FILM TITLE DESIGNS RESEARCH
History of Film Title Designs
The Titles of Films used to be motionless pieces of text called Title Art. At the beginning of the 1930's, motion pictures studios that were the most progressive begun to alter their approach in the way they presented their screen credits. They took on the challenge of making more interesting ways to introduce their movies - this they did by presenting a more complete list of credits (Actors Names, Producers etc...) to go along with a higher quality of artwork. Now-a-days, the title sequence often is presented through animated visuals and kinetic type along with the credits being introduced on the screen.
Examples of: MODERN DAY OPENING TITLES
Deconstruction of Film Opening 1:
The opening titles of DORIAN GRAY (Film)
The use of the `old crumbling picture` effect of certain parts of painted faces really gives the opening title of Dorian Gray that really interesting effect and immediately intrigues the audience. The crumbling picture effect goes hand in hand with the very plot of the well known novel and with the famous object = Dorian Gray's painting of himself.
Along with the gentle but intense music, the opening title of this movie really shows how much the new modern way of film openings has come on. Also with certain parts of screen altering and changing, it draws the audience's attention to the names on the screen; allowing the names to become more noticeable, more interesting to look at. This helps the production companies etc because if the audience see a popular name - such as Dreamworks in the opening title sequence and the films good - they will watch it again. Same as if they see a famous actor/actress' name (like Ben Barnes) they are more likely to watch the film.
Deconstruction of Film Opening 2:
The opening titles of DEMONS (TV show)
The spooky font and effect of each of the names on the screen straight away tells the audience that this programme isn't just any old film; its an intense, action, spooks programme. Along with the fading transition and added smoke effect tells the audience that the characters in the programme will be dealing with the supernatural kind of things.
The title at the end of the opening title sequence also appears to be at the end for a reason. It's almost dragging out the suspense of what the films actually about (if you hadn't seen the title before watching it). The conventions of the colour green is often an emotion; envy, or certain other things; like illness or nature or witch craft - hence why the title has been put in that bright, smoky green. All the font effects gives the names a more intriguing look and invites the audience to pay closer attention.
The spooky font and effect of each of the names on the screen straight away tells the audience that this programme isn't just any old film; its an intense, action, spooks programme. Along with the fading transition and added smoke effect tells the audience that the characters in the programme will be dealing with the supernatural kind of things.
The title at the end of the opening title sequence also appears to be at the end for a reason. It's almost dragging out the suspense of what the films actually about (if you hadn't seen the title before watching it). The conventions of the colour green is often an emotion; envy, or certain other things; like illness or nature or witch craft - hence why the title has been put in that bright, smoky green. All the font effects gives the names a more intriguing look and invites the audience to pay closer attention.
Deconstruction of Film Opening 3:
First up the sound. The music remains in the low pitch with elements of high notes. The music itself represents a journey - starting off gentle and the intensifying as the audience meets even darker aspects of what is to come in the film. For example when the eyes appear and the puppet boys (meant to be Darren Shan and Steve Leonard) are running through the forest the music becomes dramatic; drawing the reader in, making them ask why they are running, who are the boys etc. Also the deep tone of the orchestral is significant to the gothic, dark side of the film; the spiders, vampires and dark magic that the audience and Darren will encounter on the journey.
Straight away, `Universal Pictures` are mentioned, drawing in any audience member who have watched and liked Universal films. This effects the production company because by being first on the opening titles will allow the audience to want to watch the film; bringing in the money for more films in the future etc. The title of the film is at the beginning of the film - each letter brought in on a string of web and then blasted by lightning to form the title Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant. Each name is brought into shot through different aspects of the film; for the cast members the way their names appear mostly represents the role they play in the film: - for example:
`John C. Reilly's name is shown through the mouth of the character he plays: Mr Crepsley. Because Mr Crepsley is a vampire the fact the name comes the mouth signifies this. The actor's name appears first out of all the actor's because he is the most famous.
`Josh Hutcherson`s name appears after a drop of blood from a tonsil - representing his role of Steve Leonard who becomes a blood thirsty vampeneze (the vampires' cousins).
It's not just the music that represents Darren's journey and the people he would encounter; the whole of the animated images display the journey and wet the audience's appetite by giving them a taster of what is to come in the film. The strangeness of the titles is symbolic to the strangeness and fantasy atmosphere of the film.
Straight away, `Universal Pictures` are mentioned, drawing in any audience member who have watched and liked Universal films. This effects the production company because by being first on the opening titles will allow the audience to want to watch the film; bringing in the money for more films in the future etc. The title of the film is at the beginning of the film - each letter brought in on a string of web and then blasted by lightning to form the title Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant. Each name is brought into shot through different aspects of the film; for the cast members the way their names appear mostly represents the role they play in the film: - for example:
`John C. Reilly's name is shown through the mouth of the character he plays: Mr Crepsley. Because Mr Crepsley is a vampire the fact the name comes the mouth signifies this. The actor's name appears first out of all the actor's because he is the most famous.
`Josh Hutcherson`s name appears after a drop of blood from a tonsil - representing his role of Steve Leonard who becomes a blood thirsty vampeneze (the vampires' cousins).
It's not just the music that represents Darren's journey and the people he would encounter; the whole of the animated images display the journey and wet the audience's appetite by giving them a taster of what is to come in the film. The strangeness of the titles is symbolic to the strangeness and fantasy atmosphere of the film.
Typography
Typography is basically the technique and art of arranging text in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the different selection of typefaces (the font), point size (the font size), line length (template - how long sentences are/Alignments), leading (line spacing), tracking (adjusting the spaces between groups of letters) and kerning (adjusting the space between pairs of letters). |
| This is an example of typography in the shape of Dean Winchester, with relative words used to create the image. |
FILM TITLE CONVENTION RESEARCH
This is the collaborated class research on Film Opening title sequence/Titles:
The aim of this research was to watch a few different film openings and write down the order of the names coming up on the screen. With this research, as a production team, myself and my group were able to come to a conclusion on the order of the people appearing in the opening credits is the following:
- Production Company logos/idents = In order of how well known and their importance.
- Film Title = at the beginning of most films the title is at the beginning of the film - however some films break this pattern and put it nearly 5 mins into the film (little like The Hobbit) or at the end.
- Members of the Cast and the Production team = Most common is the name of the more famous actor/actress is displayed first and it goes down in a significant order - same goes for the Production team except it goes with the most important member/role of the crew to the least.
Opening Titles structure:
After our discussion on the order of the opening credits; myself and my group came up with the order of which our opening credits will resemble:
Production Companies (with idents)
Film Title
Cast who are starring in the film
Casting by
Music/Sound Editing by
Visual Effects by
Editor by
Producer + Executive Producer
Co-Producers
Costume Design by
Screen play by
Written by
Obviously this is not as in detail as a normal film but we will be aiming to be as close to the correct layout of opening titles as we possibly can. Some parts won't be able to be added into our film due to time etc, but we came up with a plan anyway.
We will also be creating a opening credits instead of an opening title sequence because of a lot of time to create; time we don't actually have. So for the first film my production team will simply be doing opening credits - which are just as effective when done correctly.
We will also be creating a opening credits instead of an opening title sequence because of a lot of time to create; time we don't actually have. So for the first film my production team will simply be doing opening credits - which are just as effective when done correctly.
