After effect on opening credits

The idea's on what after effects to put in place on our opening credits are endless, however I have looked into Youtube to find some ideas for inspiration.

This clip uses an unusual style of after effects, which I do not personally like but it gives me an idea of the options available to us.

The clip below is from the James Bond movie, 'Skyfall' and by watching it, it shows me that we do not have to directly involve camera shots, but we could use special effects to a heavy level.

Opening title sequence research- Idea's for our bag full of money

To begin with, we always wanted to have one of our first shots to show money in a bag as feel that it will show the audience that this is something big, and to therefore help to increase the tension in our thriller. As to how we would present this, we were not entirely sure, but with two out of three people in our group being big Breaking Bad fans we are able to use this as inspiration. For example, we both remembered a scene in which a colleague of Walter White is picking up money from a safety deposit box.                                                                        
 Futhermore, as to what type of bag to use to pack the money into and from the start I was fairly confident that a duffle bag would fit in nicely for our thriller. I then further researched into possible idea's and I found this picture that confirmed my ideas that a duffle bag will be the perfect route to take.

Thriller opening title sequence and chase scene research

To begin with, when it came to deciding our main story board we decided upon our actor to run through the forest and for me personally I was reminded of the first chase scene in SALT (2010) staring Angelina Jolie in which she is chased by government  personnel in cars while she runs on foot, jumping onto lorry's on the highway etc..

Now obviously we cannot do something as complex as that but I think that re-watching the scene has inspired me and helped me to form a clear vision of what our scene should look like. As you can see in the top left hand corner, the clip I mentioned is there, as is the movie poster for SALT.

Flaws, changed details in Thriller idea

When Tyler first suggested that we use fake money in our video we looked online to research prices, different currency's and the amount that we would need to which we decided on using fake euro's due to the amount of countries that use the euro, creating a more legitimate feel to it. We considered using the U.S dollar, however we decided against this due to wishing to avoid a clichè. The pound was also a deffinite potential but the euro has the edge over this due to its more 'proffessional' look.

In our current thriller idea, I wrote about having fake drugs in the safe, but thinking on this we felt it would be dull, unoriginal and very clichèd to use them. To overcome this we decided to use a memory stick/hard drive as that would force the audience to ask so many more question and it creates a feeling of mystery and would certainly create tension.

Thriller idea to date - 24th November 2014

Our idea to date begins with a man opening a safe. The safe is full of stacks of money, pills and white powder. Our actor would then proceed to pack the contents of the safe into a duffel bag. The man then hears a knock on the door, and from the actors reaction we would show that this is an expected, however unwelcome visitor. The man would then run down the stairs to storm out of the back door. He would run through the garden and into the forest with music building up steadily, increasing the intensity and tension in our Thriller. We would then suddenly cut the music as the man abruptly stops running. Our camera work would next include a close-up reaction shot of the actor before we hear a loud and clear twig snap behind, where the screen would go black in time with a dark sinister, single beat. 

As you can see below, the story board compiled so far is incomplete and unsubstantial in detail, however we intend to use the remaining 4 weeks to prepare, think through and uncover flaws in our idea to create the desired thriller for our target audience.

Shot 1 : Safe opening, memory stick.

Shot 2 : Picks up stuff from safe, carries it to bed

Shot 3 : Hands putting stuff into bag

Shot 4 : Back to safe

Shot 5 : Hands into safe (hear a car coming up drive, door slams)

Shot 6 : reaction shot close up

Shot 7 : hurried actions, packs bag

Shot 8 : close up of him zipping and picking up the bag

Shot 9 : follow shot of him running down stairs

Shot 10 : over shoulder shot of door (hearing the knock)

Shot 11: Runs to back door

Shot 12: over shoulder shot of back door open  (stops running and pauses to stare) (hears crash as door is forced open) (music starts to build up)

Shot 13: Him running out of the door.

Shot 14: Running into forest, music building up massively then music stops

Shot 15: Close up, breath curling in front of face. (hear twig snap)

Shot 16: black

Thriller developments

As my self, Tyler and Kingsley spoke further about our potential thriller ideas we have frequently changed our minds. To start with we wanted to go with Tyler's idea of a man sitting on his laptop only to hear repeated, and unexplained knocking. However, as we discussed this we decided to adapt it and as this took place the idea got changed completely. Furthermore, on friday we spoke with Matt about our idea, which he essentially liked but he felt that we needed to accelerate the formation of tension to prevent it from becoming boring.

Ollie, Tyler and Kingsleys favourite thriller ideas

Tyler's favourite idea

 Opening title sequence: A man is working in his bed, with nothing but the laptop shining on his face, he is typing up some work. Then it cuts to the front door and all you see is a gloved hand knocking on his door just once. Then it cuts back to the man, he now has anxious yet knowing look on his face. Then the knocking on the door get harder, so het gets up and goes to the closet. Then it cuts to a shot outside his house and there is a car with tinted windows and its engine running, then OTS shot of him seeing the car. As he gets to the stairs the knocking stops, he goes down the stairs creak a lot. As soon as he reaches the bottom of the stairs the knocking turns into a hammering. He slowly walks to his front door, then suddenly the knocking stops, he goes right up to the door, and looks through the peep hole, screen blacks out.

Kingsley's favourite

The girl tries to get up and run but she can’t move at all. There are sounds of someone walking slowly on a wooden floor. She goes dead silent and looks straight ahead in pure fear. A silhouetted figure stands in front of the camera with a knife in his hand, we only see from his hip. The girl wakes up in a bed screaming, in the middle of the night. She looks around and realizes that it was just dream. She gets up out of her room and heads towards the kitchen to get a drink of water. As she leaves the room the camera zooms out from the window and standing a few metres away from the window in total darkness. The same shadowy figure is standing with a knife in his hands. The movie then cuts to black

Ollie's favourite idea

 over shoulder of two men in a car, talking in russian with the word dead in english used for emphasis. follow then on the journey around the roads to a house. men get out and take guns from the boot. cut to a man in military uniform sitting at a desk on a laptop with a US flag on the wall. laptop out of focus. then the two mens legs and shoes appear in the shot. screen goes blank.credits come up in centre screen while newspaper clippings about the russian usa cold war appear on screen.

How we divided ourselves into groups for our AS Thriller

When it came to deciding our groups for our thriller it was very simple, Adam just told us to give him a number between 1 and 16, and this number on the register that matched with a name become the first person in the first group and this went on until everyone was divided. I ended up in a group with Katie, Tyler and Kingsley, however we thought as a group that we would work better as three boys. So Katie is now working with Crerar, Igor and Lauren.

My AS Thriller ideas 2014

Idea 1

 Have a shot in which a text is received with an address with details of specific location. Shot of reaction shot of a person getting into a car- drives off. Follow the car through the countryside, then car arrives at location, finds object- body part etc. twig snapping sound, close up on person turning around- screen goes black.

Opening title sequence- shot of person looking over scenery from the pack with the names of ppl involved appearing in the top left corner of the screen.

Idea 2

Shot of person sitting on a laptop browsing the internet, then cut to another shot of someone tied to a chair with the captor also on a laptop emailing. main focus on the man browsing the internet but with lots of very quick cuts of the hostage. email comes through to the man minding his own of a sinister message, e.g. 12:00 at A or she dies’ sort of thing.

opening title sequence, over shoulder shot of text saying ‘on way home, see u soon’. then action shot of a woman tied up in the boot of a car.

Idea 3

Walk towards a car, find piece of paper tucked under windscreen wipers saying meet at x at whatever time. car driving through country side, (must be dark) to woods. arrive to find people cloaked wearing white masks sitting around a fire. screen goes black.

old fashioned writing on green sci fi back ground.

Idea 4

Over shoulder of two men in a car, talking in Russian with the word dead in English used for emphasis. follow then on the journey around the roads to a house. men get out and take guns from the boot. cut to a man in military uniform sitting at a desk on a laptop with a US flag on the wall. laptop out of focus. then the two mens legs and shoes appear in the shot. screen goes blank. credits come up in center screen while newspaper clippings about the Russian USA cold war appear on screen.

'Charlotte' AS media thriller 2014 analysis

• What is your understanding of the action in the sequence. What is happening? 

 In this sequence, it is clear and simple for me to see that this is quite a mysterious, complex and potentially confusing. However, I can see that it is religion based, and all focused around 'Charlotte'. The scene is clearly showing some form of murder. For example we see a newspaper clipping referring to a death, we also see three separate people representing dead bodies being covered in white sheets, and lastly we see a persons hands covered in blood, dripping all over the floor.

What do you think the rest of the film might be about?

I think that the rest of the film would be set around ghostly connotations, and I have got this from the religious theme, and the creepy and eerie way in which 'Charlotte' has fallen to the bed at the beginning and then re-visited at the end with a close up of her eyes opening. 
What is your view on the casting? Have they chosen convincing actors? (not necessarily in terms of their acting but in terms of their suitability for the role/the right look etc.)

I think that the casting was overall, convincing although people were not needed much at all. However, I feel that during the graveyard shot, the couple did not seem to fit the scene and appeared to be out of place.

Are the characters interesting?

The characters jobs are very basic throughout the sequence, but I felt that the characters did pose a position of interest to me due to their mystery and the lack of knowledge on who these people are.

What do you make of the camera work, editing, sound, how convincing is the mise en scene?

The camera work here is clever, as the shots of the grave, the cross, the couple standing in the graveyard are all very short, mysterious and they present no obvious meaning. Especially the crane, over head close up shot at the begging and at the end and the hand held shots of the grave and cross. This is clever as it keeps the audience asking questions- it keeps them guessing. The editing here is fairly simple yet effective, because of the way that the credits cut across the screen. The mise-en-scene here is useful as it paints a picture for the audience.

Is it a studio or location shoot? How does this effect the final product?

This sequence is clearly shot in both a studio and elsewhere as a location shoot. We can see this early on that it begins in a bedroom, and this image is created by the use of dark lighting and a lamp. The fact that this is both a studio and location shoot works brilliantly on the final product as it creates a noticeable contrast within the sequence.
If there is music, does it fit the piece? What mood does it create?

The music here is sketchy, creepy and mysterious which links back to my idea that this is a ghost story. The music is clever and fits the shot well in that it links up smoothly with the way the credits appear, and especially with the hand held shots of the grave and cross. How many credits are there and what roles do you think they are?

There are 23 credits throughout this sequence, however many names appeared more than once having completed more than one role throughout the task. These roles varied from director, producer, casting, sound designer, music and actors.

Are the credits well spaced? Are they well positioned in the frame? Do you like the font they have chosen to use and does it fit the piece?

I think that the credits are one of the best qualities to this sequence as they are well spaced apart, the font is tasteful as it presents something mysterious. The editing that has gone with it is even better, as it connects to the music. For example before one credit changes, it darts around the screen in a flashy fashion that works with the music.
What do you think of the film title they have chosen?

I think that the film title, 'Charlotte', is well chosen because it is very obvious who 'Charlotte' is.
Is it effective overall? Does it make you want to watch on?

Overall, this sequence is incredibly effective because it sets us up for something exciting, however it doesn't bore the audience.

Saul Bass

Saul Bass

Born: 8th May 1920, in New York City, USA.
Died: 25th April 1996 (aged 75) in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Bass was a widely praised graphic designer whose career spanned over forty years. He is best known for his work on some classic films, such as The Man with the golden arm (1955),  North by Northwest (1959), and Psycho (1960). Saul has 106 credits from jobs as part of the miscellaneous crew, Art department, producer, director e.t.c. Saul Bass has notably worked some big names in the industry at the time, for example, Paul Rand, Milton Glaser, Otto Preminger and the biggest name of them all, Alfred Hitchcock. Alfred Hitchcock being nicknamed "The Master Of Suspense" having used methods in the psychological thriller genres. He is also famous for bringing graphic design into the media world through designing many famous and iconic American branding logos. For example he designed AT&T, Kleenex, abc, Taco Bell and Ford.

Oceans Eleven and Saul Bass

 Saul Bass's work on Oceans Eleven was to complete an opening title to the 1960 film. It features flashing neon type writing and each time Bass wants a new name to appear, the lights shift and move to form a transition from one area to another. It is also appropriate as it sets the scene for a gambling environment with a Vegas type feel to it. This is influential to the rest of the film even today as the Ocean film's have become iconic and well known for its Casino and gambling aspects.

Here you can view the opening title sequence to Ocean's Eleven (1960) created by Saul Bass. The film stars Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis. Jr, Angie Dickinson and Dean Martin who were are remain to be well known actor's/actress.