saul bass

Saul Bass

Saul Bass was an American director that was most famous for his title sequences in media. His most famous work was from 'The Man with a Golden Arm' by Otto Preminger's in 1995

Analyisis will be up soon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGnpJ_KdqZE
The title sequence is simple, made entirely of a plan black background, with white lines across the frame creating a cut out effect. The white against black makes a dramatic impact, perhaps giving the impression of a dramatic film.It creates an eerie effect, giving the sequence a tense mood from the beginning. Also, at first the lines appear to be random, with no sense or pattern to them, creating a confusing design that may confuse the audience and hints that the rest of the film may be strange and confusing.Right at the end of the sequence the lines blend to make an arm, showing that the lines are actually symbolising veins within someones arm, giving hints towards a character in the film whose arm is involved, generally connotated with the idea of injecting drugs into the veins.This instantly creates a darker mood and gives the impression that the whole film will have a slightly darker atmosphere.The soundscore for this sequence is highly contrasted to the images as it is quite an up beat jazzy piece. However, this could be quite ironic as it shows the way that a heroin addict feels as though they are happy and feels great when they are on the drugs, when in reality it is ruining them.


He also designed the title sequences for 'The Big Knife' 'The Seven Year Itch' 'Carmen Jones' 'Bette Davis' 'Attack'
 He created a cinematic revolution. When he created his title sequences, they weren't just the fist two minutes of a movie. He wanted a reaction out of his audience.He wanted to know people would feel something, that the first two minutes of the scene would set the tone of the film and plant the seed.



These are the simplistic logos that Saul Bass designed in a simplistic yet creative way.

My Evaluation 

Done by Priyanka which was good as it gives us different ways of openings comparing to Alfred Hitchcock and others, also gives us ideas on logos that we will need on the opening to our film so the audience gets an idea of who made the film and can relate this to the sort off genre we will be doing. Saul Bass also done title sequence which me and Priyanka will be seeing which ones are best and my evaluation on final destination ones is up on the blog. 

Continuity Editing Task First Cut problems and resolution 11/12/13

After we created the shot list and main idea for our short piece, we started to film it. However along the way we realised it was not as simple as it looked. Following the specific requirements, is slightly more challenging. For example the shot reverse shot proved to be a slight problem, in terms of the technique you used to film it.
There are two ways you can film a shot reverse shot. One way is by stopping and restarting the recording from different angles, the second way is by just positioning the camera in the middle and turning the camera left and right. Initially we tried the method where the camera was positioned in the middle, however the problem we were faced with was being able to cut the conversations in a way that the shot reverse shot was clear and meaningful.
Therefore our final decision was to re-film the scene by stopping and starting the recording.

Problems we have faced so far:
There were a few other minor problems that we faced and they consisted of setting the camera up with the tripod, trying to match on action a scene, however it did not work completely as we only had 2 shots and a match on action generally works better with 3 shots and finally a filming issue whereby in the background a classroom door was open, when it needed to be closed for the scene to flow correctly.

What we are going to do to resolve these problems?
To get the match on action editing technique to work we are going to film another shot from a different angle.
To get the scene to flow correctly we are going to take extra notice that the backdrop is set to fit the scene.

Problems- 

After watching the final cut, we concluded that we had a few problems. 

our first problem was that towards the end, the camera had cut off one of the actors head, half way through, the person manning the camera realised and moved the camera slightly to fit the persons head in. This as a result to not having a controlled camera which as an affect can decrease our mark significantly. 

Secondly our shot reverse shot was not shot from the right angles. The camera needed to be further away. 

Finally our use of match on action used three shots as needed- to represent the characters travels in a quicker way however didn't actually show the character sitting down, it just cut straight to us sitting down- therefore resulting in the shot not being clear. 

Solutions- 

To fix these issues we are going to conduct a second shot whereby we will take extra precautions with the use of editing in terms of the match on action and making each stage completely clear. In terms of camera use we will ensure the shot is properly framed each time we stop and start the recording to prevent any further errors. 

Done by Priyanka

My conclusion

We have resolved the problems but our first shoot is not perfect, we are awating feedback by Mr ford so we can shoot our 2nd one and make the most improvements. I also think on our real task for the opening we need to find actors as me and Priyanka would not stop laughing in this and it did waste a lot off time that we could off filmed more or edited it down more.

Continuity Editing Task

Continuity Editing Task (basic instructions)

 

 In this task, our basic first we had to create a shot list for our short piece lasting no longer than 90 seconds.

This task has some specific requirements. They consist of:

• not breaking the 108 degree rule- this is where the camera may not cross the invisible straight line. 

The 180 degree rule is an invisible line that shows the spacial relationship between characters on screen, this is generally used when it comes to a conversation. A shot like this makes it easier for the audience to follow and understand the order of the conversation. Here is a diagram to demonstrate:

• including shot reverse shot 
• include a variety of camera angles 
• the use of editing to make sure the continuity of the scene is clear
• more than one location
• interaction between others
• non-diegetic sound

This is our first attempt for the shot list:

The person manning the camera is Chelsea Wilson 

The actors are myself (Priyanka Chawla), Aman Dhillon and Luke Maye's

 

 

This was done by Priyanka and we have followed our shot list and filmed and edited our first shoot

What am i doing to aid my learning / what have i learnt so far?

To aid my learning in this coursework I am going watching video's of how famous directors done camera angles and used cameras mostly before sound was made in films to see characters emotion. I am also watching a new range of thriller films and analysing there title sequence like "Final Destination" the opening title is very animated and draws your attention and it also shows some of the film so you are not sitting there bored looking at names. This is what we will try and do and aid in one scene in the opening that makes the audience question the whole film. Also I believe animated title sequence's is the way forward due to the technical aspect coming into films now days like 3D. Many teenagers like this animation as they might find the names popping on the screen boring but as soon as you see a flying knife shooting past the screen with a name on it, it loses the boring element.

I have learnt from my research that it is not easy to just make a film it takes time and you need to gather a lot of things before you even begin to start planning for your film. We are just doing first 5minutes and it takes a lot of research so to do a film it would take a very long time. I am going to start research more now as I have realised the minimum of research will not get me a Grade B or above. I will need to blog everyday and analyse my results and try get the most amount of research I can to achieve the best possible grade.