This is England Opening titles

Information: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480025/
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqjEYfslwpA
Ratings: 7.7 IMDB 93% Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/this_is_england/
Release Date: 31 October 2006 (UK)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Age Rating: 18
Director: Shane Meadows
Writer: Shane Meadows
Stars: Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley
Budget: £1,500,000
Gross: £5,423,747
Synopsis: A young boy becomes friends with a gang of skinheads. Friends soon become like family, and relationships will be pushed to the very limit.

Idents:

All the Idents are part of the title sequence and dont have there own title intro.

Text:

FILMFOUR and the UK FILM COUNCIL Present - Black background, white text but fading. Text is centered.

In association with EM MEDIA and SCREEN YORKSHIRE - Black background, white text but fading. Text is centered.

A WARP FILMS PRODUCTION - Black background, white text but fading. Text is centered.

In association with BIG ARTY PRODUCTIONS - Black background, white text but fading, centered.

A SHANE MEADOWS FILM - Black background, white text but fading, text is centered.

THIS IS ENGLAND - White text but fading, bold, centered. Background shot of the English ghettos, Text grows until it slowly fades as the shot continuous.

THOMAS TURGOOSE - White text but fading, bold, text in the bottom right, background of a group of skin heads.

STEPHEN GRAHAM - White text but fading, bold, text in the bottom center. Background of the Toots & The Maytals playing.

JO HARTLEY - White text but fading, bold, text in the bottom right. Background of old gymnastics. 

ANDREW SHIM, VICKY McCLURE - White text but fading, bold, text in the bottom right. background of princess Diana's wedding.

JOE GILGUN, ROSAMUND HANSON - White text but fading, bold, text in the bottom right. Background of Princess Diana's wedding and people cheering and waving flags.

ANDREW ELLIS, PERRY BENSON, GEORGE NEWTON - White text but fading, bold, text in the bottom left. Background of  a man solving the rubiks cube.

FRANK HARPER, JACK O'CONNELL,  KRISS DOSANJH - White text but fading, bold, text in the bottom right. Background of a kid playing old video games.

KIERAN HARDCATLE, CHANEL CRESSWELL, DANIELLE WATSON - White text but fading, bold, text in bottom left.  Background of people stretching.

SOPHIE ELLERBY, HANNNAH WALTERS, MICHAEL SOCHA - White text but fading, bold, text in the bottom right. Background of a jukebox changing disk.

SCRIPT SUPERVISOR DIARMID SCRIMSHAW, CASTING LOUISE MEADOWS DES HAMILTON, HAIR AND MAKEUP SUPERVISOR DONALD McINNES -  White text but fading, bold, text in the center left. background of skinheads walking in the street.

Comparing Warp film openings to Working Titles Openings

Working Title Films

·        Pride and Prejudice

·        Les Miserable

·        Love Actually

Warp Films

·        This is England

·        Tyrannosaur

·        Submarine

Straight away you can see the difference between a Working Title film and warp film they are binary opposites of sorts. Tyrannosaur and This is England both start with a black background. The opening of both these movies start with the text flashing up on screen with a black background. This is England's font is different as it looks like its withering away. Warps Film has a more dark and realistic feel to it than Working Title films, this is clearly shown with the colours used. This is England and Tyrannosaur have dark and clouded skies, even in the morning while Pride and Prejudice starts of with blue and vibrant colours. As does Love actually, the colours are very bright and friendly while Warp use dark and unwelcoming colours.

This is England and Love Actually both have a montage in the start of these movies but This is England uses clips of violence and war while Love Actually uses clips of people hugging and being happy. Both Submarine and Love Actually use voice overs but in Submarine the tone he uses is very sad and sloppy while in Love Actually it is cheerful and motivating.

All Warp Films have text appear on the screen with a dull background while Working Title films openings text appears on screen as the movie is playing. The reason for this is because Working Title films have a higher budget so there opening look friendlier and neater while Warps is very dull, it is also because Warp films are very dark in the use of colour and story and these openings tell the audience that.

The use of music is also quite different as This is England plays Rock Jazz music while Love actually place nice relaxing music. This is to fit with the genre but It also tells the audience what company made the movie.

To sum it up Warp Films use a darker technique of editing and filming but it also looks a bit cheaper which in my opinion makes it feel more realistic, while Working Title films have a happier feel to it. Even Les Miserable which shows clips of slaves use strong colures later on and doesn’t feel as dull or sad. 

Having looked at this it tells me that my theme will be a bit darker and less colorful than Working title films, Because im a low budget company my film will lean more towards Warps film making darker tone. 

Shot by Shot list

I created this shot by shot list to get a more detailed idea of how to film my video. The way I created it was by taking ideas from other movies that i have researched. The voice over is used in both Resident Evil and World War Z, both of which in someway signifies the narrative.

Shots	Descriptions	Sound
1	Establishing shot: Far away you see main character to the right of the screen walking along the road. A Zombie walks in shot from behind the camera.	Start with Non-Diegetic sound of zombie until the zombie walks in the shot it becomes diegetic.
2	Long-shot, tracking shot of main character walking along the road, clear sight of main character costume.	VO: “Its been around 1 years and around 10 months if I had to guess”
3	Medium shot, tracking shot of main character walking while in the background you can see a zombie far away.	VO: “That’s not since it started, that’s the last time I saw them”
4	Over the Shoulder of main character you see a car in the background.	VO: “My Family that is, not the Zs, I see them every day”
5	Camera on top of car. Extreme long shot of main characters.	VO: “ The end of the world was about 2 years ago”
6	Rats eye view you see broken glass as well as main character in the background.	VO: “There is nothing left”
7	Long shot of run down car with broken backdoor window. Main character walks into shot from right side.	VO: “The only reason I’m writing this is to keep me sane.”
8	Camera looking into car door mirror from the inside of the car. Main characters head in the mirror.	VO: “If that’s even possible”
9	Camera inside car low angle looking up at main character through broken car door window.	VO: “There isn’t a lot to write about seeing as no one will read this but I might as well-”
10	Over the shoulder of main character looking In broken car door window. You see a body lying in the back seat of the car.	VO: “-talk about what the world has become”
11	Camera outside of car. Long shot of main character puts the bow on top of the car and takes of backpack. Takes an arrow out of back pack.	VO: “Not all humans are gone, the strong ones or the crazy ones are the ones that have survived so far.”
12	Over the shoulder of main character uses arrow to poke the corps. Nothing happens.	VO: “The sane ones are trying to start a new era, “
13	Camera outside of car main character walks out of shot behind the car.	VO: “They do this by creating Safe Havens.”
14	Camera inside car facing back window, you see main character walk past.	VO: “Safe Havens are places where people go to trade or take a breather.”
15	Over the shoulder of main character as he walks to the right side back door.	VO: “Dollars are useless now so the only thing they will trade for is batteries.”
16	Camera inside car from driver’s seat looking at main character open door.	VO: “You trade to stoke up on food or ammo mostly, well me at least”
17	Close up of main characters knife which is strapped to his leg. He takes the knife out of holster.	VO: “No one stays in the cities as they are over runned with Zs.”
18	Back to camera inside of car. He takes knife and stabs the corps in the head. The corps is wearing a hoody so you don’t fully see when its stabbed in the head.	VO: “I stay in the country side or small towns,”
19	He walks back to his backpack camera is behind car.	VO: “as there are less Zs and safe havens there.
20	He stands next to his backpack and takes out a bottle of water.	VO: “Seeing as sound attracts them,”
21	Close up of his face as he takes of his glasses and mask.	VO: “the smartest weapons to use are a bow or knife,
22	Medium shot of him taking a sip of the water.	VO: “a silenced weapon would also work.”
23	Long shot of him putting down the water and opening the front door.	VO: “Destroying both parts of the brain kills them”
24	Camera filming from passenger side, all in one take. He looks in the cantered glove compartment and finds a camera. He opens the camera takes out the battery and puts it in his pocket.	VO: “Well Im of to Canada,”
25	Camera cuts to an over the shoulder as he looks in the glove compartment and finds a Walter P99.	VO: “I need to get there before next winter comes.”
26	Camera outside of car as Main character walks out of the car and puts gun in his backpack.	VO: “I have a long road ahead if I want to make it to Russia
27	He picks up his backpack and picks up his bow.
28	Camera on the hood of the car as main character walks past with zombie in the background.
29	High angle camera behind main character as he continuous to follow the road. Slowly fades to black.
30	Main title fades in.
31	Fades to an establishing shot of forest. In the shot you see a campfire with the main character sitting next to it.
32	There is a close up of him writing in his diary.

Storyboard

This post includes a storyboard of what my opening sequence will look like. To sum it up it features a character walking along a road in the woods and finds a car, he opens the car and looks for anything he can take, after that he continues walking on his path.

Cameraman

Seeing as being the camera man will improve my grades the first half of my intro I will be camera man. This will not affect the intro as you don’t see the main actors face until half way through. I will have one actor play the zombie and I will have a body double to play my character when the face is covered. This will be more of a challenge seeing as how it will take longer because we need to change costumes, I think this is good because it will improve my skills as a camera man and director, as well as improve my time management skills. I have some people in mind to be my body double but I need to get there permission first. A think it will be better to cast a body double to be in some shots instead of changing the whole actor for that character as this will improve all my skills as director, camera man, producer and actor.  

(NEW)
Now that i know that acting will give me no marks i will get a person to play the whole thing instead of just the opening, this will improve my skills as a camera man and director as there is more directing and camera work to do. 

Pitch

Pitch Cards

The video bellow is a video of the locations I scouted for my opening scene. I had the video playing on a loop when doing my pitch.

This is a video of me presenting my Pitch to the class. The footage playing behind me is footage of some locations i looked at. At the end i was asked questions about my movie.

Vodcast 1: Idents

In this Vodcast i talk about both the Idents and Text used in 5 zombie movies and what they represent.

Out of these 5 zombie movies only one movie has an audio bridge when the idents appear, you can hear a steady heart beat throughout the idents in World War Z. In the other movies they seem to have the idents main sound such as Columbia haven't changed the sound or color scheme to fit the move like Warner Bros might have done. The idents for Dead Rising dont appear for very long unlike Paramount that lasts for 18 seconds Crackle only lasts for 4 seconds. This may have something to do with the budget and the popularity of the company's.

The movies also have on average about 2 idents before the movie starts. This will affect the amount of idents I have as well as the choice of if Ill have an audio bridge, or have tweaked my idents to fit the genre. Looking at this i will most likely have 2 Idents with no audio bridge and not be a long length as my movie will be a low budget.

Vodcast 3: Narrative

In this vodcast i talk about how the narrative of 5 zombie movies are presented in the opening title sequence as well as opening sequence.



Looking at the theorist at narrative in the start of the dead snow for example there is Barthes Narrative Enigma because you dont know who is running through the woods engaging the audience. Todorovs theory is hard to apply to any zombie movie seeing as the first equilibrium is no apocalypse and the dis-equilibrium is the zombie apocalypse but in some cases you can apply it if you think of it as the equilibrium is that you have food, ammo and safety in the start and the dis-equilibrium is loosing that and fighting to get it back.
Looking at more long lasting franchises or TV shows it is easier to identify Propps character theory because more characters will be introduced. A good example of Levi-Strauss binary opposite theory is in the Walking Dead when you have Rick and The Governor or Rick and Negan. Looking at Dead Rising you also have binary opposites, in some zombie movies this theory applies because it brings more threat to the story than just zombies.
Looking at this I think starting with a narrative enigma will get the audience engaged.

Vodcast 2: Semiotics

In this vodcast i go through the use of semiotics in 5 zombie movies (Dead Snow, Dead Rising Watchtower, World War Z, Resident Evil, and Zombieland). I talk about what semiotics are used to determine the zombie genre.

Opening 10 (my genre) Resident Evil

Information: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120804/?ref_=nv_sr_2

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWUT4CXWcwQ

Ratings: 6.7/10 IMDB 33% Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/resident_evil/

Release Date: 15 March 2002 (USA)

Genre: Action, Fantasy, Horror

Age Rating: R

Director: Paul W.S. Anderson

Writers: Paul W.S. Anderson

Stars: Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Ryan McCluskey

Budget: $33,000,000

Gross: $102,441,078

Synopsis: A special military unit fights a powerful, out-of-control supercomputer and hundreds of scientists who have mutated into flesh-eating creatures after a laboratory accident.

Opening Length: 1:15

Idents:

Screen Gems – Normal

Text: In order

SCREEN GEMS PRESENT – White text, black background, Left and centred.

CONSTANTIN FILM PRESENT – White text, black background, Centred and centred.

DAVIS FILMS PRESENT – White text, black background, Right and centred.

RESIDENT EVIL – Futuristic font, grey text, Red background., Fades away to black screen.

Sound:

After the Ident mysterious sounding music starts playing. After the First text the intro starts with a lot of sci-fi sounds as text pops up on the screen, the text is read through a VO telling the narrative of the movie. The mysterious music keeps playing until the title comes up then the music changes to more sci-fi. All the sounds used are non-diegetic.

Editing:

The text fades in and out in the start, the text used in the VO sequence looks like its being typed to fit with the sci-fi looking background and Fantasy genre.

Opening 9 (my genre) Dead Rising: Watchtower

Information: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3816458/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPuK9GtxLM4

Ratings: 5.2/10 IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dead_rising_watchtower/

Behind the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLUTtagJRgY

Release Date: 27 March 2015 (USA)

Genre: Horror

Rating: N/R

Director: Zach Lipovsky

Writers: Tim Carter

Stars: Jesse Matcalfe, Meghan Ory, Virginia Madsen

Budget: N/A

Gross: N/A

Production Co: Legendary Digital Media, Contradiction Films, Di Bonaventura Pictures, Dead Rising Productions

Synopsis: A group of people fight to survive in a zombie infested town.

Opening length: 6:28

Idents:

CRACKLE – Normal

Legendary Digital – Normal

Contradiction – Normal

Text: In order (all texts like they are behing types on a modern computer)

LEGENDARY DIGITAL PRESENTS – Blue thin font (computer like) Black background, centred.

A DEAD RISING/ CONTRADICTION FILMS PRODUCTION –Blue thin font, black background, centred.

These pop up first then the intro starts. It starts after the zombie outbreak clearly determination the genre. The title popes up at 4:34, The title is white, centered, bold and the letters aren’t in a strait line. In the second D you see a zombie. The background looks like concrete. After Dead Rising popes up beneath it WATCHTOWER popes up, It blinks for a while like a light bulb would. After that "A few Days Earlier" appears.

JESSE METCALFE – Top left, blue, news report in the background.

MEGHAN DRY – Top left, blue, two news footages in the background.

VIRGINIA MADSEN – Top left, blue, News footage of soldiers in background.

ROB RIGGLE – Left centred, people evacuating in background.

KEEGAN CONNOR TRAYCY, ALEKS PAUNOVIC – Top right and bottom right, blue, news reporter in background.

AND DENNIS HEYSBERT – Top right, blue, footage of looters in background.

U.S. CASTING BY JUNNIE LOWRY JOHNSON, LIBBY GOLDSTEIN, MONICA KELLY CANADIAN CASTING TIFFANY MAK, CSA – Blue top left and bottom right.

MUSIC BY OLEKSA LOZOWCHUK – Blue, top right, news reporter in background.

COSTUME DESIGNER BARBARA GREGUSOVA – Blue, top left, image of stadium in background.

EDITOR MIKE JACKSON – Blue, top right, people being interviewed in background.

PRODUCTION DESIGNER TONY DEVENYI – Blue, bottom left, people wanting to leave in the background.

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY TODD WILLIAMS – Bottom right, blue.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: TOM LESINSKI ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS: ZACH LIPOVSKY, GARY HAWES, ANDREW LEVINE, MIKE JACKSON, TODD WILLIAMS – Blue, top left, bottom right.

LINE PRODUCER CHRIS FOSS – Bottom left, blue.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER TOMAS HARLAN – Bottom left, blue.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER LORENZO DI BONAVENTURA – Bottom right, blue.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS HARUHIRD TSUJIMOTO, KIICHIRO URATA – Bottom right, blue.

PRODUCED BY TIM CARTER – Bottom left, blue.

BASED ON THE VIDEOGAME CREATED BY CAPCOM – Bottom right, blue.

WRITTEN BY TIM CARTER –Bottom left, blue.

DIRECTED BY ZACH LIPOVSKY – Bottom right, blue.

Editing:

In the opening sequence there are mostly cuts used. The Text appears and disappears one letter at a time making it look like sci-fi/fantasy like. The cuts are used so the continuity looks good.

Sound:

There is both diegetic on and off-screen zombie noises clearly showing the genre. It starts of with a commercial with a little girl talking, and lullaby music playing, small girls are often used in horror movies, as the commercial is playing you hear zombies. When the title sequence is playing whenever titles pop up you hear a futuristic computer sound. When the news reporter is talking they talk about a zombie outbreak and people being infected.

Evaluation:

Throughout the opening you clearly see what genre it is as zombies are mentioned and seen. They establish that people know about zombies before the outbreak happens and fans of the game will be happy to see it holds the story of the game as well as giving a good description of what is happening so the audiences that haven’t played the game know what it’s about. They also use what looks like a gopro shot when the zombie and the main character is holding the gun.

Opening 8 (my Genre) Dead Snow

Information: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1278340/?ref_=nv_sr_2

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R19KagZyU40

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dead_snow/?search=dead%20snow

Rating: 6.4/10 IMDB 67% Rotten Tomatoes

Release Date: 9 January 2009 (Norway)

Genre: Comedy, Horror

Age Rating: Not Rated

Director: Tommy Wirkola

Writers: Tommy Wirkola, Stig Frode Henriksen

Stars: Jeppe Beck Laursen, Charlotte Frogner, Jenny Skavlan

Budget: $800,000

Gross: $1,937,920

Production Co: Euforia Film, Barentsfilm AS, FilmCamp, Miho Film, News on Request (NOR), Yellow Bastard Production

Synopsis: A ski vacation turns horrific for a group of medical students, as they find themselves confronted by an unimaginable menace: Nazi zombies.
Intro Length: 2:50

Idents:

Euforia – Normal

Text:

In this movie there are no actors names in the start of the movie and no title sequence. The titles that pop up are:

YELLOW BASTARD PRODUCTION NEWS ON REQUEST & EUFORIA FILM – white bold text.

PRESENTERER EN MIHO FILM PRODUCTION - The Miho Film is red and bold while the rest is white and bold.

EN TOMMY WIRKOLA FILM – The Tommy Wirkola is bold and red while the rest is bold and white.

That’s the only text that appears. The movie starts of with a camera tilting down to the snowy mountains at night. 2 min and 46 seconds in the main title appears, DEAD SNOW. The color used is red but not full red as some parts are darker red and some lighter this clearly identify the bloody gore genre. The background that the text is on is the full moon in a dark blue sky.

Editing:

The only editing used in the intro is cuts. The pace of the cuts increase as the music gets more intense. The text on screen fades away, instead of cuts away.

Sound:

Throughout the opening sequence the music that is played is Edvard Grieg “In the hall of the mountain king”, this is fitting seeing as Edvard Greig is Norwegian and so is the movie. The music is contrapuntal as you wouldn’t expect to classical music in a sequence with zombies. The music is paused for a while when the woman is looking in to the forest. When the shot reverse shot is used all you hear is diegetic off-screen birds, until the zombie jump scar happens then the music starts playing again.

Evaluation:
The jump scare really builds tension as the camera focuses at something in the dark shadowy forest. It cuts back and forth to the actor and the establishing long shot of the forest. The reason for this is because the target audience expect to see zombies but nothing is happening so it rapidly builds tension and supports the horror genre. The fact that all you see in the opening is shadows running through a snowy forest also supports the genre and keeps the TA engaged.