The Walking Dead 'Hospital Corridor' Promo

Research: The Lovely Bones trailer

Group research

CHRIS'S MUSIC RESEARCH:

Research of music for Thriller idea.

I have looked for sinister music to try to incorporate into our piece as non-diegetic sound. I looked broadly at some piano music as I feel this will fit into the sequence and allow it to flow seamlessly. These are some possibilities I have found.


"Comptine d'un autre été: l'après midi" composed by: Yann Tiersen
This was my first thought; it is quite a sad tune but I thought it was more sinister than it actually was. This seems quite romantic which does fit with the flashbacks but will conjure completely different connotations of what the sequence is about and does not fit with the thriller genre.


I researched some movies with some sinister underlying music and found this. Whilst it is more sinister; it does take a while to get going and is quite slow moving. This is not necessarily a bad thing and around 3:30 the music becomes stagnated and staccato with a sort of urban techno beat to it. This is very sinister and unsettling; this is the sort of music I would like to aim for.



This is the third song I found. It is slightly faster and more techno but is still somewhat sinister. The fluency fits our fast paced, quick shooting style. This, I think is almost perfect for the piece and will definitely direct the audience towards thinking this is sinister. It is a bit same-y however so I cannot deem this sort of music perfect.

These are just some ideas that I think could compliment the piece very well and aid fluency as well as building tension. I will take the ideas to the group and see how they feel about them.

Group Research

Lauren is in my group and she researched the lighting for the piece:

Lighting Research

My group started to look at lighting ideas. We originally looked at single spotlights and different lighting positions. We then started to talk about wanting to have the lighting dimmed so that it is darker and more mysterious; for example, just having a single light bulb in the room, giving it that more naturalistic lighting, but the room still looking dimmed - just like in the title sequence 'Affliction'.

Research: footsteps sound effects

At the beginning of our thriller we want to create a mood of isolation so we know that no one is near this man. I want to add in echoes to the footsteps sound effect to add extra tension and feel of isolation. This example shows the idea of what we want to do however I want it to be much cleaner with no shuffling.

Research: SE7EN - music

The music in this opening title sequence is quite weird and you don't quite know what the sounds are. Personally I think we want to create something like this so the audience are confused what is going on in the basement with this child. We also want to add diegetic sounds for example him walking into the basement and the key going in the lock.

Research: Band of Brothers & The Pacific, flashback scenes - concerntrating on Band of Brothers

In our opening sequence we want to create two stories of the man, him in the room with the child, and also him with his wife who is actually dead. The use of flashbacks in Band of Brothers makes it clear that he is thinking about something else (the flashbacks) which is what we want to create.

Research: Affliction

The use of the second screen is quite similar to what we want to do however not in the concept of filming him but getting up different files on a computer. Also the dark colours is something we want to portray. There is a camera in this which is fairly similar however we are closely setting up the camera not having it set up.

Research: setting & lighting (The Rock)

The setting in this is very dark and gloomy, it has a basement feel. Obviously this is a piece of research so we will not copy this set out but I am just getting ideas about the colour of the setting and the lighting. The fourth picture emphasises the basement feel with the lighting as it looks dusty, like a basement would. 

I also liked the idea in the second picture of the film spinning round. In our thriller we had the idea of setting up a camera, this is a different approach to make it clear that we are filming. I will present this to my group to see what they think as we thought the flashing red button would look good.

Storyboard - coursework

We spent 2 lessons doing the first draft of our storyboard. This involved deep analysis into cuts, timings, whats happening in the shot e.t.c. On lesson one there was only me and Chris in our lesson so we took it slowly and in a lot of depth to do the first 5 or 6 scenes. We thought about the non-diagetic we should use however we could not be definite as we wanted to talk about it with the rest of our group. Lesson two was came together more as all of the group could discuss our ideas. Chris tried to work out the timings and realised that the whole shoot would be very short so then Laura, Lauren and myself worked it out and felt it was slightly longer than Chris said.
We have yet to work out the location of our shoot. I think it would be much easier to do the camera set up in the studio however the shot including the hallway and the door will have to be done somewhere else. We are all looking into some non-diagetic music we can use and this will hopefully be sorted soon however I think it will change and there will be a discussion as each person will like their own music they find.
In the beginning we decided to use a digital camera to set up. This gives connotations of police detective, photographer, stalker and other connotations. However we changed our minds and decided to set up a film camera. When we conversed as a group we realised that maybe a film camera straight away goes to the idea of psycho rapist. So we might think about this and experiment between the two so we don't give any ideas away.
These two lessons were very helpful in laying out our shoot and work out where we are. We still have a lot to do but so far our group is getting on well and it is successful.

Opening title sequence of SE7EN - Kyle Cooper

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The music:

The soundtrack for this sequence is quite unsettling. It is slow and creates a sense that something bad is always about to happen. Sound effects have also been added for affect which include clicks and different high pitched screeches. As the sequence is ending the music gets faster. In my opinion this music doesn’t fit the piece but because Kyle Cooper is so clever, by using the beats out of time, creating an unsettling mood which is what I think he intended to do.

Camera:

The camera shots are mostly all extreme close ups which create a sense of ambiguity to the audience, and they don't know what is coming up next. By using these ECU's Kyle Cooper makes the hands in this sequence become a person with a confusing personality. From watching this concerntrating on camera I have made an assumption of what this man is like, I think he is suspicious and clever and has lots of secrets to hide.

Editing:

The editing of this piece disorientates the audience as it chops and changes to different activities that this man is doing. It is hard to concertrate on one thing as there are so many cuts. Each shot lasts about 2 seconds and the whole thing is just over 2 minuites so that puts into perspective how choppy and changing the piece is. In my opinion this really works as I think this is what Kyle Cooper intended to do. 

Wimbledon Opening Titles

The titles:

 The titles jump from left to right with the beat of the music. The text is concordant with the soundtrack which makes it visually interesting and fresh for the viewers eye.

In this sequence Cooper uses still images to create a moving image mixed with videos. This creates a very dynamic and visually interesting sequence as you start to move your head with the people. It is very clear that they are watching a tennis match so the sequence works with the title. At the beginning the camera follows sky and it looks like a summers day so he is setting the scene but also it suggests a new day, new start, and the beginning of the movie.

After this the whole way through it is kind of the same thing just moving heads, until the end where the tennis ball comes towards you almost in a 3D way. This opening sequence could easily be very boring however Cooper adds a twist to his work & it becomes very interesting  to look at.

 

Skyfall Opening Credits - analysis

This opening sequence is very dramatic and goes almost through a story.  It connects to the music as some of the actions relate to the lyrics. The credits are not too big so they do not distract from the graphics however they are centred to there is an attention to them. The most important names are at the beginning, middle and end with Daniel Craig first, then Judie Dench and then the Director.
The opening scenes are very dark with lots of shadows suggesting things are going on that people don't know. There are about 70 names that come up in the opening sequence which gives an idea of how many people work on the film.

About Kyle Cooper

Kyle Cooper  is a modern designer of motion picture title sequences. He studied graphic design at Yale University. He got an MFA in graphic design at Yale which kick started his career working as a creative director at R/GA and at advertising agencies in New York and Los Angeles. He also got a BFA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Whilst working at these places he made the title sequence for 'Seven' which was quoted “One of the most important design innovations of the 1990s”. After making this sequence Kyle Cooper became very in demand and has now directed over 150 film title sequences. He has also been awarded with "almost single-handedly revitalizing the main-title sequence as an art form".
Kyle Cooper also started two film design companies called Imaginary Forces and Prologue Films.
Here are some of the title sequences Kyle Cooper has done:

Here are some sequences he has done but he has done many more too.

Kyle Cooper Demo Reel

Movement, energetic, animation, advertisement, movies, names, words, colour, black and white, stand out, visually interesting, dynamic, versatile, clever, eye catching, motion.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - Kyle Cooper

The music: 
The music is menacing at the beginning which sets the scene. There are sounds of the actions such as the man climbing over the wired fence in the first scene which adds reality to the piece. The 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' section is highlighted with the bang of the gun and the white text melting down like blood.
The scenes:
Each scene is very visually interesting and add a new aspect to the story. Every one flows and the fact that they are drawings highlights his talent. Each scene tells a story almost as if it is a cut down version of the film.
The text/titles:
The titles are bold so you can see them however they are quite small so they do not distract the audience from the amazing graphics.

Catch Me if You Can Opening Title Sequence - analysis

As a contrast to the other opening sequence I have analysed on 'Skyfall'. This is completely animated but completely shows the idea of the film. Cleverly the way the credits are done they fall down in a line and then are used by the animated people either by hanging off them or walking on them as steps. The most well known name is presented first after the production credits, "Leonardo Di Caprio."The way the title is presented with the "me" flying off suggests that the person is good and not being caught, this is then highlighted by the taxi turning right and then the police car turning right after cars had passed the turning slowly. The music feels like a chase too so this adds to the tension of the opening sequence.