Genre

                                                                            Genre

Notes from lesson

N.I.C.S
N- Narrative
I- Iconography (things that establish a genre and what you can see visually)
C- Characters
S- Setting

 Dr No (James Bond)
In the lesson we watched the Dr No (James Bond) title  sequence. After watching the title sequence, we get to know that, this is a action genre movie and has a sub genre of spy. This is shown through Iconography as the gun barrel established the theme of action and highlights the genre of spy.
The silhouettes of people used in this title sequence also creates mystery imagery, as well as establish the genre of action as it shows people fighting and women's figures which is usually seen within an action film and the fact that there are silhouttes adds the sub genre of spy as they are mysterious characters and imagery and have no identity.

Splice

This title sequence is easy to recognise a definite genre but certain aspect in the title sequence does establish Sci-fic. This is due to the colour green that establish this genre. Also the colour green can relate with aliens which can only be seen in sic-fic movies. In this title sequence the iconography of the house style which includes all visual elements being consistent such as colour green and the vain we can visually see on the screen gives the viewer this idea that the green blood vessels are of aliens again giving this idea of sci-fic genre.

The Back up Plan
This title sequence genre is a chick flick with the hybrid of Rom-com due to the comedy elements which comes from the man flashing and the romantic element comes from the couple on a date we see on the screen. This title sequence is targeted for female audience because of the colour being used and the animation in the title sequence is very Femenine as well as, the Typography used is very Feminine and elegant  which matches the colours and the design of the title sequence.

Article

The (True) Birth Of The Title Sequence 

• Breakthrough ideas in titling, such as timing the typography to interact with metaphorical imagery or to create its own world, were largely innovations that came from outsiders to the Hollywood studio system. Figures such as Saul Bass, Pablo Ferro, Maurice Binder and Richard Williams arrived on the scene in the 1950s, at a time when the studios were starting to flounder in their fight with TV. At that time, independent filmmakers made commercial headway by doing things differently, spreading utterly fresh ideas about the possibilities of title sequences. This is the era in which the discipline of film title sequence design was actually born.
• Film titles can be great fun. In them we see the bond between the art of filmmaking and graphic design — and perhaps visual culture as a whole. They have always served a greater purpose than themselves: to move the overarching story forward. Whether you are a motion graphic designer, a digital artist or a connoisseur of design, we hope you are inspired by these film titles and the ideas they suggest to your own creative endeavors. At the end of this post, you’ll find a listing of relevant typefaces and Web resources.
• 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.
• 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.
• The sans-serif title (for a later restored version) of the classic horror film “Nosferatu” contrasts with the art-nouveau treatment of the film’s promotional poster of the time. The font, Berthold Herold Reklameschrift BQ (digitized version) was created by German typesetter Heinz Hoffman in 1904. You can see the original German version of the title still from Nosferatu here.

                                                      Saul Bass

                  Saul Bass

Saul Bass was a graphic designer and filmmaker, but best known for his geometric shapes design for title sequences and film poster. He also designs logo.

In most of his title sequences he aims to show a single message, which can be seen in West Side Story from the ‘lines’, which symbolise the city, it gives the audience the idea of what is going to happen in the movie.

Early Career

Saul Bass studied design at Art Students League in Manhattan, after this he took an apprenticeship with Manhattan design films and Bass worked as a freelance graphic designer afterwards. Saul worked together with his wife Elaine Bass for his career; they created some of the strongest graphic design film.

 Saul Bass began his career designing posters for films which imprisonment the atmosphere of a film with simple shape and images. This was done before the tile sequence was a big thing in film industry, could be easily experimented with.

Throughout his 40-year career Saul worked for some Hollywood’s greatest filmmakers, including Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder and Martin Scorsese. He got famous in film industry after creating the title sequence for Otto Preminger’s ‘The Man with the Golden Arm’ in 1955. He also designed iconic corporate logos in North America, the original AT&T “bell” logo in 1969 and many others.

                  Saul Bass

Saul Bass was a graphic designer and filmmaker, but best known for his geometric shapes design for title sequences and film poster. He also designs logo.

In most of his title sequences he aims to show a single message, which can be seen in West Side Story from the ‘lines’, which symbolise the city, it gives the audience the idea of what is going to happen in the movie.

Early Career

Saul Bass studied design at Art Students League in Manhattan, after this he took an apprenticeship with Manhattan design films and Bass worked as a freelance graphic designer afterwards. Saul worked together with his wife Elaine Bass for his career; they created some of the strongest graphic design film.

 Saul Bass began his career designing posters for films which imprisonment the atmosphere of a film with simple shape and images. This was done before the tile sequence was a big thing in film industry, could be easily experimented with.

Throughout his 40-year career Saul worked for some Hollywood’s greatest filmmakers, including Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder and Martin Scorsese. He got famous in film industry after creating the title sequence for Otto Preminger’s ‘The Man with the Golden Arm’ in 1955. He also designed iconic corporate logos in North America, the original AT&T “bell” logo in 1969 and many others.

                                               Typography of Catch me if you can.




It's simple, but has two types of text Font.

The title sequence designer wad Inspired from Saulbas as it's has very graphic them and the text or font starts with the straight lines.

We can also say that it's a serif font as it is simple rounded , friendly, fun and lighthearted.

- Draws attention to the text by having the lines down and the lines coming and going suggests the film inter-counters the events also suggests good flow of title sequence. The line coming and going can also reflect the title of the film ' Catch Me If You Can'.


                                                   Se7en
  - Irregular Font
-Two much distance between the writing
-Scratchy and shaky
- it overlaps and flashes
- There is often layering and blurred, very disorententing, gritty and nasty.
-Appears in background in white writing to make the text stand out from the dark background.
- The text are Hand written
-Every time the text appears it dissolves into something else.



                                                   Lord of War

- Two different sizes of the font some are big and some are small.
- It's a Saris serif font
- The text are thin bold
- The text appears in the middle of the screen
- The text is fade in fade out and it's very shuttle.
-It's in perspective of Bullet.


                                                   Forest Gump

-Thin bold text
-Serif typography
-It's old fashioned
- Very 90's looking font
-Looks like Elegant magazine font ( matches the film)
-Very gentle and peace
-Whole title sequence matches the music and follows the feathers

                                                   Catch Me If You Can! (2002)

Catch Me If You can represents a mysterious style title sequence, which gives viewer a small understanding about the basic plot of the film, however it also keeps it suspense. The opening shot is an establishing shot of an airport, this scene establish the relationship between the character and location. This film is directed by Steven Spielberg, this an animated title sequence presenting the main character, narrative and the settings. The title sequence was inspired by Saulbas as he is into graphic shapes and lines.

In this title sequence, we see the main character (Leonardo DiCaprio) trying to hide from the person who is chasing it. He is running away from the catcher and he travels different places to disguise himself. This links it back to the title itself ‘Catch Me If You Can’. In the opening scene the establishing shot of airport shows that this film is going to be very adventurous as the setting is established at the airport. ‘Airport’ represents travelling same like In the film in general.  

When we first see the retro graphic of Leonard DiCaprio at the airport he see him in a distance between him and the airport shows he is not yet there but he is going towards the airport, this indicates that he is going to start his mission from there and then. Next shot we see him at the airport with his hands in his pocket and he is looking around, showing he is suspicious about someone following him. Also, as soon as the title sequence starts, the viewer can hear the music, which is very mysterious yet has this animated theme in it, which reflects the genre of the film. This mystery is kept throughout the sequence as the animated main character (Leonard DiCaprio), spends the whole period of title sequence trying to run and hide, impersonating different characters. For example: He is dressed into doctor in the next scene trying to hide from the person in the hat (Tom Hanks) who had his eyes on Leonard DiCaprio snice the airport, this illustrates that Tom Hanks the guy in the Hat is some sort of detective spying on Leonard DiCaprio to catch him. Right before the we move on to different scene with the character, the title appears blocking Tom Hanks and the letter ‘me’ which appears in white indicating the otherness as rest of the letter appears in black except the letter ‘me’, then the letter ‘me’ fades away, suggesting that the victim Leonard disappears in order to hide from Tom Hanks. The fact the letter me came up in white reflect the characteristic of Leonard DiCaprio being different to rest of the character in the moving and the fading away can suggests that Leonard DiCaprio is very fast and good at hiding away from Tom Hanks. As the scene moves to different setting we are introduced with jazz theme music, and we the main character swimming his way through the water to go hide from Tom Hanks. The texts appears simultaneously with the beat of the music, every time there is a beat of the rhythm we are shown a new credit or image.

 In the next scene we see Leonard as a doctor but when Tom Hanks reached there he then runs again and the colour of the setting changes from green to blue and white, this indicates that the different colour represents different setting meaning the movie is very adventurous and mysterious as the viewer won’t have an idea of where Leonard is going and what he is going to do in order to hide himself form Tom Hanks. Throughout whole sequence this colour settings is kept to create mystery. The fact that Leonard changes into different outfit is to blend in with the surrounding shows he is versatile and very flexible as a character. However, this gives the viewer an idea of disguise, which could then lead to the idea of him trying to fool Tom Hanks.

In this title sequence we see   lots of transport, which suggest Leonard moves around quite a lot, perhaps linking in with the title ‘ Catch Me If You Can’ that he is trying to keep away from Tom Hanks who is chasing him. When the viewer is shown as Leonard is about to get caught new character is introduced and the music gets louder keeping the viewer in the edges, building suspense and tension and making the viewer expect something. However, when Leonard DiCaprio gets away from Tom Hanks, the music calms down, suggesting that Leonard is safe and that he is going to make it difficult for Tom Hanks to catch him. In this title sequence we favor Leonard DiCaprio even though he is the victim, as we are put in his shoes so when we watch this we feel as if we are the character and that we are also hiding with the character which builds excitement yet mysterious and tension. The transition of the title sequence is very soft and smooth.

                                                    Se7en (19195) Directed by David Fincher  
Title sequence Analysis 

Se7en is a Narrative title sequence.  The opening is in a montage format, as we can see lots of different clips put together. The fact that it’s done in order makes it feel like the person is investigating to create a file or a case against the culprit.  The opening sequence doesn’t not have any long shot of the place, it only shows the close up of book, hands, blade, someone removing some important information so I assumed it was set in office or someone’s house as the props are what you would find in house or office. However it is not shown therefore creates tension for the audience. All the shots are extreme close up and shallow focuses, for example when the person is highlighting the information on the paper, this allows the audience to focus on what he is doing , however it can create tension as we can’t see the person. When I first watched it I thought it was a horror movie as the music was quite disorientating and it was quite uncomfortable as we could mostly hear the gritting or blade machine, this emphasizes that the movie would be full of blood and horror.  However, the second time I watched it I thought it was a spy movie because of the props being used in the sequence which associated with investigation and detective work. The props used was books, photograph, files, pens and paper and the person  was highlighting the important information with the pen, therefore it appeared as if the person is putting the pictures and information together into one file or case to catch the criminal. Also all the objects/ props and all the stuff we see in the sequence are shown in extreme close up therefore its taking up all the frame creating suspense to the audience  because the audience don’t know who the character is and why they are doing it as we can’t see his face and his expression. Throughout the title sequence shots are practically dark, this connotes danger and that the film it quite dark and serious. The shots are all film indoors using low key lighting; this gives the setting a dull and suspicious feel.  Also, most colours shown are black and white, however when the photograph was shown you see the red colour which connotes danger, but also shows that the photos are just being developed.  The transitions of the opening sequence vary as some scene is straight cuts whereas some fades or dissolve into black, the fading gives the effect to the clip and creates an eerie feel and foreshadows the darkness of the movie in general.   The music is quite slow which can make the audience very impatient as the images goes with the rhythm of the music, however as the sequence builds up and gets faster the music gets louder and faster, creating tension and shows that this films will be full of thriller and it can keep you in the edge of your sit.

The writing appears in a font that looks like handwriting, this fits with an idea of the person creating the file. Although, the writing looks like it’s been gritted with a blade, which can mean the person who did write this can be a serious killer who is trying to hide the whole identity of him . This gives the warmth and randomness and highlights the whole movie is serious and mysterious. In some parts the writing overlaps this is to highlight the more important texts and credits. Also, the writing being in white makes the writing stand out from the black background.  We also, see the person’s hand and his nails and we can see the dirt and dryness in his hand, this can show that he hasn’t clean or washed his hands in long time as he’s busy hiding the truth or it can mean that he’s a crazy killer.  

                                              Title sequence- Watch men (2009)

Watch men is also a prologue title sequence as it shows what happened in the history and it also shows a reverse history of America winning the Vietnam war where Vietnam was the country who won the war in History. Throughout the title sequence contrapuntal sound is used to speed the motion of the clip as it was slow motion. This is also a disorientating effect upon the audience and the make them question on what they are seeing. When we move to different scene camera slowly moves to different scene to highlight the important information of the history of the war. In some of the scene high and low lighting has been used to emphasis the different scene.

Title Sequence Analysis

                                                                Title Sequence Analysis
                                                                    The Incredible Hulk



The incredible Hulk is a prologue tile sequence as it tells the origin story of how Banner become the incredible Hulk. . The original idea for the opening is to create a prologue that included Banner's Backstory. This is done through collecting pictures and creating Montage of Banner's backstory on how he turned into the Hulk. Along with the montage credit is mixed with the prologue throughout the title sequence. This is done to make it more fast pace and to go with the rhythm of the music that is played, also it summarises Banner's back story.
We also see footage being edited to create the old photography montage  as its the backstory of the Hulk and his past. Towards the final scene we see the old man looking at the newspaper cutting, maps and the footage t hunt down the Hulk; investigating  where and what the hulk has done, by following the trail of Hulk's destruction to Hunt the Hulk. All the footage and the newspaper cutting is like a document of Hulk's life. The big map is the central of the document as it showing the footway of hulk and his destruction he has created. We also see the destruction, blurred CCTV camera footage showing the death of the girl Hulk and after showing the girl when she was alive this makes us feel that we are one step behind the story and it keeps us in the edge. Alongside, we see the dusty laboratory and all the medical reports and the police reports to show the link between all of the them.
We see Banner on the lab with the mask on his face laying down doing his experiments and the women looking through the window glass  to highlight the reason how he became the Hulk. This was also done through close-up of Banner and the mask and then shirt ripping and him turning into the Hulk and the close up his huge body and the vain to show the transformation of the Hulk. Music along with all these prologue been show music is added to create and build the tension and give it bit more of the tone and to link it to the theme of the movie (super-hero).

                                   
                                                      What is a Title Sequences?      
A title sequence is the opportunity to make a good first impression on the viewer, as well as introduction of the cast and the theme.

The different types of title sequence are; prologue, discrete, narrative.

Prologue: A prologue is when the title Sequence tells the back story, Origin story or the history of either how the character developed or how the events happened, this can be portrayed through Flashback. An example of the prologue title sequence is The incredible Hulk (2008) directed by Louis Leterrier. Also, the Watchmen(2009), directed by Zack Snyder.

Discrete: Discrete title sequence is separately edited sequence which is separated from the film, it is  a prior of the film to get the audience into the mood of the film. For example Se7ven.

Narrative: Narrative title sequence is when the title sequence comes together along with the narrative of the storyline. For example; The Shining.

Continuity Sequence

This is the Continuity Sequence we did in a group. We filmed it with the camera and the tripod to ensure that the film runs smoothly and its not shaky. however, it didn't come out as smooth as we wanted and it's bit shaky in some part as it was our first time shooting and using the equipment's.    We filmed 180 degree angle shot, match on action and over the shoulder shot. We also got told that we have to film someone sitting on the chair so we came up with this idea within a group. When we were filming we came up with few issues; our place got taken by other group so we had to wait from them to finish filming and we ran out of time so we had to re-film our shots the next day. Although, we worked in a group we edited the film separately. Overall I think we did quite good as a group, however we need to be more aware of time.