OPENING SEQUENCES

The work of graphic designer Saul Bass is worth researching: he has been called the master of the title sequence. He has devised the opening title sequences for films such as Ocean's Eleven, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Carmen Jones, Psycho, The Human Factor and over 60 films. He often worked with directors such as Martin Scorsese and especially Alfred Hitchcock (Psycho). His skills have intrigued audience all over as film critics say that you could tell what was going to happen in a film for which Saul designed the titles. He had a long lasting and successful career, helping out with visual concepts, storyboards but most importantly the titles for the bigger cinematic hits of the 20th century.

Ocean's Eleven (design by Saul Bass)

ANIMATICS

Use post-it notes (or sketches or drawn-on photos) to sketch out your opening sequence. Then make an animatic as suggested by Pete Fraser:

For planning, everything needs to be taken into account. It is always tempting not to bother with storyboards but it is a mistake if you do so. You need a visual plan for your work as it won't just happen when you have a camera in your hand! I would recommend using post-its for constructing a storyboard, as you can move the frames around and change the order easily. Once you have done the storyboard, the next step is to turn it into an animatic, which quite literally involves taking a photo of each frame (on your phones or a webcam, nothing fancy) and then dropping the frames onto the timeline of your digital editing program. You can then cut them to length, add titles and sound and then export the whole thing as an animatic- a moving storyboard. here's one...
Watch it here 

Animatic

How do I create an animatic?

1. draw storyboard frames- nice and bold, black pen if possible
2. take individual photos of each frame
3. upload the photos to the computer
4. import the photos into the edit programme
5. drop each image onto the timeline and cut to the required length
6. put music or other sound on the audio timeline
7. add titles or effects/transitions as required
8. export to quicktime and upload to youtube or vimeo
9. embed the video onto the blog or save it to a CD

AUDIENCE RESEARCH FOR YOUR FILM OPENING or MUSIC MAGAZINE

You will need to provide evidence of your research into audiences for existing films or magazines.

Pete Fraser advises:

'For the audience research, the temptation is to do loads of questionnaires and then endless pie charts. You really don't need to do this and it is of questionable value anyway. Two strategies I would recommend are for quantitative data (numbers) do some online research to find breakdowns by audience age and gender for particular films and for qualitative data (what people say, in more depth) have some regular feedback sessions with your classmates where you look at each others' ideas, progress, animatics and rough cuts and then finally your finished work to give and get feedback. This needs structuring with some focussed questions, and you could always video it and put bits on your blog for evidence.'

Audience research involving feedback: Lauren made a children's TV programme and conducted audience research as she went, screening her work and inviting feedback

ZEN

Zen (BBC1 2011 Sunday evenings) is an excellent example of a crime/detective drama series whose opening efficiently establishes its genre, locations, themes and tone right from the start.

The crime genre is established through the iconography such as the repeated firearms and depictions of the Questura, the police headquarters.

Italianicity is conveyed through repeated washing of the screen with the colours of the Italian flag: red, white, green. Remember Barthes's analysis of semiotic codes in the Panzani advertisement?

Location is rapidly established through depictions of iconic Roman buildings such as the dome of St Peter's towering over the Vatican. 

Fiat Cinquecento cars are stacked up in repeated motifs with connotations of the crowded city streets of Rome; this sequence echoes similar ones such as those showing the guns. The colour codes of the Italian flag again connote Italy.

Black vertical lines are repeatedly used to separate the blocks of colour and to narrow the frame through which we see the characters who are introduced. This creates a sense of spying or voyeurism as if we were seeing what is normally restricted or kept secret. 

They could be read as prison bars, which ties in with generic conventions as Zen is a police officer whose job is to bring criminal to justice: each episode ends with a successful arrest. Zen's expert eye and watchfulness are important to his success. The centre line is used to place the producer's name.






Black and white or sepia tones connote a level of seriousness and indicate the adult nature of the target audience, perhaps with connotations of film noir, whilst shots of the 'love interest' in the person of the glamorous female police officer hint at romance and widen the target audience to include those who enjoy romance.

                                                                                  

The theme tune contributes to the Italian flavour through its sound codes and it reflects the tension, suspense and drama of the genre.

THE ADVERTISING STANDARDS AUTHORITY

Today we looked at the website for the ASA which regulates the contents of advertising. 

It’s the ASA’s role to make sure ads are “legal, decent, honest and truthful”. 

We looked at several case studies to see what complaints to the ASA were based on and what the ASA's adjudication had been.

The TV advert for Coors Light was accused of breaching two codes: racism and appealing to audiences below the age of 18. We viewed the advert and discussed the adjudication: the advert was cleared of breaching the first code but accused of breaching the second code.

You can see the advert here on Brand Republic's site: the Coors advert