Week 4 - Ideas.

Well after brainstorming in class the style i wanted to do, i started to look for examples of good stop motion videos. Orignally Melvyn showed us his DVD of Michel Gondry, director of Dave Chappelles Block Part (2004). He showed me a music video for The White Stripes called "The Hardest Button to Button". The video is pure stop motion. This is the style i am thinking of using, but instead of using a video camera, i hope to use a digital SLR camera to shoot stills and use them in my video.

Here is an example of stop motion.

Week 4 - The Music Video

After showing off our videos, we were introduced to the next project. To create an original music video, from 2 songs chosen by Jeremy. One was a bizarre mashup of Dubstep and electronically created sounds, it  sounded weird. The next track was "Monkey Gone to Heaven" By The Pixies. It sounded pretty old, originally i guessed it was from the early 80s, but a google search told me it was released in 1989, which was the same year i was born. It was an old song, but not classic status like Michael Jacksons's Thriller.

An idea i had was to shoot a person doing the "air guitar" to The Pixies track. The person will not be moving there legs, only doing the "air guitar". I want to shoot this in the style of Stop Motion, like taking a photo, 3 photos per second. As i have 30-60 seconds to fill this would be hard to do. I like the idea as it is different, and reminds me of the film Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure, and how they did there style of the "air guitar".

Heres an example of air guitar.

Week 4 - Public Broadcast aka Judgement Day.

Tuesday 22nd February 2011.

Today was the day the class had to show there final product to Melvyn and to the rest of the group. It was exciting and nerve-racking at the same time. Would they like my sequence, or would they pan it for being too retro. Well the first couple of people showed there title sequences off, and i have to say they were pretty well made. They had some interesting ideas for the title sequence which did even come to my mind, so kudos to them.

Then came my turn. I was very scared at what the group was going to think of it. Would they like the nostalgia fueled idea, or would they pan it for being too "retro". I played the video sequence and everyone in the room was quite amazed. Firstly my sequence didn't contain "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and The News, it contained The Back to The Future Theme in 8-bit, which was an idea i came up with after researching old school video games. This idea worked out well, as it didn't become boring. Everyone before had the "The Power of Love" as there opening song, so using that theme was a blast of fresh air I suppose for the group.

After my video sequence was shown i was then "critiqued" by the class and by Melvyn and Jeremy.

Firstly the group liked the 8-bit style i went for. It was different and worked well. The music was also a blast from the past as many people don't play 8-bit games anymore and the films theme in 8-bit was a nostalgic event everyone enjoyed. The class liked the video, which was more then i was hoping for, so overall my sequence was successful as a title sequence.

Next was Melvyn and Jeremy turn. They both like the nostalgic style i went for, but said the sequence was still quite simple and basic. Maybe adding in more content and making the sequence a little more fun would liven it up, but overall was a good job. Basic but it worked.

Week 3 - Completion

Well this week i completed the video title sequence. I used all the feedback from Melvyn, who was very helpful. The sequence i put together actually does work as a title sequence, which was something i wanted to do, rather then edit the beginning of the film together and make it look mediocre. Logically the title sequence makes sense as the film was released in the 1980's, which was the era of 8-bit arcade games, so replicating this style was necessary by my standards. Nostalgic is the word.

Well this is the completed take of my title sequence.

Week 3 - Mission Impossible

Well this week I continued to tweak and edit my Back to the Future Title sequence. Melvyn showed me in lesson a couple of things to tweak on the video, and how to make it look better. First of all he said at its current state it looked ok, but slightly boring. Also adding in more text into the sequence would liven it up. As the film was financed in the 80s by Universal, I thought it was appropriate to add in a Universal Logo at the beginning of the titles, because most films do this. As the titles are normal, i found a suitable 8-bit version on youtube. This was origanally from Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, as the film is basically a love story towards the 8-bit gaming systems of the early 90's.

Here is an example of what i am going to use in my project as the opening sequence for Universal Films.

Week 3 - Its a Trap.... Ohh wait wrong film ;)

Well i have completed the first step of creating the titles, well the first half. I think it looks not half bad. The next thing on my agenda which i should finish tomorrow is the end of the titles, which includes the names of the people who worked on the film, including the director Robert Zemeckis. This is going to be an easier task, as there will not be that many photos to animate and composite into the background. As Melvyn said: The simpler the idea, the safer it will be. Well he didn't actually say them words, but more hinted towards it. Another idea i had was to use this music in the titles.

As my idea is based upon the old school 8bit games of the 80's and 90's its only appropriate for me to have an 8bit song from the film. The Power of Love By Huey Lewis and The News is perfect, as it was written for the film and reminds viewers of the film thanks to its catchy words.

Week 2 - Lots of Names....

Wow, there is a lot of names in the title sequence. A lot more then i noticed the first time.


18 Lines of Text.
20 Names.
All placed in 3 minutes of footage.


This is going to be one hard task, as Melvyn said the title sequence shouldn't be longer then 2 minutes.
Damn :(


To be fair, its a great film and worthy of having all the names in my title sequence, so i am going to try my hardest to place them all into it.

Week 2 - Creating 8-bit style Content...

Well i started to create the 8-bit style photos the other day, and edit them on photoshop. I screenshot certain images from the film via VLC media player as i could use them in the title sequence. This was a clever idea as there was no stock images from the film on the internet, but to be fair the film was released in 1985, years before the internet came along. Originally i though editing the images down to an 8-bit style would be very difficult but as i searched on the internet for walkthroughs it became abundant that it was very simple. All i had to do was to place the image in photoshop and click on Posterize. From there i had the ability to edit the images to look like they were from an 8bit film.

Heres an example of a screenshot i took from the film, and edited into an 8-bit style image.

As you can see it looks pretty good, and yet was simple to create.

Hopefully my title sequence will look the same :)

Week 2 - Continued...

I watched the opening of the film today and wrote down all the names in the titles. When we watched the film last week i didn't notice how many lines of text were in the titles. There are 24 names mentioned in the opening title sequence, on 18 lines of text. Looking back on it, there was a lot of peoples names mentioned in it, but when watching the film fully i originally didn't notice how many names were mentioned.


I wrote down all the lines of text in the opening sequence without the help of IMDb.com and will use them in my version of the opening title sequence.


Here is a page of the names i wrote down in the title sequence.

Writing down these names was quite simple, as pausing the film would allow me to write down the names. I did this as i thought going onto IMDb.com was too easy and i wanted a little challenge. As you can see on the notes, i have placed numbers on the names of the actors, this was originally done so i could either give them there own name on a black background or put 2 names on the same background. In the end i scrapped this idea as i wanted to to create an 8-bit style sequence.

Week 2 - Production Commenced.

It is week 2 and i have started work on the opening title sequence. I have decided to use a retro 8-bit technique to create the title sequence. As the film was released in 1985 i thought it would be appropriate for me to create the title sequence in a 8-bit form. This is the style of the older generation games looked like and i felt that applying it to this project would be a creative and interesting idea, as it incorporates the gaming style of the 1980's and also the retro style of the film. This was a creative decision i came up with earlier on in the planning process. I chose this instead of creating something very complex, like in previous projects. As Melvyn said "simpler the better". This way i no i won't go off track and create something completely different from the brief.

I hope to capture stills of the characters from a HD source i have on my home computer and digitise them to make them look like there from a 8-bit games console, as it would add a nostalgic effect to the title sequence.

Here is an example i captured from the HD source i have. Converting the image into an 8-bit style photo will be difficult i think.