Our Institution and Film Name

In class towards the beginning of our project we had a brainstorm of various names for our institution. We wanted the name to express excellence and the design of the logo to represent connotations of horror. We wanted to be memorable as a company who produce films of the horror genre. After lots of thought we came up with the name "Unprecedented Pictures." The definition of unprecedented is:- "Never done or known before". We particularly liked the fact that this initiated that our films are unique and stand out from other horror films previously broadcast. The 'pictures' part of the institution name exemplifies the fact we are a film production company and also alliterates both "p's" in the two words for an even more memorable effect.

For our film name we wanted a short, unusual word which was bold and also memorable. As you can see from the highlighted word in the diagram below, we came to the conclusion of the name "Anomalous". We got really gripped with this name and it began our journey of the narrative for our film. Liking the idea of the main character being anonymous or anomalous, we constructed our narrative ideas around this base idea. This is the exact definition of the word anomalous which we plan to use as a guide and also a slogan for our film: "Deviating from what is standard, normal, or expected."

Below is a computerised version of our brainstorm with our most concentrated ideas for both our institution name and final film name. 

Here is my analysis of our final logo designed by Jake Hayes using Adobe Photoshop. We're all really pleased with the final result and feel our logo will be memorable to the audience. [Click on the image below to view a clearer, enlarged version.]

As you may have noticed, we have also added our own favicon  (example below: a small icon which represents the website logo you are on in the address bar next to the URL) which has our logo on it. Myself, Olivia, Jake and Rhys have all added this to our blog which we feel adds technicality and professionalism to our group as a whole.

Making of Our Institution Logo Animation

The following print screens and annotations explain how we achieved our institution logo title. We put together a brainstorm of ideas among the group of what colours, sounds, mise-en-scene and vibe we wanted the titles to ascertain. Rhys McEvoy in our group is very talented with using graphic software programmes and produced the following as a first draft idea:

It was made using Adobe After Effects CS4 and Sony Vegas Pro 11 for the music. We were all really impressed with Rhys' efforts in bringing together our ideas and producing this logo animation. The sound is really similar to a lot of insitution titles such as 20th Century Fox and really looks like a professional animation. The revolving cubes look really effective and look like you are searching for a film to watch amongst thousands of screens put together. We reconsidered some more ideas and Rhys took on board all of our comments and reconfigured the graphics to produce the following:


This is our final insitution logo animation. After researching many other institutions we decided we all really liked Lionsgate's idea of making their insitution logo titles into a horror theme. We felt it was really effective in preparing the audience for a scary film and so we wanted to portray a spooky feel to ours. This is better than the first draft as the music is much more unsettling. The sound is of a lower key and slower tempo which makes the audience feel uneasy. The screams sound effects added is a conventional sound of death and danger and really adds to the scary mood. We initially all said we wanted our logo to include sketchy effects of a broken video camcorder and this was achieved by adding the flickering logo changing colour to black and white at the end.

So how was it actually made? Below are a few screenshots of the compilation of the whole animation.

Lastly the sound effects were added. We wanted to go with the theme of children in our film as viewers see them as innocent and vulnerable and so as a result of seeing young people hurt, victimized or even subverted to being the villain, the audience are more emotionally affected by it. So to conform to this we decided to add children screaming as non-diegetic sound effects to spook the viewer and comply with the horror genre of our institution titles. Soft strings from an orchestra play faintly in the background as this sound is conventionally heard in horror films to make the audience feel uneasy. Sketchy, eerie sounds are also added onto the logo itself which sound like mechanical glitches add a 'home video', paranormal effect to the animation. 

Institution Research

LIONSGATE

Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation or known as “Lionsgate” is an entertainment company founded in 1997 in Vancouver. From data as of 2012, it is the most commercially successful film and television distribution company in North America. Lionsgate are also the sixth most profitable movie studio earning a huge revenue of $1.6 billion. The company is associated with 9 other subsidiaries and is divided into four categories; Lionsgate Films, Lionsgate Home Entertainment, Lionsgate Music & Publishing and Lionsgate Television.

Below are some of Lionsgates films: 

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Lionsgate have two different types of logos. One is their regular well known logo (top) and the other is their logo used in horror films (bottom). Both are really good but I think the horror logo is really effective due to the sound and colours used. 

TWISTED PICTURES

Twisted Pictures is also an American production company. The institution are mostly well known for producing films of the horror genre. They formed after a successful box office sale of the first “Saw” film in 2004 which lead to a distribution deal with Lionsgate. Twisted Pictures have also recently developed from filmography into television similar to Lionsgate.  This autumn they broadcasted the new comedy show “Anger Management” on Comedy Central starring the well-known actor Charlie Sheen. The company have produced films other than the Saw series such as Dead Silence, The Tortured and Texas Chainsaw 3D.

Below is the Twisted Pictures logo. The graphics are really effective and well constructed. The horror theme is portrayed instantly through the black background, sketchy font and barbed wire wrapping the letters.