Progress

We decided to change our credits and make them more colourful as when we put them on the film we thought the white on black background looked a little too much like a horror film. The way in which we did the colours was based on the style of Mean Girls.  We also distorted some of the lettering and words to make it a little quirky and give a lighthearted feel to it.

Progress

As the group had different ideas for what the credits should look like, we made two different sequences to see which style looked better.

In the end we decided the second sequence would work much better as it was much clearer to read and not too cheesy, but still was slightly girly so therefore still links to the genre.

Credits

Originally we were planning on incorporating the titles into the world of our characters by superimposing them onto things like their products or magazine headlines, however after analysing the opening titles of some films of the same genre (e.g. mean girls) it has become clear that the main style of titles used in this genre is when they just appear in the corner of shots where action unimportant to the story is occurring. Therefore in our media project we should  try something similar to this, like scanning over the products and having the titles appear or having them appear as the characters are getting ready (not during dialogue scenes).

Each title sequence I have analysed has had something specific to the film incorporated into the title sequence (e.g. in 13 going on 30 every time a credit appeared it came up in a puff of glitter) therefore I think we should think of something unique to our story and use this in the credits to create some sort of relevance to the story so that it is not just words on the screen.

Credits

Mean Girls

Click the video to hear audio commentary

Credits

13 going on 30
(ends at 4:37)

This title sequence begins with a blank screen and the sound, Head over heels by The Go-Go's a 1980's song which helps to set the location and time period, and also just helps to create a general lighthearted, upbeat feel to the film. Then the Revolution Studios logo is revealed which is then cleverly linked with the light from the glitter and Revolution Studios comes up again, highlighting the importance of the distribution company.

Whilst the first most important credits are coming up they are surrounded by colourful glitter, primarily pink glitter, which helps to link to the main part of the story in which magic glitter is used to grant the main character (Jenna) a wish, also the pink of the glitter and the pink text helps to portray the genre of film as being a girly romantic comedy as pink is a major part of the iconography of this genre. Also the high contrast between the blue black of the background and the pink helps to make the text stand out more which makes this part of the title sequence very effective as it helps to draw the attention of the audience to them. It then fades into the clouds of the school photo background and begins to zoom out, this zoom allows the audience to get into the film and slowly understand the location.

The rest of the titles are placed strategically around the frames in places where action key to the storyline is not taking place, this allows the audience to focus on the actual film rather than the credits. The pink text appears with a flash of glitter which again helps to portray the girly feel to the film. This is good, however the fact that the titles are appearing whilst the storyline is actually beginning, and there is dialogue and other more important or interesting things going on in shot, it makes this part of the title sequence less effective as it takes the attention away from the text and they can be easily ignored.

Overall I would say that this is quite an effective title sequence as a lot of attention is drawn to the more important titles, the girly pink text helps to portray the genre, the glitter also helps to show this and also links to key parts to the story which help to connect the audience to the film.

Credits

Scott Pilgrim vs the World



The title sequence for Scott Pilgrim vs the World is incorporated into the song which the band is playing and helps to show us how Knives (Scott's girlfriend) is feeling toward the band, in that she is in complete awe. Every part of the sequence is linked into the song for example the words are sort of blazing with the strumming of the guitar and the background images are moving quickly to keep with the tempo of the song. This draws a significance to the band and to the music, which is a key part of the film.

Also each of the sections of fast paced images have some sort of significance to the story itself or to a specific character which helps to engage the audience to the film as well as just being eye catching. For example, there are general images of hearts, feet (kicking) and the Canadian flag which are all significant to the story (in that it is a sort of love story set in Canada where the main character fights for the girls love); also, a key part to Chris Evans' character is his skateboard and when his name comes up the background images are of skateboards, similarly with Brandon Routh and Ellen Wong, when each of their names appear the key attributes to their characters are shown (guitar/knives) this not only draws attention to the characters but to the actors names and thus to the credits therefore making this very effective. Also the words are always in high contrast to the background and seem to be jumping around a lot which fits in with the sort of punky feel to the music and makes them stand out more which is good for drawing the attention of the audience.

Overall I would say that each element is used very well to create an effective and visually interesting title sequence which both drawings you into the story and makes the audience actually watch the titles which can sometimes be a boring part to a film. 

Credits

The credits in a film are an acknowledgement of the people that contributed to the production e.g the actors and behind-the-scenes staff.

Opening credits (title sequences) are shown at the beginning of the film and are usually superimposed on a blank screen or appear around the action in the corners of the screen. They feature the most important members of the production e.g the leading actors, the director, the editor etc and, essentially, the title of the film.

Common Order for opening titles:

Studio Name

This is the name of the studio that distributed the film. This company may/may not have actually made (produced) the film. For example, Lionsgate, Universal, Sony.

Production Company Name

This is the name of the production company that actually produced or financed the film, which is most commonly credited with "in association with".

(Producers name) film or/and A film by (Directors name)

This is the first acknowledgement of the director.

Starring actors

The leading actors and key members of cast.

The Title

Name of the film.

Featuring 

Featured actors.

Casting Director

The name of the person/people that selected the cast.

Music (composed by/original score by)

Composer of music.

Production designer

The name of the person that designed the production