Title Structers

There are four different types of opening titles for a movie:
1 - Text on a black background then the film starts
This is a basic introduction to a movie, it doesn't give away a lot but it will usually give you a brief idea to the genre and story line of the movie through the font, colour, movement of text, extra graphics and music. An example of a movie that uses this is 'One Hour Photo', the font is in negative to give the idea that cameras will be involved in the film, the colour is very effective as it begins white, then there is a flash and the text fades off in red so this gives the idea that the camera in dangerous. The music used creates a really effective sense of suspense.

This is the original opening of the text

There is the a flash of a camera

And the text fades to red

2 - Straight into the film with the titles on top of the film
This is a basic flow on narrative information, there is usually no dialogue or narrative events, just a basic introduction to the type of characters we will be dealing with and the genre of the film. For an example 'The Stepfather', all we get in the first 3mins is a guy calmly & methodically changing his appearance, this gives an understanding of where we are which is modern day America and we can see that it is Christmas time.

This shot shows us that is is Christmas time

This shot is the first sight of the stepfather

This shot shows him applying hair dye

3 - Discrete, separate from the rest of the film 

This sets up ideas for the rest of the film without giving anything away. Like in the opening sequence of Casino Royal, we can see form the titles that it will be set in a casino, there is going to be lots of fighting, there will be high-tech gadgets and weapons, lastly, there will be a sexy bond girl. Although we have not met the characters and we don't know any specific events, we have learnt all this information. 

This indicates there will be fighting

This reveals it will be a casino scene

This shows weapons will be involved

4 - Stylised film opening, this is a different style of editing, a combination of 2 and 3

It is number 2 because the film has begun and we've been introduced to some characters and narrative events. It is number 3 because the editing style is different from the rest of the film so it stands alone. We are not in a hectic, packed scene, the audience is slowly being given information about characters and events, plus the tone is set. For an example, The Taking of Pelham 123.

This shows us the setting

This introduces us to some of the characters

This gives us an idea of what the movie will be about

Thriller Feedback

Today I pitched my thriller idea to Matt. After giving him the outline of my story and which parts I thought would work well in the opening titles he gave me some feedback as to what he thought would be effective. He said my general idea was good, and he likes the parts I chose for the titles sequence but a few problems did arise. Firstly, there was the issue of how to recreate a bar/club scene convincingly as it would not be good if it is not a convincing scene. Secondly, it was important that I did not give away any of the story in the titles sequence as Matt described movies as having three acts, act one being an introduction to the characters and their situation, and act one was the one I am supposed to be focusing on, so I have to ensure I do not give anything away in my title sequence.

With Elina's idea, she was told that the idea seemed too farfetched and would be difficult to film, as she focused her idea around a gohst who makes people fall in love with her in order to feed on their souls. Matt said that the story line was good, just too complex to be successfully achieved by people of our level, but it could work, we just need to work together on simplifying it and making it more practical for filming.

When looking at Bex's idea, she was told it was very good, although it had been done in the past, and we wanted to be origional with our idea, as she went for the story line of somebody who gets dangerously close to somebody on the internet and results in getting herself into some difficulties. Matt agreed with us that the idea should be more different and if we were to chose this as our final idea we would have to figure out a way to make it different and more intresting.

Thriller Powerpoint

This is my thriller idea based in a powerpoint presentation. I did some slides focusing on character and others focusing on the story line and what I believe would be effective in the openining titles.

Thriller Idea

After a long time considering what would work and what would be effective in a thriller. I finally decided on the story line of a young girl, 18-years old, who is quite innocent and shy. She gets mixed up with two other girls who are very rowdy and outgoing. On her 18th birthday her two friends convince her to come out for a drink at a bar, she is clearly uncomfortable with the idea so on the night she drinks quite a bit so she is relaxed. But she gets her drink spiked and ends up in a coma in hospital. It is up to her two other friends to figure out who spiked her drink, and what she was spiked with. They have to put themselves in dangerous and risky situations in order to solve the mystery.

Watching Documentary Analysis

WATCHING
This documentary is about the impulses and urges that unite all film. It focuses on the opening titles of films, and shows how they are filled with most of the action of the film. Thomas Sutcliffe said 'films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment. While there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistible' by this he means that if the first few minutes of a film (the opening titles) don't grab you, then do not bother watching the film. But there are dangers of this 'instant arousal' effect, because you make the expectations for the rest of the film very high raising the question of whats to come...
          'A good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn't know nearly enough yet, and at the same time make sure that it doesn't know too little' so ultimately you must establish the nature, character and tone of the film without giving the story away. The directors want the audience on their wavelength.
           Critic, Stanley Kauffmann describes the classic opening of a film as a wide shot of east New York then the camera zooms in on a building and threw a window into an office doing a close up of a receptionist then it moves onto the focus of a important business man. This works well because it gives off the impression that the world functioning normally, but something is about to come in and disrupt everything. The best kind of title sequence has no dialogue, just a collection of shots grouped together that tell a story in themselves, for an example in 'The Last Picture Show' the start is a slow shot of a detailed landscape, this gives the impression the film is going to be long and complicated, yet interesting also in 'Citizen Kane' the mixture of the camera and mes en scene gives so much information without using dialogue. Everything that happens in the title sequence is part of a long movement a designed to grip the audience.
           The opening titles of the film 'Se7en' by Kyle Cooper is a very effective title sequence because it effectively portrays the psychotic energy of the film. Orsen Wells wanted to plunge the audience into the movie with just the use of camera, no sound at all in his movie 'A Touch of Evil' but he was not allowed to do this. A favourite trick of Film Noir is to use the end of the film as the beginning. The last film I am going to mention is 'The Shining', in the opening titles to this there is a huge wide-shot of a dried landscape with a tiny car in the middle giving the idea that it is vulnerable, also the camera is being shot at a high angle and it pursues the car like a predator targeting the car, all these things give the idea the car is headed for danger.
            I found this documentary very helpful as it gave me a good idea as to what elements should be included in my thriller, such as not using dialogue. It taught me that the opening moments of a film are of the purest speculation.