0 - 20 Woman & Man arguing - medium close up, low angled shot
Media
Film opening remake evaluation
I chose to remake the opening titles of the 1999 American drama Arlington road directed by Mark Pellington. I chose to remake this film because it portrayed a variety of filming techniques including a variety of camera shots and angles. The film opening consisted of a range of special/ computerised effects, therefore enabling me to familiarise myself with the computer software premier pro this will therefore benefit me when making my own film.
When remaking the film opening of Arlington Road there were many aspects to consider, firstly we had to view the opening a number of times (on www.artofthetitle.com) to familiarise ourselves with the main aspects of the opening titles and also to learn the effects which had been added – a common convention which was used throughout the opening was fences and also many landscapes, however faces, swings and objects such as fans, wind chimes, light bulbs etc were all part of the opening and despite these object being very plain a variety of camera angles and effects were added to make the opening titles much more interesting. When watching the opening titles we recorded each individual cut, with a brief description and also the length of each clip – this was then transferred onto a story board and was very beneficial when filming because we knew what we had to get footage of and the average length it needed to be, it was also useful because it reminded us of the camera angles needed, this was very time consuming, however it meant that less time had to be wasted cutting down the footage, so was more efficient long term.
To edit the footage we downloaded the footage onto a computed and imported it, cutting the relevant footage, the Arlington road clip was also downloaded onto the timeline so that my clip could be as closely matching the original as possible.
Arlington road has many effects added onto the visual part of the opening titles including – sepia, negative, black and white, strobes, and also cross dissolves, we added all of these onto the footage via premier pro However due to the large amount of effect which could be added it became very confusing and time consuming looking for the correct effect, therefore we wrote them on paper.
I enjoyed this task and am very please with the out come, however I found it difficult finding people who would be willing to star in the very beginning of the opening titles and also found it quite difficult remembering where all the effects were. I really like the strobe effect which are on our opening titles and believe they make the opening much more interesting. The general colours of the film are dark which connotes mystery and elements of sadness. However red tones re also used which promotes blood and also anger. All the effects, which are added help to promote and eery mysterious and tense atmosphere due to the fact you do not know what is going to happen as there is not much insite to the characters in the film – the effects are quite surreal and dark therefore making the film seem intense.
We used the same music from the original film however cut out the dialogue at first and cut it to fit ours.
If I was to do this again I would ensure that all footage was captured due to the fact that unfortunately the ending did not appear on the computer, I would also adjust the timing so it is more precise, however I am happy with how the effects look especially the strobe.
