Draft Five - Title Sequence

This is our final draft of our title sequence, we have established more connotations of zombies by adding in more videos and images which appear in our title sequence. We have made more precise cuts when we edited the title sequence, we have changed the majority of the fonts which appear on our title sequence; we used Facebook to type up our fonts due to our title sequence being Facebook related. We have removed the ones which we customised on Photoshop and we have used Facebook to type up our fonts.

Feedback From Draft Four - Title Sequence

These are the feedback sheets which we received after the screening of our fourth draft of our title sequence during our previous lesson. As a group we had already discussed and shared our thoughts about the soundtrack for our title sequence; we knew that the lyrics did not correlate well with our specific chosen genre type. However, some people complemented the soundtrack which we used but there was some negative feedback. We were told that the soundtrack did no have lyrics which do not necessarily link with zombies, death, isolation, etc. However, a few others complemented it for the simplicity of using social media as part of our title sequence for the effect.

I particularly like the concept of using Facebook for our fonts and titles instead of using spending time on Photoshop to edit and customise fonts for our title sequence. It seemed like a brilliant idea to display our fonts on Facebook; we will consider this for our final and improved title sequence (our fifth draft).

From the feedback we received previously, we have already begun using the 'Hypercam' software to create more screen recordings for our title sequence. We needed to create more zombie connotations according from our previous feedback. We have taken another video of someone attacking one of our characters to make it seem that the zombie apocalypse has begun.

We intended to make a minuscule amount of zombie connotations - we did not want to follow the typical conventions of our particular genre; we wanted our audience to constantly anticipate and determine the genre by viewing the visual connotations. We wanted our audience to find out about our initial genre at the end of the title sequence due to the name of our film ' A Zombie Movie' the name is generic and it gives away the purpose of the films genre; this is why we wanted to keep our audience guessing.

But due to our feedback we have added more zombie connotations from videos and images which will appear in our final title sequence draft.

Foley sounds

Today I used a sound recorder to record Foley sounds of myself tapping the keys on a keyboard and the sounds of myself clicking the mouse; this correlates with the title sequence which we are creating due to the sounds linking with the characters interaction with a computer following the sequence: loading up the internet, logging onto Facebook and viewing the videos and photographs.

Fourth Draft - Title Sequence

 There is a minimal amount of zombie connotations in this title sequence; there is a single video of two of our characters and a wary person in the background which gets attacked by a zombie. We tried to make the zombie seem more anonymous and the characters oblivious of the zombie apocalypse. We received more feedback and we need to include more zombie connotations to convey to our audience/viewers, we also need to establish some fonts on Facebook instead of using customised fonts from 'Dafont.com' and even have the title sequence screened from Facebook for more effect due to the majority of the title sequences contents is Facebook. We need to add more posts to our characters profiles which display disarray from our potential characters. More videos of friends being attacked by friends - to fortify the ideology of zombie connotations which can be conveyed, characters being tackled and bitten. But the concept is to keep our characters uneducated from the initial circumstances; not knowing why their friends are attacking one another or other people or acting strange/different. We could also add short footage of a conversation which two or more characters are having on Facebook about the unconventional matters which are occurring.

Third Draft - Title Sequence

We have managed to accomplish and establish smoother pieces of recording for our title sequence, the screen recordings which I took previously on the Mac computers were not as good as expected for out title sequence; the footage that I captured was quite substandard due to the frame being too small and not as fitting as we desired. Enlarging the frames did not improve the size by much but it affected the clarity of the actual footage. I discussed this matter with my group members and we established that the screen recordings on the Mac computers was subsidiary. The movement of the mouse was unsatisfying due to the poor frame rate and the clarity was not as clear as we hoped for.

Instead we downloaded a different software which substantially improved our title sequence with a dramatic effect. The footage was much more smooth and more satisfying to watch; the close ups which we intended to use for our title sequence was much more clearer and viewing practically everything became easier.

I borrowed and used a sound recorder to capture sounds of the following: the clicking of the mouse and the sounds from typing on a keyboard. I used a sound recorder to capture Foley sounds for our title sequence

Second Draft - Title Sequence

We faced difficulties of capturing footage by using screen recordings as suggested by our teachers from our feedback from our previous screening of our title sequence. The frames are too small and it is extremely difficult to read the text which is displayed on the screen. I tried enlarging the screen but that only decreased the clarity of our footage and photographs. The movement of the mouse was too jittery and the frame rate was quite poor due to the outcome of capturing screen recordings. We would have to discuss the matter with our group to substantially improve our film work and clarity of our film work. We may have to use a different type of software or program to capture the desired pieces of footage which we need.

The title sequences time line is four minutes long due to the soundtrack not being cut up on the editing software 'Final Cut Pro' we would have to establish and conclude more precise editing for our title sequence.

Update: As a group, we have discussed the current anomalies and improvements which need to me made and secured. We will be using a software called 'Hypercam' which we will download on one of our own computers at home - we have tested the quality of the software and it has a dramatic effect on our title sequence by substantially increasing picture quality and clarity. We hope to capture the desired footage which we need and we predict that this software which we downloaded will bring ina significant improvement for our title sequence and we'll be awaiting feedback from our teachers to ask for their opinion on our work.

Journal post - screen recording

From the feedback which we received from our first title sequence draft, I previously took screen recordings to capture the scenes which were required for our updated version of our title sequence. However, we had to contend with a few anomalies which affected the act of screen recording. We could not enlarge the screen wide enough to fit our desired scale, we also had to deal with changing the frame on Final Cut Pro for every single piece of footage which I captured by screen recording, the footage was affected due to blurriness when exported to DV on final cut pro. We dealt with the issue by using a different program to capture screen recordings. We also changed from DV to AVI; due to the blurriness which we experienced when editing on Final Cut Pro. We had a group discussion and concluded that we should not use the screen recordings which I gathered, the screen recordings which I took on the macs in school were considered useless due to the problems which we had to contend with. We managed to capture the footage which we needed by using a different program and we changed from DV to AVI.

I managed to capture screen recordings of the photographs which were taken and uploaded and historic photographs of Aiden and Louis (I did not upload any photographs of myself to Facebook or other social media sites because I could not get hold of any, instead I used photographs of myself around other groups of people from parties, outings, etc). I took screen recordings of myself opening the internet and using the search bar on Google to open Facebook and to begin logging into my characters profile, plus to view the posts, events, etc which appear on my profile. I also took a screen recording of the videos which I uploaded to our characters Facebook accounts,  I took the videos on my phone to make it seem more realistic where a teenager would be video recording his friends (to include the handheld effect and to introduce more realism). Finally, I gathered screen recordings of comments and status' which I created on the accounts which we created for our characters 'going camping' and the comment which was made for one of the videos which I  uploaded, our characters are not meant to realise that there is a zombie outbreak of course, but the comment justifies that our characters are noting small events and other abnormal occurrences. Luckily, we established another way to capture improved versions of my screen recording videos.

Draft - journal

We need to make improvements to our title sequence; the draft turned out to be too dark due to insufficient lighting (poor lighting control) we also had a few other anomalies which need to be altered. The film was quite shaky and it made it quite difficult to read the text on the screen. I received some feedback; I've learnt that I can use screen recording on a mac computer as an alternative - instead of using a camera (it would be easier to capture close ups etc).

We have already began re-shooting our title sequence; due to the anomalies which had to be fixed. The colour and contrast is more suitable for our improved title sequence. Some of the photographs were repeatedly presented in our title sequence (draft). We removed the images which were presented more than once.

Draft one - Title Sequence - Update

We presented the first draft our title sequence. We had already begun re-shooting and gathering more footage and linking in more connotations of zombies - a video which I took on my phone, I recorded Aiden and Louis in the woods and captured the first actual zombie attack which is meant to be presented in our next draft of our title sequence. We did not use a lot of the concepts which we learned from a zombie make - up tutorial which we all watched. We only used fake blood which I applied to Lauren's face due to the zombie is meant to be in the background an not as noticeable, lots of makeup for our zombie would be unnecessary. We thought about using Foley sounds for our title sequence; the clicking of the mouse and the sound of someone typing on a keyboard - I could borrow a sound recorder to do this.

Due to Lauren's absence, I took the liberty of informing her the feedback which we gained from our first screening, I also started screen recordings which was recommended for smoother footage and to improved clarity. I am going to experiment with the screen recording system and see what I capture. When Lauren is present I'll discuss and show her the footage which I captured by using screen recordings which was recommended from our feedback.

Draft one - Title Sequence

This is the first draft of our title sequence. The lighting is really poor; too dark, we would have to record our footage in a different environment to have a tremendous change to the lighting. The camera was also extremely shaky; which affected the clarity for the viewer and the shakiness needs to be removed in general due to it is unnecessary, we'll may have to consider filing and gathering our footage in another perspective and we may have a group discussion to enhance our ideas to develop our title sequence to assemble a second draft due to the first draft being  unsuccessful. We will present our title sequence to our teacher; to gain feedback to improve our title sequence significantly.