Composer Profiling

Composer Profile

Our composer is George Quinnel Harcombe, he studies song writing at university so he is an ideal candidate for our film! We are truly blessed to have such a talented musician such as George to compose for us. Not only is he tremendous at composing, but his piano playing skills are matchless to our expectations. Georges generally composes for the piano and he has for many years. George has composed for his friends short film, which proves his success rates and experience in adjusting his skills to meet our demands. Not only can he play the piano to a high level, but also the guitar, which may become helpful as an alternative. George has a tremendous work ethic, so there is no worry about timings and any potential delays. Our composer has a unique skill of being able to pick up the notes which are used in different songs and transferring this knowledge to create his own soundtrack, this is why we chose George to be our composer.

Titles Analysis

World War Z Opening Credits

We used World War Z in order to give us inspiration for our own opening credits. We were unsure of the less obvious credits, such as the costume designer or visual effects, so decided to watch a successful opening scene in order to gain some information. We decided to use the majority of World War Z's credits as we know that it has been a successful film and so thought it would be an adequate opening to gain some prompts from. Similarly, we wanted to follow our theme of sticking to the stereotypes and so thought it would be best to use the typical credits in order to help make it as realistic as possible.

Although we found World War Z useful in helping us to gain some ideas, we decided that the way they were displayed was not appropriate for our opening two minutes. This is partly due to the different genre which is shown through the movement of the titles, as well as their positioning on the screen. Due to it being a more modern, fantasy/fiction based film we thought the credits worked very well for its genre as the movement and positioning helped to add to the fantasy feel, however this was not helpful for our genres. The typography was more appropriate to our film as it is quite plain and simple, however it is slightly too thick for our liking. Despite this, we took inspiration from the positioning of the words in comparison to each other, for example the 'and' and 'present' in 'Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions present'. In addition to this, we also liked how the some of the lettering is smaller than the rest as it helps to highlight the important factors and is something we wish to use in our owning two minutes.

Titles Analysis

Catch Me If You Can Opening Credits

I have decided to analyse the opening scene of Catch Me If You Can as it is an example of opening credits in which we cannot take inspiration from. Although the titles for Catch Me If You Can work with their genres - comedy, crime and drama I believe they are incorrect for their target audience. I think the use of typography is too childish as its thick, rounded nature is slightly cartoonish and feminine. Stereotypically it would be thought that this film was aimed solely at females due to the genres and the opening credits however the other genres, crime and drama are more male orientated and unexpectedly, there are many men who enjoy comedies of this sort as well which we learnt from our research. Due to the target audience also being aimed at males I think the titles do not portray this well enough. I know that the opening credits are certainly not the most important part of a film to the audience, and often go unnoticed unless a special interest is taken in a certain actor/actress’s, however I still dislike these titles.

Another reason I believe the opening credits are childish are because they play on the genres of the film, using cartoon men and women dressed in costumes to help begin the film. Similarly, they also play on the areas in which the film is based, such as an airport or a holiday resort which again helps to introduce the plot of the film to the audience. Although I believe it is slightly unnecessary for the film to be introduced in such a way, it could also be considered quite clever as it plays on the words of the film's title, using a plane to try and catch up with the moving titles. Despite not liking the titles as a whole, I believe that this is one of the few clever aspects to the opening credits and think it would be quite amusing for the audience to watch. I think this would word effectively as it would successfully hold the audience's attention due to the many factors going on, making it successful in its purpose of introducing the opening of the film and the characters within it, which is what it is designed for.

For the reasons mentioned above, I think the credits to Catch Me If You Can are unsuitable to take inspiration from for our own opening two minutes, and I think this mainly down to the difference in genres. To me, the titles appear quite dated and from research I have found it was produced in 2002 which provides reasoning behind the dated feel, however at the time I'm sure they would have been considered very modern. For our film, we would like to use quite plain, classy titles because we don't want to distract the audience from watching the actual film, and we believe that the content of the film is more important than the credits, however we understand the important of the opening credits and why they are necessary.

Titles Analysis

Dead Man Walking Opening Credits

We used the opening credits of Dead Man Walking as inspiration for our font. We chose Dead Man Walking because of its similar genres, and despite it being quite dated as it was produced in 1995, we thought it would be a suitable film to take inspiration from because of the plain, classy font it used. Unfortunately I was unable to locate a video of the opening credits, however this picture is an example of the size, font and location of their credits. As a group, we all felt that the sit ironing of the titles worked effectively in the middle of the screen as it is very clear and simplistic however it adds a sense of maturity to the film. Similarly, we also liked the type of font as it is very plain but we thought it looked quite classy and appropriate for our genres. The only difference between our proposed font and this is that we have combined the inspiration we gained from this with the inspiration we gained from the opening credits of World War Z, and have decided to display the less important worlds such as 'and' and 'presents' in a smaller font in order to make it more eye catching.

Animatic Storyboard Analysis

Anamatic Storyboard Comment

 

We chose to start our opening two minutes using an establishing shot of the protagonist's house in order to help set the scene, as well as help the audience to engage with the character, allowing them to learn a little more about her background. We thought it would be best to use a high angle shot to portray the surroundings as it would help to establish the area easily, which would aid the audience in their understanding, and it was something we have seen done both previously and successfully. We chose to do this because it followed our theme of following the stereotypes which as mentioned before was something we wanted to do in the hoping of creating a successful opening. We also thought the use of a high angle shot would help to make the film more interesting to the audience as it would add a sense of variation, and take away from the feeling of one continuous shot which would help to make it more realistic in a film-type of way.

Our storyboard does not go in to too much detail as we were still unsure of the exact plot at that point, however we were sure we wanted to display our protagonist through a variety of different shots, such as match on action. We thought match on action would work well for us in our film because it would allow us to cut between different running scenes without completely breaking the continuity. Keeping the continuity is an important factor for us because we want our film to be as realistic and as successful as possible and so that is something we are sure we need to portray. Another advantage of using match on action is that it is a relatively easy technique to use, and it could fit in well with our genres because it could produce the feeling that our protagonist is being watched as she runs, making her seem vulnerable which would help to build the tension. Another type of shot we have thought about using while Christie in running is a slightly obscured shot through the trees. We are undecided on whether to use this or not as we are unsure of how effectively it will work, and if it will add to the tension or just seem unrealistic. Despite this, we have decided to add it to our storyboard in the hope of being able to successfully recreate it and add variation to our opening.

We thought that using close up shots on both the protagonist and antagonist would be successful in helping to create tension as it would allow the audience to see the character's facial expressions. This would help to unravel the plot, and allow the audience to become more engaged and involved in the opening scene because they would be able to form opinions on the characters. We are hoping that this will work successfully and the audience will be able to see that Christie our protagonist is vulnerable, helping to build suspense and make our film more enjoyable. This is similar to our ending shot which is going to be Christie’s feet. We plan to use a close up shot for this, but only show it for a short amount of time in order to end on a cliff hanger again helping to build the tension. We also wish to create an enigma as it will be clear that Christie is sitting innocently on the edge of her bed. This will be portrayed through the positioning of Christie, showing her feet not quite being able to reach the floor, making her seem small and innocence, however the audience will be unsure as to what will happen next.

Choice Of Film Institutions

 Film Institution Research

When thinking about suitable film institutions to represent our opening two minutes, along with our own institutions, we have chosen to research some institutions which maybe are not so well known, but produce films with similar genres to ours in the hope to make our film both more professional and realistic. We believe that many people will just choose a world famous company because they are well known for representing popular films and although this would probably be the easier option, we have chosen to put a bit more thought into it to see if we can find anything a bit more relevant to our opening.

We looked at the film Prisoners, which is an American thriller film based on the abduction of two children and the quest to find them, making it a similar plot to ours. The film institution they used was Warner Bros. which we found surprising because they are well known for their big budget films such as the Harry Potter franchise rather than a one off film. Nevertheless after research we found out that Warner Brothers actually do represent a wide variety of films, not just the expected stereotypical world famous films. Not only does it produce successful thriller, crime and especially action movies they also have a lot of experience and money meaning they can be very specific in which films they represent, meaning the quality of their films is usually very high. To us, this suggests that using Warner Bros. as an institution to represent our opening two minutes would maybe not be the best idea as the standards might be too high and it would not be very realistic seeing as we do not have a large budget or appealing cast which is something very stereotypical of a Warner Brothers production.

We also looked at both of the Taken films, Taken 1 and 2 which were one of the biggest influences on our production and plot as they have both a similar theme and plot meaning it was very influential over our opening two minutes because it helped to provide suitable shots in which we knew were successful. The film institution they used is a French company called Europacorp in which we were not very familiar with. They have come to fame from there success of English spoken films which delivered a 61% increase year on year revenue. There not a very well-known company however the success of the Taken movies has made it a very good candidate. The main problem is that it’s a French company which may make it hard to translate our ideas and that it is not very well known, however it may be more realistic and suitable for our purpose as our opening two minutes is also low key and so it might make more sense to represent it using a film institution which is not so popular.

Gone is another popular film which has a world renowned cast such as Amanda Seyfried.Their institution choice is Summit Entertainment which is quite new into the industry however their parents are Lion Gate Entertainment which is very respected institution. They are not known for any particular genre of film however they have represented some very successful films in their past such as the Twilight Saga and the Step Up movies. Some may say this is a negative as they are typically aimed at the younger generations however we think it shows their versatility in the film industry and might be suitable for us as our film is also aimed at the 16-24 year old target audience.

The last film institution we researched was Phase 4 Films which produced a film called Eden which is based on a true story of a teenage girl who is abducted and sold for prostitution. We had never heard of this company before, but found it from looking at the film Eden which is the last film we watched together as a group in the hope for inspiration. Although Eden is new, it is relatively low key which suggests why we have never heard of the institution it is represented by. Despite this, we think that this company would be a good choice for us as they produce low budget films which mean our film will be more realistic than if we choose a larger company and we know that they have produced films of a similar genre and theme to ours which would help enforce the realism of our film and make it seem a relevant choice.