The Art Of The Title Sequence

he Art of a Title sequence

The art of a title sequence is the way in which the opening of a film is set. The factors that are dependant on it are the typography (style f text), the background, the sound used, the feeling it is intending to create.

The art of a title sequence is especially significant when it comes to a thriller. 

To assess how The art of a title sequence varies, I have analysed different types of thrillers and there opening scene. This helps me get a better understanding of how thrillers are altered to have an affect on the audience. 

Se7en- 1995

The typography used in this film is hand sketched in quite a rough and uncomfortable way. This style of text is used to add a layer of temporal distress. 

The sound used starts of slow and eerie building a sense of suspense, slowly the sound turns electric becoming more uncomfortable.
The use of flashing images portrays a disturbing feeling.
To conclude the opening scene introduces the themes of hopelessness, apathy, desperation and violence.

Ernest Scared Stupid- 1991

This film is a mix of physical comedy, puns and reference to classical films (during the opening scene)

The typography used is very colourful yet has an element of thriller by the blood dripping down.
This gives the feel of a comical thriller.

The imagery used connotes that the film is like an old style haunted house type of film. However in 1991 this type of film may have been considered scary but at present it wouldn't be considered scary because as an audience we have become desensitised to that type of sub genre and makes us laugh more than anything.

The sound used also adds to the art of the title sequence because it starts of with the sort of Dracula horror then gradually has a comical element added to it.



To conclude 'The Art of a Title Sequence' is very important as it sets the tone of the film and also gives the viewer an insight as to what to expect.

The art of a title sequence may include aspects like key events that take place during the course of the film. It is also common that the typography would last around 3 seconds (minimum) this is decided depending on the affect the producer would like to have on the audience.

Thriller Research

Thriller genre  (Done by Luke in my group)

Thriller uses suspense, tension and excitement as its main elements. Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewers moods, giving them a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and/or terror. Films of this genre tend to be adrenaline-rushing, gritty, rousing and fast paced.

A thriller provides the sudden rush of emotions, excitement, and exhilaration that drive the narrative, sometimes subtly with peaks and lulls, sometimes at a constant, breakneck pace. It keeps the audience on “the edge of their seats”.

Thrillers often make use of literary devices such as red herrings, plot twists and cliffhangers. A thriller is usually a villain driven plot which presents various problems a protagonist must overcome.

Psychological thrillers are fictional thriller storys which enphasizes the psychology of its characters and their unstable emotional states, with similarities to gothic and detective fiction in sense of “dissolving sense of reality”, moral ambiguity, and complex and tortured relationships between obsessive and pathological characters.

Psychological thrillers often incorporate elements of mystery, drama and horror.

Examples: The Machinist, House of 9, Straw Dogs, Shutter Island.

Supernatural thrillers bring in otherworldly elements(such as fantasy and/or supernatural) mixed with tension, suspense and plot twists. Sometime the protagonist and/or villain have some form of psychic ability or super powers. Examples: The Dead Zone, Chronicle, Frequency.

Techno Thrillers are suspense films in which manipulation of sophisticated technology plays a prominent part. Examples: Jurassic Park

Spy Thriller: The protagonist is generally a government agent who must take violent action against agents of a rival government or (in recent years) terrorists. The sub genre usually deals with the subject of fictional espionage in a realistic way. Its is a significant aspect of British cinema.

Examples: The parallax View, The Tailor of Panama, Taken, Unknown.

Codes and Conventions

Characters: Resourceful Heroes, Convicts, Soldiers, Spies, Law enforcement, stalkers, men associated with danger, criminals, assassins, Innocents which are dragged into danger, Psychos, Prisoners

Themes: Terroism, Political conspiracy, Psychological mind games, supernatural events, crime, spies, chase, suspense

Symbolism: Cars, Weapons, Urban settings, tension building music, fast paced editing, low lighting

Effect on Audience: Excitement, suspense, anticipation, nerve wrecking tension, anxiety, uncertainty

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock was the most famous thriller director of his time and was said to have helped shape the modern-day thriller genre. He was said to be considered a master of manipulating is audiences fear and desires, and taking viewers into a state of association with facing the reality of the character. He would often include a taboo or sexually-related theme into his films.

Hitchcock's films often placed an innocent victim (an average person) into a strange, life-threatening or terrorising situation, due to mistaken identity, misidentification or wrongful accusation.

Common Traits of Thriller Films

-Low Key Lighting

-Shadows

-Obtrusive Editing(Quick Cuts, Changes in camera angles)

-Tension Music

-Stairs

-Flashbacks

-Black and White

-Freeze Frames

-Slow Motion




My evaluation of thriller research - I believe luke has researched this very well and it has information on each Sub-genre of a thriller so this will allow our group to decide which one to pick after all our research is collected. I have learnt from this that they're is many aspects that go into a thriller and we will need to pick our characters and scenes very carefully if we want a good and strong opening. I will research more on Hybrids and the technical code and add it in.

   

Researching Evaluation Questions

By looking at the final evaluation questions, as a group we can start to set criteria's we need to meet in order to get the best grade possible.

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products? 
• How does your media product represent particular social groups? 
• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? 
• Who would be the audience for your media product? 
• How did you attract/address your audience? 
• What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product? 
• Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from
it to the full product?

Questionaire

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WCXT3WY

Research on age guidelines

A 15 can have anything including 

 

·         strong violence

·         frequent strong language (eg 'f***').

·         portrayals of sexual activity

·         strong verbal references to sex

·         sexual nudity

·         brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence

·         discriminatory language or behaviour

·         drug taking

 

Compared to an 18 which can have 

 

·         very strong violence

·         frequent strong language (eg 'f***') and/or very strong language (eg ‘c***’)

·         strong portrayals of sexual activity

·         scenes of sexual violence

·         strong horror

·         strong blood and gore

·         real sex (in some circumstances)

 

 

I believe we should do a R rated film, as most teenagers are watching films in the age range off 13-17. If we do 18 it cuts out the teenagers and goes straight to the adults so we miss out a whole group off audiences. Rated R means you can go to watch it without an adult at 17 but if you are under 17 you will have to go with an adult. this is good as if the adults allow there kids to watch this they do trust them. This will also stop kids imitating what they see also as they are with there parents.

 

The most popular thrillers are rated R being 

 

-Pulp fiction

-The purge

-Psycho

-Inception

-Jaws

 

All these movies have a twist in also which is very good. All off these movies all contain some action and swearing and are very popular so i believe we should include these as it is very popular with the audience.

 

Audience theory

Target Audience- the sort off audience that media is aiming at.


Target Audience can be broken into sub-categories


Age
Race
Gender
Class
Disability
Religion

There are 3 main theory's that will get us a better understanding about the relationship between text being :

1) The effects model
2) The uses of Grafications Model
3) Reception Theory


There is two difference sort off audiences

Active audience- engaging with a media text
Passive audience- they don't consciously take in the message being portrayed.

Primary- Actively engaging with the text

Secondary- Not paying attention whilst listening or reading a text.

Tertiary- Unconsciously taking in information

Post production sound

Post production has 5 main sounds.



Parallel sounds - The music matches what your seeing. Example - Car revving

Contrapuntal Sound: Sound that it opposite from what you see. Example - romantic music in action scene

Sound Bridge: When the music from one scene goes into the next.

Ambient Sound: Sound that you expect to hear in a certain location. Example - music in concert

Foley Sound: Everyday sounds that are added to a certain clip.

Effects model

The effects model has 3 main points

Imitation is audiences see the representation of media texts passively and then copy what they are shown as the assume it is acceptable as it has been showed more than once

Desensitisation involves media texts loosing their the effect they are supposed to have on audiences, audience see this so much that it becomes typical.

Catharsis involves audiences engaging with media texts as a sense of escapism, they forget about their problems and just feel sorry for what they see in the media. A typically example would be Eastenders as audience see these and begin to forget about there problems.