Come Dine with me is a British Tv classic in which each participant within a group of five has to be the perfect dinner host and create a menu while entertaining their guests. Each host earns points and at the end of the competition there is a cash prize of £1000.

Come Dine With Me title sequence

Evaluation

I initially started researching the different types of title sequences that there are. Animated sequences and film intros alike. Following our lessons about lower thirds and creating title sequences in adobe illustrator and adobe after effects when me and my friend both worked together on recreating the John Lewis logo for our promotional advert, I still wasnt very confident in my technical abilities within other adobe apps like illustrator and after effects so i didnt want to create anything animated that was out of my league and decided that i would film my title sequence instead. I derived inspiration from many different classic film openings including Legally Blonde, 101 Dalmatians and I initially was planning to film the Ferris Buelers day off opening title sequence and infamous monologue. However the opening sequence to Ferris Bueler is over five minutes and would require a script and a substantial shot list if i wanted to get a correct recreation, not to mention that i would have to act in the sequence and be behind the camera at the same time directing my parents and younger sibling which would make production time spread over to a couple days. I decided to opt for something easier and experimented with creating an opening credits sequence for The Shining which essentially is just drone footage with rolling credits. I used drone stock footage and overlayed some text, however I was not happy with the result because the overall sequence was of a very low quality and didnt reflect my creative abilities.

After continuing my research i found something that would be easier and quicker to film. The Come Dine With Me title sequence/intro which is only twenty five seconds long and has very simple shots and transitions. Using my kitchen as a location I assembled some props like wine glasses, cutlery and some food props. My only difficulty being that i didnt have a big enough tripod so I had to film most of the shots handheld, the only problem with this is that getting rid of shakiness in footage during post production in editing softwares like premiere pro is very tedious, and sometimes the footage just has to be left as it is. Filming my first few shots was simple as i had to get my parents to act as if they were on a dinner date and film them toasting thier glasses. The only other technical difficulty that arose was, that my camera a Canon 2000D is not very good at auto focusing especially when put together with the Canon 50mm prime lens that I was using. Certain food shots, one of my mum holding a cake took several times to get right as I had to not only hold the camera very still to avoid shakinesss I was also making sure that the shot was in focus at the right time. When editing I tried to create and use the same type of transitions that the Come Dine With Me sequence has, mainly cross dissolves and quick wip pans. I had to learn how to create a wip pan by creating an adjustment layer in Premiere pro and adjusting the bluriness within the transition with keyframes. (the videos that helped me are linked). Another technique I learnt was how to overlay certain effects on videos, i used a smoke effect that i added to my video from screen-recording a YouTube video and then getting rid of the black background behind the smoke in the video int the video effects controls. Overall this small part of unit 11 helped me widen my skillset within premiere pro and helped me overcome certain technical challenges when filming. Filming went smoothly and I ended up with footage that effectively captured the aesthetic of the Come Dine With Me title sequence.

Saul Bass & title sequences

As a part of our title sequence project for unit 11 we had to research Saul bass who heavily influenced the film industry with his infamous artistic title sequences and designs.

Saul bass was an infamous graphic designer and filmmaker. He designed title sequences for motion pictures, movie posters and corporate logos. He worked with some of Hollywoods greatest filmmakers during his 40 year career including Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and Martin Scorsese. He invented a new type of typography for Alfred Hitchcock for title sequences in North by northwest, Vertigo and Psycho. His work was based on the philosophy of enlightening the audience about the subject of the film. He renders the ordinary, extrodinary by introducting familair objects to the audience in an unfamiliar way. This philosophy is seen throughout all Bass's work within his logos and sequences.