11. Different Sub-Genres of Teen Drama Films

Four Types of Film Openings

Analysis of 2 Title Sequences

ANALYSIS OF 2 TITLE SEQUENCES  

Die Hard (1988) - 

0:00- 'A Gordon Company/Sliver Pictures Production' 

0:15- 'A John McTiernan Film'

0:22- 'Bruce Willis' 

1:37- 'Die Hard' (words fly in from opposite directions)

2:00- 'Alan Rickman' 

2:08- 'Alexander Godunov' 

2:14- 'Bonnie Bedelia'

2:20- 'Reginald Veljohnson' 

2:48- 'William Atherton' 

3:00- 'Paul Gleason' 

3:09- 'Hart Bochner'

3:21- 'James Shigeta, Bruno Doyon, Andreas Wiseniewski, Clarence Gilyard JR., De'Voreaux White' 

3:40- 'Music by Micheal Kamen' 

4:51- 'Casting by Jackie Burch' 

4:57- 'Costume Designer, Marilyn Vance-Straker' 

5:11- Visual Effects Produced by Richard Edlund'

6:08- 'Film Editors FRank J. Urioste and John F. Link' 

6:14- 'Production Designer Jackson DeGovia'

7:11- 'Director of Photography Jan De Bont' 

7:16- 'Executive Producer Charles Gordon'

7:31- 'Based on the novel by Roderick Thorp' 

7:42- 'Screenplay by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. De Souza' 

7:49- 'Produced by Lawerence Gordon and Joel Silver'

7:56- 'Directed by John McTierman' 

In Die Hard, a narrative title sequence is used. This means the producers, directors, actors,etc. are shown over the film playing. There is no separate storyline for the title sequence. We establish the location in the 8 minutes that it is playing, we are not quite sure what the film will be about but we know the background information about the characters to draw us into the film. The first text is telling us about the production company used. We can see this is a high budget film as it only has two production companies. The main characters name appears first before the title. All the font is the same; white, sans and bold. However, unlike the title of the film which has a special effect added to it, this allows us the pay attention to the name of it. After this, the names of actors are shown in order of importance. It is only then after this, that the names of the production team are shown. The most important names go at the very end; the producers and director. I like it as it shows us who is the most important in the movie. 

American Horror Story (2011)

0:23- 'Dylan McDermott'

0:30- 'Connie Britton' 

0:37- 'Evan Peters' 

0:40- 'Taissa Farmiga' 

0:45- 'with Denis O'Hare' 

0:48- 'and Jessica Lange' 

0:53- 'Created  by Ryan Murphy & Brad Falchuk' 

0:59- 'American Horror Story'

Unlike Die Hard, the title sequence for American Horror Story was much shorter (lasting only one minute). Here they used a discrete title sequence which features a range of creepy objects in tins and 'old-fashioned' pictures. This reflects on what we expect to see in the TV Show. There was also no mention of a production company as the text went in straight to the actors, and also only showed the names of the creators. This kept it quick and snappy. The fast pace allowed us to become more and more eager to watch the show. The frames of actors names changed rapidly. It finally ended with the title of the show. When any type of text came on, there was a plain black background. The show also used their own font to become recognizable if seen (or advertised) anywhere else.

Who makes title sequences?

There are hundreds of people that make title sequences, for example Saul Bass created a lot of title sequences, he was a graphic designer and designed a title sequence for 'The man with the golden arm' in 1955. He had a lot of ideas because he worked for Hollywood's greatest film-makers and because he was a graphic designer he chose to be more visual than anything else and his graphic skills helped him accomplish that.

Another designer is Onur Senturk, Onur has worked at Prologue Films, collaborating with Kyle Cooper and Danny Yount. He produced concept and typography designs for the opening titles of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at Blur Studio. Blur Studio was founded in 1995, Blur provides animation, effects, and design for a wide range of media including feature films, marketing, commercial advertising, digital platforms, large format films, concept art, game cinematics, broadcast, and branding. Notable clients have included ABC, Disney, Universal Pictures, CBS, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Sega, Activision, Nickelodeon, FOX Sports and THQ, among others.

Imaginary Forces is a design-based production studio with offices in Hollywood and New York.

 Founded in 1996, Imaginary Forces has created the main titles for films such as Se7en, Mission Impossible, Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire, all three Transformers films, 500 Days of Summer, and others.

Favourite Film

I chose to do Scott Pilgrim vs The World. At the beginning of the title sequence it shows the Universal ident but they've changed it to fit the movie as they've made it pixelated and game-like.
I think that this title sequence is a narrative and a stylised sequence because the action helps you understand what is going on and in the beginning a narrator actually begins the story with 'Not so long ago'. However it could also be a stylised sequence because it's been edited a lot. The title popping up has been edited and the little boxes of information next to their heads.

Then at 3:02 the credits begin with 'Universal Pictures presents', then at 3:04 ' A Marc Platts Big Talk Films Closed Mondays Production', Then at 3:11 the title of the film 'Scott Pilgrim vs The World' comes up.

At 3:14 the cast members names begin to show, first its Michael Cera. Then at 3:16 Mary Elizabeth Winstead, 3:19 Kieran Culkin, 3:22 Chris Evans, 3:25 Anna Kendrick, 3:28 Brie Larson, 3:30 Allison Pill, 3:33 Aubrey Plaza, 3:36 Brandon Routh, 3:39 Jason Schwartzman, 3:41 Johnny Simmons, 3:44 Mark Webber, 3:46 Mae Whitman, 3:49 Ellen Wong, 3:52 Satya Bhabha Keita Saito Shota Saito, Casting by, Music Composer, Music Supervisor, Co producers, Costume Designers, Visual Effects Supervisor, Editors, Production Designer, Director of Photography, Executive Producers, Produced by, Based on, Screenplay, Director.

There is a lot going on behind the text like action from the movie and for every cast member they have doodles and scribbles on it that represents them for example Ellen Wong had a chinese word in her background. In the action they always had the speech actually written out for example 'Yeah'.
Its more visual than anything else with bright colours and big bold texts but also they chose to show the sound as lightning next to the drums rather than making it much louder they showed it with animations and again, this gives it a game-like effect.

 

4 types of film openings.

What is a Title Sequence?

Analysis of 2 title sequences.

American Horror Story: Murder House
The title sequence begins with images of babies and dolls which links to the actual TV show.
At 0:23 the first title is shown which is Dylan Mcdermott
Then at 0:30 the next title is shown which is Connie Britton.
At 0:37 the title 'Evan Peters' is shown.
At 0:41 Taissa Farmiga is shown.
Then at 0:45 'With Dylan O'Hare' is shown and then at 0:48 'And Jessica Lange' is shown.
After the cast members they have the creators.
At 0:53 it shows 'Created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Fulchuk'
Then the title of the show is shown at 0:59 'American Horror Story'

All the writing is in 'American Horror Story's own font they have a specific font that they use for everything. The text is in the centre and its always big enough to take up nearly the whole screen. I like how the text moves with the sound because there is a sound like sounds like a TV not working and the text moves left to right on the spot when this sound is played. I also like how the text explodes then goes back to how it was before.
There is action at the background of pictures of babies and babies in jars. There is music played to add to the creepy effect.
I asked my sister for her response on this title sequence and she said that she enjoyed it but she thought that the text was too big on the screen and was too bold. She also said that the text could of been a different colour for example red so it could add to the creepy effect.

I chose this sequence because it is a TV show that I watch and the title sequence always changes every season so I look forward to see how they have changed it and to compare it with the previous ones.

Coraline
The title sequence begins with the production company at 0:04. Then at 0:07 another company is shown 'A Laika Production'.
At 0:12 it shows 'in association with Pandemonium.
Then at 0:18 we see the title of the film 'Coraline'.
We start seeing names of the people involved in the film. At 0:22 we see Dakota Fanning.
Then at 0:26 Teri Hatcher, at 0:30 Jennifer Saunders, at 0:34 Dawn French.
At 0:39 we see 3 names.
Then the animators names and art directors.
The producers, director, and more editors etc. (All happens whilst there is action in the background).

When the companies are introduced they use Serif font.
The title Coraline is almost in a handwritten font but has been stitched on. The rest of the credits use the Serif font too and they change from left to right. However they never move because there is a lot of action going behind it. We see an old doll being cut open and renewed with new buttons and filled with sand. We hear people singing and humming but it doesn't sound happy it sounds more creepy which links to the genre of the film.

I chose this title sequence because I liked the film and one of my favourite parts was the beginning when the doll is being made. The text didn't attract me much but the action in the background did.
I asked my sister her response on this title sequence and she said that the colours attracted her and the animation behind the text. The text was very plain and she didn't want to read it because she found it quite boring.

This title sequence included the companies and all the editors etc. however American Horror Story kept it short and they chose a discrete title sequence where as Coraline chose a narrative one.

3-4. Analysis of 2 title sequences

What is a title sequence?
A title sequence is the way in which films or programmes present their titles and the key people involved with the making of the show. Such as the cast members or any production companies that may have been involved.

First title sequence:
The Boxtrolls

The credits we see in. Boxtrolls:
Director (s)
Producer (s)
Makers of screen play
What book it was based on
Name of cast/actors/VoiceOver

Font
The type of font that was used to introduce The Boxtrolls was an all upper case, uneven font, quite large writing and slightly thick.

The writing with the Boxtrolls font tends to always be on the right and left, only when it is telling us who they are introducing such as the director, then it will be in the middle but not very big.
Besides the font, we are presented with an animated location, which includes stairs, and much more. We are also introduced to the characters of thr film - animated, with the names of the actors/actresses  playing them. Also, we are presented with sound. A soundtrack that is just of soft instruments such as violins and such.
The reason I picked this sequence was because I liked the kind of font that was shown, it was quite fun but at the same time quite serious. The way it was presented as well, alongside the animations made me think that the movie would be fun, that's what made me want to watch it.

Second title sequence:

The Last of Us

Title

Director of game

Creative director

Art director

Lead technical artist

Lead programmers 

Lead gameplay animator 

Lead environmental artist

Lead designer

Lead visual effects

Lead editor 

Lead audio 

Lead character artist

Lead lighting

Lead multiplayer designer

Lead cinematic animator

Lead artist

Music by

Starring

Co-presidents 

Font used:

The kind of font that was used in the title sequence for The Last of Us title is big bold white letters, that are quite thick and all in uppercase. 

The don't used when introducing the people behind the game were in white uppercase bold letters that were all the same size. Apart from their job titles which was the same font but was smaller than the names. 

In the frame we see the font moving constantly to wherever there is a black space on the screen. 

Besides the font, we have something to what we believe is a disease spreading across the page, there is also narration going on at the time, setting the scenario for the game (talking about the fireflies and the disease outbreak). Also, we have some quite sad, low music behind the narration of the woman. 

What I liked about this sequence was that the colours were plain. Just white and black. Not much going on, which meant I would actually read the names instead of getting distracted. I also picked it because it's something I've already experienced and know that it's good. 

What is a title sequence?