Different Typography used in titles

Choosing the right font for titles is imperative to attracting the viewers attention and to keep them interested. A nice attractive font can make an entire difference on a film, bringing it from amateur level to professional. Most movies from the 60's,70's,80's and even into the late 90's had title fonts that did not relate at all to the movie or were too flashy and extravagant to take the movie seriously at all. Most movies require a simple font and title sequence that matches up with the background to be eye catching and better than most large glitch y titles that do not relate to anything.

Genres for titles

 But for different specific movie genre's, specific fonts and effects are needed to hook the viewers to the movie. For instance if the movie was a horror film, a glitch y supernatural title might have to be needed to create a feeling of intimidation and nervousness. This was used for the opening scene of the movie Se7en, the titles were shaky, cut up, dirty and glitch y to create the look that the crazy psychopath main character has written it. For a happy family comedy a more hand written child like title might be better to create innocence and child friendly content.   

Camera Angles/Movement in films

Camera angles and movement are key in films to create immersion and realism to give the viewer the best experience that they can receive from the movie. Angles in movies could be Long Shots which capture the background as well as the foreground to give a perspective of massiveness in the scene. A High shot onto another character gives the other character the power in the scene since the actor is higher than the other one and looks more mighty. A close shot onto a characters face is used to show emotion in a scene.

Importance of sound in films

Sound is very important in film to create the sense of direction to where the story will be heading next or currently is, it also sets the scene for the movie. For example if the story was a horror genre the movie would be grimy or sinister to scare the viewers and allow tension to be created with the high notes and low notes. Scratchy strung instruments are usually used to create this as they are not usually used in other film genres and are mainly only used when a scary moment will happen. Feelings and emotions can be generated when sound is coupled with scenes that the audience can either relate to or understand.

Film opening analysis - Band of Brothers

Band of Brothers

The film opening of Band of Brothers shows all of the main characters and the scenes that they will be or have been in. The titles of Band of Brothers are shown in different places and times throughout the opening to stay bold and to capture the attention of the audience. The Titles like producer and editors are in red and the names are in white, I believe they are like this to oppose each other to again capture the attention of the audience. The clips that play in the background are in a grainy black and white with some color hue to show the World War 2 genre of the series. The clips are also jumpy at times and glitch y to pretend to be old cameras that were of that era. Pictures of the characters in key  exciting moments of the series are also shown to hook the audience to keep on watching so that they can see those parts. The music of the opening and the theme song of the entire series is a choir singing with deep strung instruments and drums, as well as the entire theme song being rather sad at times; it appears to trying to be a funeral song for all those that were lost. This theme song was used to trigger emotion from the audience onto the characters before the series has even begun.The characters costumes and their stances all shown was that of someone who was exhausted as well as blood splatter giving the impression of a hostile environment. As well as the environment of which the characters are placed with the guns that they hold and shoot and the dirt that are in their faces it also shows something that is not pleasurable.    

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSYQKPzoaoo

Link to the Band of Brothers Opening (Embed has been taken off due to copyright issues)

Mise en scene

Mise en scene literately means everything that is in that current scene. For instance it could be the backdrop, color of the flooring, characters stance and the way the chairs are set out in that scene. The arrangement of everything that appears in the framing can also be another definition of it, translated it means "placing on stage" but in movie terms stage would be replaced by scene or frame.

Lighting

Lighting in movies is key to showing the current feeling of the scene. For example if a Comedy movie had a scene with a girl walking into some woods with limited lighting and mainly dark areas, it instantly appears as a horror genre. This is a problem since it completely contradicts the whole point of that movie genre. Lighting also shows emotion for characters as well as clearly displaying them in detail since light will show all features of their character; which is key for the audience to understand the character and have some sort of feeling towards them whether it be negative or positive. 

Editing

Movies are created with a large amount of scenes which have to be connected together and even altered to the needs of the director and producers. If movies were all done in one take then in wouldn't flow in a realistic way. Characters would get in the way of others and moving camera shots from one to another would be clunky. This is why different well done shots are put together to create a scene. For example a 30 second scene of a man walking from his bedroom to his car, if well done would probably have 10 or more different shots from different angles put together while editing the scene. Editing has to include the changing of sound, angles, lighting, timing and much more that are put into scenes are therefor movies.

Art of the Title Timeline

Art of the Title Timeline


1. The first title in the timeline shows straight away who produced Crimson Peak. The ‘Directed by and produced by ’ are in a smaller size compared to an all capitalized
‘GUILLERMO DEL TORO’. This is to keep the attention only to the name.














2. It’s hard to make out but the Title says ‘Films Editor’. Again the name is in full Capitals to stand out from the background as well as the other wordings.












3. This scene shows the title Visual Effects Supervisor. Coupled with the extremely realistic ‘Visual Effects’ of the fly and the keys this shows how much of a good job this person has done.

4. As the Scenes progress the text pops up less frequently and only show when a melody or rhythm begins and ends. This is used to show that there is a friendly parts to the movie instead of an all down horror theme.













5. The Production Companies are in next to each other, Bold and in the middle of the giant mansion to show their power and authority over the whole movie. This also emphasises the horror theme in the movie.

6. The end scene has the title fused into the book creating a realistic feeling of that the movie/story is real.













Roles of the different people on the titles

Director: Guillermo Del Toro

The director of a movie directs the making of a film. Generally a film director controls a films artistic and dramatic aspects, as well as visualizes the script while guiding the technical crews/actors to fulfil their vision.

Film Editor: Bernat Vilaplana

Film editing is the technique and practice of assembling shots into a coherent sequence. The film editor has to arrange the film into the vision of the director but also cutting out sequences that didn't work.

Producer: Guillermo Del Toro, Thomas Tull Callum Greene and Jon J. Jashni

A Producer will oversee each project from conception to completion and may also be involved in the marketing distribution processes. The Producer work closely with the directors and other production staff on a shoot.

Prezi BBFC

This Prezi Presentation is about the History of the BBFC

Camera Shots

Wide Shot (WS)
This is used to expand the length of a shot.




Long Shot (LS)
This is used to show the background as well as the foreground.



Close up (CU)
This is used to show the emotion and detail in a characters face.


Aerial Shot
An exterior shot filmed from the air.

Arc Shot
A shot in which the subject is circled by the camera.

Poster Analysis of favourite movies

Preliminary Exercise





This Preliminary Exercise we had to do was to test our Filming, directing and editing of our clips. We got told to use the editing software Adobe Premier Pro and eventually Adobe Media Encoder for processing of the clips

What I think went well must have been the editing process, mainly the cutting and joining of the clips. This may sound very basic but I believe it was done well. The disappointing things about the process must be that the forehead of our main character kept getting cut off by the top of the black border. Another issue was sound, at points it was very quiet so its hard to understand what the other character was saying. Also the Camera was very shaky and was not stable for the most part.

Apart from the issues, I believe the video was not bad for a first since it had over the shoulder shots, zoomed in shot, high shot and the character came out of one shot and into another that made sense.

Main Exercise

The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of 2 minutes.

Codes: Media students identify three categories of codes that may be used to

convey meanings in media messages:

Technical Codes: which include camera techniques, framing, depth of field, Mise en scene, editing,  lighting and sound;

Symbolic Codes: which refer to objects, setting, body language, clothing and colour.

Written Codes: in the form of headlines, captions, speech bubbles and language style.

Conventions: Conventions are the generally accepted ways of doing something, and in the case of media texts, they are generally accepted patterns of code that communicate a particular message. 

There are general conventions in any medium, such as the use of quotes in a print article, but conventions are also genre specific. For example, in Westerns fights scenes are generally shot from a low angle, the setting is usually dusty and desolate, and even the sounds used within the scene are conventional, such as castanets, or some sort of whistle.

The purpose: The purpose of a film opening is to show action and begin the viewers interest so they get immediately hooked into the film. The film opening will also clearly state the genre of the film, you will also most likely see either the protagonist or antagonist. 

Timing Conventions: Most film openings are around 2 minutes long. However major blockbusters may be up to 5 minutes long.

Set the scene: ( year of setting, location etc.)

Introduce the key characters: Protagonist, Antagonist, sidekick etc.

Introduce pre plot or beginning of the narrative: Establishes platform/ scene.

Key Credits: such as production company, logos and director.

Usually starts with equilibrium: A key event will occur.