After watching over this film opening. "Prae Weissman" 's name needs to stay on screen for as long as the shot goes. I feel that the extreme close up shot of the eye after the close up on the hair dresser taking the scissor out from her pocket does not allow the story line to flow and it does not make much sense. Moreover the music stops before it should.
Friday, 30 January 2015
SNIP second draft
After watching over this film opening. "Prae Weissman" 's name needs to stay on screen for as long as the shot goes. I feel that the extreme close up shot of the eye after the close up on the hair dresser taking the scissor out from her pocket does not allow the story line to flow and it does not make much sense. Moreover the music stops before it should.
New Font Analysis
We stuck with the same font as before but added a different effect. The angular shapes that are seemingly cutting through the bold letters symbolises a disturbance within the mind of the hairdresser. It could also suggest that her insanity is episodic, allowing her to hide her obsession from the public eye. The other effect that we used was with the light, which gives off a hallucinatory quality, allowing the audience to somewhat see into the mind of the hairdresser and understand her on a deeper level through the same experiences (fantasies/hallucinations).
For the name of the production company, we decided on this font. Being half bold suggests, again, an episodic insanity and how easily the hairdresser can unknowingly slip in and out of the two states of mind, symbolising instability.
We changed the font of the credits to a typewriter font as we felt like it would hold more weight to the story since the previous font was too thin and looked like it could not really convey the story as well as this one. A typewriter font could suggest that the hairdresser is a perfectionist due to the fact that typewriters are much neater than if something was handwritten. As well as this, the slight slant to the font could also suggest that the hairdresser is making room in her mind for the obsession and it may soon completely take over.
Soundtrack Analysis
We chose to use the first minute and a bit of this clip.
- Disconnected, piercing sounds
- Constantly shifting stereophonic sound makes it sound like it's moving around like a mind that is lost
- Pitch drop at about 10 seconds could symbolise lowered brain power/decreased sanity
- Droning sound at about 30 seconds makes it feel like it's dragging on and will last forever
- Volume of sound varies constantly and randomly, suggesting that insanity leads to a disconnected, disordered mind without direction or purpose
Thursday, 29 January 2015
Title Design
Shapes
have a variety of characteristics,
each
conveying different messages to the audience.
ANGULAR SHAPES
Shapes with sharp
edges connotes a violent and threatening feel. This can be seen in animated
cartoons where the antagonists that have a more triangular face appear be cruel.
Circles or rounder shapes gives more of a feminine and friendly impression.
Most protagonists in an animated film usually have a round feature to their face.
Most protagonists in an animated film usually have a round feature to their face.
For the title, there are triangles and rectangular shapes running through the word 'SNIP' since it symbolises violence and can be referenced to a blade from a scissor. The light shining through contrasts a hairdresser shop's seemingly bright light compared to the night. This is represented once again with an establishing shot filmed outside where the hair dresser standing in her salon. The zooming effect embedded in the title represents the hallucinations by the eldritch hairdresser.
Monday, 26 January 2015
Snip Rough Cut Feedback
I worked on the "things that could be improved";
"hint of the killer/psycho"
I added a shot of the hair dresser pulling the scissor out in slow motion, so that it might suggest to the audience that the hairdresser has the ability to take their life away, she has got the weapon to do so in her hands and she using it next to the customer's necks. There are two scenes at the end where I feel that it suggests the morbidity and the composition of the shot is awkward, a disruption in the equilibrium and suggests death as the customer lied down, closing her eyes, she trusts the hairdresser and then a cut to the water whirling scene which is used in the movie "Psycho" and "Dexter" which suggests the mental instability of the main character and the psychological genre. Moreover this scene can suggest the uncertainty of the customer's life.
"Font too tmblr"
I do agree that the font used here is too fashionable and modern which does not go along well with the setting and the tone we are trying to set. Therefore I changed from "basic title" to something similar to a "courier" which is a typewriter style font, it gives a robust and neat but at the same time dirty, just like the salon.
Character Research
Obsession: the state of being obsessed with someone or something
We drew some of the elements of each of these characters together to form the character of the hair dresser.
Jean-Baptiste Grenouille - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)
Grenouille was born in a fish market in Paris with hyperosmia, an abnormally strong sense of smell, which eventually leads to him becoming a serial killer. Over the course of the film, Grenouille is taught a method of distillation and the preservation of scents. Since he was born with no scent, Grenouille decides to create the perfect perfume to prove his worth, killing women whom he deemed had the perfect scent and attempting, and failing many times, to capture their scent.
Jame Gumb (Buffalo Bill) - The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Gumb was born in California and abandoned by his mother, then taken into foster care at the age of two. In the movie, Lecter summarizes Gumb's life as so: "Billy was not born a criminal, but made one by years of systematic abuse." Later on in his life, Gumb becomes obsessed with wanting to become a woman but being too disturbed to qualify for gender reassignment surgery. Thus, he kills overweight women so he can skin them and create a "woman suit" for himself.
Francis Dolarhyde (The Tooth Fairy) - Red Dragon (2002)
Dolarhyde was born in Missouri and abandoned by his mother, then cared for in an orphanage until the age of five when he was taken in by his grandmother, who subjects him to emotional and physical abuse. As a result, he began torturing animals at an extremely young age to vent his anger. Dolarhyde begins his killing spree by murdering two families. He becomes obsessed with the Red Dragon, having a large tattoo of a dragon on his back, and believes that, by killing people - "transforming" them, he calls - he can fully "become" the Dragon. He also has two sets of false teeth; one for his normal day-to-day life and the other, which is distorted and extremely sharp for his killings, in which he earned the nickname "The Tooth Fairy."
Sweeney Todd - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1936/2007)
Todd is a barber who dispatches his victims by pulling a level as they sit in his barber chair, causing them to fall backwards down a trapdoor into the basement of his shop, breaking their necks or skulls. In case some of his victims survive the fall, Todd goes to the basement and "polishes them off" (slitting their throats with his straight razor).
Gollum - The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-3)
Originally known as Smeagol, a hobbit of the Shire, he became corrupted by the One Ring, which he found at the bottom of a river by chance. The Ring, which Gollum referred to as "precious," extended his life for another 400 years. Under centuries of the Ring's influence, Gollum became obsessed with it and after Bilbo Baggins found the Ring and took it for his own, Gollum pursued it for the rest of his life. His obsession is further highlighted at the end of The Return of the King (2003) when he willing fell into the fires of Mount Doom just to be reunited with the Ring.
We drew some of the elements of each of these characters together to form the character of the hair dresser.
Jean-Baptiste Grenouille - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)
Grenouille was born in a fish market in Paris with hyperosmia, an abnormally strong sense of smell, which eventually leads to him becoming a serial killer. Over the course of the film, Grenouille is taught a method of distillation and the preservation of scents. Since he was born with no scent, Grenouille decides to create the perfect perfume to prove his worth, killing women whom he deemed had the perfect scent and attempting, and failing many times, to capture their scent.
Portrayed by Ben Whishaw
Jame Gumb (Buffalo Bill) - The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Gumb was born in California and abandoned by his mother, then taken into foster care at the age of two. In the movie, Lecter summarizes Gumb's life as so: "Billy was not born a criminal, but made one by years of systematic abuse." Later on in his life, Gumb becomes obsessed with wanting to become a woman but being too disturbed to qualify for gender reassignment surgery. Thus, he kills overweight women so he can skin them and create a "woman suit" for himself.
Portrayed by Ted Levine
Francis Dolarhyde (The Tooth Fairy) - Red Dragon (2002)
Dolarhyde was born in Missouri and abandoned by his mother, then cared for in an orphanage until the age of five when he was taken in by his grandmother, who subjects him to emotional and physical abuse. As a result, he began torturing animals at an extremely young age to vent his anger. Dolarhyde begins his killing spree by murdering two families. He becomes obsessed with the Red Dragon, having a large tattoo of a dragon on his back, and believes that, by killing people - "transforming" them, he calls - he can fully "become" the Dragon. He also has two sets of false teeth; one for his normal day-to-day life and the other, which is distorted and extremely sharp for his killings, in which he earned the nickname "The Tooth Fairy."
Portrayed by Ralph Fiennes
Sweeney Todd - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1936/2007)
Todd is a barber who dispatches his victims by pulling a level as they sit in his barber chair, causing them to fall backwards down a trapdoor into the basement of his shop, breaking their necks or skulls. In case some of his victims survive the fall, Todd goes to the basement and "polishes them off" (slitting their throats with his straight razor).
Portrayed by Johnny Depp
Gollum - The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-3)
Originally known as Smeagol, a hobbit of the Shire, he became corrupted by the One Ring, which he found at the bottom of a river by chance. The Ring, which Gollum referred to as "precious," extended his life for another 400 years. Under centuries of the Ring's influence, Gollum became obsessed with it and after Bilbo Baggins found the Ring and took it for his own, Gollum pursued it for the rest of his life. His obsession is further highlighted at the end of The Return of the King (2003) when he willing fell into the fires of Mount Doom just to be reunited with the Ring.
A CGI character voiced and performed by Andy Serkis
Font Analysis
For the title, we chose this font because of how it looks as well as its symbolic connotations. Its boldness could suggest the main character's confidence in her ability to hide away her obsession from the public eye while the black splashes on the white characters could symbolise the deterioration of her mind and how insanity will ultimately stab her in the back and expose her when the obsession becomes too strong to control.
For the credits, we chose this font because of it creates a stark contrast with the title. Its thinness could suggest the main character's (the hairdresser) thinning sanity and how she is slowly but surely falling and succumbing to the darkness that lurks in her head. Since the font is all capital letters, it could symbolise the forcefulness of this obsession with hair. Not only is the hair dresser becoming insane, she is subconsciously forcing herself to fall further down. This is why we feel that this font was the best in order to convey the overall atmosphere of the opening as well as the main character's state of mind.
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