PRELIMINARY EXERCISES

I have studied camera angles by reading Daniel Chandler's website The Grammer of Television and Film 
To take these photographs I learnt how to use a Cannon Eos 750 D. I released the importance of getting the image in focus and getting everything in frame and to get the camera in focus on the image or object showing effective lighting and to create a clear image.

Establishing Shot

Low Angle Mid Shot

Mid Shot

Close up Shot

Holiday Blues 

Our brief was to edit and film a short opening sequence in order to practice working on title sequences for films.

We choose the pop music track, Banana Pancakes and we chose a variety of props expressing a summer holiday reflecting to the up beat music. Before embarking on the filming; we watched two opening sequences that used tracking shots; Delicatessen and Immortal Beloved.

We used Final Pro Cut to edit our preliminary exercise where we edited a film opening with sound and titles to the soundtrack of 'Banana Pancakes.' It was a new experience for all of us and it furtherly helped us to developed our editing skills and increase our knowledge of the software. We used a variety of different fonts before finalising the one that we chose to use. We clicked the 'Title and Generators' button in the top-left corner of Final Pro Cut to generate our titles aswell as transitions. At the start, we tried many different fonts, getting a feel of all the varing moods to resemble the 'holiday blues'. We decided on a fun bubbly font, 'American Typewriter' for the title names bringing energy and life to summer.

Together as a team we film it using Canon 650 camera. When filming all the panning elongated tracking shots, we made sure to have a steady hand trying to make the transitions as smooth as possible. We also placed the objects in differing heights to bring dimension into the task, this creates variation. We also used a map underneath as a background bringing adventure to the holiday creating a relaxed, exciting yet unexpected trip, this is conveyed in the live shot in the end when ripping up a travel ticket.

                         
When editing, a challenging moment appeared when adding in the titles. This was shown when deciding where to put the titles; this was an important feature as it reveals and introduces the characters by including links through the objects brought along on the holiday. For example adding the name 'Rosie Lawton', on top of a laptop portrays the charterer to be associated with technology.

Continuity Editing

After researching into various 'Art of the Titles' I am now aware of the a variety of visual and audio codes which I included within my title sequence. Our sequence was based on a World War Two tale, it displays the mother telling the daughter the shocking news that her father won't be returning from war. 

We used various different camera angles and shots types including

 over the shoulder shot and two frame shot, this furtherly captures the expression and emotion behind the character.

When editing we used 'Final Cut Pro', I find this editing platform a quick and simple way to create my piece. We individually established each shot by using 'Text and Titles' to present our work more clearly. We also added filtering effect of a murky brown colour to our frames making the scenes look old and dated. Also on Final Cut Pro,we used many cross dissolves between each scene, this makes the flow of the continuity editing for smooth. However, we did have difficulties such as trying to quiet the background noise, as well as to focus in on the dialogue from the charters.