Sound progress

The four tracks we have chosen come from the artist Milton Arias, from the album 64 Antel del Fin. Our final four tracks that we are choosing from are:

• Gordo Jose
• Poldoro
• Gracias
• Quirquincho

The song we have chosen to use is Quirquincho, however we will have to mess around with the tempo and speed to make it fit the pace of our title sequence. We chose it due to it's simple and slightly creepy undertones.

We also did a small tally around our class to see which one was the winner:

Cast

Mother/"Mrs. Cloutier" - Sharon Stone
Because of Sharon's age, she could fulfil the motherly role for our film. Also, because of her role in Basic Instincts (1992), she has been linked to this genre before and would reprise the role of her mother well.

Father/"Mr. Cloutier" - Tom Hanks
We chose Tom Hanks due to his previous fatherly roles in films such as Forrest Gump (1994) and much more serious-toned films such as The Da Vinci Code (2006), Tom Hanks understanding of both genres would lead to an entertaining performance in Woman's Bane.







Female lead/"Violet Cloutier" - Gal Gadot
Gal Gadot is a rising star, with her role in Batman VS Superman (2016) and her upcoming role as Wonder Woman in (2017). Also, she is beautiful, which would make it easy for her victims to fall in love with her.




Detective - Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman has played many detective roles before, for example in Se7en (1995). He is known for being a serious actor and reprises the roles well.









Victim - Adam Gregory
Adam Gregory is a relatively attractive man who would fit the role well of being murdered, due to the fact Violet attracts good looking men. Adam is also an upcoming star, having featured in films like 17 Again (2009).

Death changes

After talking with our teacher, we have completely re-vamped the death scene. Instead of it being shot in a bar, we have decided to have our female villain take his victim back to her house to kill him there. With this, it now means we can use the bedroom which has obvious connotations of sexual activity attached to it. Also, since the kitchen in my house is refined, we are using that.




This will make filming a lot easier with minimal setup needed, meaning we can get straight into filming. Hopefully, these will be the shots we need to complete our title sequence.

Sound Brainstorm

This brainstorm was made in the early days of producing the title sequence, deciding on what we wanted the soundtrack to sound like. We thought this would be useful as we could refine our search through this and actually get results. We all discussed this, and worked as a team of it to produce this mind-map. 

Editing Progress

Back onto my editing journey, I have discovered more tools that now play a vital role in me being able to produce the best title sequence possible. Using cmd - T on text allows the text to fade, creating a nice gradient effect to the start of our title sequence. We also decided on the three fonts that we would use for this part of the segment: TT Moons, Basic Title Font and Nite Club.

Also, with the help of a classmate I was able to make the text follow our actress at one point, where an actors name will be placed.



Finally, with the help of a teacher  I am slowly figuring out how to make the lipstick bullets stand out against our black and white theme. 

image here

Feedback

For the first time, the class watched what we had done so far. Below are the feedback that we received from fellow classmates and our teacher:

Audience profile

Dress Polls

We did some polls to conclude who would be the best fit for the dress, we asked a sample of ten. Dress one is the sophistcated dress, as pictured below:

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And dress two is the underneath dress, as pictured below:

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Our results are as follows:




From this, we concluded that Niamh would be the best choice to wear the dresses in our title sequence.

Props needed

Below is a list of props that may be needed for our title sequence:

• Lipsticks (Some melted, some to be applied)
• Mirror
• Lighter (May or may not be seen within title sequence
• Flower resembling the Woman's Bane (as we cannot actually have the real flower due to it being very poisonous)
• Tea set (Cup, saucer)
• Martini glass
• Gardening gloves

Order of credits

Changes made before feedback

Before we have received our formal feedback for our first draft, there have been some changes made to our title sequence.

Order of sequence
Originally, we had planned to keep the title sequence completely narrative and telling the whole story of Woman's Bane, much like the title sequence for Catch Me If You Can. However, after talking over with our teacher, we have decided to slot narrative of her killing her victim in between her getting ready, to reflect on the calm and normality in her life and then switch to her murderous side.

Locations
We had originally planned to film some sequences in set out areas, but however they have changed due to limitations or opinions on what would look best changing. Some scenes were planned to be film in a homely area, which have now instead been chosen to be filmed in front of the white-screen. Also, we had originally planned to shoot in a bar, but the location had to be changed to Bexleyheath Shopping centre due to the limitations we may have shooting in a bar.

Shooting locations

School/White-screen
Using the white-screen at school creates the simplicity we had envisioned for some scenes. The contrast between the character/blood/objects against the white background makes the horror more dependent on the action, and not the fear/suspense that comes from the dark, which many horror films use. The white-screen reflects the same technique within the American Psycho title sequence, which contains many twists and is deceiving at points. 

Bexleyheath shopping centre
Within the shopping centre, there is a marbleized wall with lifts in the building. This is a change to our original plan of a bar/club, since it may be easier to get permission to film there. The marble also adds a sense of elegance to the scenery, keeping up with the theme of our killer being/living a sophisticated life. The lifts also could connote that she lives in a fancy apartment building.

Danson Park flower garden
At the start of our title sequence, we reflect on the killer's upbringing of being into gardening and flower arranging. Next to flowers and gloves, this would be at the start of the title sequence. The garden is known to be beautiful and well kept, which is why we chose this location. However, due to recent discoveries of it being unkempt, the location may have to change. 

Mistakes whilst filming

Throughout our time filming, there have been ways that we could have improved our performance and made our time worthwhile. Throughout this blog post, I will point out errors made and how we could improve on them.

Time Management
As a group, we have all tried to be together at any filming session. Reflecting on how much we have actually done, this possibly wasn't the best way to approach it. Whilst it is good to have everyone there to gain valuable opinions, it will not get the title sequence done fast enough. We have started to fix this by at least having two members of the group present at each filming session.

Opinions whilst editing
At the current point in time, our title sequence isn't overly exciting. Whilst the title sequence isn't meant to be thrilling and have more of an elegant undertone, I could be editing it more to display the narrative and make it clear to the audience. Rarely all members are at an editing session, and I think that again at least two members need to be present at editing session to fix this issue and make our title sequence the best it can be from an editing point of view.

Locations
Some of the original locations we chose may not work out in the final cut. For example, we chose to shoot at Danson park, but since it is winter many of the flowers are dead and it was hard to find a beautiful area. This may work in our favor if we decide to change the theme for that scene, but otherwise we may have to scout out other locations to find something suitable.

Dress test

For this, we tested who wears the dresses that will appear in our title sequence best. There are no photos of me, since my body is too thin and doesn't fit any of the dresses. Kelly's body was also of a similar physique, leaving only Maddie B and Niamh to wear the dresses. We decided that Niamh wore both dresses the best, so she will be wearing both dresses in the title sequences.

 

Mirror scene

We continued on with filming our white screen sequences, now with the mirror scene. Throughout shooting we faced many difficulties, but it was however resolved with practice and compromises.

The setup for the mirror was difficult, as we needed a white screen for both sides. Finding one from our art department, we managed to have two each side. Also, since the "vanity" the mirror was resting up on had to tie in with the white, we used white paper to make it match. The mirror also had a white frame.



The sequence contained an actors name, written by our actress. In a previous post, we tested what sort of "font" looked best. Kelly within our group wrote it best, therefore leading her to write it again.



After this, our actress (Niamh) would finish of the writing and walk out of frame. Camera positioning was important with this as we could not get any element within the frame that wasn't white. Also, it was important not to get Niamh's face in the reflection of the mirror to keep the anonymity.

With this, we struggled, but it was finally able to be reached with our cinematographer, Maddie B. Using a steady cam, we followed Niamh's movements carefully, then tracking slightly on the mirror to get a clear view of 'Gal Gadot'. With this sequence came many risk, such as the mirror falling down (which happened a few times) and equipment being knocked over, due to the sheer amount around us. Thankfully, this never happened with enough care.

Editing process

As the groups editor, I have started to put together the title sequence with all the footage we have filmed so far. Since we wished for a slow, sophisticated theme to run under the whole title sequence, some clips have been slowed down to show her steady pace and that she is rather elegant. 

As I am new to using Final Cut Pro, I am learning as I go along and it is a rather easy program to use. Many scenes still need to be filmed and many things will slot in-inbetween the footage I have already placed, but it has all been colour corrected and slowed if necessary. The colour corrections are necessary in order to bring out the contrast of the white on our character.

 

Testing shots, text and lighting tests

With a test run of shots, we managed to play around with lighting and shoot a possible sequence that we will use within the final film.

We decided that a white screen and white paper would produce the best results for our film. Also, as later in the sequence we are writing an actor/producer's name on a mirror, we tested the style of handwriting that would best suit the theme of our title sequence. We settled on No.2, written by Kelly.

Storyboard

This is the storyboard that was used in the animatic, displaying our general idea of our title sequence. We didn't jot down any idea of how things would transition and how long things would be seen on screen as we didn't have any idea at this point. With my drawing skills, we were able to portray what we needed to clearly and effectively. 

Production Call

Our production call details all of our roles, what we are likely to need for props and equipment and any risks we needed to take. With all our roles clear on paper, it made it easy to know what we had to stick to within our group. The props and kits list were pretty true to what we needed, with only perhaps small things needing to be added. Also, very little had to be bought since we knew what we needed. A risk assessment was needed just in case an accident did happen, we would know what to do.

Anamatic

Our animatic shows the general idea of our title sequence, which didn't take long to do. We didn't include any explicit animation of our title sequence as we still wasn't completely sure of how everything would move, but we expect to only really use simple cuts. Also, music was undecided at this point, so it wasn't included. This again allowed me to use Final Cut Pro again, learning the ropes of the program further.