Art of The Title

Title Sequences

Typography is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading(line spacing), adjusting the spaces between groups of letters (tracking) and adjusting the space between pairs of letters.

A title sequence is the method by which cinematic films or television programs present their title, key production and cast members, or both, using visuals and sound.

The function of a title sequence is to:

1. To introduce the programme/film
2. Tells us the genre/sub-genre of the show
3. Tells us location/setting
4. Tells us information about the characters
5. It's a warning that the shows about to start
6. It gives the show a recognisable identity
7. It can give the information about the tone/style/pace

Tells us the period of time the show is set inThree films featured in the A Brief History of the Art of the Title Sequence are Pink Panther, Phantom of the Opera and Saturday Night Fever.

Iron Man Title Sequence:

The imagery created in this opening is by the blueprint of the Iron Man suit and on the labels on the machine are all the names of directors, actors and crew members. This suggests that this machine that the blueprint is of indicates it will be included in the movie. The music used in this clip is an Iron Maiden song  this gives the feel of the type of movie they are going to watch. We can be sure of the action genre by the sound as its very fast and it gets you excited for the rest of the film.

Fight Club Title Sequence:

 The imagery created in this title sequence is from the camera tracking inside the characters brain through cells and existing through a skin pore when then we hear the character speak. The fast-pased music and camera work suggests what the genre is going to be (Drama). We can tell from the sequence that the persons mental perspective is going to be challenged throughout the film or the way he thinks about something is going to change. The sound stops suddenly when the character starts speaking, producers might have done this to grab the audiences full attention. We also see the man is sweating a lot so we can assume this film will have something to do with a sport and the dark lighting makes it a bit mysterious which adds to the enigma of who is he? and, where is he? By the dark lighting we could think he's not really meant to be there and could be hiding from something.

RICHARD MORRISON

The type of nuance that Richard Morrison looks for is a subliminal energy in a film because then he can work into an idea. 

Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street:

The imagery of this sequence is that it’s very dark, at the start we see a barbers chair and the the blood starts dripping in the roof top with then automatically shows the genre. Then we see what the barber does, makes pies out of the dead bodies. Which most people know the famous historic story about Sweeny Todd. By knowing this we can tell what the film is going to be about. Also with the rainfall some of the drops are blood this contrasts with the dark background, this also links to the genre. The titles stand right out from the scene behind them, but they don't really distract you. This suggests that the theme of the film will be about what he is doing. With Tim Burtons name being mentioned in the titles also links to genre, he is well known for his thriller/horror films so we can assume that this film is going to be dark.  The sound in the sequence makes the audience feel nervous because the type of music used, the pace of the music changes and the foley sounds used are thunder and blood dripping onto the glass. This suggests that the theme though out the film will be scary because just with the music it’s already creating the sense of what is to come. The mood created in the title sequence is quite scary as you don't know what is going to happen next. 

This is what Richard Morrison said about this title sequence -

"This industry is very specific and if you do a good job then you tend to be remembered by directors and producers. What I enjoyed most was coming up with the whole idea. I did not have to pitch to Tim but I turned this project into an internal pitch at th1ng. And so, a few days later, I had a room full of some truly outstanding creative work. I took it all to Tim and he just spread the pieces all over the floor and spent around a day or two looking through them. And then he just said: I really like this narrative piece (mine) and those coloured frames (Shay Hamias, director).

Animating blood and its movement became the most crucial and challenging element of the sequence. We had to build special platforms within which we imitated blood movement and filmed it. And we had to give it this comical feel, which worked really well. That was a dream project. We would love to work on something similar."

I think Morrison thought this sequence was successful as he refers to it a "a dream project".

Vantage Point:

The imagery in this sequence is dark and mysterious because one half of the screen is black while the other half is footage of a city and it follows a car which is surrounded by security. The montage of footage is mainly events where there is security covering them, this makes me think of the assassination of JFK as the police cars are what you find in America not England. The camera shots are mainly point of views which makes it seem like there is lots of people watching this event happen, This makes the audience believe something is going to happen or someone could be in danger of something. The titles have a quick transition on the screen, when we see this we think of spy and security reports, and by having the red light go across the words makes it look like the light is searching for something, or aiming at a target, which we could link to assassination. This suggests that the film will be dark and unclear because of all the images overlapping each other. The sound in this sequence adds to the mysterious theme, creates tension and  makes the audience more intrigued to watch the film.

Morrison said this about the sequence -

"It is an elegant piece. I liked the idea of random elements coming together before our very eyes, and I thought it would be very clever to use the red laser dot as a motif. It immediately introduced the theme of assassination and threat. Also, I think that the dark gold palette of these images strikes a chord with the filters used later to film Salamanca — there was this smooth transition between the titles and the first scenes shot from the helicopter. 

The sequence had to be based around the idea of perspectives. So I graphically tried to create a web of intrigue to give viewers an accurate insight into what they can expect in the movie."

Script Analysis

Scripts

SCRIPTS

• Action
• Scene Heading
• Character Name
• Transitions
• Extension
• Parentheticals
• Dialogue
• Dual-Dialogue 

The scene heading tells you where the part of the shot is set (takes place)

EXT. - Exterior (outside) -

INT. - Interior (inside)

INT. /EXT. - Movement from Interior to Exterior

Transitions-

• Cut to:
• Pan to:
• Fade out:
• Wipe out:
• Dissolve to:
• Pull back to reveal:

Action-

Visual description of the scene. E.g. The walker walked over the cliff top.

Parenthetical-

A direction given to the actor about how to read the dialogue.

Extension-

Technical indication about the characters dialogue, placed on the right of the actors name.
(O.S) : Off Screen/ (O.C) : Off Camera   (V.O) : Voice Over

Dual Dialogue-

Where characters are talking over each other at the same time.

The script we annotated in class was from The Pirates of the Caribbean:

Teacher Assesment

WWW: You have shown understanding of the theory through your structural break down of Pitch Perfect.
EBI: Complete your structure of Pitch Perfect following Anna’s journey until the end- What is her NEW equilibrium? Also, explain the different stages and the expectations of each stage before discussing your own structure analysis.
SBT

Thriller/Action Movies

THRILLER/ACTION FILM OPENINGS

Taken 

The first shots we see are from an old video recording, this makes the opening personal because it’s from a character past, the order of narrative is starting in the past, but also it makes the start relatable because our parents did this for us when we were children. 

The titles are very subtle, this suggest that directors didn't want your attention to be taken away from what it going on. The transitions are fading in and out which creates a creepy effect because, you could compare it being like a ghost fading in and out. In our film opening I would like to use the titles which are subtle because I want out audience to be fully engaged and not to take away the focus from what s happening in the film opening.

 The music is non-diegetic but is contrapuntal because the footage of the little girl’s birthday is happy but the music makes it sad which gives the audience the effect that something bad has happened to the people in the footage in the present, that’s why the character is remembering it. Also the sound effects makes it seem like a flash back because the voices are faint and distant. When the character wakes up the lighting is dark and makes you wonder about the connection to the little girl in the video. When the title of the film appears, it comes up next to a picture of a girl on a horse, this creates an enigma because we want to know why that picture of that girl is so important,  it could be implying that the girl will be “taken”. 

The pace in this opening is quite slow compared to other action/thriller films we've seen, but it doesn’t make you lose interest because you are always wondering what is going to happen next. I think this was a successful film opening because we was hooked to what we was seeing, because you wasn’t sure what was going to happen next.

The Matrix

In this film opening they have changed the colour of the Warner bros. Logo normally it has a  blue sky behind it however, in this opening the background is dark and mysterious. This pulls the audience in before the film has even started as we can tell that its not going to be an upbeat film. 

 Again this film didn’t have any titles in at the start, which again could mean that the makers wanted our full attention on what was happening. The sound was non-diegetic and this built up suspense. Foley Sounds were used to enhance the typing/computer sounds. The dialogue that was in that part portrayed to the audience that it would be a action because what they were saying was quite violent “we’re going to kill him” 

For costumes all the actors were wearing black, to make themselves look mysterious. The police were wearing their uniform to show who they are and their authority but, it also makes the audience think that if the police were called it shows that this is an important case. The main prop that was used in the opening was a gun, this tells the audience that this will be an action film because there will be violence happening within the movie. The transitions between each shot were quick so the audience wasn’t distracted from the action. The pace of the opening was fast because there was a lot happening. Lighting was very dark and the only way we as an audience knew what was happening was through the characters torches this helped give the audience a sense of what kind of movie this will be (action). All the actors were men apart from one woman, which suggests that this is a male dominated opening, this is typical in an action thriller. The makeup used on the women was dark eyes which makes her look quite evil but, also she had her hair pushed back to show her character. The main camera shots were close ups, this is so you can see the characters facial expressions and how they are reacting to the situations but, also it builds tension in the scene.  The set was in abandoned apartments this made the situation scarier because you didn’t know what to expect.  The enigma was who are the men in the dark glasses and what was the woman were doing in the abandoned flats.  This opening was successful because it hooked the audience in and even before the movie starts you can tell it is going to be an action.

Jack Reacher

Out of all the films that we have studied this is only the second film to have titles. For this film the titles are very subtle, however the titles of the film are not obvious, it’s the same size and font as the titles of the actors, it could be used for not taking your attention away from the film opening.

 The lighting in the opening is dark because here we meet the antagonist. The main camera shots are extreme close ups and establishing shots, these two totally juxtaposed with each other because the extreme close up was fast pace and tension would build but that would all go when the establishing shots were on because they were calm and slower pace than the other one. 

The main sound was non-diegetic because they built up tension plus there was no dialogue and without the music it wouldn’t be as exciting. However the music just stops at a point in the opening and all you can hear is the antagonist breathing this is a foley sound because it was enhanced to make it louder which added more effect as it made us as an audience feel nervous because we weren’t quite sure what was going to happen next. 

The enigma was who is this man and why is he shooting at random people.  The prop used in the opening was a gun, from looking at all the film openings they have all had a gun as a prop, this suggest that the gun as a prop is widely known as a genre signifier to tell the audience that they are watching an action/thriller film.  The pace of the film goes from slow to fast, which was successful because it’s quite a long opening which means that people might lose interest so by changing the pace they are kept the audience’s attention.

The Dark Knight

In this film opening they have changed to colour of the Warner bros. Logo normally it’s a bright blue sky behind it but in this it’s dark and mysterious. Before the movie has even started the audience are already getting a feel to the film.  This opening doesn’t have any titles in it, this suggest that the makers wanted the audience’s full attention. In the first few seconds of the opening it shows the setting of a city. By showing the audience that it will be shot in the city makes it an action as people always relate the city to be fasted paced as there is always something happening in the city. 

The costumes used in this film were very dark all the main characters involved were wearing black to show they were bad and mysterious. They were all wearing masks which makes an enigma, we wanted to know who they were. Also because of the masks and how they were robbing the bank, it doesn’t make it a normal bank robbery which makes it interesting. 

We think that this makes the opening more interesting. All the actors are men which show that something violent will happen because normally women aren’t used in the big fight scenes however, sometimes they are usually fighting to save or protect the women.  The props used in the opening are guns which always suggest violence this can always be linked to an action/thriller film.  

We would like to use the location of the film because it will make our film more realistic and suitable for our genre but, the problem is that we don't have the money or the location to do so. This film opening was successful because even before it started the audience could guess that it was going to be. 

  

Teacher Assesment

Teacher Feeback:

WWW: You have written up the theory well using notes and resources from the lesson.
EBI: Fully explain your notes. What has ‘beauty pageant’ got to do with criticism of theory? Why do you think men and women are represented differently when looking at their facial expressions? You need to incorporate the homework into the write up and explain how the theory links to this. (Look at other blogs if you’re unsure).
SBT

My Feedback:

Beauty Pageants:

A beauty pageant is a criticism to the theory because girl’s enter things like this because they want to be looked at by other people and show off what they have. This is going against the theory because it says that women do want to be looked at that way, unlike the theory because that is telling us that girls don’t want to be looked at like that.

Why men and women are represented differently:

I think men and women are represented differently when looking at their facial expression because, in the media they want to appeal to the opposite sex. This means that men want to look differently so they will be more attractive to girls and the same for women. Also you could take it the other way because men want to be represented manly when looking at his facial expression.

Production Diary

Production Diary

Week 1-2:In these two weeks we learnt how to use blogger successfully and that themes, characters, location, titles, production logos and establishing the genre were all the conventions of a opening scene. This helps

Week 2-3:
We learnt all the types of camera shots and angles. For example, extreme close up, close up, mid shot, mid long shot, long shot. extreme long shot). We also learnt how to analysis a still image using mise en scene and clamps.

Week 3-4:
We learnt about genre signifiers and what things are used to show what the films genre is and how you can normally tell what the genre is within the first 2-5 minutes of the films. This helped me to know what must be included in my opening scene to make sure the audience know what the genre is.

Week 4-5:Within these two weeks we started to complete our preliminary task. We had to pick a genre from a list and create a 30secs-1 min opening with the use of the 180 degree rule and use a shot/reverse shot. The opening also had to include a character crossing the room and then he/she had to sit down opposite to another character.

Week 5-6:
We had to finish and edit our opening scene from last week and then upload it to our blog so we could analysis it. We had to write what want well with it and what changes i would make to it. We also had to have the script and the storyboard uploaded with it.

 

Week 6-7:
We were given the next task of recreating the opening scene of Juno. First we had to write down every shot that was shown so we could then keep referring back to them when recreating our own Juno opening sequence. We were given a week to finish and edit the opening.

 

Week 7-8:
Within the last few weeks we have been finishing anything that had to be completed and complete out Juno opening sequences and edit them fully.