Richard Montanari, Play Dead (Prime Time Crime)

Tess Gerritsen's Keeping the Dead Ad

This is the book trailer for Tess Gerritsen's Keeping the Dead which I looked at when creating my title sequence. Some of the camera angles I tried to replicate such as the close to the glass jars shot. The mood in this piece is great and sets up the scene in an ideal way. By the end of it you want to know whats happening as the suspense builds up the whole piece. From this I thought dark lighting would be key and good use of shadows was ideal for my sequence.

Body Farm, Channel 5 documentary

WARNING: This clip contains graphic scenes of human decomposition.

This is a clip from a documentry that was on channel 5 a while ago. When researching into my title sequence and looking into the writer Simon Beckett I found this clip on the Body Farm and forensics. I found it interesting when looking into script writing and it helped me come up with the story I created for the piece. I thought that the connection between photography was very strong and wanted to push that forward but I also wanted a unexpected twist.

VH1 Ident

This is the ident I have just handed in as my final piece for the 3D Ident brief. I started by looking at the Kerrang music channel but I then decided to move onto VH1 Classic as is is how the Kerrang channel used to be. I really wanted the ident to reflect the channel. I wantd it to be dark and dingy and run down. I also wanted to focus on the instruments as the music from nowedays tends to be more about the money, popularity and the videos rather a guy and his guitar.

I decided to use a series cut-to cameras to keep the animation fast paced and in time with the music. The idea is that a guitarist is setting up to play the main riff to the music in the background but he is not seen as the focus is on the instruments and not on any band or musician.

The final piece has come out slighly darker than I would have wanted so I will change the lighting and rerender for my final portfolio.

The Usual Suspects - Noticeboard Scene

This scene was my main influence for my title sequence piece. It is from a film called The Usual Suspects which I saw a long time ago. This scene has stuck with me for a long time and is one of my favourite scenes of any film. It is the scene where all the pieces of the film come together and the puzzle is complete. I don't want to spoil the film for anyone so suggest you watch the whole film rather than just the clip I have posted. This scene is of a noticeboard that has a load of information on it. I love the way the camera darts about over it all revealing curtain bits of information. This is exactly what I want to achieve in my title sequence. The audience will feel like they are discovering something and it will make them feel intelligent before entering the program and new drama that awaits.

Waking The Dead Titles

When making my title sequence I looked at this title sequence as well as other crime dramas to try and create a similar mood. Obviously I didn't want to create something exactly the same but audiences react to this kind of title sequence and know what to expect. This is why I need to be able to attract the same audience so there need to be some conections between the pieces. This sequence does a good job at showing the names of the people involved but not really of setting up the program. I really wanted to focus on the setting up of the program and he story telling aspect.

Threat of Exposure

This is the title sequence I produced for our title sequence brief earlier in the year. We either had to make a new one for an existing program or for a new one that we could create. I decided to create my own which was similar to some out there.

I wrote a treatment for the piece before I went into production. My program was a detective/crime drama. It drew similarities to programs such as "Waking The Dead" and "Wire In the Blood".

It was all about a photography student that had dropped out of college/uni but carried on as a hobby. He had some mental health issues that weren't so clear when on the course but now they are more noticeable. This was shown by twitching and struggling with his speech as well as his writing. He wanted to be in forensics but without the education was not able to follow his dreams. He ends up help the local police and forensic team trying to find a serial killer in London. They let him help as he is lonely they think he is harmless enough and he needs to be doing something with his time. Later in the series you find that he is in fact the serial killer and the audience have been fooled as well as his new friends in the police force and himself. To start he has no idea he is doing it (split personality) with no recollection of what has happened. He is setting up the murder scene so he can figure them out, impressing the forensic teams and hopefully becoming one of them himself. When he discovers that he is doing it he can't stop and ends trying to cover his trails rather than solving it. Will his friends catchup with his antics...?

In this piece I wanted to show the subjects study where he is trying to track down the serial killer. Around there are clues to that it is the subject that viewers would not realise until later in the series where it all falls into place. Every week his wall of clues would get more and more full showing what had happened in the past episodes. The names of actors and directors are also located around his desk emphasising the discovery aspect of the show.

I think I have been successful with my piece but synchronizing with the soundtrack was rushed for deadline so I will be redoing that as well as using smoother cameras for my final portfolio.