videos of herself and Faith when they were younger.

 View from the back of the garage.

 Harsh lighting.

 Loose wires, exposed brickwork and unfinished paintwork reflect the dishevelled aspects of Cassie's personality.

 Dusty splintered floorboards.

 The view from outside the garage.

The view from the front of the garage.

These photos present the location in its raw form. With the application of props and some finishing touches i'm sure it'll be close to our sketches from our story board and it'll really create the atmosphere that we want to give off. There will be photos of the finished set posted during the filming process.

Animation idea for the 'Aluna Blu Studios' logo

While visiting Clapham common as a possible filming location, we came up with an idea for the animation of the 'Aluna Blu Studios' logo that would feature at the beginning of our opening sequence. The idea arose while throwing stones in the pond on the common. We liked the ripples and the splashes that stones entering the water created. It's quite a neutral image and can reflect the serious tones that are film consists of. Here are some images of the splashes and ripples.

As we really liked the idea of the theme of water and the ripple effects and movement it showed, we also had the idea of putting coloured bath bombs in water and filming it as they dissolve because they create bubbles and ripples in the water as well as the colour. We thought we could do this four or five times with different colours and then use it as a background when we digitally put the credits on screen.

In further research we decided that the colours of bath bombs are too light and pretty (pastel colours) and it wouldn't fit the theme of our film which is a psychological thriller. If the audience saw these colours along with out production logo then they'd probably expect a happy, romantic comedy or a chick flick and this would completely contrast with our film. So while looking at pictures, we had the idea to put paint in water and watch it rise and move around as it is looks like colourful waves underwater.

After finding this clip on youtube of black paint in water moving around and popping in some places, we have decided that we're going to use this clip as the background animation for our production logo and some of the credits.

Detailed look at the 'Se7en' opening sequence

When looking for an existing opening sequence to dissect, we looked back into our influences to find 'Se7en'. It's of the thriller genre as is our film which is a reason for choosing it. We also looked back at it as we remembered it made extremely good use of the credits and that we especially liked the typography. 

A main reason for doing this is so we can learn about the structure of opening sequences so when it comes to storyboarding and in the future, the filming of our project, we will have a rough idea of the sort of things that we need to include. Another reason for conducting this research is so that we can appreciate the type and number of shots used and also the shot lengths.

Here's a record of all the credits and their times included in the 'Se7en' opening sequence.

The music used sounded like a steady high hat beat with multiple sound effects layered over the top giving it that edge. There were hints of electric guitar from 01:40 till the end of the opening sequence with gritty male vocals coming in at 02:00 and seeing it through till the end. The effect of layering the music up as the sequence progresses causes the audience to concentrate on the various shots, credits and visual effects. 

The typography is very jittery and scatty conveying the thriller genre to a tee. 

Pretty much all of the shots in this opening sequence are close ups or extreme close ups. We did find that the length varied depending on how important that particular credit was. For example, the film's production company 'New Line Cinema' had a shot length of 5 seconds as did the title of the film and the staring roles. However, the credits which had less importance tended to be between 2 and 3 seconds.

It was very hard to count the number of cuts as they are tremendously quick but we ended up with 81 as a rough number. This isn't any where near the average number of cuts in an opening sequence as the average number of cuts for an entire film is 600-700, if 'Se7en' had 81cuts every two minutes they would exceed this amount in the first 20 minutes. 

By doing this research it has opened our eyes to the amount of detail involved in an opening sequence such as 'Se7en'. Using this as a model, we can hopefully come out with an end product that could be of industry standard.

Possible Film Titles

We still haven't come up with a name for our film! So we thought it was time to brainstorm with help from our trusty Collin's Thesaurus. 

These were some of the words we thought suited the concept and tone of our film.

Detachment 

Secluded

Astray

Stolen Happiness

Unparalleled

We have decided on the title of our film after looking through our options and have decided on 'Unparalleled'. We made this decision because we feel it doesn't give away too much of the film and it seems quite a mysterious, psychological title which is what we are portraying.

The Game

We came across 'The Game' on the off chance while watching television last weekend. We really liked the opening sequence as it has very similar ideas as to what we are planning to do with our film. In particular, we liked the the vintage style home filming that we plan to do ourselves when showing Cassie and Faith when they were younger before Faith was kidnapped. Here's the link to 'The Game' opening sequence.

The Game (1997) — Art of the Title

Production company logo

The production logo that we design should reflect the tone/genre of the film we are going to make. So in our case  we would have have to make a logo to reflect the serious, dramatic tone of our film. Many major film company identities tend to reflect a wider appeal- Universal, Paramount and Dreamworks, for example. We decided that the name would have to be a neutral name meaning that it didn't evoke laughter and people wouldn't prepare themselves for a comedic feel to the film. Here are some of the names we decided upon as our possible production company name.

Rizzim Productions

Liquid Silver Studios

Indigo Blu Studios

Aluna Blu Studios

Aluna Light Films

Infrared Indent Pictures

Strobe Studios

Still Strobe Studios

We decided it was a toss up between 'Aluna Blu Studios' and 'Still Strobe Studios'.These were a few sketches of ideas for what our logo would look like:

We decided in the end to go with 'Aluna Blu Studios' as we feel it doesn't limit the film's plot to a particular genre such as horror or comedy, but instead has a wider appeal. We picked sketch 3 to develop and made our logo using photoshop. Here is the finished result:

This is only a still of the logo as we want to animate it for our opening sequence. We quite liked how the credits are animated in the opening sequence for 'Scott Pilgrim vs The World', the letters move ever so slightly leaving a coloured, faded version of where it was before.

Target Audience

Deciding on a target audience is a crucial point when making a film as in most cases it secures the possibility that the film will be a success, so it is very important that we get it right and research into what they want from our film.

Here is a clip of us disscussing our target audience.

Certification

When deciding on a certificate for our film, we looked at the issues that are focused on in the film such as: mental illness, kidnapping and murder plus the use of expletives. We then researched films with similar issues addressed in them and looked to see what the certificates they had been given.
The symptoms that Cassie shows in the film that we can tell are due to mental illness are very similar to that of schizophrenia as she has hallucinations where she can see Faith, she can't remember being told that Faith died and she has social withdrawal.

 

Here are some of the films that we looked at with simialar issues:

Through A Glass Darkly (1961)

"A young woman, Karin, has recently returned to the family island after spending some time in a mental hospital for treatment for schizophrenia. On the island with her is her lonely brother and kind, but increasingly desperate husband. They are joined by Karin’s father, who is a world-traveling author that is estranged to his children. The film depicts how Karin’s grip on reality slowly slips away and how the bonds between the family members are changing in light of this fact."

Certificate given = 15

Donnie Darko (2001)

 

 

"Donnie Darko doesn’t get along too well with his family, his teachers and his classmates; but he does manage to find a sympathetic friend in Gretchen, who agrees to date him. He has a compassionate psychiatrist, who discovers hypnosis is the means to unlock hidden secrets. His other companion may not be a true ally. Donnie has a friend named Frank – a large bunny which only Donnie can see. When an engine falls off a plane and destroys his bedroom, Donnie is not there. Both the event, and Donnie’s escape, seem to have been caused by supernatural events. Donnie’s mental illness (schizophrenia), may never allow him to find out for sure."

 

Certificate given = 15

 Shutter Island (2010)

 

 

 

 

"U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels is assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Boston's Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital. He's been pushing for an assignment on the island for personal reasons, but before long he wonders whether he hasn't been brought there as part of a twisted plot by hospital doctors whose radical treatments range from unethical to illegal to downright sinister. As a hurricane cuts off communication with the mainland, more dangerous criminals "escape" in the confusion, and the puzzling, improbable clues multiply, Teddy begins to doubt everything - his memory, his partner, even his own sanity. We are then shown at the end of the film that everything we have seen has been a lie as part of an elaborate fantasy of Teddy Daniels to make himself the hero and erase from his memory the fact that he murdered his wife and children."

Certificate Given = 15