Inventive Titles- Black Swan

For my title sequence for Black Swan I wanted to keep it very simple and almost childlike. Through my research of themes I concluded that Nina (films protagonist) is very childlike, she is a grown woman living in a pink bedroom in her mothers apartment. Nina is extremely dedicated to her dancing and has all that is required to be the white swan. However all the qualities that she needs to become the black swan is the opposite to her personality. To become the black swan Nina has to confront a part of growing up that we all have to face which is sexuality. She lacks the passion and seduction which is what the Black swan is all about.

For my title sequence I wanted to play on the childlike qualities that Nina possesses. Features that i wanted to include were:

• Mirrors- Has one at home which she dances in front of. There are also loads of mirrors in her dance studio.
• Mums Paintings/drawings- Very simple drawing of a black swan = childlike
• Swan Feathers- Black feather falling.

I only used black and white during this sequences as they are the dominant colours in the film. A lot of mirrors are used in the film so I wanted to incorporate one into my sequence. As Ninas mother pains in the film i thought placing a very simplistic drawing of a swan on the mirror would add more indication to what the film was about. 

Again I used iMovie to edit my title sequence. I slowed down both clips to make the sequence seem more mysterious. I also used free sound.org, to get music of a child's music box playing, this reflects Nina's childlike qualities. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73bSefYfO9Q

Comments from the crit:

• Clean
• Good themes
• Could build on mirrors?

Inventive Titles- Sopranos

Following my research into the themes within Sopranos, I wanted to focus on the main theme which is Tonys mental health. I find that when people thing of Sopranos the first thing that comes to mind is gangsters, however the main focus of the show is Tonys mental health, him being a gangster is just part of his life. I researched into depression as this is the illness that Tony is diagnosed with, I wanted my opening title sequences to reflect this in someway.

I then got onto thinking about puppets, Tony has so many issues to think about in his life. This leads to him telling lies or saying and doing things to make people happy. I thought a puppet would be a good symbol of this this to use in my opening title sequence. However following this I started to think about ventriloquism dummies. As mentioned before Tony says a lot of things to please people or cover his back, perceiving him to be under control of others around him. I also thought the dummy would be symbolic of him talking to his therapist.

I also wanted to include a chair into my sequence to represent the therapist chair that Tony sits in throughout every series of The Sopranos.  The chair that I used in the sequence spun around. So i filmed it spinning multiple times.

The other aspect I wanted to include was the medication that Tony takes. I filmed loads of pills falling onto a table as well as a man (my dad) eating one.



Editing

I wanted to keep this sequences quite simplistic so didn't do much editing. With the spinning chair I put it in slow motion which made the shot feel much more intense. As well as this I made the falling pills into slow motion as well as reversing them, followed my a man eating them. This was to represent the excessive consumption of pills that he takes. I added my text using iMovie, I was able to adjust how the text entered and left the shot. As well as adjust the colour/ font and size of the text.

Soundtrack

I wanted to make a soundtrack to tie in with the theme of Tonys mental health. I made the soundtrack using garageband. The majority of the sound used in this was spun clips from the programme that highlights Tony's issues. As the sequences develops the clips overlap each other. Throughout the sequence is a heartbeat that is increasing and at the end is the sound of a man having a panic attack. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlrVy7tUAAw

Comments from the crit:

• Eerie
• Liked the slow motion
• Pills work- symbolism
• Really like the chair = pace, intense

Inventive titles

Following our christmas break the first project that we were set was titled 'Inventive Titles'. Our task was to create two title sequences based on existing films (Western, Thriller, Bollywood), Television drama or News  show. Once reading the brief I thought to myself actually how important opening titles are to a film/show, as they set the viewer up for the film and what the film will be about. This is something that I had never really thought about before. After analysing each genre and the semiotics within it I decided to focus on the thriller genre and Television drama. I decided to focus on these two for this project as out of the selection, they are the type of things that I would usually watch, which I think will allow me to be more experimental with this project.

After researching further into Television Dramas and Thrillers, I decided to focus on 'The Sopranos' for my television Drama and 'Black Swan' for my Thriller. For both I made a double page spread in which I researched into the themes that are prominent in both.

Christmas Project

For our christmas project we were assigned to capture our christmas holidays in its rawest form, this could be done via photographs or video. For me the christmas holidays was about spending time with my family as well as with my friends as a lot of them have been away at university so I haven't seen them as much as I would've liked since they left in September. For a lot of events that I attended over the holidays I took my camera with me and took a lot of photos and videos. I wanted to produce a short film of my holidays, for this I juxtaposed my family time with the time I spent with my friends. I think this worked well and was happy with the outcome of my film. Not only is this film beneficial for my uni work but its something I can keep forever and remember my christmas by. When showing my film to both friends and family, it evoked a lovely response, which made me more proud of film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX37BZ0uSEY&feature=youtu.be 

Here are some photos that I took over my holidays:

Christmas day

My uncle who came over from Malta to spend christmas with us

NYE- On new years eve I went to a house party at my friends house in Brighton, we used a variety of lights to decorate the house, this allowed me to experiment with the photographs that I took.

TV Show - Final Week

The third and final week of the TV project was finally our chance to put all our hard work together and go live with our TV show. As their were two groups working this project, the first group went live first. During their show I had a less important role to my role in my group. However my role in the 'Jack the Ripper' was still important, I was the sound assistant, which required me to mic up all presenters and actors, as well as ensure that the battery on their mice wasn't running low and that they could hear the director from the gallery. Although this job wasn't as major as my job in my groups show, it gave me a opportunity to see how a live show runs and prepared me for our show.

For my groups show, I was a camera operator. During the run through day there was a lot of waiting around, as the director had to work out camera angles so that they were perfect for the show. The second day (day we went live) was a very exciting yet nerve-racking day. We spent most of the day, repeatedly running through the show which was very beneficial for me, as by the time we went live I knew what camera angles I had to produce. Overall I feel that our TV show went really well, although at times we thought it wouldn't go to plan, we stayed positive and I think that all of our hard work paid off. Doing this project was just confirmation for me that I want to pursue a career in television.

Sound Assistant

Set

View from behind the camera

Tv Show- developments

Once the group had concluded the structure and ideas for our show, we all started taking on roles so that everyone had something to do. To begin with I started researching into costumes and what we would have to get for our actors. I also helped with advertising for actors on various websites. The second week of the TV project enabled us to be in the studio and get more of an idea of how our show would look. This also highlighted to us areas of our show that needed to be worked on. 

Sketch of studio 

After being in the studio and blocking through the script, we concluded that we needed to change some areas of our show. I think the main changes that had to be made was to the script. We needed the questions asked to our guests to be related to Andy Warhol more, seeing as our show was focused on his work. I took on the role of rewriting the questions, I also done a lot of research into past interviews of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis so that the actors responses were realistic and relevant to the show. 

Re-written Script 

Time Zone- Script

-       Welcome and Introduction (FUTURE)

-       Time Travel

-       Selfish Giant Review/ Interview Students (PRESENT)

-       Time Travel

-       Interview Guests: Andy, Elvis, Marilyn, John Lennon (PAST)

-       Go to time travel but breaks

-       JFK

-       Time Warp (PAST)

Jack: “Hello and welcome to Time Zone.”

Natalie: “The show that says doesn’t just dream about time travel, live it!”

(* presenters by TV screen *) (Stage left )

Jack: “This week we will be stepping back in time focusing on the wondrous Andy Warhol and his artwork.”

Natalie: “But before that it’s time for us to visit a much simpler time when One Direction was still popular (I know Unbelievable!) and the leader was still human! I am of course talking about the year 2013 where we review the latest work from Clio Barnard and his film, The Selfish Giant.”

(* CUT TO VT OF IMOGEN AND HER INTERVIEW *)

Jack: “Oh err (* hesitate *) wasn’t expecting that guess people weren’t censored in 2013.”

Natalie: “Staying in 2013 we are now thrilled to welcome an exciting guest, straight from Ravensbourne, a Design College in South London. This special guest was an anticipated star of tomorrow. Please welcome *** *** ***”

(* STUDENT TO ENTER *)

Natalie: “Thank you so much for coming on the show….”

Q1. Tell me a bit about your work

Q2. What is it that drew you to this style?

Q3. Who do you take your inspiration from?

Q4. Drawing from the past, whom would you like to be as big as?

Jack: “Thank you very much for your time and good luck with everything in the future.”

Natalie: “Coming up next we are heading to the past to get up close and personal with Mr Andy Warhol.”

(* CUT TO ADVERT *)

Jack: “Welcome back to Time Zone. We are now heading to the swinging 60’s as we look at Andy Warhol’s painting and meet the people who inspired him to produce them.”

Natalie: “Andy is best known for founding the pop art movement in American Art. He developed the technique of projecting photographic images onto a silk screen. This quick process enabled him to repeat these images very quickly.”

Jack: “I am now very pleased to welcome the people who are featured in Warhol’s Paintings.”

Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe

* ELVIS AND MARILYN TO ENTER * (not on camera)

(* Elvis and Marilyn on set *)

Elvis:( *shocked & confused*) “What’s going on? Where are we?”

Jack: “You’re on the set of Time zone, we’ve come back from the future to ask your opinions on the future artwork that you feature in.”

(SHOW ARTWORK) (* Marilyn and Elvis happier*)

Natalie: “These paintings were created in the 1960’s by artist Andy Warhol”

Marilyn: “Wow, I can’t wait to be part of this project”

Jack: “Marilyn, you will be the first subject used in a Warhol painting. As a famous actress how does it make you feel to have been picked as part of his work?”

(* Marilyn looks at painting *)

Marilyn: “I think it’s amazing to be the first person to be used in a Warhol painting. It seems that Andy’s work will be highly influential to artists, so to be recognised as a famous actress in the future means a great deal to me.”

Natalie: “Elvis, what are your views on the painting of yourself?”

(* Elvis looks at painting *)

Elvis: “I think it’s extremely interesting, I love the use of bright colours, I’ve never seen a piece of artwork that is so colourful before. But I’m a bit unsure why I’m not performing in this painting.”

Natalie: “Well let’s just say your more than just a singer in the future…”

Jack: “Marilyn, even in the future you are known as a sex symbol. Are you sultry and sexy by nature and do you enjoy being this type?”

Marilyn: “What is a type? I am myself- Marilyn Monroe.” (* said quite flirty *)

Natalie: “And final question to Elvis, is it true that you’ve never had a singing or music lesson in your life?”

Elvis:“ Yes its true; I’ve never had a singing or music lesson in my life. At a young age I just started performing and had to teach myself as I progressed in my career.”

Jack: ”Well we are going to have to leave it there but thank you very much to Elvis and Marilyn”.

Natalie: “Its time to head back to the future where we will conclude TimeZone.”

(* GO TO TIME TRAVEL BUT MACHINE IS BROKEN *)

(* ACTORS ADD ZOMBIE MAKE UP *)
Jack: “Oh no, we’ve created dancing time zombies again”

(* Cuts to Zombie Elvis and Marilyn – Stand there like zombies *)

Natalie: “Get them in the time cupboard before they start dancing” (*said quite panicky *)

(* Elvis Starts dancing- Elvis style *)

(* JFK walks in *)       -       (* Camera Cuts to JKF *)
JFK: “MARILYN! I’ve come to save you, I faked my own death to travel into the future.”  (* Rips off bandage *)

(* MUSIC TO TIME WARP PLAYS *)

(* TIME WARP DANCE *)

(* EVERYONE JOINS IN! *)

SHOW FINISH