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

Representation - Our Film

Locations

We have chosen to represent our locations in the usual glamorous, idealistic way that romantic films always represent locations, so that we present the characters life and the world they live in as desirable. To do this we have chosen pretty, suburban locations which will be made to look even more glamorous with the use of high key lighting.




Events

We have also chosen to stick with the over dramatisation of events seen in romantic films, and make everything that happens in our film seem like it is the most important thing in our characters lives, e.g. the most amazing party, a long lasting relationship. We are going to do this with the help of editing, by building up suspense before the boy and girl meet with the use of inter-cutting  we can create the effect that it is a very important moment in their lives.





Characters - Gender Stereotypes

We have decided to stick with the change in trends of the girl being the one that is sought after and represent her as a confident, independent, beautiful woman to be desired. We are going to do this by firstly building up the suspense of not knowing what she looks like until the reveal at the party which will help to represent her as a stunningly beautiful, desirable woman; also by making the character walk to the party alone we are representing her as confident and independent girl, this is also helped with the bright red colour of her dress. However, we had decided to stick to the stereotypical image of the girly girl and represent her as a feminine, mainstream, young woman with the help of gender colours such as pink and purple, flowers, dresses and makeup.

Pre-Production

Costume

The costume we have chosen for the girl is something not too formal, as it is a more of a coming of age film and teenagers don't generally tend to wear formal clothing, however it is still a very nice, pretty, girly outfit as it is supposed to create the wow factor when the male first sees her. This also helps to maintain the stereotypical image of the very well put together, glamorous, girly girl that is often portrayed to us as the lead in romantic films.

For the boy we think it would be best just to go for a nice trendy shirt and jeans as boys tend to not get as dressed up as girls and also because this is what is in style at the moment and we would like both characters to appear as quite mainstream trendy people.

Representation - Romantic Films

Setting

The settings in romantic films are always represented as being the ideal, picture perfect world that everyone wants to live in. Using beautiful wide open spaces, or glamorous cityscapes, or large modern houses in the suburbs it helps to represent the world of the romantic film as something to be desired by the audience.

Events

The events in romantic films would generally not be considered as that important in the real world, however the way the film dramatises the events helps to represent these events as being the most important things in the world. For example they way in which romantic films represent the formation of the relationship usually leaves the audience in the mindset that the characters will live happily ever after and get married and that will be the most important relationship they will ever have, when in reality this is an unrealistic outcome and it's most likely that the characters may in fact break up.

Characters - Gender Stereotypes

Generally in romantic films women are represented as vulnerable and emotional, and men are portrayed as strong and independent; the thing to be desired and sought out by the woman. However in recent years this has seemed to change in such films as 500 Days of Summer in which the sensitive man is pursuing the strong confident woman. This is most likely due to the fact that over the years woman have gained more dominance in the world and also taste in men has changed from wanting the strong, manly man to wanting the more sensitive and caring guy. 

Representation

The way a place, event or character is portrayed in a film is known as representation. Films can represent each of these in different ways by constructing either negative or positive versions of them.
The way you want to represent something is done using sound, mise-en-scene, editing, lighting and colour and use of camera, for example if you wanted to portray a character as being dominating and scary, you would use low key lighting to create large contrasts and shadows on the characters face thereby making the character look menacing  suspenseful sound which would make the audience feel anxious; dark colours and settings; fast editing and low angle shots, all of this would represent the character as something to be feared. Representations are ideological views of the world, in that they are constructed within a framework of values and beliefs.



Representation helps to show aspects of the world we inhabit e.g gender, social groups and places (stereotypes). Depending on the genre of film the representation of one of these things can be very different, e.g in horror films females are shown to be weak and defenseless (damsel in distress), in contrast in family films such as The Last Airbender, they are shown to be strong and independent (role models).