Art of the Title Sequence. 

The first transition i used was the fade from black to emphasize the long and painful

phases the main character is experiencing. The next cut shows a bath tap dripping water,

as the sounds of the dripping and music ensue the first actors name is revealed on

screen. I decided that all the fonts, font sizes and placement of the credits would be the

same thought each title. This is because wanted the audiences focus to be shifted away

from the actors and focused mainly on their motivations and character development.

Every title that is used in the sequence is deliberately layered over a particular image or

frame in the sequence to reflect their character’s persona. I chose to put this title here due

to the ongoing water drop sound inferring the simple, ongoing and lifeless character in

which the actor represents. The high angle shot looking down on the tap infers how we as a society are looking down on his situation becoming more severe as his sanity slips away from him. The camera was zoomed in to focus our attention on the tap

and to infer the encompassing gravity of his situation. The placement of the tap was

deliberately shot with the intention of placing the actors name atop of it, the tap in the shot

represents his life and the water drops meticulously representing his life dripping away at

a painfully slow but ongoing rate. for this shot I slightly changed the colors in the post

editing and shifted the colors to a more teal color in order to emphasis the lifelessness

in this character. This is also representing the calmness in the scene, however we later find that his emotions shift.

This frame shows our main character during a flashback sequence. Again, the camera

was zoomed to reflect his situation and its significance, furthermore the zoom fill the

frame with his anger and frustration. I told the actor to pull at his hair to reflect him trying

to clutch to his memories in which he cannot remember fully. Furthermore, I shot this

scene in an empty dining hall, a place which is fully full of people socializing with

each other, the irony here shows the representation of our character; a lonely character

and the empty room emphasizing the emptiness of our character’s life. The light in the

room is brighter on the right side of his face than that of the left side, this may infer the

two different sides to his personality he possesses with his mental instability. Also, during

the first shot of this scene we see this character facing the wall and his back turned away

from the vast size of the room he is placed in, showing his isolation from society metaphorically.

This shot shows the two different perspectives to the audience, with the more dominant

taking up more size in frame when he appears due to this side of him being the main

focus of his character, while his/her personality is shown in the background of the same

shot, showing his insignificance in the storyline as our focus is on his volatile and isolated

persona. The two pieces of clothing in this scene shows the two different sides of his

personality as his darker personality always wears a large black puffa-type jacket for

perhaps two reasons, firstly it could represent his concealment with society and to show

his darker side to his character hence the black coat. The other clothing used is a

chequered shirt with the sleeves rolled up, the represents the other side to his persona,

as it is more casual and normal to our audience. The title is the same as the first credits

shown, center frame and same size and font, as this character will now play an important

role as the story unfolds. The fast editing and quick cuts during the flashback infer his memory spiraling out of control, and shows the frustration he feels for his life perhaps.

The sequence then cuts to an establishing shot of the country lane. The title showing ‘A

Cameron Bilton Film’ appears in different stages, to show the complexity of our main character and how his life is broken down due to his actions. the different layers to the title

may again reflect the complexity of our character. The road we see turns off around the

corner and out of the audience’s view, this may infer our characters unpredictable

personality as we cannot see where it leads to, showing another element to this

character. Furthermore, we see the sun shining however we can only see it behind a

bundle of trees and hedging, showing that his happiness and peace is blocked by

something.

 

This shot shows our character lifeless and motionless on the ground, he is played right of frame showing that our audiences sympathy is not fully with him due to the uncertainty of his previous actions, also this early in the story we have no relationship build with us due character due to the law of dialogue this early in the story.

 

The next shot is a handheld shot showing the car pull away with our Main character in it. The fact that he is inside the car trapped may show that he is trapped by something, possibly in his own mind as these frustrations and anger is trapping him. Also, the car is driving away from the audience, showing that his previous actions have literally driven him away from the usual and ideological society. I decided to use this location for its small country lanes and hedges and tree lines that encompass them. This is because I wanted a feeling of enclosure and being trapped within something. Here, this shows our main character being driven into a place of being trapped and unable to escape perhaps. For all these scenes shot in the rural areas I color-graded all the shots to have a slight purple tint. I did this to infer the balance between blue and red, which represent calmness and anger. Which explains the blue/teal color used in the first shots. This shows how his emotions have shifted

This shot here is one in a series of establishing shots. This particular shot was done to show the colors in the sky, and how they contradict as is what is about to happen to our main character. Here, the colors are soothing as the shot composition makes the shot calm and relaxing due to the colors shown. However, this completely contradicts the violent and aggressiveness shown towards him. The shots used here have little action going on, only the diegetic sounds of the birds, wind and dogs barking. This gives the shot a very raw and adds to the realism of the sequence. The soundtrack that lies underneath this shows how the emotions have carried through to this moment. The sun is the left of frame, I did this deliberately when the sun was going down to show that his light is metaphorically about to go out, this is shown in the shots that follow.

 

This frame shows our main character being dragged to his hostage spot. The fact he being dragged infers that he is helpless and unable to control himself, mirroring that of his unstable mental situation. His placement in the frame is off center, showing that the audiences feels less sympathy for him, this is because he is no longer in our main focus area. However, we still feel sympathy for him due to his position in the foreground, while the large open fields are behind in the background. His face is covered by a white sheet, I took inspiration for this idea from previous hostage photos from the US Army, this could infer that the hostage is dangerous to society and that he faces violence and interrogation. Furthermore, the clean white sack could represent purity, however this idea is quickly thrown away due to his various mental issues he faces. In this scene, his hands are tied up with duct tape, I had a choice weather to use cable ties or the tape. Eventually I decided to use the tape, to further emphasize that this could be anyone who is taking him, this works well with the rural location as it builds on the extraordinary circumstances. Taking away the ideological themes we see in modern thrillers. The fact that his hands are tied up shows again his helplessness and inability to control what surrounds him.

 

This last frame shows our character before he is beaten. He placed right of frame, more than in the previous frame. This shows that the audiences focus has shifted from him to what’s about to unfold in the sequence. When his face is revealed we see his mouth is covered by tape, obviously giving him the inability to talk or shout. This shows how he potentially feels that he cannot communicate to anyone. Showing that he feels confined within himself. The close up his face puts us in his personal space as we are growing to know the character in question. This also makes us see the emotion more clearly in his face, he we can see that he is disorientated due to the way his head loosely moves around. The background is just an unfinished brick wall, showing the perhaps dirty and dangerous environment his capture has brought him to. However, we later realize that his past actions have brought him to where he is now.