Title sequence - Final Edit

Evaluation Pt. 7

In this video we discuss which different media technologies we used in the process of creating our title sequence as well as what we have learnt whilst using them.

Evaluation Pt. 6

In this Youtube video we discuss the fact the our film is an independent film and as a result this will limit our options on distribution. This is because we haven't got a big enough budget in order for us to advertise and release our film to a mass audience.

Group

Evaluation Pt. 5

Question: Who would be the audience for your media product?
https://soundcloud.com/tolani-onanuga/evaluation-pt-5

In this Soundcloud I discuss the demographic and psychographic of my media product as well as evaluating the possibility of it going international.

Individual

Evaluation Pt. 4

Individual

Evaluation Pt. 3

Question: How did you attract/address your audience?

https://www.slideshare.net/TolaniOnanuga/how-did-you-attractaddress-your-audience-75718654
individual

Evaluation Pt. 2

How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Group 

My media product represents different social groups, but most predominantly the working class.

Our title sequences takes the audience through the youth of our protagonist named Jack who was raised in a working class, low income single parent household. This is representative of that social group as a lot of single parent households aren't financially stable and may face financial problems due to there being only one source of income.
In addition to this, working class individuals seek immediate gratification thus our protagonist being extremely passionate however he had a strong sense of doubt in his ability which was further enhanced by the hostility of his team mates making him want to pursue a different career that had more guarantee. As a result of this, similarly to young working class kids today, it is likely that Jack would've given up on his football dream in order to pursue an average 9-5 job. However due to the support of his coach who was a father figure in Jacks life, he was able to guide Jack in the direction of his dreams and keep him motivated and passionate which essentially led him to his success. This is a representation of the elderly social group as they're conceived to be very wise and inspirational.


Our title sequence also represents upper/higher class quite stereotypically as once Jack becomes an extremely wealthy and successful football his personality changes into that of an egotistical, arrogant man who is very boastful about his talent as well as his fame.

We used mise-en-scene to show the contrast in social classes from the lighting and grain of the camera to costuming. As you can see in this first image in contrast to the second everything looks a lot more vibrant in the second image as well as his football trainers and shorts looking a lot more stylish and expensive. This represents the difference in social class as once Jack is rich everything is his life is upgraded which is shown through the quality of the camera.

 
The difference in class is also shown in our title sequence through the difference in clothing, every time you see Jack as a younger boy his clothing is quite unattractive and basic however once Jack becomes a rich footballer with a higher status, his dressing suddenly becomes a lot more smart and fashionable. 
 

Despite this, Jack possesses both traits of a working class and upper class man. Although he becomes quite conceited, every time he is revisited by his past he becomes very humble and emotional. An example of this is where in one scene he's looking at his football top with the same number on it as his top from his childhood team and he is very sentimental and deep in thought. This shows that he still remembers where we came from and the struggles he faced to get there.

 Another social group our title sequence is representative of is the male social group because, unlike females it is said that males are a lot more confrontational as well as direct in their speech. This explains why our main character was alienated by his peers due to being less well off and having inadequate clothing and equipment.

individual

Evaluation Pt. 1

Question: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
https://soundcloud.com/tolani-onanuga/evaluation-pt1

This is part one of our evaluation of our title sequence project,in this audio we discuss what we believe we have learnt from filming our preliminary task to now finishing our final task.

Group

Filming journal summary

Due to our film being an independent film we left a lot of our filming to convenience hence why we had a very unstructured and arbitrary meeting schedule. Luckily for us we were able to find locations such as Goals where the boys would get free access into on Tuesdays however, this also limited us as it meant we had to wait an entire week to film there again. On top of this we were also lucky in the sense that all the boys played for football clubs including Kallums younger brother who plays the younger Jack. This was advantageous as it meant we were able to collect footage of football matches with our actual actors without having to worry about costuming or props as it was all already there as they played their matches. This also had its limitations, we faced a lot of difficulties trying to film these matches for instance at Kallums little brothers match we didn't have parental consent from all of the parents therefore we couldn't film. Also at Jacks match he ended up getting injured less than 10 minutes into the game so we weren't able to get much footage. One thing I am proud of is that we didn't need to use any existing footage and every scene in the title sequence we filmed ourselves however I will say that in future I would definitely not rely on leaving things to convenience as things may not always go to plan.

P.S.

For our evaluation we chose to answer some of the questions as a group as we feel like we could all make different contributions when answering the questions as we all we had different roles in which we learnt and discovered different things. I will mark the ones that we did as a group by adding a caption that reads group and mark those that I did alone with a caption that reads individual.

Filming: Day 16

In addition to the scenes we shot at White Hart Lane yesterday we  also filmed younger Jack looking at a poster of White Hart Lane to show that it was his dream to play there growing up.

Filming: Day 15

As filming is coming to a close, we have just been filming little details that'll help establish the narrative. Yesterday Jack and Kaan went to White Hart Lane to film jack in front of the gates. This will establish the setting and the stadium where jack will now be playing with his professional team. We took over the shoulder shots so you could see jack looking up at the stadium gates.

Filming: Day 15

Today Kallum filmed younger Jack watching tv in his living room. He was watching a football match and was cheering as the team he supported scored. This was to show that Jacks enthusiasm for football and as a little boy he'd watch so fixated on the game and wishing he would be playing on the field too. 

A problem we faced with this is that our protagonist is meant to be from a poor background however Kallums house possessed features such as a flat screen tv and expensive furniture so it isn't convincing at all that Jack is from a working class background.

Title Sequence: First edit

This is the first edit of our title sequence. I like the cinematography as i feel there are some elements of rawness which is the type of ambiance we are going for as it is a kitchen sink drama and we are trying to achieve a high amount of verisimilitude. 

However a criticism is the lack of titles which we intend to add in later. It'll help in creating a house style for our film. Another criticism is that it lacks in explaining the narrative which is essential for our title sequence as it is, as well as being a title sequence, meant to show the beginning of our film. 

As you can see it is very short. We need to film more scenes, preferably football scenes and images that will help in understanding the narrative. 

Filming: Day 14

Kallum was able to film his younger brother doing kick ups and dribbles in his garden in order to add more clips of transitions of Jack from younger to older. We also need to film older jack doing these exact same tricks to show the development in skill. We will show the growth of maturity and social class by either filming Jack in a more professional looking location or in better, more sophisticated clothing. 

Filming: Day 13

 Kaan was able to film some scenes in his house as he has various football tops and trophies. He created a set up making his room  dark and lights were shone over the trophies making it stand out very nicely. However, instead of just a pan left shot of the trophies , I advised him to take close ups of particular trophies and maybe tilt up and down whilst panning across instead of just a straight horizontal line to make it more exciting and raw.

1st viewing: feedback

After our first viewing to our class we got feedback from other students and our teacher.

The main feedback we received was that there was no sense of narrative. Because our title sequence is meant to set up the storyline, leading into the main plot of the film it is important that it tells the story unlike other title sequences that may be quite abstract. As a result of this feedback we plan to film more football related shots as well as shots that establish the different settings. Another interesting idea we could do to make the narrative clearer is adding dialogue so the audiece will know exactly what is going on.  Or better yet we could include images that will be intergrained in the title sequence whilst telling the audience what is happening e.g. newspaper reports.

Filming: Day 12

Today we went back to the dance changing rooms. We hung football tshirts on the pegs all around the room to create mise en scene. We placed the football shirt with the number 10 directly under the light to show importance as it was jacks t shirt number for his school football team when he was younger and his number now that he's signed. We did a pan around the room showing all the shirts until finally stopping at number 10 where we did an over the shoulder shot with jack looking at the shirt.

Filming: Day 11

unfortunately our plans for filming throughout the weekend fell through starting on Saturday when the tripod we rented out was faulty so we tried to film jacks football match with a handheld camera. The footage came out very fuzzy and shaky so we couldn't use it. On Sunday Kallum's mum was going to film Kallum's younger brothers football match as he plays the younger jack in our film. Unfortunately due to lack of consent from the other kids and their parents playing in the match, we did not have permission to film. We have come up with a new filming schedule in which we hope to get all the footage we will need by next Friday. 

Soundtrack

The soundtrack we finally decided to use is very orchestral, with simple piano chords at the start. Then violins come in to quicken it up and then even more violins and drums. There is then a short break in the music followed by rumbling of the drums that introduce the crescendo of the soundtrack making it reach its loudest and most atmospheric point. I'd say our soundtrack is very inspirational and fitting to our film because the very simple and almost timid beginning of the song correlates to the attitude of our protagonist at the beginning of his journey and then he grows and grows until finally reaching his crescendo which in our characters life would represent him signing his football contract and becoming such a well respected sportsman and most importantly finally, achieving his dream.

Editing

Yesterday I edited the new footage we got of Jack walking into the changing room. I managed to cut out bits of the film that were shaky or blurry as well as adding fade ins and outs. Today we will attempt to use a new software called 'Motion' which is an editing programme that will enable us to add exciting effects and movement to our titles and credits when they appear on the screen.

Filming: Day 10

Today we will film on our schools huge football field. Conveniently Jack had to teach a year 8 PE class so we will film the kids playing a football match as if it was young Jack playing football in his unprofessional football club before the fame with all his peers.

Welling School football pitch

Filming: Day 9

Today we went back to the dance changing rooms and filmed Jack taking all his new shiny football equipment out of his expensive training bag. We laid it out in a line and filmed across the clothes so titles can appear on them.

The camera was sometimes out of focus and blurry therefore we may need to redo some of the scenes.

First Screening

In preparation for our first screening, we had to edit our title sequence as well as adding post production features such as the titles and credits. We had to pick and choose which footage we'd include and in what order to ensure the narrative was as clear as possible to our audience.

Filming: Day 8

Kaan, Kallum and Jack returned back to Goals in Bexleyheath to film Jack taking some shots into the goal. It replicated the footage we got of Kallum's little brother who plays young Jack, taking shots into the goal. This makes for a nice effect as it shows his growth and progression

We will need to return back to goals one last time to shoot both the boys playing in a match scenario with other boys.

Filming: Day 7

We went to the changing rooms in our schools dance studio. They were a lot cleaner and new looking than our football changing rooms so it shows the progression in his career and lifestyle.

We filmed the same type of tracking shot that we did in the football changing rooms, however instead of scruffy football boots Jack was wearing smart loafers as it isn't long after he's just signed his football contract. 

We brought additional lighting to the changing rooms to make scene brighter than when we shot in the football changing rooms which was quite dark to show that Jack has left that dark period of his life and entered on a lot brighter and happier

Filming: Day 6

For our title sequence we are going to be showing contrasts between Jack as a young boy with a dream to Jack grown up and fulfilling his dreams. Jack, Kaan and I designed this contract as if it was made by younger Jack fantasizing about one day signing a football contract. We made sure our handwriting and drawings were messy and immature so it seems like a young boy did it. We are also thinking about maybe incorporating some credits onto it.

 We filmed a boy in the younger years that had blonde hair like Jacks to sign the contract so we could get an over the shoulders shot which will replicate the footage taken of older jack signing his real football contract.

Filming: Day 5

We found a new location to film Jack signing his football contract. We went into the computer room, cleared a desk and put it in the centre of the room. Because there were still computers around the room, to avoid making the setting not look like a convincing office/meeting setting, we did an over the shoulder shot of jack signing the contract and also a birds eye view shot of the contract which we captured by Kaan standing over jack on a chair

Filming: Day 4

Carrying on from day two of our filming to establish setting, today we filmed some shots of our school changing rooms. This was the perfect location to film as it resembles a football changing room. The floors are muddy and dirty which further connotes the inadequate upbringing of our protagonist. Unfortunately, for legal reasons we could not shoot the children entering the changing rooms without parental consent, we would've used this footage to show all the other boys secluding young Jack as they entered because they don't like him due to him being poor.
I like that there are a lot of clothes and backpacks hung up and around the changing room as it makes it more convincing that the changing room is in use by many school boys, all who would be in Jacks year group.

Filming: Day 3

We used this contract, which we got from google after searching 'football contract template' , and used it in the scene where Jack is signing his contract. This is a good action prop and helps with the mise en scene of our title sequence as it looks like a real football contract making the scene more convincing

Filming: Day 3

On our third day of filming we wanted to get the scene of Jack signing his football contract. We thought the library would be a good place to do this as there is a high table and a long table in front making it look somewhat like a board meeting. 

clip from the filming, bookshelves seen in the background

However when filming we realised surrounding areas causes miss en scene issues as items such as book shelves and other tables and chairs got in the frame. This made it difficult to pass the setting off as a meeting and not a library. Because of this we reshot the scene filming just jacks hands signing the contract. This way we get the shot without getting the background in the frame as well.

Also the camera was on the manual setting for lighting instead of auto thus the footage coming out very dark.

We will find a different location to film the over the shoulder and moving shots of jack signing the contract, preferably in a room that has no disrupting objects and items in it so it will look realistic.

Filming: Day 2

Today we shot medium wide shots in order to establish setting. We filmed our school football pitch which looks quite rough and deserted to show where Jack first started playing football before becoming rich and playing on expensive professional looking astro turf football pitches. This shows that our protagonists start in life was in a poor neighbourhood and he didn't have much. It shows the financial and social struggle he faces 

Filming: day 1

Filming location: Bexleyheath Goals

Conveniently Kallum and Kaan knew of a location local to use that was perfect for our film. The location was a sports centre that consisted of mini football pitches. 

The boys went on Tuesday evening to film around 5pm. As it is winter I feared it may be too dark to film however the boys said they location had flood lights and they also changed the camera settings to make it brighter. The footage came out quite stylistically, creating a midnight blue type of colour scheme. Although it was not what we initially intended the lighting was no issue.

However Josh, Kallum's little brother who was cast to play younger Jack, was the only person in the frame along with another young boy who we cast to play the goalie. We decided this wasn't representative of the scenario we wanted to create as we wanted to show younger jack at football training with a bunch of other boys his age playing a match so we would then replicate this scene when jack is older and playing in a professional football match. 

We may still use the footage we collected, possibly to be used as little flashbacks clips but we will also go back to the location and cast about 8-10 other boys to be in this particular scene. 

Animatic

This is our animatic edited by Kaan and drawn by Jack and Tolani. It shows the different stages of our title sequence.
https://youtu.be/uiUPNTzUB8A

Soundtrack

Our title sequence shows the struggles of a young boy dealing with various difficulties such as being bullied at school and facing financial difficulties at home. Because of this we thought using a contrapuntal orchestral soundtrack over the footage of Jack playing football as a young boy would be effective in creating the sensitivity and pain of the young boys reality. As Jacks situation improves and he starts to progress in his football career the soundtrack will also build into a very upbeat into a crescendo.

Choosing Typography

Here are some of the fonts my group and I considered using for our title and also the font we have decided to use and why.

My group and I have decided to use the font Jersey M54. This is because we felt as if this font suited the title and that the other options we had looked at were more suitable in a cartoon picture or a magazine cover. In addition, we also asked some of our classmates what font they would feel would be the best to use and the vast majority agreed with us and chose Jersey M54 to be the most suitable. Moreover, on a deeper level we chose this font because of the rough edges the font has and we felt as if this linked to the film because it shows that nothing is smooth in life and there will always be challenges and obstacles in your way.

Storyboard

Here is an in depth storyboard of our title sequence

Release Date

We have chosen the release date for our film to be Friday 14th of April because it is during the Easter holidays meaning kids are off school so we hope that this will increase the gross overall and the gross during the opening weekend.

Budget

The average budget for an independent film is £1million. Our film is a social realism film meaning our film focuses on a verisimilitudinous style so our film will not need extra funding for production such as special effects makeup and costume or post production such as C.G.I. Therefore a suitable budget for our film would be £922425.00. We estimate the gross of our film to be £1.3million thus not making a huge profit but we hope to gain immense critical success instead

Pitch

Production Company 

Our film is an independent, British film meaning that there will be multiple production companies needed in order to generate the funding for the film. We chose these production companies because we believe that these will both fund and market our film effectively and successfully and help us be successful at film festivals and at release. The production companies we have chosen to produce our films are;

• Antenna Pictures
• Baby Cow Animation
• Creative England
• Grass Roots Media
• TVE


Cast


Jack (Protagonist) – Tom Holland
Young Jack – Jacob Trembley
Iris (Love interest)– Candice Patron
Mr Jackson (Jack’s PE Teacher) – Alan Shearer
Jeremy (Bully 1) – Miles Teller
Kaan (Bully 2) – Ahmet Calik
Director/Producer – Frank Darabont (Tolani) 
Costumes/Make-Up – Lindsey Pugh and June Brickman (Jack)
Cinematographer/Lighting – Maryse Alberti (Tolani and Kallum)
Editor- James Haygood (Kaan)
Music Advisor – Jason Alexander (Kallum)
Graphics Editor – David Carson (Kaan)


Director
The director of our film is Frank Darabont. We chose this director because he has proven himself as a very successful director with directing films and series such as The Shawshank Redemption and The Walking Dead (2010-2011). His successes in drama was vital to us because that is the main genre of our film and some of his other works have been with films with small budgets. This proves that he can make a good film with a small budget. His success with films and series with different sub genres also attracted us to use him because it proves that he is not limited to one sub genre and is very flexible.

Audience Profile

Audience Demographic

As a football film, the target audience of the movie will be young male teenagers. The main reason being that most teenager boys play football and always dream of becoming a footballer. Teenagers will be the primary audience as well as football fans. I would argue that the secondary audience of our film will be young adults. This is because the films' sub genre is drama, so they will take the film a bit more seriously compared to young teenagers who would mainly be going to the film because of its sports genre. We also believe the secondary audience of this film would be young adults because some of the issues in the film could be similar to things those people are currently going through/have gone through and they can relate to the character in the film. The film may also attract young girls due to the attractive casting and romantic subplot.

Narrative Treatment

Equilibrium

Our equilibrium is of a 16 year old boy living with his single parent mother in a low income household. His only passion is football but due to not being able to afford the adequate gear and clothing for the sport he is bullied and secluded by his peers. 

Disruption of the equilibrium
His coach, who is like a father figure to him, encourages him to play in the upcoming football match although being discouraged by the other boys on the team. He attends the match at the top of his form and receives man of the match. A scout sees his brilliant performance and offers him a contract to play with a famous football team. The boy is now 18 and a football sensation with the most expensive football equipment

Disequilibrium
4 years into his career he is coming home from training one night and gets run over by one of his old schoolmates who used to bully him. The antagonist also got signed to a football team but has always come second best and been in the shadows of our protagonist since his rise to fame. The antagonist drives his car into the protagonists car driving him off the road and making the car tumble into a forest. The protagonist is in a 3 year coma with a broken leg and is told he can never play football again. Once out of his coma and on the road to recovery he meets the love of his life and decides he doesn't want to play football anymore but to focus on his family. 

Resolution
He comes across the man that drove into him and filled with anger. His old team was playing the opposition who our antagonist is on. He decided to play one last game to get his revenge over his bully and won the match

New Equilibrium
He retires from football to settle with his new wife and baby boy who he now coaches in football.

Researching Films In The Sports genre

For my title sequence I will be doing a sports drama about a young footballers' rise to fame. Because of this I will focus of analysing sports films and seeing the conventions they've used to convey the storyline and introduce the characters

In the 1998 film 'He Got Game' the title consists mainly of scenes of various people playing basketball which tells the audience it's about basketball. The people are either alone in their gardens on in their friendship groups playing basketball, but never in a professional environment which suggest the film is about talented teens who are not professional basketball players but who enjoy playing it as a hobby. Although as the title sequence develops we are introduced to many different settings, the video started with a wide shot of a field, possibly a farm, and the credits say "A 40 acres and a mule film works production" which introduces the actual setting of the film and suggests its in a very rural area. There are clips showing statues of basketballs players and shows the United Center which is an indoor sports center. This could symbolise the characters inspirations and aspirations.

In the film Creed, they use a clip of the protagonist, played by Michael B Jordan, wrapping his fist to show that the film is about boxing. It then cuts to a scene that shows the same man standing in a ring looking down at his opponent and cameras flashing from the audience behind him. This tells the audience that he's a very powerful and talented boxer with fans. It then cuts to images of him and Sylvester Stallone who, the audience will recognise from the famous Boxing film franchise 'Rocky'. Our protagonist is standing in the ring in front of his opponent with Sylvester standing behind him with his hand on his shoulder revealing that he is Michaels coach. This creates narrative enigma as is makes the audience question if Sylvester will make a come back or has passed on all his glory to the protagonist.

Both films use instrumentals in their opening scenes however the 'Creed' soundtrack is quite heavy and  orchestral making it seem more of a dramatic film whereas the 'He Got Game' soundtrack is a lot more lighthearted and soft making it seem like a relaxed, upbeat film.

Title Sequence Designer: Saul Bass

Genre and Similar Films

Our film fits in the genre of sports drama. Our film is a drama because it includes scenes that focus on issues such as single parenting, lack of financial support and bullying. It also includes a romantic sub plot in which the protagonist has to choose between his girlfriend and his football career. Examples of similar films to ours are;

• Goal Trilogy 
• Creed
• Moneyball
• Bend it like Beckham

Catch Me If You Can

In the title sequence for the film Catch Me If You Can the text is interactive and moves according to the characters and scenery. It is used to help create the set of the sequence and thus telling the narrative of the film. They also use graphics in an interesting way as they use symbols and logos that would be used in that setting helping create the scene but it's also used to indicate which actor is being portrayed in the cartoon.

The cartoons are wearing costumes which connote what their character does for example the detective is wearing a hat, glasses and is hiding behind a magazine, these are typical conventions of what a detective looks like so the audience will automatically know he's playing some kind of undercover spy.

Essentially the title sequence tells the entire narrative of the film using different scenes the character can expect to see in the film. In every new scene the character is keeping lookout behind the font before coming out in a new costume, this tells the audience that the main protagonist is being followed and is on the run. The sequence also tells the audience that there will be a romantic subplot which was implied in a scene where the main protagonist was swimming and closest to the camera and the largest cartoon on the screen was a female who next to it had the name "Amy Adams" next to her. This shows she'll be a relatively important character in the film.

Analysis of Title Sequences

 

Analysis of Title Sequences

     The Incredible Hulk (2008)

The title sequence starts off by showing scans of cells and microorganisms as well as pictures of brains, giving the audience the impression that the film has some scientific relation to it. All of the font shown is in green, following the house style of the film. They showed Bruce Banner in an operating chair suggesting he's the person who'll have the scientific experiments done on. There's a button flashing that says 'danger' just before the experiment goes wrong telling the audience that he has turned into a dangerous creature.

He looks at the chief police just before leaving as a monster then it cuts to a scene of the two of them arguing in a hospital not long later which suggests he may be the antagonist. Bruce winks at a woman and also visits her in hospital where he has flashbacks of her on a bed kissing his hand, this tells the audience that there'll be a romantic subplot between the two of them throughout the film and that she'll play the damsel in distress whilst he, the protagonist.

      They use newspaper headlines to explain the story line a bit more with titles such as 'green monster sighting', this shows that the public is aware of his existence but not sure what he is or how he was created. In addition there are men holding large guns and wearing military costumes suggesting that the army is now trying to hunt the hulk down



 Se7en(1995)
Gridded paper is used in the beginning of this title sequence along with extremely sinister music suggesting it’ll be very thrilling film with an antagonist who is extremely precise and alert. There’s a scene of him using a razor to file his fingerprints off showing the audience how careful this antagonist is and what lengths he would go to, to cover up his tracks. The font is handwritten which is meant to replicate the antagonists writing and suggesting that he takes a lot of notes down to plan his crimes and document them. There are a lot of jumps and scratches in the film which is parallel to the soundtrack and all together creates a house style that seems very raw and rough which could represent the characteristics of this antagonist and his methods.

Love Actually(2003)
The title sequence for Love Actually is quite unique in the sense that it completely diverges from conventional features of a title sequence. Instead of establishing the characters and narrative it uses normal people being affectionate to one another along with a monologue to represent the themes that'll be present in the film.

Continuity Sequence

This is the final cut of my continuity sequence that I worked on with 3 other student Kaan, Kallum and Jack who all contributed to the filming, mise en scene and acting in this video.

Specification

Video
Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.
Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.
All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source. Both preliminary and main tasks may be done individually or as a group. Maximum four members to a group.