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Researching the Thriller genre
I began researching the Thriller genre (including narrative, characters, mise-en-scene, etc) and examples of Opening Title Sequences - this helped me when generating and developing ideas for my own OTS. The two OTS's I analysed were Drive and American Psycho. -
Formed groups - Preliminary exercise
We were put into groups randomly to plan and film our preliminary exercise task (an exercise in practising continuity filming and editing). -
Filmed Preliminary Exercise
We spent the day filming and editing our Preliminary Exercise - this task was really useful as I had no previous experience with filming or editing. In our Preliminary Exercise we demonstrated our ability to film whilst complying with the 180 degree, shot reverse shot, and match on action rules. -
Formed groups - OTS
After we had finished creating our Preliminary Exercise, we regrouped to start developing ideas for our own Opening Title Sequence (this was where our previous Thriller research was very useful). After we had all discussed our ideas, we found that the stalker-based narrative was a favourite within the group. -
Planning - OTS
In the planning stage of our OTS creation we shared out tasks, making sure that the workload was spread equally to the best suited people (for example, researching fonts for our OTS was one of my tasks, and I felt it was best suited to me as I'm studying Graphic Design and have a knowledge of typography). Some tasks were harder than others in the planning stage - I found writing the Treatment quite difficult as it was hard to picture the whole of our film in detail. -
Filming - OTS
Our group travelled up to Hassocks to film our Opening Title Sequence. We were able to film all of the planned shots, and we even added a few more as we felt they would work effectively within our OTS. -
Filming Review - OTS
When we looked back on the rushes of our OTS we found that there were a few areas that needed improving - a few of the shots looked awkward and didn't fit within our OTS, whilst others needed the sound quality improving. We re-filmed these using a boom mic to capture the audio and made some changes to the dialogue. -
Editing - OTS
The editing stage of the OTS was a lot more difficult than that of the Preliminary Exercise - the two are very different as the Preliminary Exercise focused on perfecting the basics and ensuring that the footage fits with the continuity rules, whereas editing for the OTS including components such as titles, transitions, SFX, etc. We used a few overlays in our editing, to make sure that we used all the planned shots. -
Evaluation
My knowledge of film-making has developed drastically over the course of this project - I have learnt the rules of continuity editing, learnt the conventions of the Thriller genre, written a film treatment and many other tasks. I feel I have contributed fairly to the construction of our OTS, and am proud of our final product