Monday 30 September 2013

Titles + Idents in Films vodcast task

This 2012 production took inspiration from Scream for its titles...
For this task each of you will examine two films. You then need to compare your findings with at least 1 other classmate, tho you can do so with as many as you like so long as all your examples end up in the vodcast. I want each of you to look at different examples: 1st come 1st served - I'll list the films selected at the bottom of this post.

I'd like each of you to create a simple vodcast on Titles + Idents in Film Openings.

Very simply, detail the idents that appear in each of the films (when listing the films, provide director, year, budget + box office summary) and then the titles that appear at the start of film as part of the film opening (which may mean at the conclusion of the opening - titles often appear once the sequence is concluded and, common with slashers, we start to pick up a second character travelling to the scene of the killing we've just seen).

...as with Scream, the titles are animated to a mix of sound FX.

The best - and simplest - way to present this is a combination of short clips (with your own voiceover and/or titles) for idents and screenshots for titles (clips would be useful tho if there's animation of titles, if they have a transition etc). Its also fine to do a plain blog post with screenshots embedded and text summarising your findings. Either way, screenshots are key - and you'll eventually realise that the more screenshots you take, and file away, for the R+P, the easier the Evaluation will be - both are worth 20%.

Napoleon Dynamite; note the language used: MTV not the primary producer
Clearly set out your findings: how many idents do you expect to see - and is this influenced by budget or year/era of release? How long are typical idents? What roles have you seen highlighted in titles - and is there any overlap with the idents? Are production + distribution companies given distinct phrases (presented by, a [company] film, etc)? Is the director given more than one title? If you've looked at a film produced by a small team, how do they deal with the issue of repetition of names? What font/s are used (serif or sans-serif)? Is there any use of animation or incorporating objects (an approach more common in comedies - Napoleon Dynamite's plates etc being a good example)?
How long in total are there titles on screen? [remember, you've got only 2mins for your entire film opening]
Is there anything about idents and/or titles which seems to signify/reflect the genre, or is there no link? Are the idents altered in any way (perhaps simply the film's opening audio - creating an audio bridge - overwriting the usual ident audio)?

For all the above points I'm referring to credits titles. Also note if the film opening has any titles for exposition (such as the famous example of Halloween, anchoring place and date).

BLOGGING ON LESSON NOTES:
You should end up with a fairly comprehensive set of notes, enabling you to push for high marks on this part of researching into similar products for your R+P, and giving you a strong reference point for coming up with suitable concepts + editing approach to your own production's titles. Note exceptions as well as further examples that reinforce your own findings - and if you see an example that sparks an idea for a possible approach you might use make sure you note and highlight this. Clear evidence of research being applied, not just being undertaken for the sake of it, is what we want to see.

FILMS SELECTED:
SARAH -
CONAL -
POPPY -
AMBER -

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