Opening Titles

I have just found the MGM and the Columbia titles to add to the start of my film. I have also watched Casino Royale see how the titles are presented and they're presented in black and white so I have also changed mine to black and white!

It looks great...

So, now I have got these, I am going to add my other titles in. I did some research into the titles shown in the James Bond films and I wrote down the order in which they were shown, enabling me to adapt my titles to fit around the action style:

This research shows that I have considered the different titles, enabling me to decide which titles I will include in my film.

Filming Update

Well, I am nearly finished editing my rough cut! I am now finished editing the montage bits and now I just need to finish off the rest, so I am on track for Friday's deadline.

I may have it finished earlier, however if not, keep checking for the rough cut!

Comparisons and Progress

I spoke with Mr Earl today about my flashforward scene and he suggested that I quicken it up using CU's, however I didn't film any CU's other that the SRS, so I have added in a LS to break up the MS's and this works slightly better.

I have been researching into different films recently, old and new, that fit into the film noir category and I want to compare how they have changed over time...

 These shots were taken from Maltese Falcon and this was done in the 1940's. This particular image is much more focused on black and white and it is very dark compared to the moderner stuff like Casino Royale, and also my film...

 This is taken from the Casino Royale fight scene in the flashback, and here it gives off a more yellowy tint to it, rather than just black and white. The whiteness in this shows that it is a flashback, allowing the audience to capture the surroundings and the situation. My film, however is a mixture between the two, as it has hints of black and white in it, however white parts are clear...

 Here, I have shown you a range of shots and as you can see, the black and white is visible  however the white tints give it a nice effect of the flashforward atmosphere, which I particularly like.

The LS in the middle of these images is the footage which I have added in between the SRS and MS, to break up the shots and also give the effect of the fast-paced editing. 

I think that these screen shots show the clear contrast between the old style film noir film, Maltese Falcon, and then Casino Royale and my film. You can see the clear difference between them, as the more modern look is much more bright and highlights key aspects of within the frame.

I am particularly pleased with the way my rough cut is going, however I may change the flashforward effects in my final cut to look more like the Casino Royale flashback scene, however I will see how it looks.

Recently, I have also changed the effects of the montage footage to a more dingy look by lowering the saturation and this works particularly well, giving off the mysterious effect...

Progress So Far...

I am quite far along in the editing process now. I have done the start of the flashforward scene, part of the briefing scene, 3 montages and now I am moving onto the 4th montage. 

My fade to black transition wasn't working yesterday, however I deleted it and added it again and it still wouldn't work. The problem was it was fading out the voice of Jo, so I changed the audio effects so that it didn't manually fade out and it's worked well...

Here, you can see that the highlighted yellow box is the transition and that splits up the standing up shot and then the sitting down shot as it jumps between them - I may not keep the fade to black transition, however it is just there for the rough edit. 

Another problem that I had yesterday was that the voiceover for Smashup Frobo's part wasn't long enough, however I have managed to work around this. Although the voiceover doesn't cover the whole of that montage, it works well as you can hear the sound of the window smashing and also some of the previous montage's don't have the voiceover covering the whole of the footage, but I have added a sound effect in to give a better effect and I might do this with this part too. During Casino Royale's opening sequence, a lot of suspense sound effects are used and I think they work extremely well and they're working well in mine too.

The green line underneath the footage is the voiceover and as you can see it doesn't run to the end of the footage, however it doesn't matter.

I didn't actually use the CU of the feet as the montage would have ended up being too long, however I did use an unsteady camera shot which is extremely effective and this is where I used the freeze-frame to show his name...

I particularly like the effect with the twigs in front of the camera as they build up the suspense of the creepy nature as it is very secretive. 

This was the CU of the feet...

I am also loving the way that the freezeframes are coming together and I think they're extremely effective...

 Although Dosh Longrin or Smashup Frobo's freezeframes are a CU of their face, they still work well as they capture that nature of the criminal for the audience. 

This is where I need your advice...do you think this part of editing works?

I show the actors back and then it jumps to a LS of him standing against the wall. The shot of his back, gives the allusion as if he's just leant against the wall and this is the LS of his position. Do you think it works?

Today, I spoke this James Corker who I have commissioned to help me make my opening title sequence and I gave him some ideas for my title sequence. As the film is about a missing package, I had ideas of having envelopes and packages flying around as the credits appear, much like the Casino Royale opening with the cards...

However, mine would include packages etc.
Here is a list of ideas that I gave to James to play around with...

I am also looking forward to writing my song for this opening sequence - I am hoping to make  the opening sequence last around 30 seconds or near enough that time, so I will hope to write a full song, however I may just write a verse and chorus.

We will see how it goes!

PROBLEM SOLVED!

So the trainsition problem has been solved after I spoke to Mr Earl...He suggested cutting a second off the previous clip as there may not be enough footage for the transiton to work. Once i'd done this...IT WORKED!

Thank goodness...

A Few Problems

I am quite far along in the editing process and I have come across a few problems. As I went to add in a fade to black transition, it wouldn't let me make it longer. I tried a few things to try and solve it, however it didn't work. I looked through my previous transitions that i'd already added and they were also not working properly - I am unsure to why this is happening!

Another problem is that the voiceover for Smashup Frobo isn't long enough for the amount of footage I want to show. I am going to show Mr Earl tomorrow to see whether he thinks I can shorten the build up the smashing of the window.

Apart from that, things seem to be going well. Some of my footage was rotated the wrong way round, so I have to sort that out and crop it etc, however it works extremely well from different angles and I am pleased that Luke Brocklesby used the other camera to film from other angles.

So yes...let the editing commence!

I have also been recently thinking of song ideas and also credits, however I have not yet had any luck of coming up with anything. James Corker needs my credit ideas and also my song to start undergoing the process of fully creating the opening sequence, so I am going to make that my priority these next coming weeks. I am hoping to have a song written by Feb half term, enabling me to record it during the holidays. 

After Effects

My footage for this project is all shot and I am starting the editing process now. I have been working with James Corker to produce an opening title sequence for my project and it is going rather smoothly.

I had the idea of recreating the gun barrel bond scene, however after much thought, I have decided to use a shattering effect. As Laurene turns around and point the gun at the camera, as the bullet with smash the camera glass, creating a shatter effect. After that has happened, the opening titles will begin. I particularly like this idea because it isn't the typical Bond opening, so I am putting my own twist on it.

I would like to thank James Corker for helping me with this! 

We started to make the gun barrel scene to see how well it worked and it worked well:

After the picture was changed to a film noir effect (black and white) this would look extremely realistic and I love the framing of it. After much thought, we decided to change the effect and this is what we got:

The footage shown here obviously isn't what would be shown on the real thing, however we used this as a dummy effect to see how well it would work. I really like this effect as it brings about the realism, as the bullet would smash the screen. We are able to change the size of the glass shatter, giving us the ability to change it if need be.

The source that we used to get our tutorials from is Creative Cow, so thanks for that!

I am also thinking about the music for the opening title sequence and I am planning on writing my own Bond style opening song, so I will keep you posted on how that is going.