Credit Sequences

 Credit Sequences.

Credit sequences have an important purpose while making movies.The opening credits sometimes offer information about the major people involved like the director, producers, lead actors, and writers. Credit sequences can sometimes advance storytelling and establish the tone of the film. Some movies have simple credits that are included in the first scene. Others go for complicated sequences with unusual writing styles, special graphics, and specific music to create a sense and mood.

10 Things I hate about you 

 This movie credits mix animation and real-world visuals to introduce the high school setting.

A hand-drawn cartoon style gives way to high school life showing the different social cliques.

 The credits come in bold blocky letters

“One Week” by Barenaked Ladies creates a playful and rebellious feel.

Them playing the upbeat music and Kat’s unimpressed, annoyed attitude hints at the film’s theme of opposites attracting.

Crazy rich Asians

The credits come in cold and green inspired by traditional Chinese paper art

They used the song “Waiting for your return” that was sung in mandarin adds a feeling of nostalgia.

The opening sets up the movie's rich and romantic vibe.

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

The credits come up in a handwritten font that matches the style of Lara Jeans love letters.

Indie pop music playing.

The opening credits smoothly transition into the story by showing Lara Jean writing and organizing her love letters.

Film openings

               

Rom-Coms Opening scenes

   How to lose a guy in 10 days 

Opening Scene

The movie starts with a montage of women's magazine covers showing articles on beauty, fashion, and love. The scene shifts to the office and we meet Andie Anderson, played by Kate Hudson.  Andie wants to start writing about serious topics.Her editor assigns her a new story a piece on how to lose a guy in 10 days based on typical dating mistakes.

At the same time, Ben Barry played by Matthew McConaughey a confident advertising executive is seen in another scene at his workplace. He makes a bet with his colleagues that he can make any woman fall in love with him in 10 days to prove that he understands women well to get the big diamond advertising account. With both of these characters having different motives there's some chaos, misunderstanding, mixed with a bunch of funny and romantic moments makes a perfect rom com.

How the Opening Sets the Tone

The film opens with a bright and energetic vibe, establishing a playful  tone with fast cuts, upbeat  music, and colorful magazine covers.

It is clear from the film's bright vibe and the editing that it is a lighthearted romantic comedy and not a serious drama.

 

Characters

Andie is smart,confident and hardworking. She wants to start writing about topics that matter and are more meaningful like politics and world issues but her boss makes her write about giving advice on things.

Andie wears trendy but professional clothing.

Ben is charming, confident, and good at sweet talking, he likes taking on a challenge. His bet is to prove he understands women, trying to make Andie fall in love with him. We see him on his bike wearing a leather jacket.

The opening  scene  shows us Andie’s world and the kinds of articles she writes. The movie switches back and forth between their offices, showing how different their lives are.

Why this opening works

With the visuals and music it grabs the audience's attention, It clearly sets up the plot fast when we find out both of their motives.

Anyone but you

The opening scene introduces the main characters Ben and Bea.

Sydney Sweeney plays Bea, a law student who goes to this crowded coffee shop just to use the bathroom

but because of their policy she can't. Ben sees her problem and pretends to be her husband

to get her the bathroom key.

After this act of kindness, they spend the day together and then go to Ben's house at night.

They talked, laughed and really connected.

The next morning Bea leaves quietly but then changes her mind and decides to come back.

As she was about to come back inside she overhears Ben talking bad about her making her feel very sad.

Meet cute:  The Coffee shop interaction is a "meet-cute", a staple in rom-coms,  where two characters meet

in an interesting or funny way. This situation creates an instant bond between Ben and Bea.

Bea's first impression of Ben was good because he was helpful and kind

and they had a great day together, but that changes when she overhears his conversation

with Pete his friend. This shows another side of his character.

Theme of misunderstanding -  Bea overhearing the conversation sets up the main conflict. Bea feels hurt and their relationship gets

off to a bad start.

The scene starts off happy but also hints that there will be ups and downs,

some problems they will have to overcome.

27 Dresses

The opening scene starts with a flashback of when Jane was a little girl at a wedding, She rushes around helping the bride with last minute details. Even when Jane was so young she was very organized and loved helping others. This moment showed Jane's love for weddings and making it perfect for them. It fast forwards to the present where she has two weddings at the same time, she's rushing and changing her outfits in the back of a taxi. She keeps switching back and forth between the weddings, making sure everything is perfect.

While Kevin, a wedding journalist, who doesn’t believe in fairy-tale romance notices Jane and what she's doing. He becomes curious about her and sees this as an opportunity to write about a story. 

Sound

The lively soundtrack adds to the upbeat and chaotic energy of the scene. Where Jane is going back and forth.

This is a good film opener because right away it grabs the audience's attention and we meet both the main characters. We see what type of person Jane is and what she values.

 

Kevin's role - Kevins interest in Jane hints for the possible romance but it's complicated because at first he had other reasons for getting closer to her and finding out about things but then he slowly starts to fall for her.

Portfolio Project: Genre

                  

Picking my genre

                           

     This week, I have been researching different genre options to figure out which one I should use and what kind of story I want to tell. Two genres that I am considering are Rom-coms and Psychological thrillers. Two very different options one is filled with suspense, mystery, and mind games, and the other one is funny, heartwarming, and all about love. Growing up, I enjoyed watching both of these genres so much. Sometimes, it was watching these rom-coms with my mom and grandma that gave me high expectations about what love is supposed to be like or watching thrillers, which made me so scared I watched Barbie after.

RomComs 

A romantic comedy is about relationships, enjoyment, and love. These films focus on the emotional journey of falling in love usually with quirky and relatable characters. They usually start with a meet-cute and then some challenges the couple has to overcome.  Some Rom-coms I really liked were How to Lose a guy in 10 Days, To All the Boys I've Loved Before, 10 Things I Hate About You, and Anyone but You.

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is a good humor and romance. In this movie, Andie tries to drive Ben crazy, trying to make him break up with her in just 10 days for her job, while Ben is trying to make her fall in love for his job. The characters start off with different motives, the movie shows their growth and how they slowly start to care about each other. The famous rain scene where Andie and Ben have a romantic moment when they get wet in the rain is an example of a romantic comedy mixing humor and romance. The relationship between Andie and Ben helped me to think about how to make a connection between characters who want different things but fall in love with each other over some time. I also liked how the film uses humor to show people can miscommunicate and mess up relationships but still end up falling for each other. I'd like to combine humor and real emotion in my film in a similar way.

      Psychological thriller

A psychological thriller focuses on the human mind its usually about themes like paranoia, fear, obsession, and manipulation. Traditional thrillers are usually about external danger and physical things. These films show the mental struggles of the character, making you question what's real and what's not. They usually show a bunch of mind games and secrets. These films often have a dark and tense atmosphere, using lighting, sound, and pacing to build unease. Psychological thrillers are also known for their complicated lives and are usually dealing with deep emotional or mental issues. The plot shows how these issues affect their behavior and relationships.

In Black Swan for example the main character's mental breakdown makes the audience feel uncomfortable. I think these films create a more emotional experience by showing what the character are going through.

Transition to Portfolio Project

   Transitioning to Cambridge Portfolio Project.

Hey everyone!

I'm excited to start working on my portfolio project and blog about all the details here. I’m a little nervous, but I feel confident with everything I’ve learned. I have done smaller projects nothing this serious like creating a story using just foley sounds or a story with no sounds or dialogue just pictures. I was looking at different ways to start this film and grab the audience's attention.

 As I start my project, one of the main things I’ll focus on is creating the right setting and introducing my character. I plan to use mise-en-scene which means showing the story through things like costumes, props, and lighting instead of using too much dialogue. I like developing the character because  it works well for my project since it helps introduce the story in an interesting way. I want to show the character’s design, how they interact with their surroundings, and what they say to give hints about the bigger story.

I'm also thinking about different types of conflict in the film, like character vs. self, character vs. character, and character vs. nature, to show what the main character is up against. I want to use sound to create mystery, maybe by hinting at things happening off-screen or using sounds that make the audience curious. I want to set the tone of the film, introduce the main character and have a strong beginning that will keep the audience interested. I'm excited to see how it all comes together.

Here are some notes I took to help me with this project.

Music Marketing #2

 Here's a video of my group filming our music marketing project.

Music Marketing #1

 My group was assigned the song "Something from Nothing". First, my group researched these

 resources to learn how to campaign our Artist.

 Brand Identity - https://www.canva.com/learn/brand-identity/

Links to an external site.

Spotify Marketing - https://ads.spotify.com/en-US/music-marketing/Links to an external site.

Apple Marketing Tools - https://artists.apple.com/support/1117-apple-music-marketing-toolsLinks to an external site.

2020 Best Music Campaigns - https://musically.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Sandbox266-EOY-462933.pdfLinks to an external site.

Then we started focusing on the lyrics of our song so we could make a video inspired by the lyrics. After that, we worked on our storyboard to get an idea of what we needed to film.

- Brand Identity Development From our research, we will define the brand identity of our new artist. This includes their image, musical style, message, and overall aesthetic. We’ll create a visual language that speaks to our target audience, including logo design, color schemes, and promotional materials.

-Social Media Strategy We will develop a targeted social media strategy that includes:

-Platforms to focus on (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, etc.

-Music video production - We will focus on production techniques and visual storytelling.

- We will outline how and where the artist’s music will be distributed, including:-

Digital platforms (Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, YouTube)