Week 6

Example Poster for Candlemaker

I was working on character description and created a little poster for the film titles. It may change later on, however this would be one design to consider. I have noticed I use two versions of the spelling for my main character. Brunel vs. Burnel I really like Burnel because it could be turned into Burn-in-hell, which is what all his victims would wish for.


Literature Review

I visited the library on Monday and took a number of books related to my project. A few books I wanted were out on loan so I will have to return for them.

I have taken out the following books:

Setting up your shots: Jeremy Vineyard
Nonlinear Editing: Patrick Morris
The DV Rebel’s guide: Stu Maschwitz
Lighting by design: Brian Fitt & Joe Thornley

I have also been working through the following books that I own:

Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects: Trish and Chris Meyer
Digital Storytelling: Carolyn Handler Miller

The Plan (for this week)

The plan for this week is to complete some of my Pre-production documentation, and go through the books and start writing. I have been kept busy with other work this week from other two modules so I am going to try and write about shot composition and editing. I am currently working on a presentation for one of my other modules, Motion Graphics about a father and a great genius of motion graphic and title design Saul Bass. This should help to fill the history pages as I find researching the subject on Saul Bass’ work very interesting and beneficial to the nature of my project.

I should start getting handy with the camera because I plan to do the filming at Tarvit tomorrow, which is on Saturday. I really need to get the footage before the end of October as the property will be closed for the winter and re-opens just in April 2012 which would be too late for me.

Saturday 8/10/2011 update

I have just discovered that the SD card I have in my Canon 550D camera will not record in full HD, therefore my plan to go to shoot at Tarvit laundry needs to be put off till the next weekend. Now, I am off to Ebay to order a Transcend Flash memory card - 32 GB SDHC as it has great reviews from people that used it in Canon 60D. Fingers crossed it will arrive on time.

New Inspirations

While researching more into the subject of movie titles I have come across a great title sequences for a further inspiration that has achieved fantastic results using the After Effects. The first was done by French designer Kook Ewo who did the titles for a suspenseful sci-fi horror called 'Splice'. I just consider the work extraordinary in how he managed to create images of various skin types and combined it into one big piece of hybrid embryo floating in amniotic fluid. It is a perfect example of a title sequence setting the mood for the movie. I must admit the titles are better than the film. See below an interview with Kook Ewo and the title sequence in question.

Splice: Interview with Kook Ewo a title designer

Splice opening titles: Kook Ewo



Another fantastic title sequence I noticed while watching the movie The Grudge. I am not into horrors as the Grudge but I was very impressed with the title sequence.
See below.

The Grudge opening titles: Picture Mill (design company)



And finally one of my true inspirations is the Se7en by Kyle Cooper. He is also called the Saul Bass of today's title sequences.

Se7en: Kyle Cooper



Just I should add a couple of title sequences from the master Saul Bass himself.

The Man with the Golden Arm was a defining moment for Saul Bass and it established him as a sensational and thought after title sequence designer. He worked with great movie directors of his time such as Preminger, Hitchcock, Kubric, Scorsese and others.

The Man with the Golden Arm: Saul Bass



Anatomy of a murder: Saul Bass



Hitchcock's Psycho opening titles: Saul Bass

Hitchcock's North by Northwest opening titles: Saul Bass

Little Champ: a short documentary about Saul Bass