Production & Post-production work~ filming and stuff

I really enjoyed filming but it did take a lot of time due to the fact I was doing stop motion. There are a lot of things I would have done differently to make everything go more smoothly. One of the main thing I would do differently is use a tripod instead of an pile of books due to the fact that I would not have line the pictures as often when editing. I would also have liked to have  a better camera so I could have done a real life stop motion instead of just animated but I got the effect I wanted and am happy with it.

Other things for Pre-production

-Crew/Talent list~ non(animated)
-Art Department~ me
-Locations, permissions~my bedroom, I gave permission :D

~Research~ xP

My main inspiration was the song 'Don't unplug me' by the All Caps which gave me the story line for the film. I then discussed it with people in class and modified it to suite my title sequence which would not be explaining the idea but introducing the concept .I also googled images of male and females robots together to see popular styles of images and based my design on them.

Treatment +--+

Cheerful music springs up, the screen is completely black.a small white square appears on the screen and gets larger and larger until it is full size. Using stop motion a drawing of a fem-bots head starts being drawn onto a clear piece of paper. Then the male robot is appears in the same manner (POV shot). The page clears and drawing slowly changes to the fem-bot and robot holding hands. As the two robots stand their holding hands the title is written around them (still in stop motion) then they start walking along the page until the male comes to some flowers. He picks one up and gives it to the fem-bot. There is a close up on the flower and as you watch it, it starts to deform (instead of building to an image it does the opposite process) as it disappears ever fades to black and title sequence finishes. during this scene the credits will be written across the screen eg. director Tui Guy-Williams.

Production! Production! Production! thingy...

  
love in binary

01101100 01101111 01110110 01100101 00001101 00001010

My producton is going to be in the genre of sci-fi romantic comedy. It is a story about two robots that fall in love but the male robot(walter) does not think he is good enought for the female robot(Xenia). He decides to get an up-grade but when his systems are re-booted his memories are erased. Xenia then has to teach Walter how to love again. With this film I want to give the impression of a cute lovey dovey teenage love film.

Parallel Action



During the rolling of the credits parallel action is use constantly to portray both main actors as children. One of the things I like about the way the shots are set up is unlike in a normal situation when using parallel action both the children would have been on the screen simultaneously but it switched between them. One reason for this was to allow room for the credits but it also allows the  viewer to focus on one thing at a time. Having Parallel action of the two characters switching like this gives of a fun playful feeling which would not have been felt had the scenes been played one after the other or at the same time. This is because the images where filmed to counteract one another which gives them that playful feel.  



Music

The song 'US' by Regina Spektor plays during the introduction to the movie. The song is a bit quirky with its lyrics but i believe it fits the movie really well. The song 'US' (in my opinion) is about two people trying to do great things but getting caught up in life. This mirrors the relationship between Tom and Summer. They look like a great pair but life sweeps them up and they have to move on with there life's and find someone new.
One thing the music dose at the beginning of the title sequence is it keeps in time with the changes in credits and in the images. This gives more impact to the movement that each  credit and shot creates bringing focus to the characters.

FONT!!!!

One of my favorite effects is used  in the title sequence. During the naming of the actors, writer and other credits, the font is displayed across the screen as a mirror image. This effect is used to make it seem as though the characters are reading the credits. By using this technique the film is made more personal. This effect also makes you feel the characters are looking at you instead of the other way around. This changes the way you relate to the characters later on and makes their actions seem more personal.
The white font was also made to contrast with the black background. This made the font stand out next to the colourful video and dark background which made it easier to read.

Its not anything like the what i wanted but its the best i could get :D

Hand-held CAMERA!!!

One of the main techniques used during the title sequence is the hand-held camera effect. This is used during the credits while playing a film of the children growing up. Using the hand-held camera gives the effect of a homemade movie. This helps create the happy family-feel which I was talking about earlier. I think this was used because it makes you feel more like you are involved in the movie. The shot makes you feel as though you are looking through the camera at the actors instead of looking  at a movie screen. This effect is made more prominant by having negative space around the two shots and making the focus drawn to the characters. It also separates them with a small gap to show the difference in their characters and roles.

Using a hand-held camera makes the videos of the children look shaky and also slightly blurred. This makes the introduction look unprofessional. By making the begining look unprofessional it sets up the opinion that the movie will be down to earth, which it is. 

Genre/atmosphere

The introduction to the movie '500 days of Summer'  has a very happy family-feel with a mixture of fairytale story at the end of the title sequence. This links into the movie by setting up the characters' opinions of love. The girl Summer believies that there is no fairytale love but only the chance to have a happy life with someone you like. The boy Tom believes that the only way to have a happy life is to find your one true love. The mood of the happy family is created by the use of tinting during the title sequence when the film is shot with parallel action. The video is given a slightly yellow tint while the children are playing it makes everything seem happy, while adding the family feel with them being children. The fairy tale mood is introduced when the narrator starts talking.The fairy tale mood is brought across by the familiarity of this style of introduction which is so much like the beginning of  many childhood fairy tales.

I think the director Mark Webb was trying to bring across the romantic comedy theme when he introduces the main characters with his 'once upon a time' narration . This is brought across by the way in which the music, with its cheerful up-beat tone, contrasts with the serious the voice of the narrator. This technique is not out-rightly funny but it hints at the reaccuring theme of comedy which the narrator  reinforces through his dialogue as the film evolves.

My reason for selection

~500 days of Summer~

"this is a  story of boy meets girl but you should know up front this is not a love story"

 The title sequence to the movie '500 days of Summer' is done with home videos (presented with parallel action) of the two main characters growing up. Its starts with an extreme close up of each of the children's eyes and then leads into videos of the actors when they are about 5 years old. They grow older

as the credits progress until they are about 18 and then the movie begins. It starts with the narrator introducing the characters and how they feel about love and finding THE ONE! 

The introduction is really interesting in my opinion because you are introduced to the main characters before you even know who they are. Then when you know who they are you get the story of there life's and why they have the opinions they do .What I really like about the title sequence is that it makes you attached to the main characters because you feel like you watched them grow up.
It fits into the movie by obviously introducing the main characters.It also tells you 'up front' at the beginning  its not a love story but a story about a boy and a girl meeting, Dating, and getting over each other. Which is basically what the whole movie is about.
This Titles Sequence appealed to me because I think its very cute and quirky. I especially like the bit where the narrator introduces Summer Finn (played by Zooey Deschanel) and Tom Hansen (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt )

"This is a story of boy meets girl. The boy, Tom Hansen of Margate, New Jersey, grew up believing that he'd never truly be happy until the day he met the one. This belief stemmed from early exposure to sad British pop music and a total mis-reading of the movie 'The Graduate'. The girl, Summer Finn of Shinnecock, Michigan, did not share this belief. Since the disintegration of her parent's marriage she'd only love two things. The first was her long dark hair. The second was how easily she could cut it off and not feel a thing. Tom meets Summer on January 8th. He knows almost immediately she is the one who he has been searching for ."
 I really like this beginning to the movie because it's a little cliched BUT I think its a great way to start a movie and I think it makes people more attached to the characters because as I said earlier you already saw them as they grew up. I also really like the fact that they used real family videos of the actors instead of a child lookalike.

The title sequence I have chosen!