Graphics

Deciding on a Film Title: 

We went through a long process in order to find the perfect title for our film.


  1. Our first idea was to call the film 'Psychedelic Nightmare'. We came up with this idea because we felt the word 'nightmare' would relate and symbolise the mental struggles our protagonist experiences. As well as this, we believed the word would also represent the fact that only he can see his issues as they inside his head, as only you can see your own nightmares. Also, 'Psychedelic' is a word frequently associated with drug use. This would've been conventional of the genre because drug use is a theme seen often in these films. 
  2. Our second idea for the film title was 'Mirrored'. We considered this idea originally as we had planned to include a shot of the protagonist and antagonist in a mirror. The antagonist would be seen behind the protagonist representing how he is always in his head.  We also thought it would fit the themes of mental illness, more specifically schizophrenia, in our film. Furthermore, the idea of the word 'mirrored' would represent Chris' dual personality.
  3. Next, our idea was the name 'A Tale of Two minds'. This idea was considered for a short amount of time until we realised that it sounded less conventional of the genre and was more suited to a big budget blockbuster film. However, the thinking behind this title was that, because of the main character's schizophrenia he has two personalities and the 'two minds' would represent each of these. This title would signify the 'Tale' of Chris' struggles with mental illness. 
  4. 'Echo' was the fourth choice for a title. We decided this could be the potential name for our film because the character experiences hearing voices, due to his mental illness, and we believed the word echo would represent this.
  5. Our fifth idea for our title was 'Parallel/s'. We considered this as a title to our film due to its connection with the character and his 'alter ego'. We believed the name would convey the similarities that the character and his duo personality share, as they are basically the same person, as well as their differences. 
  6. We eventually decided on the title 'Sane'. We chose this single word as a title as we realised many Gritty realism films had either very long names or very shorts (such as 'Fish Tank' compared to 'Once Upon a Time in The Midlands') and we believed the shortness of the title would represent the seriousness of the film rather than adding humor to it. Furthermore, we thought that the title could portray the plot of the film in which the protagonist attempts to achieve sanity in replacement of his 'insanity' that will be displayed in the opening sequence of our film. The word 'Sane' is commonly associated with mental illness and as that is a prominent theme in both the genre of Gritty Realism and our film we believed it would be conventional. The title will also help the potential audience get an idea of the theme of the film because of this association with mental illness that the title has.

This was the mock up for how we wanted our film title to be introduced in the sequence at the time before we had decided on the final name 'Sane'. We based the idea for this short sequence on of one of our original film title idea, which was the title 'mirrored', because we believed the use of a mirror would represent scenes and shots shown in the sequence, which we had planned to include, of the protagonist looking in the mirror and seeing his duo personality stood behind him. As well as this, the smashing of a mirror is frequently associated with negativity and bad luck and could represent the protagonists 'broken' mental well being/health.


'Sane' Title :



We decided to use the video footage of the mirror with the title as we believed it would have more of an affect on the audience as it is quite a significant event seeing a mirror being broken. However, as seen in our second draft, we originally only had the video footage. But, after a group critique of the second draft we had a lot of feedback saying that the title wasn't significant enough and the audience may not be completely aware that it is the title at all. So to counteract this, we traced the word 'Sane' that was written in Photoshop to create a separate image which we then edited into the software to create the title sequence seen above. We sketched the writing instead of using a seperate font and text as we thought it would keep the continuity of the sequence as well as retain the messy and scratched aesthetic that we wished our words to have, in order to represent Chris' struggle with mental illness. I think this version is better as it has a more professional look to it and stands out as an actual title more. 

Deciding on a Production company logo:

In order for our film to be conventional and professional we wished to include an original production company title and logo. This would make our film more fit to us as creators and have ourselves able to produce a conventional Gritty Realism film as films in this genre frequently have less well known and lower budget production companies.

Our First idea was 'Cloud 9 Productions'. We first came up with this idea as we believed it sounded professional. However, we also recognized the fact that it wasn't very conventional to the genre as it sounded more suited to a big budget Production company rather than the smaller budget ones that are associated and used in Gritty Realism films. The logo idea is seen on slide 1 of the presentation below.

Next, our second idea came up when we were brainstorming objects and practices most commonly associated with British culture and traditions after concluding that our first idea for the Production company was not conventional enough. We decided to brains Our first association with this was the British cuisine 'Fish and Chips'. This inspired the name 'Fish and Chips Productions'. Although it was conventional in the way that it shows the typical britishness of the genre, we decided it wasn't conventional in the sense that it wasn't professional enough for our film. Despite Gritty Realism being a low budget genre of film it remains professional. A mock-up logo and further information on this can be seen on slide 2 of the presentation below.

Our final idea for the Production company was again inspired by our British culture brainstorm. This time we came upon the idea of Tea. Hot tea is a drink that is associated with the British stereotype and is a huge part of the culture. Because of this we believed it would be highly conventional in a way that it would represent and emphasize the britishness of the genre as well as remaining professional and polished.. Based on this idea we came up with the name 'Cup of Tea Productions' OR 'Cuppa' Tea productions'. We decided the first idea was best as it offered a more sophisticated title which is what we desired. Developing this design was a lengthy process and its transformation from our original idea into what is used in our opening sequences is seen in the slides 2 and onward in the presentation I made below. 



Final Production Company Logo and Title:

Our final product has developed greatly from a simple sketch to a video sequence. After having a lot of difficulty developing the digital logo we decided to think outside the box and try something new in our opening sequence.




This is the first version of the Production company as we tried to put it into the sequence. Its unprofessional look is prominent which is why we needed to change it. We had tried many methods of perfecting the logo but none were working or had our desired effect and appeal. This is why we decided to use a video sequence instead.




We filmed this shot many times, first using a different actor (Jeanne MacCourt who we also used in our Preliminary task) and with a different background. When filming, we decided to use a teacup that was the perfect design for what we wanted and wrote the 'Cup of Tea' on the cup and the 'Productions' on the saucer so when the cup was lifted the Productions would be revealed. We believed this would be an original take on a production company being introduced and would give us a unique selling point. We originally used a background that was a kitchen and had odd objects and mugs in places. We thought this background would represent the types of locations and sets that are used in gritty realism films, thus making even the production company logo conventional. However, we believed it made the sequence look messy and even though the background looked conventional to the actual narrative of Gritty Realism films it did not look conventional of a logo from a Production company used for the films. It needed to look more clean cut and tidy. So, to fix this we decided to film the sequence on a black/plain background and used Dottie instead, as Jeanne was not available at the time. This made the sequence look more neat and polished.

Pre-Film Credits:

In order to make our film convention of Gritty Realism films opening sequences we decided to add some pre-film credits that let the audience know who wrote it, who stars in it, who directed it, etc.




We decided to add in the graphics at different areas of the screen during editing as we realised this was conventional for graphics at the start of Gritty Realism films. It also draws the audience's attention to each one so they will actually read them without the words distracting too much from the narrative on screen. Also, we realised that having the credits in the opening sequence was highly conventional of, not only gritty realism but all, films. 

We used the font 'YU Gothic' (pictured below) as we believed the simplicity of it would look professional and elegant and not be too overbearing. As well as this we thought that the font was very similar to the one used in the gritty realism film 'Submarine' which makes the font conventional. The coherency of the font is also alike that used in the gritty realism film 'Fish Tank' which further shows how the font is conventional. We would have liked to had a font that had a similar aesthetic to the scratched writing of 'Sane' in our title sequence however we were unable to find one on the already existing fonts we had available to us and experienced technical difficult when attempting to download a font, from a copyright free website, and using it in the editing software. However, I also think that the contrast between the scratched 'Sane' and simplistic credits shows the difference between Chris and Chris Mark 2. Chris Mark 2 causes the problems with mental health and personality for Chris and is the antagonist and therefore the scratched 'Sane' represents him. Whereas, in contrast the straightforwardness of the credit font represents Chris who is simple minded and child like. 
Furthermore, we used the grey tone for the colour of the font as it matches the off-white colour of the 'Sane' title on the black screen. We did this to create a sense of continuity and familiarity for the audience. 
The font we used in our opening sequence graphics.

This font is by 'junkohanhero' from the website 1001fonts.
This is the font we wanted to use for our graphics as we believed it shared a similar look to that of our title screen. We liked the scratched and rushed look of the font as we believe it reflects the protagonists struggle with schizophrenia well as well as symbolising the negative emotions he has. Unfortunately, we couldn't use it due to technical difficulties. 






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