London Visit - 24 Hour film

While in London we stopped by to see Christian Marclay: The Clock. We heard it was a 24hour hour film about clocks but I had no idea what it actually was. I was amazed!

The film features thousands of mainstream films old and new all edited so that for 24 hours the film was synchronized with realtime. Every clip used related to the time wether it be showing a clock/watch or someone telling the time.

The thing that most interested me about this was the fact that the sound layers on these clips interacted with each other. For example, A woman throwing a clock out the window and a cut to will smith in I am Legend turning around hearing the clock hit the floor.

I love editing when there is a freedom about injecting your own techniques and the director definitely had that freedom with this 24 hour project.

Visit to London - Ray Harryhausen exhibition

I recently went to London to meet up with a few design studios. While I was down there a few of us decided to stop by at the London Film Museum which had a Ray Harryhausen exhibition on.

On show was a collection of models from his different films including Clash of the Titans which I loved as a kid. To be able to achieve a full film all in stop motion hits home just how time consuming the technique is. I remember as a kid being scared to life of some of his creatures even more scared than watching a shinny CGI film. I think films like this should be brought back as I think they have a greater effect on film viewers than modern day cgi films.

Im thinking about using Stop motion in my piece so hopefully I can learn from the examples of Ray Harryhausen films to get realistic emotions across to the viewer.

Dexter - title sequence

I found a lot of similarities in this sequence and the American psycho titles.

Both focusing on a serious subject but using everyday activities to give it a comical spin. Showing food being prepared seems to be an obsession with people making these style of films/series.

Overall both the sequences do their job narrating the genre before the main feature starts. however involving this kind of humour into my piece doesnt seem to fit the tone of the film because it is not conveyed in the film as light hearted but instead creepy,obsessive.

American Psycho - title sequence

After watching the dead man on campus title sequence I decided to look at other films that use a serious subject such as death but give it a more light hearted feel. American psycho immediately jumped to my mind because of the tone of voice the film holds which shows serial killing to be a fun sport.

The title sequence also take a fun twist by showing blood like droplets dripping down a wall, this later turns out to be red sauce dripping onto food. When the viewers notice this comical reference they immediately know this film is not a horror.

Photo parallax test

Ok one of my first ideas when thinking about the theme of the film was to have someone cut out of a photograph "Not belonging in the photo". Developing this idea, the idea of slowly moving someone out of view in a photograph came about. I scanned in one of my family photos and and photoshop I cut the people away from the background. I then took this into after effects and set up a camera, This allowed me to move the characters (foreground) away from the background in a parallax motion.


This is a rough example of something I was trying to achieve.

Euro trip - title sequence

Looking at the contrast between this title sequence and my last post of DMOC title sequence, I can obviously see how illustrations being animated as well as the soundtrack gives a totally different feel to a title sequence. Like the dead man on campus titles they both use illustrated diagrams. Now just for a second picture the DMOC titles being animated....It wouldnt work because it would be to fast and humorous and it would be distant from the tone of voice of the film.

However in terms of a comedy title sequence, The euro trip sequence totally fits the energy and comedy wit of the film. Looking at these examples of different genres and how illustrated diagrams are used gives me a clear understanding of how I need my sequence to feel.

Dead man on campus - title sequence

Me and chris had a discussion the other day about animation gives off a strong tone of voice. I said How I cant remember a lot of animation being used in a title sequence for a thriller before.

This title sequence for deadman on campus uses illustrated style diagrams in a school text style to show various ways to commit suicide or kill someone. Although this title sequence is not animated, the way the camera moves and the transition between diagrams gives it a light hearted feel. I also think if the music was an instrumental it would feel darker, but the fact that it has vocals again gives it a more light hearted feel but still stays with the strong imagery of death that has been shown.

Forget the Film, Watch the Titles DVD

Being very interested in title design I bought the dvd from the 'forget the film,watch the titles website' It gives around 20 examples of title sequences as well as interviews with designers around the world who give their views and tips on the art of title design.

The title sequence for 30 days of night by the studio Momoco in London is a favourite of mine and I have contacted them about the possibility of a portfolio visit while in London. Watching these interviews gives me added knowledge on the way these designers thing and how they come up with their ideas/storyboards. Hopefully I can take some of their tips into practice to my my final project more successful.

D&AD Lecture - OneDotZero

I recently went to a lecture about OneDotzero, I didnt actually know a lot about them until the talk so it was interesting to know that they were organizers of festivals around the world promoting the best of 21st century design.

The talk really opened my eyes to the installation side to design an how the public can interact with exciting new technology. The light box/light door exhibition in france was particularly interesting because of the way that both kids and old age pensioners were both interacting with a piece of modern art.

I will be keeping my eye on developments from Onedotzero over the next few months to see if anymore installations or talks will be happening in this country.