Title Sequence Research: The Shining.

The opening setting may seem like a holiday, but The Shining's destination is no vacation. The omniscient overhead camerawork and ominous soundtrack soon tell the audience that the people in the car we are following are in big trouble.The long shots show that there is no civilization for miles which puts the main characters at risk when seeking help as it will be impossible to find it, Even the ice blue credits scrolling across the screen can seem haunting as it can symbolize cold heartedness and evil. The destination is then revealed and seems to be a mansion sized house which can be big enough to get lost in. From this the audience can tell that a lot of stuff will go on in that house.

Genre Film Case Studies

For our fiction film opening scene, i would like our group to create a film with the genre action-comedy.To show that i know the conventions im going to work with, i have studied 2 films of this genre. These 2 films are Central Intelligence (2016) and Deadpool (2016).

'Central Intelligence' Rawson Marshall Thurber (2016):

-Setting: The setting of this scene is in a tall building full of offices where wealthy people would work. Money and high expensiveness is usual convention seen in action films and the audience will know that the people working in the setting are most likely to be highly paid. As the scene plays out, much of the setting is destroyed by the guns being shot and the fighting. The audience will expect to see this as damaging of expensive items is another convention of action.

- Iconography: Action films tend to have some sort of iconography such as gadgets, guns and expensive suits etc. and all of these can be seen in this scene. In action comedies, the weapons used can seem quite over the top or very irregular, for example in this scene Bob Stone (Dwayne Johnson) uses a Banana to help defeat the man he is fighting. Also the clothing the characters are wearing make them look smart and professional, however, Bob Stone seems to be the toughest guy in this scene and is known to be a CIA member but his clothes do not make him seem smart and professional at all which can seem humorous. This is an an example of hyper-masculinity for Dwayne Johnsons character. 

-Character: Generic Characters in action-comedy can become traditional action heroes. The main characters in action-comedy can usually be partners and this can be seen in films such as 'Bad Boys, Hot Fuzz and 21 jump street,(buddy films) a partnership also takes place in this film between Bob Stone and Calvin Joyner (Kevin Hart). there is usually many faults and differences about the 2 characters which can make the relationship comical for the audience and this can be seen with the 2 main chracters of this film.

-Narrative: The opening of many action comedies show how the two characters got to know each other. The begin of this movie shows the 2 characters during there time in high school. Calvin was a extremely popular student who was loved by everyone but Bob was very unpopular and was embarrassed in front of everyone as he thrown out naked in front of the whole school during an assembly. Calvin felt bad for bob so he handed him his jacket to help him. Bob then contacts him later in life and they meet up which is where the partnership begins to start.

'Deadpool' Tim Miller (2016):

-Setting: The setting of this scene takes place on a motorway in a big city. A city is usually a ideal setting for a action movie and the motorway has potential in producing many conventions such as high destruction. This also puts many innocent people who live in the city at danger.

-iconography: Weapons are a common iconography in action movies. The character of Deadpool shows this as the audience can see the wide range of weapons he has on him such as a gun and two huge swords on his back. This makes deadpool look as if he is ready to kill, which is unusual for a superhero movie. The car chase and fight show more conventions of action, however deadpool seems to not be taking the moment seriously as he fights the antagonists which makes the scene more comical.

-Character: As mentioned, Deadpools character does not seem to take serious moments seriously, when in fights he can give funny one liners and has attitude as if there is no fight going on at all. This shows that he if very comfortable when fighting and shows that he is used to it. His character is alos betrayed as a anti-hero which contrasts with the genre of the film having a sub-genre of a superhero movie.
-Narrative: The film is about the character of Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) who has fond out that he has late stages of cancer after finding the love of his life. He is told that he can be cured however it turns out to have haunting side effects, even though he is now immortal, Wade has been left with terrible mutated skin. Therefore, before returning to his girlfriend he must find the man that done this to him, Francis, who can allegedly turn him back to normal.

Our Production Schedule

The Art of the Title Sequence

Titles In Silent Film Link

Words and lettering played an enormous role in films of the silent era. Film titles made their appearance in the earliest silent films, along with letter cards (or inter-titles), which provided context. These cards were the responsibility of the lettering artist, who collaborated with the scriptwriter and director to create narrative continuity so that audiences could follow what they were seeing. Distinct from these inter-titles was the film’s main title, a vehicle of particular concern to film producers because of the legal, copyright and marketing information this footage had to bear.

From this part of the article, i have learned that words and lettering were very significant in telling the story and providing context in silent films due to the fact that they had no sound. I found this interesting as we don't see this today because we have the technology to produce sound and tell a story, however, in the silent era the lettering artist, the scriptwriter and the director had to come together to create the right text to make sure that the film made sense for the audience. This would mean that if the text was not there or did not make sense,the whole film would fail and the audience will not understand the narrative plot.

A great draftsman and visual storyteller, Saul Bass ran the gamut of techniques for his title sequences: montage, live action, cut-out paper animation, typography in motion, to name a few. Whatever technique he used, Bass summarized the film as a metaphor that often shone with creativity. (In January 2010, David Peters, Kai Christmann and Dav Rauch, all of Design Films, gave two presentations on the work of Saul Bass at the 12th Future Film Festival in Bologna, Italy.)

I find this part interesting as it tells me that Saul Bass is one of the first to use many techniques such as montages, live action and cut-out paper animation in his title sequences and they ''often shone with creativity.'' He inspired many of today's film makers and has had a massive impact on films and there title sequences.

The Digital Era, And Modern Trends In Film Title Design Link

Every sphere of contemporary life — and especially the film business — has been affected by computers. For designers, creating film titles meant participating in the apprenticeship tradition — learning by doing, on the job; that continued unabated into the mid-1990s. At that time, dynamic openers by Kyle Cooper and others showed what the next generation of design-educated, film-literate, tech-savvy creatives could do. That apprenticeship tradition has largely been overshadowed by the rise of popular technology, the Internet-enabled archiving of everything and the plethora of schools that propagate countless design disciplines. Most significantly, we see designers working like filmmakers and filmmakers working like designers.

This part of the article tells me that technology has had a vast impact on the film business since the digital era began, it would allow designers to find new techniques to make there title sequences better. People such as Kyle Cooper were able to show the next generation of film creators what they could do and helped make films what they are today using the technology provided. However, today technology has taken over apprenticeships in the film business as it has lead to filmmaking and designing come into one job, and has made less opportunities for a new generation of film creators.

The potential of digital graphics and typography has attracted some of the most creative minds to motion design. Pixar and Disney have reserved crucial parts in the branding of their films for the title sequences. Using animated characters to introduce viewers to the story became a popular trend. Such talented graphic designers as Susan Bradley (Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., WALL-E, Ratatouille), Jaimi Caliri (Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events), Dave Nalle (Corpse Bride), Michael Riley (The Back-Up Plan, Kung Fu Panda) and Michael Curtis (Brother Bear) use all manner of tools to test different approaches to designing titles. One thing these individuals have in common is a drive to find a strong metaphor and tell an exciting story with their sequences.

Some of the biggest companies such as Disney and Pixar have used their title sequences to make their movies more successful and recognisable. They would introduce the audience to the characters and tell a story to get the audience interested. Designers such as Susan Bradley, Dave Nalle and Micheal Curtis are all successful graphic designers for Disney and Pixar but all have their differences when creating their titles. However they all are able to tell a story which draws the audience into the story even more as their sequences are perfect.

Reconnaissance

Here are our images from our chosen location for our opening sequence. We are going to film most of our opening sequence in the bedroom, then when the main character goes down stairs we will mainly film the rest in the kitchen. Areas such as the the kitchen and bedroom were quite small which would mean that we would need to work out where we would put the cameras to try to get the best angles and shots.

Updated Storyboard - Animatic

Story Boards