EDITING: TITLES

Today we explored and researched different titles we could use for our film titles. We liked these ones:

"The A D Sign Film Festival" We found that this title was effective in conveying the genre of film but it was hard to make out what is written and thus loses some of its impact on a viewer.

"Philippine Horror Fims" We liked the font used in this title, but felt it was slightly to over the top for our style of film and might distract from the story.

"Se7en" We espically liked this title and liked the idea of combinding letters and numbers, it also provides a sense of something psycotic.



We found that the darker and more edited titles were the ones we liked most. Although as are title options are limiting we have to adapt our titles accourdingly.

CONSTRUCTION: RECORDING THE NURSERY RHYME

We decided that to add an intresting and original element to our film opening, we would encourperate a nursery rhyme, sung by Georgina herself. We recorded it onto soundcloud and then copied it onto Imovie. As we have decided to call our film; "Hush Little Baby" we felt it fitting for her to sing the hush little baby nursery rhyme:

Hush, little baby, don't say a word

Papa's going to buy you a mockingbird

If that mockingbird won't sing

Papa's going to buy you a diamond ring

If that diamond ring turns brass

Papa's going to buy you a looking glass

If that looking glass gets broke

Papa's going to buy you a billy goat

If that billy goat won't pull

Papa's going to buy you a cart and bull

If that cart and bull turn over

Papa's going to buy you a dog named Rover

If that dog named Rover won't bark

Papa's going to buy you a horse and cart

If that horse and cart fall down

You'll still be the sweetest little baby in town

Hush, little baby, don't say a word

Mama's going to buy you a mockingbird

If that mockingbird won't sing

Mama's going to buy you a diamond ring

So hush little baby, don't you cry

Your Mama loves you and so do I .

This song works well as it is long enough to be played over certain scenes, it also has the ability to sound quite menacing and chilling. The final verse also works well for us as it sounds as if it is actually the woman talking to the child she has taken. 

EDITING: SOUND EFFECTS

Today we explored what sounds and music we could use in our film opening. We decided to use a montage of war noises, which include: gunfire, shouting and machine noises. We chose to place this noise over the montage of war images to convey a sense of tauma, as well as showing the memory is still inside her head.  It also makes a connection between the womans break down and her time spent photographing war zones.  We also incorporated a child's giggle over the compilation of shots that have the woman and doll in them. This creates an unnerving and distressing atmosphere.

CONSTRUCTION: LITTLE GIRL SCENE

As this scene requires a young girl, and we decided to use Amber's younger sister. Amber filmed this scene outside of her house in a local field and along her road. The scene consist of the woman watching the girl playing in the grass. The camera was placed behind a tree looking over to the young girl as if from the womans perspective. This shot worked well as it creates an unnerving atmosphere. It also immediately indicates that the woman is doing something she shouldn't. As the child needs to be separated from her mother we decided that she should be on a scooter so that she could ride away from her mum, and/or be putting the scooter away in the garage alone. We see the girl ride her scooter towards the camera and into shot, it then cuts to a shot of her putting the scooter into the garage and walking away. Both shots are very effective as they show the child isolated and vunerable.

RESEARCH: DECIDING ON A SLOGAN

We decided we wanted a short slogan to place on the poster and promote our film.
We wanted something that captured the theme and conveyed a sense of enigma.
There were a number of good suggestions, such as:

• Hush, now baby girl  
• Come back, little one 
• Down will come baby, cradle and all
• Innocent dreams 

We felt that these all were good but they didn't have a strong enough effect and impact on the audience. Whilst researching for ideas on slogans, we looked at the lyrics of the song "hush little baby", as this is the title of our film we felt that it would work well to have a line from the song as our slogan. Right at the end of the song the last line is:

• "Your mama loves you and so do I" 

We found that this fit perfectly not only to our plot line, but also to the sense of suspense. It almost seems as if it its the woman talking to the child, brainwashing her. By putting this on our film poster it provokes audiences to try and understand it, this then leads to people discussing it which generates buzz and intrigue around our film. 

CONSTRUCTION: RE-FILMING.

Today we re-filmed a section of the opening of our film, where the woman storms out of the doctors office, in a violent rage. We also re-filmed the section where she is rummaging  through the war photos and she rips up the child photo. This indicates she is in a manic state and is angry and troubled by the image of the young child.

We decided to re film it as there was an issue with continuity, as it appeared that the woman changed clothes between each shot. We also got feedback back it was not clear that the woman was strongly effected by these images and her past as a war photographer. With the re filming we hoped to add more shots showing both the womans face and the photos; showing her reactions to the them and her rage as she rips one to pieces. We also wanted to add an additional shot showing her grief and the begining of her breakdown:

RESEARCH: SUITS OPENING

We researched the film openings, we came across the opening of Suits which is the opening to a US tv drama show. We liked the editing style they used in their opening title sequence. For example they film the two men walking towards the building, they then split this clip into two or three parts. They then slow down the first section to around half the normal speed, and make the second half, either normal speed or slightly sped up. This is effective as it makes the action dis-jointed, it also builds up tention in the shot. We thought that this would be good to use in our film. We decided to use it in the scene in the park, with the swings.