Livetype: Making titles for the film

We wanted our titles to correspond the the suspenseful theme we had going. Using live type we made our titles which was quite simple. We chose what font we wanted to use and added the effect, as this screen grab shows...



Then, we put our titles onto a black screen as we had planned...


After, the titles were put into our sequence. To keep our editing less stressful, we put each title into Final cut pro as we went along constructing our sequence. this helped us keep track of what titles we had left to do at each point and where in the sequence they had to be.

Soundtrack Pro: Making the soundtrack

As we had already had a tutorial of how to use Soundtrack pro, we were already familiar with using the programme. We wanted our sound to be suspenseful to reinforce the action on the screen. Once we chose our sounds and uploaded them onto the timeline we had to arrange them so that it sounded correct and sounded right with our sequence. We imported our soundtrack into final cut pro so that we could fit it to go with our film and titles.

Broken Alliance rough cut

This is a rough cut of our title sequence. We put the titles on a black screen with white font and cross cut between the titles and two different pieces of action. This was inspired by Marathon Man, which we watched earlier on as part of our research. The aim of the cross cutting was to create suspense so the audience would have to think to try and figure out how the smartly dressed woman on the platform and the undercover beggar on London Bridge are connected. The device being dropped in the cup gives a hint but the viewer would have to watch more of the film to find out, which was the effect we wanted to bring across. We also got the idea of cutting from the images on the screen to the titles from the Dawn of the Dead title sequence which we found really inspiring. We wanted to have the element of time as well, like in collateral, so we included the shots of the clock to emphasise that the woman on the train platform was waiting impatiently.

Final cut Pro: Editing

When we finished filming Broken Alliance, we transferred the clips from the memory card to our video drive, then we imported them into Final cut pro. Firstly we had to sort through all of our clips to find out which ones we would use. Then, using our storyboard as a guideline, the clips were cut and put into order on the timeline. Even though we got all the shots from the storyboard from when we filmed, we didn't follow the storyboard exactly because we wanted our film to flow in the best way and some of the shots didn't go together well. When the clips were laid down onto the timeline, we then had to cut some of them to make sure they ran into each other smoothly. For example, in the scene of the beggar on the bridge, we used a match cut to show the device being dropped into the cup. At the end of the sequence we used the fade out effect to establish it was the end, we also faded into each title and out of each title in the sequence.

On Shoot Photos

These are on shoot photos from when we filmed 'Broken Alliance' over the two days. One of our locations was London Bridge, where the undercover beggar scene was filmed. The other scene, with the smartly dressed person waiting impatiently, was filmed on a train platform at London Euston station. We decided to film in the city because of our Action-thriller sub genre, and the city is usually a convention of this sub genre. We were able to finish our filming over two days as we had planned carefully what we would be filming, where we would be filming and the time we would be filming each scene. We overall found filming very enjoyable and there was a good element of teamwork.

Animatic Story Board

This is an animatic storyboard for our title sequence, when it comes to filming and editing we will use this as a guideline. However, the final edit may be in a different order. Also the titles included in the story board are an idea of what titles we will put in our actual opening sequence.

The order of the sequence in the storyboard:

• Panning wide shot of London from London Bridge
• Production company
• Wide shot of people walking on train platform
• Director
• Close up of character 1 tapping feet on train platform
• Tilt to fully reveal character 1
• Starring actors
• Wide shot of beggar sitting on London Bridge
• Music by
• Close up of character 1's walking feet
• Mid shot of character 1 pacing up and down on platform
• Costume designer
• Long shot of character 2 walking towards beggar on London bridge
• Side view of character 2 walking to beggar
• Cut to birds eye view of device being dropped in cup
• Writers of the film
• Over the shoulder shot of the sly nod to confirm between character 2 and beggar
• Co-producer
• Close up of character 1's face
• Extreme close up of character 1's eyes
• Editor
• Over the shoulder of character 2 spying on character 1
• close up of character 2's face
• Make up by
• Panning wide shot of train driving off
• Long shot of character 1 walking off train platform
• Title: Broken Alliance
• Bird flying in the sky

The Bag Swap filming practice

Match Cut Prelim

In our groups we were asked to film a conversation and to include match cuts as a preliminary test.

Pitch and Final Locations

This is our Pitch which we had to present to our class and teachers in order to get permission to go out and start filming. In our pitch we included:

• A brief Outline of the Film
  
• Why it would make a good thriller
  
• Our Working Titles
  
• Planned Locations
  
• Props, Costumes and Mise en scene we would use
  
• Preliminary ideas about sound
  
• Institution detail
  
• A risk assessment
  
• A skills audit
  
• A production Schedule

After we received filming permission, we decided to use Candi studios as our production company as this is a low budget student film.

Also, our final decided two locations are:

• London Euston train station

• London Bridge