BFI Film Industry Day

BFI FILM INDUSTRY DAY

On the 21^st of November our AS media class went to a study day held at the BFI Film Industry. I found this day both informative and enjoyable. We learnt a lot about how to make an effective film opening, looking at examples and analysing them. We looked at the amount of time and effort which goes into a few short minuets of a film, how crucial these opening moments are to help express the genre, character, setting, atmosphere and narrative of the film. We looked at which job titles appear in the opening credits and which did not. Those which did not appear in the opening credits would appear on the tail credits. Some of the job titles that are shown in the head titles are designer, make-up, costume, editor and music.

We also looked at a few different student made pieces of coursework and decided as a collective group what grades they got for them, this helped me to understand what I should include in my film opening to get my goal grade. We were reminded to always try to include some of the five titles: genre, character, setting, atmosphere and narrative.

We also had two question and answer sessions. One of these was held with a vsx Supervisor called Simon Frame and the other was with a producer called Jake Hume. Simon Frame taught us about all the names which are expected to appear within the opening credits and how long making an effective set of opening credits can cost. He showed us a set of opening credits which he help create and told us the process of creating them. From the session with Jake Hume we learnt the stages required to make a low budget film. I found out that you have to have permission for settings within a film and that this can be really difficult to do. He also told us about the main things needed to make an effective movie ‘PPPC’ standing for; people, places, props and costumes. We were also told to take pictures of any possible locations to put onto our blogs and discuss why we did or didn’t use this location.

In the last session ‘make your own film opening’ we were told you have to keep evidence of absolutely everything you do while creating your film opening and put is all onto you blog. We were also told about a skill called ‘Foley’ which is basically re-creating every sound within the film again; this allows a better quality sound or audio.

The day was very enjoyable and went by extremely fast, I learnt a lot during this day about all the different elements which we should include when creating a title sequence. I think this day has helped me further my understanding of how to make a title sequence and therefore I can higher my grade by using the skills and techniques we were taught.

The History of Opening Credits

The history of opening credits from rebecky69

Extensive research on jobs which appear in credits

Common opening credits order:

This is the original basis for a films credit, these aren’t true for every movie, sometimes the change the order slightly but this is the principle lay out.

·         Name of studio – The name of the production studio or distribution company is normally the first thing we see on a movie. Sometimes it just contains the name of the company, other times it shows a logo (for example the Disney castle)

·         Name of the production company – normally a group of companies invest into the making of a film so their names would follow after a title such as “In association with…” or “A … production”

·         Producer or directors name – “A film by…” or “A … film”

·         Starring, main actors – Shows the names of the principal actors, mostly the main stars, for example is a well know Hollywood actor, for example Johnny Depp, is in a movie his name would appear here.

·         Featuring- other actors, normally not as well know. Normally two or three names appear on the same credit.

·         Films title – this can appear in many different points in a movie but mostly in this place, sometimes it appears before the actors names or right at the end just after the directors name has appeared.

·         Casting by – the casting director(s).

·         Music by – the composer of the films music of who created the original score.

·         Production designer – these vary dependant on the genre of film but can include:

o   SET DESIGN

o   COSTUMES or COSTUMES BY or GOWNS (older movies)

o   HAIRDRESSER

o   MAKE-UP ARTIST

o   SOUND RECORDING (older movies)

o   VISUAL EFFECTS DIRECTOR or VISUAL EFFECTS BY

·         Editor – who edited the movie

·         Director of photography

·         Producer/ produced by/ executive producer – sometimes contains the co- producers. “Also produced by”  

·         Based on the book/ character by – if it is based on a novel of some kind their name will appear here, similarly if the film is based on a character, for example from a comic book, the characters creator’s name will be here.

·         Writers/ written by – who wrote the screenplay

·         Director! – normally only one director, their credit is show last.

MAPPING OF SEQUENCES - Dawn of the Dead

MAPPING OF SEQUENCES - Catch Me if You Can

MAPPING OF SEQUENCES - Man of Steel

Mapping of title sequences

Mapping of title sequences

For mapping out three title sequences has taught me that there are around 24 to 28 titles which appear in the majority of sequences. We will probably make our own around 25, including production companies, both pre and post production members, actors and of course the title of the film. The order we have created goes as follows:

·         (2-3 production companies) presents

·         The title of the film

·       3-6 main actors

·         1-2 of other less important actors

·         Starring (Main actor/ voice actor)

·         13-15 of pre-production workers

·         DIRECTOR

This may change around as we complete the project but the things which will stay the same is the overall order, the title of the film sometimes appears right at the end after the directors name. We may change this around when story boarding the actual thing. The rest of the jobs will stay in the same order; we still need to work out what pre-production jobs will appear within the opening sequence. From the mapped sequences these jobs are common to appear:

1.       Casting

2.       Costume design/ make up

3.       Visual/ special effects

4.       Music

5.       Co-producer/ producer

6.       Editor

7.       Production

8.       Screenplay

9.       Director of photography

10.   Exclusive producer

11.   Based on the book/ character by…

12.   Director

There are other jobs which depend on the genre, for example an action/ fantasy movie will have more special effects whereas a zombie movie will have most make up or costume designers.  As we are doing a fantasy movie more roles will be focused on the special effect and also the photography and cinematography as it will be heavily focused on setting and creating an imaginary world which is both believable but magical at the same time.