Importance and Purpose of a title sequence

This is the title sequence of Catch me if you can and has been designed and created by Saul Bass. This particular title sequences is extremely keen on using lines and animation to represent on-screen names and in frame story of the different professions and journey's that may occur during the film.

This title sequence firstly presents the production company that have funded and created this film and in this particular case "Dream Works pictures".
In a title sequences this is the order in which the on-screen names appear;

• Production company
• Director 
• Highest grossing Star and then other actors/actresses
• The name of the Film and in this case its "Catch me if you can"
• Producers and Co-producers
• Music then Costume designers 
• Ending with the directors name before the film begins.

The second title sequence that I watch was Se7en which was designed by the renowned Kyle Cooper. This particular title sequence is extremely dark and etchy as the on-screen production and cast names appear blurred and quivering. The title sequence also has rapid cuts to weird images and this doesn't give particularly much of the story away as the images only imply that the film will have elements of a thriller or crime, this is due to it seems similar to a detective enquiry case and evidence is being revisited.

This title sequence also presents the on-screen names in the same chronological order as Catch me if you can as this sequence appears in this particular order as the production company is the most important and in the middle more inadequate names appear.

Codes & conventions and purpose of title sequence

Codes and conventions play a key role in establishing a particular aspect of a film and help the audience to thorth-willingly understand what genre a film is. The most common types of codes and conventions are mostly recognisable in horror type films as they mostly portray the traditional traits such as;

The rule of 3- whereby there are usually 3 incidents and most of the time 3 main characters that last longer than the other people.
The virginal character usually survives amongst all odds, this displays purity and genuine characteristics.
All blond woman are usually the first to be victimised and therefore is an obvious code of horror movies.

Codes and Conventions of Horror

The reason that title sequences are used is to display who will staring in the film and to credit the production team actually created the film. The other aspect of having a title sequence is that it can give a brief synopsis in some cases teasing the audience in-drawing them into the film alongside giving minimal detail about the narrative and story away as possible.

Ground Hog Day

The opening to the title sequence shows the highest grossing star "Emma Watson" appearing in casually into the bed whereby the title sequence will begin. We decided to select this particular scene to begin the title sequence as it enable the transition of the character to move to the next location (bathroom) and witness the next stars name. In addition we decided to make the title sequence a cross of both animation and real life imagery; we though this would be effective as the genre is a comedy and therefore the title sequence that we have designed is also interlinked with this and is extremely light hearted.

For the groundhog day title sequence me and my group member Luke R decided to start the process by showing the star "Russell Brand" written in the steamy mirror. This is extremely effective as it is extremely subtle and is the ideal part that carries on after the open scene. We decided in our plans that this would then pan to Russell Brand wiping the mirror and therefore putting the sequence in perfect harmony to start the film. 

We also both agreed that this particular part of the title sequence would be written in a humanly finger type of typography as it would enhance the impact that it has on the audience and makes it look more realistic as if it has not been inserted manually.

Title sequence designers

Title Sequence Designer

Zombieland Title sequence

I reconnoitred the scene of Zombieland that enabled me to establish unequivocally identify items of genre and codes and conventions. The main element that I found created the genre was the typography used as it symbolised elements of gore with the transition of the fast editing of on-screen names.


The introduction title sequence begins with a snippet of the public cowering in fear from a pandemic invasion of clench thirsty; blood sucking zombies which establishes the narrative and setting that the film with be situated in. This integrates with the music used as this assembles an upbeat and "in your face" audio making the on-screen imagery more impact-ful preparing the audience for the film. (Gives a brief synopsis of films narrative.)

Lastly the film uses a numerous amount of different camera shots and transitions to enable a more vigerous impact on the audience. By using the different camera shot it can enhance the message of " Theres no escaping Zombie-land". This can relate to the subliminal enigmas of "How did the infection happen?" and even ask if it is even a virus. 

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.

Here is the main title from D.W. Griffith’s “Intolerance” (1916), which many reviewers and historians consider the greatest film of the silent era. Note that variations of the director’s name are featured in five ways:

Film titles and letter cards had to provide essential information to the viewer. For reasons such as ease of production and clarity, artists favored mono-stroke letterforms or characters with small serifs. White lettering on a black background is another characteristic of this era, because titles simply looked better this way when projected with live-action B&W film.

Silent filming is one of the great early inventions which was effective in captivating audience with the sheer knowledge of showing audience what the film is about through typography and imagery. I found this extremely interesting as in today's modern films sound is one of the most obvious types of film enhancers and therefore this information surprised me that in the early and mid 1900s films where displayed with no audio out-put.

Animation and Title sequences

Hollywood animation studios, including Warner Brothers and MGM, did give some license to their artists to indulge in title antics. But one can also see that life for the titling crew at Disney was strained by the weight of its foreign-language versions and that film exports rarely encouraged innovation in titling.

The first Mickey Mouse cartoon, circa 1929, features both Mickey and Minnie, but its main title, “Plane Crazy,” is lackluster:

Another great area of interest for me is the invention of animation title sequencing as this clearly displays the genre and type of film that will be displayed. I am largely interested in animation title sequences as some of the most iconic on-screen displays appear from historical shows such as "Looney tunes; Tom and Jerry and my favorite Pink Panther."

Typography

An amazing collection of revived vintage fonts, many of which were used in early cinema. Among them are faces based on the National Old Style, Colwell Handletter and Post Monotone no. 2. Only some fonts can be downloaded for free, although the entire collection is available on CD at an affordable price.

By using different types of font it enables to establish the time era in which the film was produced and what typical types of traditional features the film may posses, such as; The setting the film will be based in; The type of Genre and actors/actresses that may be staring in the film and other topics such as it can create a time period of a film( e.g. 1915s to 1950s).

Silentina

The Silentina font family is a great modern take on typography from silent film inter-titles. Designed by Ray Larabie in 2004.

Hitchcock

Hitchcock was created by designer Matt Terich as an homage to the lettering style of the iconic Saul Bass. The font is available as a free download, and you’ll find a selection of other typefaces in the same vein.

Waltograph

Waltograph was created by Justin Callaghan in an attempt to capture the spirit of the familiar Walt Disney signage.

These are just some of the different typography designers which as you can see produce completely different types of text from Walt Disney to Movies and TV typography.

For the first part of the Media As course we have been separated into groups of the teachers choice. For this task i have been partnered with Chiway and Luke Robinson, for our continuity piece me and my group decided to re-enact a teacher giving a student a progress report which later you see doesn't end as well as it could have. we had decided to use a general class room for this piece of filming as it enabled us to have the different camera angles we desired.

Our brief stated that we had to use the following as part of the short film we devised where;

Match on action;- This was used as we showed the process of Luke walking towards the door and then matching this action with a close-up of him opening the door.

Shot reverse shot;- This was effectively used by changing the camera from one person to another whilst in the motion of a conversation. This was an ideal time to use it as it cemented the conversation together and showed the relationship with the two characters. we did this by positioning the camera over the shoulder of both me and Luke and therefore got a better prospective and also keeping to the 180 degree rule.

However, when we approached the stage of editing the video together i found that we had a numerous amount of problems, the first being jumps from different segments of filming. This resulted in Luke's position jolting side wards and looking extremely unprofessional. The second problem that occurred was a similar situation although it was slightly less recognizable, this could have been overcome by filming a couple of seconds more on each segment so that in the editing process we could cut unwanted film but make the film flow more naturally.