Titling: Following or Challenging Conventions?

Titling is a very important part of making the best title sequence possible, as it creates the mood of the film and if it doesn't reflect the film's feel or meaning then it will not work right. Below are some notable thriller titles and the fonts they use in their title sequence.

 As you can see, the title card for 'Get Out' (2017) is very serious looking and feels intense to look at, building suspense, and the title cards for 'A Quiet Place' (2018) and 'IT' (2017) are scary looking fonts that instill fear in the viewer. Ours turned out a bit different. The font I used in the beginning of the title sequence was VCR OSD Mono, which is the font that VHS time stamps are in. The reason I used this font was because it challenges conventions, leaving the audience unsure of what to suspect, but it is still unsettling as it is vintage and ominous. It also ties in with the technological aspect of the film, as the typed word document is shown at the end when Lionel drops the laptop.

For the ending title card, I decided to use the DVORAK font, which follows conventions a lot more, as it is scratchy and much more menacing than VCR OSD Mono. This is shown after Lionel is attacked, which is important because now the audience knows that this is a scary/intense film and the font now reflects how they are feeling. If this font was used at the beginning, it would have raised the audience's suspicion from the start that it was going to be scary, so using this only at the end was effective in my opinion.

 I decided to keep the blinking cursor at the end of the text in the title card as well so it would stay similar to the way the text was shown the whole way through. On top of this I also included the green and magenta edges to the text, which was to make it look more digital camera-like if that makes sense. This was not much for a particular reason but I decided it was a nice touch to make it look a bit more intense.

What Sounds am I Adding and How?

  In our title sequence, there is a lot of silence accompanied by our protagonist Lionel moving in different ways such as walking, getting off of the bed, etc. Because of the fact it is so quiet throughout most of the title sequence, it is important that we recorded those very small diegetic sounds to ensure that it is as realistic as can possibly be. Also, because of the intensity factor we are trying to achieve, there is bound to be a jumpscare or two, or three, in our title sequence, so I needed to add musical stings to those parts that fit with the scene. There will also need to be a very low and natural ambient sound to hold suspense, which we agreed would be the slight breeze of the air conditioning. Our director Pierce chose to also take the role of sound design, where he was responsible for recording the sounds so that I am able to place them into the video in the spots they need to be. After he got done recording them, he sent them to me through a Snapchat group chat that our whole group is a part of, where I downloaded them, emailed them to myself and then put them in the video. Getting the sound in the right spot can be a challenge however, so there are a few ways I have chosen to make it easier on myself. Sony Vegas has a marker tool, which allows you to place a small orange line on any part of a video track by pressing M on that specific frame so that you are able to use it as a reference when adding sounds. For example, say I needed to know the exact point to add the dripping sound, I would just go through the video frame by frame and pause it exactly where the droplet would hit the bottom of the sink, and then press M on that spot, where it would be marked, so I now know where to put the audio of the dripping.

What the markers look like

 Another way I've chosen to add the audio more easily was through using multiple layers throughout the video. A difficult part of adding in sound is picking out which ones need to be louder and which ones need to be quieter. The way I decided to adjust the levels of audio was to have several audio layers each of different audio levels so that the quiet noises can stay together and the loud ones can stay together.

The Layering of the Sound

How am I Using Color Correction?

 For our title sequence, we have decided to use a blue-toned color correction as suggested by our production designer Bianca Raby, in order to create a more sinister, dark, and unwelcoming feeling about the setting and the happenings occurring within it. This is commonly seen in thriller/horror films to create a dark and sinister feeling, such as this scene in 'Get Out' (2017), in which the blue color correction made it all the much scarier.

 The program I am using, Sony Vegas Pro 13 does not have your basic 'filters', but instead has a more  manual form of color correction. While there are effects that allow you to adjust the colors of midtones, there aren't really filters and once you apply these effects you have a menu that comes up where you can adjust highs, lows and mediums to be the color tone you want as well as adjusting gamma, offset and more.

Effects

Manual Menu

   As you can see, I adjusted mostly everything to the blue side of the spectrum, however I tried not to do it too much and went for more subtle changes so it did not start to look unnatural. I most heavily adjusted the highs as those were the most prevalent in all of our shots, with there being a lot of light colors and especially with the bright curtain. Adjusting the lows and midtones too heavily started making it look very unnatural, so I am sticking to mostly adjusting the highs, I also lowered the gamma and other lighting tools (as seen on the slider bars underneath the color wheels) in order to darken it slightly, not only to create a more sinister feeling but also because the light from the curtains was slightly overwhelming.

Creating Meaning Through Editing

 A huge part of editing that occurs before the actual 'editing' even starts that is often overlooked is shot selection. When editing 'Lucid Elucidations', I am going to try my best to keep in mind the intended meaning the film is supposed to hold and how the camera angles are supposed to indicate what was going on, so I do not want to deviate much from showing the long shots and over the shoulder/tracking shots unless it makes sense or is necessary, as we want to be able to convey the message that Lionel is being watched and followed. I will only be really including those into the film while editing. Along with this, the whole title sequence is one long situation occurring, so I will need to make use of match on action shots as the scene needs to fluently flow from one shot to the next without jarring the viewer. I will use sound in various ways to also create meaning. In the beginning, we have decided to include music from the start up until the first jumpscare when Lionel encounters the dummy. The song we have decided to use is 'Psycho' by Lucas King, as it is a soft piano song which helps to serve many purposes in the beginning. For one, it is easing for the viewers to hear, which lowers their suspicion of anything occurring, but is also ominous and eerie because it is higher pitched and sounds peaceful at first, providing a contrast to the dark and unsettling setting.

Lucas King: 'Psycho'

  Along with the music, I am going to add musical stings when creepy things occur, both small and large. For example, I am going to add softer musical stings to emphasize realizations, rather than drawing fear, such as the part when Lionel will walk through the curtain where he sees the shadow through but nothing will be there. I will then add loud and shocking musical stings at the more intense actions, such as when Lionel is attacked at the end. This will add to the shock and scare factor and will be what the tension builds up to.

 I am not really going to add any special transitions or effects until the end, as I want to keep the realism factor high. Adding a transition would make it feel less real, and not to mention in a film where the whole thing is practically match on action shots, transitions would not be a good idea. At the end however, when Lionel is attacked, I want to add pauses in between the shots of him dropping the laptop, the laptop hitting the floor, and the screen shown close up. This will greatly emphasize the chaos and shock of the event, jarring the viewer and almost making it seem surreal, This will be paired with slow pacing all the way up until this point, with Lionel slowly exploring his surroundings and slowly building tension, and then this faced paced, hard hitting ending will happpen and I think that will make it so much better.

What Technology Did We Use During Production?

 We used quite a broad span of technology while filming since we had to record audio, film our shots, use props, and light up the set. I am going to go over all of the devices used for each category: audio, video, and on-set technology.

Video
In order to film our more sophisticated shots such as rack focuses and shots of more shallow composition, we used Katelyn's Canon Rebel T3i, a camera with numerous things that can be adjusted such as the lenses and lighting. However, for all of the other shots, we used Katelyn's iPhone X and Robert's iPhone 8, as those are the two best quality devices we had, and we wanted to film at least two angles of each shot. The reason we didn't stick to using the camera as much was because of a few things: firstly, the camera's large size made it more difficult to shoot with, especially when in tighter spaces. Also, the camera had very poor quality when shooting in darker settings, while the iPhones the better option quality wise. Lastly, the iPhones are just overall more convenient as Katelyn was easily able to transfer the clips to her Macbook through iCloud and send me them. It was only when there were shots the camera could do that the phone couldn't that we decided to use the Camera.

iPhone X and iPhone 8

Canon Rebel T3i




Audio
 Since Pierce took the role of sound design, pretty much every single sound recorded was with his iPhone 6+, through a pre-installed app all iPhones have called 'Voice Memos', which allows you to record audio as much as you want, trim it, and share it. Using this, managed to put the files into an audio editor he got and manipulated the noises to make them sound more real. Once he completed this, he sent me the audio through our Snapchat group chat, where I downloaded the file and sent it to my computer for editing. There was only one sound Pierce was unable to record though and that was the sound of the wheelchair falling over, so I used my iPhone 7S to record the sound of my office chair falling over.

On Set
 On set, we had to use Pierce's industrial lights that he brought to the set as lighting through the curtains. We did this by plugging the light in on the other side of the curtain and had someone hold it steady on the other side so it illuminated the set and the curtain was more lit up. This also allowed for shadows to be cast through the curtain. We also used Pierce's laptop for the final scene with the computer.

Influences While Shooting

When recording our film, we used some commonly seen ideas for some of our shots, such as the dummy and shadow behind the curtains. Of course, we've seen these before and thought that they would be something we could create our own spin on. There were a few ideas that were inspired by certain movies or famous scenes, such as this scene we have where there is a repeated sentence typed up on the computer screen after Lionel dropped it. If you haven't already immediately figured it out, this was inspired by the classic film 'The Shining' (1980), in which the phrase 'All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy' was repeatedly typed out for pages and pages by Johnny, the father who is going on a spiral into insanity. We thought this would be a good addition as it would spark confusion in the audience and leave them wondering what it means or why someone would type it out so many times, further adding to the eeriness.

On top of this, the idea of the dummy was a heavily inspired touch seen in many movies, so many that I can't really name a particular one, but movies like 'Annabelle' (2014), 'The Boy' (2016) and the 'Saw' series, where there is creepy dolls/dummies/puppets used as the main antagonists in the film. This sparks fear in the viewer as it brings an inanimate object to life and on top of that portrays them as dangerous. Lastly, the idea of the shadow behind the curtain was not an idea specifically sparked from a specific film, but is just a common sight seen in horror images in videos that we thought would be creepy to employ in our film. It definitely had a creepy effect as it maintains mystery as to who or what is behind the curtain.

(right is from Lucid Elucidations)

Day Two of Reshooting

Today was very successful. We stayed after school again from 2-5 PM and managed to get all of the remaining shots, as well as correcting some shots taken the day before, such as the shot of Lionel encountering the dummy as he walks out of the room, which we shot from a different, and much better angle.

 We shot everything from when Lionel enters the next room up until the final attack, where the title card will be placed. With that last shot, if I'm being honest, we were not too certain of how exactly to execute it going into this, as it was very easy to make that part look cheesy so we wanted it to be as creepy as possible. Our director Pierce came up with the idea that the final attack should be from the silhouette behind the curtain grabbing Lionel. This turned out to work very well as it looked creepy, maintained the mystery as to who or what the shadow is and has a very valuable jumpscare effect.

 In order to take this shot, we did the same thing as yesterday that we did showing the silhouette through the curtain, this time I held the light from behind the curtain where Katelyn, the shadow figure stood in front of me, casting her shadow through the curtain.

When shooting, we stayed in keeping with the principle of long shots and over the shoulder/tracking shots as our main go-to in order to further convey the message that he's being watched and followed all the way through. These are some examples of such.

 At the end, we wanted Lionel to pick up the laptop that was on the floor, which had the words "I should have been there" typed out on it repeatedly, which we'd reveal after he drops it when being attacked. However, there was an obvious problem with that, as we did not want to risk breaking a perfectly good computer. Luckily, Pierce owned two of the same exact computers, one already being broken and the other one in good shape. So what we did was we used the broken one for when Lionel drops the laptop, and the good one when showing the screen.

Good Computer

Broken Computer

 Overall, today was very successful as we now have all of the shots we need along with several angles of each one so we have options, and we corrected some errors that were made yesterday. However, we still do not have the sounds recorded, so Pierce is going to record them once I have edited the film together so he can decide which sounds are necessary when watching it all together and recording them accordingly.