benjaminthestudent-blog

[benjaminthestudent-blog]

Assignment One Part Two - Present Some Work, Fool.

This assignment requires that we each produce two title sequences that we think both reflect the learning outcome of the assignment and what has been taught in class. Both are to be titled “Through the Window”, or, “Through the Looking Glass”, whichever works best for us. One is to have dynamic texts, and one is to have dynamic lighting/colour. In the lectures there has been a heavy emphasis on transition, and our lecturer seems to be a fan of dissolves / superimposition.

Here’s my first title sequence:

This one was a bit of a fun one. I selected a bunch of footage of my video production escapades over 2016/2017, and strung them together like we’re interesting enough people to have our own TV-show. Pretty groovy, I reckon. I used a few pre-made Premiere template for the glitch transitions. I also used an AfterEffects sequence template for the VHS effect, which lets you tweak it from within. That was pretty dope. Unforunately, none of this was inspired by any of the title sequences that I selected as part of the first section of the assignment. I wanted to include more tracking titles like in the GTA4 sequence, but it didn’t look as nice as I wanted it to. I went with stationary titles that fold back behind the subject instead, which I think suits it more. The soundtrack I built myself, but it is comprised of some pre-made loops I nabbed off of the Looperman site. This part of the project was partly inspired by the opening sequence for Gravity Falls, a cartoon television series. This sequence got an opportunity to be revised in class. The previous version had less obvious RGB distortion, and the close-up on me rubbing my nipples wasn’t in there. This was the best case of extreme-close-up I could manage that fit contextually, which I included because it was pointed out that my original sequence didn’t have enough depth in three-dimensional space. It still probably doesn’t, but it’s a little bit closer to what was asked of me. I think that the transition style I have gone with is very quick and punchy, and fits thematically with the themes of video production. They’re not dissimilar from old CRT screens changing channels or turning on/off. They help to ease the disorientation of what would have been hard-cuts by making them intentionally so. It gives the mind enough time to play catch-up in that the images they are seeing are about to change. I’m a fan.

And here’s my second title sequence:

This sequence is a little bit different. I kind of went for the horror vibe, I would say, despite not originally intending to. I initially grabbed a couple of yoga mats from my flatmate and drew eyeballs onto them with table salt to have some relevance to the “Through the Looking Glass” concept. I tried to play around with the saturation to get some really crisp colours, and after some experimentation the shots came out looking super animated and freaky. Keyframed a lens distortion effect on both and that made the start and end pretty dang sexy. I struggled to keep in theme, but I got a couple of creepy shots that played with light and colour. There’s a shot in there with my eyeball superimposed over my driveway at night, both sped up a tonne. Decided to drain it of colour a fair bit but ramp up the blues. I think it’s about as close to great as that’s gonna be. At that point, all of the eyeball shots are super colour-dense, whereas the reality shots are quite drained. I quite like that effect. All of the effects I made myself in Premiere, except for the glitch transition at the start which was a pre-made. Inspiration-wise, it vaguely reminds me of American Horror Story, although I think that’s largely the soundtrack that does that. Definitely didn’t draw much from the examples I chose earlier in the assignment. As to soundtrack, I once again combined a bunch of pre-made stuff, though this time not just from Looperman. I think some of the crunchier effects were brought in from Rocketstock. Not sure. I think it’s very unsettling, and it works well as I meticulously compiled it around the visuals. In terms of transitions, this sequence makes use of hard-cutting to black. I think that this is unsettling and fits thematically with the horror genre. There may have been tasteful opportunity for dissolve, but I didn’t find it. I did get some superimposition in there though, so that’s dope. Yeah nah yeah, I reckon I did pretty alright on this one. Might have liked to have gathered a few more shots for the second one, but I find myself riddled with illnesses and other half-baked excuses. I look forward to feedback.

[benjaminthestudent-blog]

Assignment One Part One - Looking at Examples

Okay, so, the main idea of this assignment is to take a look at a whole bunch of opening title sequences for movies and TV shows and the such-like, and try to create two of our own. One must have dynamic titles, and one must have dynamic colour/light. The title that we are to use is “Through the Looking Glass” or “Through the Window”, whichever we like more. In each case, there is to be a focus on transitions, and we are to justify why we reckon these transitions add to the sequence. But first! Let’s have a looksie at a few of my favourites. Title sequences that I have found to have a fair bit of oomph!

Grand Theft Auto 4 (2008)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo_9uifCivI (ends 4:37)

In terms of dynamic titles, I’ve struggled to find a more three-dimensional example. This sequence has titles physically follow and interact with the physical world. In places it follows the movement of the ship where the sequence takes place, and in others it floats in the world and has people and objects pass in front of them. The titles call attention to themselves, but don’t distract from the flow of the sequence or the story being told. In terms of getting a feel for what this piece of media is going to be about, this sequence is outstanding. From the get-go you know roughly who the main character is, where they’re going, and what their motivation is for going there. It also introduces some important themes of the story-world, which is probably the most important thing a title sequence should do (in my humble opinion).

Zombieland (2009)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uUHamXmUAI

Another shining example of interactive and dynamic titles in an opening sequence. Zombieland’s title sequence has titles be physical enough to touch within the world. Characters movements send lettering flying in all directions. The sequence also does a good job of helping to set the tone for the film, showing that no demographic is safe from the titular predicament, but that it’s also open to some rather dark humour. In terms of transitions, though, neither GTA4 nor Zombieland have been particularly outstanding. Mostly just hard cuts and basic dissolves. It works for what they’re trying to achieve, though, and neither distracts from the pieces as a whole.

BoJack Horseman (2014+)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQvIR1oL1vE

What BoJack Horseman’s opening sequence lacks in dynamic titles, it more than makes up for in setting theme and tone. Almost the entire sequence focuses on the titular characters face, with the story-world happening around him as he moves through it, which speaks a lot about how the story is going to be played out. It also uses a great deal of match-cuts on the visuals, which is something that I quite enjoy.

Limitless (2015)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFKEq5RTlNk

This is an entirely different style altogether. This kind of sequence almost forgoes transition entirely, and uses flow through a physical space to emphasise the change between titles. The camera moves through the three-dimensions, navigating along brain pathways to show different elements of the series, and also to highlight the names of the major cast members. Tonally, it’s not very revealing. However, it does use a lot of dynamic colours, and I reckon that that’s pretty relevant to this assignment. Further, I think it’s rather groovy. 

Napoleon Dynamite

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-gjywJN6tA

This is definitely the crown-jewel of utilising three-dimensional space in a title-sequence. Napoleon Dynamite gives every single credit it’s own distinct chunk of video, giving all the major players involved with the film their own personalised introduction. In each of these chunks, an object is brought into the frame, sometimes interacted with, sometimes not. Many of the items would have had to’ve been custom-made, ranging from plates of food to library book slips to a tube of lip-balm. It really is just super interesting. So interesting that I have very little else to say...

Now that we’ve had a nice look at the kinds of things I think are relevant, onward to the next post!