Editing my Media AS video I encountered some problems, one of them being shaky cam. It wasn't a big amount but enough to loss me marks. So to try and get ride of this I learned a new technique in Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2014. The effect is called Warp Stabilizer and is very effective is you have shaky footage.
All you need to do is search for it in the effects search bar and then drag it to the clip you want stabilized. After it has auto stabilized you can change a few more setting if needed but in my case it worked fine without doing anything to it.
Through out my planning I looked at many different films in not only the zombie genre but also the post apocalypse genre. I also looked at TV shows to widen my idea, here are some images from movies that I took inspiration of:
The "Book of Eli" (2010) is a very well done post apocalypse movie. It follows a lone survivor 30 years after the earth was destroyed by war. The inspiration I took from this was the costumes and filter used. The costume in the movies is dark, brown, worn out. He also has a backpack on with a sawed off shotgun in the bag. What I did was give my character a big jacket which I added duck tape on to make it look worn out. My character also has a sniper connected to his backpack which tells the audience that its not the start of the apocalypse and more about the narrative.
"I am Legend" (2007) is another post apocalypse movie that I took some ideas from. The ideas I took from "I am Legend" where mostly the mentality of the character. The fact that he is all alone and has to survive alone. In the movie he has a dog companion which helps keep him sane.
The scenery or location I got ideas from the "The Walking Dead" (2010-). Even though its not a movie the mise-en-scene is very applicable to what I am doing. A lot of the newest TWD episodes take place in the forest as it is 6 or so years into the zombie apocalypse. You don't often see bright green grass or tress in TWD which is the look I am going for with the filter.
Linking in with "Title Font and Size" i will look at the length and order of text and titles in these movie openings Cockneys Vs Zombies and The Walking Dead Pilot.
Cockneys Vs zombies Order of titles
Cockneys Vs Zombies
Rasmus Hardiker and Harry Treadaway
Michelle Ryan
Georgia King
Jack Doolan
Ashley Thomas
Tony Gardner
Tony Selby, Georgina Hale, Dudley Sutton
Richard Briers
With Honor Blackman
and Alan Ford
Casting Directors Gail Stevens & Colin Jones
Make up Designer Jenna Wrage | Special make up effects designer Paul Hyett
Costume Designer Matthew Price | Production Designer Matthew Button
Original Music Jody Jenkins
Editors John Palmer and Neil Farrell
Line Producer Mark Birmingham
Director of photography Daniel Bronks
Executive Producers Simon Crowe, Matthew Joynes, Deepak Nayar
Executive Producers Jenny Borgars, Will Clarke
Executive producers Micheal Henry, Chris Hunt, Anand Tewari, Joe mac Carthy
Written By James Moran, Lucas Roche
Based on an idea by Matthias Hoene
Producers James Harris, Mark Lane & Matthias Hoene
Directed By Matthias Hoene
The Walking Dead Pilot Order of Titles
AMC Presents
Andrew Lincoln
Jon Bernthal
Sarah Wayne Callies
Laurie Holden
Jeffrey DeMunn
Steven Yeun
Chandler Riggs
Executive Producers Robert Kirkman and David Alpert
Executive Producer Charles H.Eglee
Executive Producer Gale Anne Hurd
Executive Producer Frank Darabont
Developed by Frank Darabont
Based on the series of graphic novels by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard
The Walking Dead
I also had a quick look at World War Z because that was a big budget movie and the titles might have been in a different order. In World War Z it starts of with the company's then "A Marc Forster Film" then the main actors are named and because its a big budget there are more actors and the tittles after that is the casting director and then it follows the order of Cockneys Vs Zombies ending with the Director or Auteur Marc Forster then the title of the movie.
Having looked at this i have a template in mind of how to order my titles starting with the company names then "A film by" followed up by the actors then leading to make up artists and costume designers, then producers to finally the director and the title of the movie.
Zombie movie titles have changed a lot over the years. In the beginning the title sequences where very plain using mostly red and black as the colors. In Dawn of the Dead (1978) for example the title sequence is very plan with some special affects. Its very common but then and now to have some sort of blood special effect.
If we look at a more modern title sequence such as Cockneys VS Zombies (2012) the special effects are more advents and have a comic book feel. The text is very bold like in most zombie movies and has a worn feel to it.
If you look at another zombie movie such as Resident Evil Extinction (2007) which isn't considered old or new has a very play title as the text is small and white which doesn't follow the convention of a zombie movie.
If you look at I am Legend (2007) which might not be classified as a zombie movie, the text is very similar to that of Zombieland (2009). Both the title sequences have the text integrated in the environment, by this i mean that the text produces shadows and in Zombieland the text moves around if someone hits it. Looking away from special effects the text itself is (in Zombieland) thin but bold and is a blood read with a white outline, the names are bigger then the "description" e.g. directed by. In I am Legend the text is bold and white but bigger then that in Resident Evil and 3D.
Music could be a very important part when it comes to distributing a movie. If you take a Warp movie the soundtrack will most likely be created by someone not as well known because it won't make a big difference to the box office. Submarine which is a Warp film had there sound track created by Arctic Monkeys which at that time was less well known. Love actually on the other hand had there soundtrack be a marketing point. Songs such as Christmas Is All Around performed by Bill Nighy and All You Need Is Love are big songs that have over a million views on YouTube.
Company's try to use Horizontal Integration where possible, if the Parent company owns a record company they might include that band in creating a soundtrack or use their existing music.
When it comes to production working title will make the decisions straight away. If the movie doesn't have well known actors then the movie will most likely not be made. If they have the actors they want then they might start to talk about the genre. If they have someone say its a romcom with Hugh Grant then it will most likely happen.
Warp on the other hand because of its low budget movies they don't mind if the actors are well known and they would take a risk with a genre such as social realist.
Working title are a lot more picky when it comes if they should produce the movie, the reason for this is because there is a lot more money at stake and therefor the movie will have to produce profit. Warps objective is still to make profit but because of there low budget and niche market they dont have the same standard that working title, because its niche market they can take chances in making social realist films.
The main character is a 15-year-old male named Oliver Tate.
Craig Roberts as Oliver Tate
Yasmin Paige as Jordana Bevan
Sally Hawkins as Jill Tate
Noah Taylor as Lloyd Tate
Paddy Considine as Graham Purvis
Because it’s a warp film they have taken a bigger risk with
the characters, in a Working Title Film you would expect a 15 year old to be innocent. While in this Warp film he is trying to loose his virginity.
It is set in Whales which is also a risk Warp would take and not Working Title because the accents are hard to recognize and the American audience are not familiar with what whales looks like or feels like.
This is my first ident Get-Away Production done the second time. I changed every thing except the name. The font I used is the Porsche font, I felt this fitted because the ident is suppose to indicate a speeding car getting away. The color I used is Ferrari red to again link with the speeding car. The background sound is of a person hot wiring a car and driving away while the police is chasing, which is what get away is indicating.
If i have more screening time when my title sequence and car sequence is done, a good way to fill in that time would be it cuts to him closing the diary at night. He might buy his way in (using battery) to a small group in front of a fire place. The fire place is very good for mise-en-scene and if I show him buying using battery's then it makes it less obvious then saying it in the VO. If i can get this done in the short amount of time then I think that would boost my marks.
There where some problems with getting the actor on Jan 30 and 31 so i had to push back the final shoot to Feb 14. After that i will need to see if any changes will have to be made.
Jan 9 (12 to 1 O'clock)
Zombie opening scene
practice shoots. Shots 1-2 (DONE)
Jan 10 (12 to 4 O'clock)
Practice shoots every
shot with main actor try costume. Shots
3-32 (DONE)
Jan 17 (12 to 5 O'clock)
Shoot title sequence
where main character kills animal. (DONE)
