www.smashingmagazine.com- 3 Points

Film titles and letter cards had to provide essential information to the viewer. For reasons such as ease of production and clarity, artists favored mono-stroke letterforms or characters with small serifs. White lettering on a black background is another characteristic of this era, because titles simply looked better this way when projected with live-action B&W film.

This shows how, in the early stages of the film industry, title sequences and letter cards were vital to a film to help the audience understand the plot and story of the film. Without dialogue it was very difficult to understand some elements of the film and so titles and letter cards would help the audience to connect to the film.

As movies grew more popular, their titles evolved. Movie producers invested considerable sums in film production and sometimes resorted to fixing a dog of a film by rewriting the inter-titles. For a time, “film doctor” Ralph Spence (1890–1949) was the highest-paid title writer in the industry, earning $10,000 a picture for his one-liners.

This shows how important film titles got the more popular films got in the early 1900's. Ralph Spence would earn $10,000 for doing the titles and letter cards for one film and due to him being a popular title writer meant he could earn even more than that in one year, showing the importance of title sequences in early films.

During the 1920s and ’30s, European cinema was deeply influenced by modernism, and aspects of this visual sensibility were brought to the US by filmmakers who were fleeing the Nazis. Meanwhile, the studio systems operating in Europe and Hollywood also delighted in creating titles that featured vernacular graphic novelties. As much as possible, they liked to convey the tone of a movie through the “dressage” of its main title. Thus, blackletter fonts in the opening credits were used to evoke horror, ribbons and flowery lettering suggested love, and typography that would have been used on “Wanted” posters connoted a western flick.

This discusses how, during the 1920s and '30s, film makers began to make their opening titles more suited to the genre and plot of the film. It shows how film makers began to realize the potential of relating a title sequence to the film and how it can help an audience understand the mood and context of the film before it has even really began.

Paramount Vantage- Studio Presentation

Paramount vantage

This is the presentation me and Alex Flynn created together for our pitching task 

Defiance opening sequence

The opening sequence of the film 'Defiance' begins with various real black and white footage of real life events during the Second World War and also some footage that has been specially made for the film. The title sequence then changes from black and white into colour as Nazis invade a Polish town and take members of the town away with them.

During the black and white parts of the sequence various facts about the Nazis and the Jews during the Second World War would appear as white text on a contrasting black background. Later in the sequence, during the black and white parts, the film company and title appear over the action happening on screen.

This title sequence makes it apparent that it is for a war film but using facts about the war and footage from the time which almost acts as a prologue for the rest of the film as it gives the audience a bit of background history for the war which allows the audience to understand some of the history behind the film.

These could fit well into the title sequence for our film as it could also be used to give the audience some historical background of the cold war and the rivalry between America and Russia.

Media Film Pitch (2/12/11)- The Iron Curtains

Media Pitch

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Production Company Decision

For this task we had to decide what Production Company we thought would be the best choice for our film idea. We looked into the past films made by certain production companies and looked at various statistics like budget and genre to decide whether they would be the best production company for our film.

The first company we decided upon was Warner Bros Pictures.
Notable Warner Bros. Pictures films:

A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Superman (1978)
Batman (1989)
The Shining (1980)
Police Academy (1984)
The Neverending Story (1984)
Lethal Weapon (1987)
Goodfellas (1990)
Gremlins (1984)
Free Willy (1993)
The Matrix (1999)
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
The film we felt out of this selection had most in common with our film was Goodfellas (1990) we felt that this film was most like our film due to it being a period drama about an underground organisation, in this case an organised crime ring rather than a political group like our film idea.

The budget of Goodfellas was $25 million which, although considerably less than the $80-100 million that we have decided upon for 'Iron Curtain' is still a resonable enough price considering the cast decisions and director decisions we have made for our film which we will be pitching to our class on the 2nd of december.

Groundhog Day- Title Sequence Design Mock-ups

For our task we were asked to create a title sequence for a UK remake of the film 'Groundhog Day' which will be produced by Working Title films and starring Russell Brand, Emma Watson and Hugh Grant.
As a group, me, Sam, Kiera and Alex came up with an idea to make our title sequence in a cartoon style which could be similar to those of the 'Catch Me if You Can' title sequence. The title sequence would include Russell Brand's character going on a journey of his day whilst meeting some of the other characters that star in the film. The title sequence would be against a London city skyline which would be in the background through most of the title sequence.

Emma Watson cartoon mock up

Hugh Grant Cartoon mock up

Russell Brand Cartoon Mock up

Another Russell Brand Cartoon Mock up

Mock up of a part from the title sequence

Backdrop Mock up

Title Sequence Notes (4.11.11)

A title sequence is the method by which films or television programs present their title, key production and cast members or both, utilizing conceptual visuals and sounds

FIRST IMPRESSIONS ARE EVERYTHING


A title sequence will usually consist of:

• Details of cast and crew
• the films titles
• An introduction to character or character type
• Indication of place
• indication of historical period
• information regarding mod and tone
• introduction to signature theme tune
• information about genre
• questions that the viewer finds intriguing (or, setting up enigmas)
• patterns and types of editing that will be echoed in the remainder of the film
• Mise en Scene and cinematography that will be echoed or elaborated upon later in the film.

On his title sequence for the film 'Se7en' Kyle Cooper said:

"The form should be born out of the content."

Saul Bass- Title Sequence designer

Saul Bass was a 'commercial' artist who was born in 1920 and died in 1996 aged 75.
Bass studied at the Arts Student League in New York but soon moved to Los Angeles to escape from creative constraints. There he became a freelance artist and designer. In 1950 Bass opened his own advertising studio.
Saul Bass is best known for use of simple, geometric shapes and what they symbolise. Often, he would use a single dominant image which would stand alone to deliver a powerful message.
Bass's posters and titles had an uncanny ability to capture the mood of a film with simple shapes and images. This was his preferred method of title design as opposed to using photographs of the films star, which he saw as boring.
Bass was influenced by constructivist and Bauhaus propaganda.
Between the years of 1970 and 1986 Bass only created a handful of film title sequences.

Richard Morrison- Title Designer Research

Richard morrison

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Zombieland Opening title sequence Analysis

The genre of the film ‘Zombieland’ is constructed using various snippets and shots of scenarios before the zombie outbreak. During the opening we are shown various scenarios of people trying to fight the zombies or run away from them. This allows the audience to know that the film is a horror film and particularly a Zombie apocalypse film. The opening sequence also allows the audience to recognise that the film is also a comedy. This is shown with the use of the scenarios, each of the shots show a person trying to fight off a zombie attack but each doing this in a comedic manor. One method of attack being a man fighting them off with a machine gun whilst wearing a white tuxedo, as if he was the lead actor in a zombie film.

The titles show various characters at the outbreak of a zombie apocalypse. An aspect of the sequence is the text. As the characters approach the text it splits and moves away from the actor as if they are walking or running through it. These titles also act as a prologue for the film as they show the zombie outbreak in a short 2 minute sequence rather than spending 20 minutes of the film establishing the outbreak. This way the film is able to begin with the characters sometime after the outbreak and enable us to recognise that the lead characters have learnt how to deal with the outbreak. This could create various enigmas, one being how the zombie apocalypse broke out.

Ben Conrad may have chosen to create the sequence like a mini prologue to help the story. The mini prologue helps the story as it means the writer does not need to spend time writing how the outbreak began which is typically done in many zombie films. It also helps the audience to believe that some of the characters have established rules on how to survive the zombie apocalypse.

Preliminary Coursework- Continuity Editing Sequence - Media

For our piece of coursework we were set a preliminary task to film and edit a continuity piece which had to involve 3 elements. The three elements of the task involved shooting a piece of Match on action, a shot-reverse shot and the 180-degree rule. For our task we had to film somebody walk into room, sit down and have a conversation with somebody else, already in the room. For our piece we decided upon one character walking into the room whilst singing along to 'What Make's You Beautiful' by One Direction.

We managed to fit each of the required elements in pretty well and also didn't struggle too much in the filming and editing side but did struggle on coming up with an idea for the task. As a group we had come up with many different ideas of what the film would involve but eventually came to the decision of using the song 'What Makes You Beautiful' as a basis for the piece.

In the filming side I helped film the majority of the office shoots while another member filmed the corridor shoots and also filmed the Match on action of the door being opened. The other two members of the group starred in the piece.

In the Future, something we could improve upon would be spending more time planning the shots and filming than spending the time thinking of an idea of what our piece would be about.