class journal

Abstract

For Project 2, my partner Patrick and I decided to make an animated title sequence for Damien Chazelle’s 2014 film Whiplash. The film itself lacks any opening title sequences and opted for a humorous introductory scene between the two main characters: jazz music student Andrew Neiman and acclaimed conductor Terence Fletcher. Our opening sequence intends to fill the gap in between the introductory scene and the rest of the film. Since the film itself is heavily driven by jazz music, we decided to take a piece from the soundtrack and interpret it. Drawing inspiration from different title designers such as Saul Bass, our title sequence aims to also reflect the high contrast, moody, and highly saturated aesthetic of Damien Chazelle’s work. Bright, loud, and colourful, our take on Whiplash’s potential opening sequence reflects the energy and intensity often expressed in the film.

Proposal

1. Whiplash Title Sequence

2. Overview

Whiplash is a 2014 drama film written and directed by Damien Chazelle. The film follows the story of Andrew Neiman, a jazz student obsessed with success and approval, and depicts his relationship with abusive teacher Terence Fletcher. The resulting film is intense, moody, fast-paced, and at times suspenseful.

3. Goals & Objectives

Our client would be the producers and people from Sony Pictures Classics itself. We would also be working alongside Damien Chazelle, the director, so that his artistic vision for the film matches ours. Since the original film had no title sequence, our title sequence aims to fill this gap and enrich the already-energetic and intense film. Our title sequence also gives a subtle introduction to the film’s main characters, as well as give credit where credit is due.

4. Audience Study

The audience for this film would most likely be adults interested in music and jazz in general. However, general moviegoers would most likely be interested as well. Due to the diverse audience that this film caters to, the intro/title sequence must captivate the audience right away. In terms of the title sequence’s message, it intends to convey the overall mood and energy of the film through eye-catching visuals and interesting animations.

5. Content: video, audio, text, images, etc.

Audio: Whiplash (from the film’s OST)

Visual elements:

Vector – shapes

Type

6. Attribution: Content Sources

All visual content was made by ourselves on Adobe Illustrator. Film credits and information were sourced from Whiplash’s IMdb page. Audio was taken from the film’s original soundtrack.

7. Delivery Environment

Some technical knowledge of Adobe After Effects was needed for the successful completion of this project

8. Production Tools

Laptops

Hard drives

Adobe Creative Suite – After Effects, Illustrator, Premiere Pro

Collaboration tools – Google Drive, messaging software, etc.

9. Planning

Week 1 – Design Briefs

Week 2 – Rough Storyboards

Week 3 – Finalized Storyboards

Week 4 – Animatic

Week 5 – Initial animations

Week 6 – Animation progress

Week 7 – Further animations (Rough Cut)

Week 8 – Project due – finals and process handed in

10. Sources

Art of the Title http://www.artofthetitle.com/

Watch the Titles http://watchthetitles.com/

It was a long, arduous journey, but here is our animated title sequence in various stages during the animation process:

The transition sequence before revealing the title Whiplash, which was not ready in time for the presentation of the rough cut:

This was the rough cut we presented in class:

Project 2 – Animatic

Due to the digital and random/abstract nature of our piece, Pat and I opted to use illustrator for our storyboarding instead of sketching on paper. We decided to divide the video exactly in half and interpreted each section in our own way while following our established style guide.

I worked on the first half of the video while Pat’s part was the second half. My section was comparatively louder than his so my visuals are noticeably bolder and larger. Pat designed his frames according to each person’s role.

Project 2 – Moodboard

Before jumping in to making our storyboard, my partner and I first had to research visual inspiration to anchor our piece. Whiplash’s jazzy and moody tone lead us to look for title sequences from the 50s and 60s (and some from the 90s and early 00s), which we noticed had similar visual themes. We also drew some inspiration from posters and design work during that period. In films such as Dr. No, we were attracted to the flexibility and challenge of just using abstract shapes, which can have a lot of potential in terms of expression and creativity.

Our chosen audio, a big band piece named Whiplash from the film itself, is flashy, loud, and at times overwhelming. We needed colourful and bold visuals to accompany such a piece.

Based on our visual research, we have experimented with different colours and typefaces:

Deciding the scratch the Scott Pilgrim-inspired title sequence idea, Pat and I struggled with coming up with the proper sequencing of events and names for our title sequence. 

Initially, we wanted to have live action and animated elements, shot in the same high contrast and highly saturated style of Whiplash. We planned to include shots of different instrumentalists playing at different sections of our chosen song.

My notes and rough sketches for potential ideas are uploaded after the cut:

Film: Whiplash (2014)

Why do you love/hate this film?

Garnering numerous awards for its intensity, acting, and direction, Whiplash is one of the best films of 2014. I personally love this movie because of the absurdity of J.K. Simmons’ character as an abusive jazz band character, and how that interacts with a student’s obsession with success and approval. The resulting film is intense, well-written, and moody, captivating the audience at every Terence-Andrew scene. I also love how the film maintains its dark mood through its use of colour, high contrast, and low-key lighting. Moreover, the film establishes its tempo and intensity through the fast-paced jazz music that is used.

How is your movie title sequence idea better?

While I believe that the film undoubtedly has great flow and pacing, strategically only have a simple opening title (white text on a black background) to give way to its impactful opening scene with Andrew and Terence—having a longer opening credit scene would arguably give the film more depth. I believe my title sequence (Approach 2 in my notes) will be an improvement on the film as it intrigues the audience and gives a glimpse on what the film will be about. Particularly, having blood splatters on the drum kit while the musician is having an intense practice session would sustain interest in the opening credits scene.

Thumbnail Sketches

A Letter to Summer is a short film about a young woman’s melancholy towards the seasons changing from summer to autumn. She expresses her sentimentality through narrating a letter to Summer itself as if it were a person. Both summer and autumn can be described by their warm tones—reds, yellows, oranges—however, the narrator points out the key differences between them and how both seasons differ in her life. “A Letter to Summer” promises to be compelling through its narration and mood, enhanced by the colour palette used and the dream-like quality achieved through slow motion and montage of clips. Basic film techniques and fundamentals learned from class have been utilized to convey the short’s message and atmosphere.

Project Timeline

Week 1: Exercise 1 (Framing & Screen Dynamics); concept brainstorming - the subject will be about a “colour;” initial shots taken

Week 2: Exercise 2 (Lighting) & 3 (Sound); experimented with lights in the studio

Week 3 (Thanksgiving Weekend): finalized concept (a letter addressing Summer as if it were personified); script written

Week 4: most “Fall” scenes shot; rough cut assembled

Week 5: Fine cut (first critique); corrected film per Catherine’s suggestions

I found this exercise on lighting to be a challenging one. It’s not often I get to shoot in a photo studio with a full lighting setup, so I had to re-familiarize myself with the different lighting techniques I’ve learned from before.

Admittedly, as a visual artist, I’ve often considered sound as an afterthought whenever I produced a film—despite the fact that sound is more important than the cinematography itself.

On the topic of sound, here are a couple of my favourite shorts that I think employ sound very well.

Lapsena by Mallory Dyer

While this is an animation, the same film techniques apply. I like how the filmmaker used a sentimental, nostalgic piece of music to convey the mood as well as the setting for this film. There’s also a noticeable lo-fi effect on the audio that further enforces this time period. Through the combination of different techniques to tell the story and convey a nostalgic and sentimental mood, this short holds a special place in my heart. ☺️💕

Mr. Foley by D.A.D.D.Y.

Mr. Foley is a hilarious short film that creatively uses sound as the storyteller in the film. It breaks the fourth wall, so to speak, as the main character tries to escape the different sound effects that he now hears occurring in his environment. This wasn’t a very good description of it but the video is super short and it’s funny—I highly recommend you give it a watch! 👀

Our first exercise for the class is shooting a couple of basic film shots. The video shown above is my attempt at panning, zooming, and tilting with the camera, as well as looking at how to frame my shots. It was a good refresher on what I’ve already learned in high school, and was good practice for techniques I haven’t quite developed. I particularly had trouble with smoothly zooming in with my camera and using my tripod to smoothly tilt and pan.

At this stage during the course, I was thinking about focusing my Project 1 on colours during “Golden Hour,” and that has what led me to shooting outside around sunset time. During this time, I tried to familiarize myself with the type of lighting I can get at this hour, what camera settings I should be on, and gauging how much time exactly I can play with before the environment goes completely dark. I ran out of time for some of my shots and realized it’s a very narrow timeframe to be playing with!

As with most projects, I’m expecting filming my Project 1 will take more than a couple of days to shoot because of this short timeframe.

My name is Charlotte, currently a third year student for the York/Sheridan Design program, and this will be my blog for my Time-Based Communications 1 class in Fall 2016.

An avid fan of film and storytelling myself, this blog will showcase my explorations with the medium. I’ve dabbled in a couple film competitions way back in high school and I’m glad I’m back at this again in university! While my education on filmmaking has been informal and basic at best, I hope to document my improvement through this blog.

To kick things off, here is a short I’ve recently come across with that I really liked. While this was done as an animation, the same techniques used in traditional filmmaking are employed. I particularly liked the creative use of a slow shutter speed to amplify the romantic setting and juxtapose the shared moment between the two lovers against their fast-paced world. Enjoy! :-)

Un Petit Tour Dans Paris by Maxime Baudin