Graphics and Logo

PRODUCTION COMPANY LOGO.

When deciding on a logo we decided we wanted something simple and fun but something stereotypically British to fit with our chosen genre.In lessons we came up with three different company names and logos in order to find the best one. The first one we though of was "Cloud nine productions". This we thought we be a suitable title as it was simple and original and we had a vague idea of what the logo would look like. Furthermore "cloud nine" has not been used much in logos of company's so we thought it would be original and interesting from that perspective, in addition cloud nine sounded professional and would appeal to many audiences as it is a simple and cartoonist logo.

 In our brainstorming lessons we came up with a cloud logo and a simple line drawing of a cup of tea. We had thought briefly of "fish and chips productions" as we were set on using something British but it sounded childish and unprofessional and we couldn't think of a quirky and interesting logo After drawing up a few designs of each we decided on the tea cup as it was more original then the cloud idea and was far more British. The "cup of tea productions" logo was also more related to the genre, making it more conventional. Moreover the logo would appeal to a British audience as tea is something stereotypically British.

We drew the design up and scanned it into the computer and began editing but Photoshop, word and paint could not crop it into the format we wanted. Secondly our logo looked too home made and going over it in paint or Photoshop wasn't giving us the look we wanted so we decided to make a new version in a Microsoft version of paint in order to make it look more professional, and we were pleased with the outcome.

 
Poor Edit from Lucy Jenkins on Vimeo.

This new logo worked perfectly for the look we wanted but when we added it to our opening sequence it looked out of place and adding the logo image onto the film track proved difficult for us. Another issue was that the dark seafront shots of the beginning of the sequence contrasted too much with the bright logo so we then decided to make the film company logo into a short clip as this was it could be at the beginning of the sequence without looking out of place.







This also helped make our opening sequence look more compliant with the gritty realism genre.We Tried it with an actor who offered to help us out (jeanne maccourt). we wrote "cup of tea productions" on a vintage looking teacup and saucer to mimic the logo we had previously. Furthermore we knew many other members of our class had used their own logos created on paint and photoshop, and so having a filmed title sequence made our work for original and appealing to our audience. We were very happy with the look of the clip and we liked the way the teacup represented our logo but the background used was too messy. We had filmed in a kitchen area with jeanne but this time we wanted to have a plain background to make it look more put together but also so that it was less of a contrast with the rest of the sequence. We then filmed it again against a plain dark fabric, but as jeanne was not available to film with us i volunteered to film the clip, and by the end of the school day this production company logo was finished and added to our work.

  Production Company Correct Logo from Lucy Jenkins on Vimeo.

FILM TITLE SEQUENCE

Deciding on the film title was much easier then deciding on the logo for the production company as we already had an idea of how we wanted it too look. we knew we wanted to make a short title sequence clip and we knew we wanted it to be written on a smashed mirror so the only thing we needed to decide on was a name. We came up with a few including

• Parallels- we liked parallels as it suggested at the similarities between chris' personalities and tied him to Alex as his "alter-ego".
• Chris's people- Chris' people hinted at a theme of something darker, and made his illness more real comparing his disorder to a person made Alex's character more real and also gave people a more sinister feel of the film before it had even started. Although this title looked enticing to the audience and suggested themes through out the film we didn't think it looked right. Secondly, it was too light hearted and it could confuse our audience as we only have one person playing Chris' disorder.
• Sane- Sane to us was one of our better ideas as it hinted as a theme of mental illness without giving anything away. Furthermore we wanted our film to address the negative stigma behind mental illness and people writing disorders off as "mental-cases" or "insane" and so the juxtaposition between the title of the film and the themes was interesting. Moreover "sane" was very short and sweet, and we thought this was better then having a longer title. 
• A tale of two minds- We considered using this title briefly but although we liked it, it dint suit the genre. The title was similar to that of a big 6 movie, and so we didn't use it. The theory of this title was that it represented schizophrenia, and the two sides of the protagonist. 
• mirrored- Mirrored was ,again, another play on words in order to show the two sides of Chris' personality and lifestyle. When deciding on our title we started to favour the shorter ones as they made the film more conventional, as well as being more punchy and easy to remember.
• Echo-  Again like the title above this was a portrayal of Chris and his disorder, it appealed to us for many of the reasons we had mentioned previous. However, it was too vague and didn't directly keep to the narrative and themes of the film.
• psychedelic nightmare-  This was one of our first ideas that we came up with when trying to come up with a title. "nightmare" gave a slightly more scary feel to the piece and hinted towards the way in which Chris is trying to escape something inside his own mind, very much like a bad dream or nightmare. For one of our first ideas we thought it would suit the piece well but after consideration it sounded slightly childish and also hinted too much at a horror or thriller which is not what we wanted.

We decided we liked "Sane" the best and so started sketching up fonts and lay outs of the text. After making our production company into a short clip we thought we would create another filmed sequence for our logo with a smashing mirror. We chose the mirror to represent the reflections of Chris in his disorder, and secondly because smashing mirrors are often used in darker genres such as thrillers so suggest pain and so we thought it would fit nicely together.

 Below is an experiment with having text over a mirror when deciding which title would look best.
Below is the edit of the title sequence inserted into our opening sequence.

SANE Title Sequence from Lucy Jenkins on Vimeo.

After showing the second edit of out opening sequence to our class we received the feedback that our title sequence was not conventional enough and looked out of place with the rest of the opening sequence. Someone had the idea of fading the image of the mirror out and leaving text "sane" text. We liked this idea and so developed the image so it would fade onto the image track after the mirror sequence and when we tried it we found it tied the two sections together well and made the transition into the next shot much smoother.

Fonts for the opening credits and titles.

Deciding the font for our opening credits was a simple task as we knew what sort of look we were going for. When studying other gritty realism films such as "fish tank" and "Bullet boy" we found that the black and white titles and company logos were a way of establishing a low budget film. As we wanted to stay as conventional as possible we used an off white/grey colour font to stay conventional but also to contrast against the dark background of the night sky shown on screen. This made the credits easier to read and tied the titles back to the title sequence font, which was also and greyish-white. The font type ,we decided, would look better in a simple style rather then any elaborate writing as firstly, it is not conventional and secondly, we didn't think it would be appropriate with the rest of the mise en scene and also the action taking place on the image track.