Movie Opening Credits

In class today we were looking at some examples of movie opening credits and found some good examples of ones that we can incorporate and develop into our own two minute movie opening. An example of movie opening credits that we looked at was from the movie Twilight

As well as the movie opening credits being incorporated very well into the opening, I feel as if other elements of media techniques work together to help create the gloomy atmosphere such as the use of music and the colour of the scenery consisting of mainly dark reds and blacks. The credits show various parts of picturesque landscapes turning to ice, alluding to Bella’s transformation into a vampire.I like how the titles change colour to match the background/scenery such as 0:40 – 0:43 where the title is originally red and then as it moves closer to the clouds it slowly changes to a white colour.  I also like how the panning movement of the scenery gives the impression that the titles are also moving with it.

Another film opening I looked at was from the movie ‘Se7en’

The music creates a gloomy and mysterious atmosphere and titles have been presented in the black parts of the scenery to help the audience establish that the film has very dull and scary elements. Th majority of the movie opening, the titles are presented against a black background after some footage of a person doing certain movements. For example, a title appears against a black screen after he flips the page of a book and the title appears again after he writes something on a piece of paper.

Another movie that we looked out was called ‘The Road Movie’

I like how the titles aren’t completely taking over the screen and are instead used on different corners of the movie so that it allows the audience to establish the different settings/locations the camera shows. The titles also have a blurring transition at the start and the size gradually expands until the blur disappears.  Occasionally, some of the titles are presented against a black screen, as seen in the movie opening ‘Se7en’ and this could of perhaps been done to show clearly to the audience who the main characters/actors are in the movie.

We also looked at was called ‘Spiderman’

The title ‘Spiderman’ has been used against a red background in front of a spiderweb in order to show clearly what the film is based around. As well as the white titles used to represent the different actors, I like the way that, rather than showing real footage of the actors, comic/cartoon drawings of them are used instead which makes the movie opening very interesting. The music incorporated also has adventurous elements to it hinting that the movie is going to be an action movie.

The last movie we looked at was ‘The Dark Knight Rises’

I like this movie opening as the movement of the titles are in sync with the very fast pace of the music which gives the opening more rhythm and flow as well as being very energetic hinting that this will be an action movie.  The titles also move in an interesting way as if the smoke from the bottom left corner of the scene is pushing it so that the titles curve a bit. Other ways of the titles being incorporated into the movie opening is where it gives the impression that it is placed on flat surfaces such as 1:09.

Sophie.C

our final logo/title idea

I took a single photo of each of the characters and edited them using Adobe photoshop on the school computers. I cropped their face out and then deleted the background so you couldnt see the original background. I then gave it an artist effect on powerpoint to look like paintstrokes, this was the closest effect i could get to match the original photo, but as you can see it isnt an exact match. I used Dawn Of The Planets Of The Apes for inspiration for this logo as I liked the way it includeed all of the main characters. As we dont have mnay people in our film there was only going to be 2 main characters, these are Niyi (technical Manager and innocent killer) and Declan (hired drama student – murdered). This then featured simular text to the original logo in DOTPOTA, as it also gives the concrete effect and is placed in the center underneath the faces. I also tried to edit it so that the eyes and full face was also in line just like the original as it gives a more dramatic effect as it seems that the characters are all straring at you. The light in the back of the text in the title was also inspiraton from Transformers the film as that logo also feautures the light, which I thought looked effective and made the title stand out from he faces more, as the title is quit dark.

By Phoebe M

ideas for our film title or logo

I like this title font as it reminded me of the Harry Potter Title. It also reminded me of our opening as in many situations Harry Potter was always innocent and was always in ‘tricky’ situations, just like our murderer in our opening.

I also like this one as it reminded me of the blood around the body on the paving front. I also think this will stand out with the glow around it and also looks effective.

The third font I looked at reminded me of a transformer style film, but I also looked at this one as the title writing is in a material which looks like concrete which gives an outdoorsy feel which is the setting for our opening, which also looks like the title for the film ‘Dawn Of the Planet Of The Apes’. This logo for DOTPOTA also inspired me to think of adding the four faces in our film to the top of the title.

My final title I saw was the fire effect and thought the 3d effect would look effective in a slower motion at the begging of our opening.

By Phoebe M

Examples of a previous As film opening

Since our group have decided upon the genre we will be basing our film on as well as the actual storyline, we decided to look at some examples of previous As film openings that have relevance to what we are planning to do.

Here are a few that I like:

What I like about this film opening:

The mise-en-scène I like how it is easy to make a contrast between the two people through the use of costumes and props. For example, the first guy shown in the film opening is seen wearing smart clothes such as a blazer along with a suitcase in his right hand. The second guy also known a stye antagonist, however, can be seen dressed more trampy wearing all black (could symbolise death) with his hood up. This helps the audience to establish who the bad person or ‘villain’ will be in the whole film. Body posture and voice/tone also has been used effectively in the film opening in order to intrigue the audience. For example, towards the end of the short opening, the smartly dressed guy finally stops running and he stops and kneels down gasping for breath to make it look like he has actually been running for a long time thus adding to the realism of the film/chase. I also like how we do not see any close ups at all of the two men’s faces and this could add to the suspense atmosphere created, where we wanted to see if the man would catch the man who killed his wife, as the audience want to see who they are.

Music/Sound In the film opening, they use a range of non diegetic and diegetic sounds in order to add to the suspense atmosphere. For example, at the beginning, when the man has just witnessed his wife being murdered in the block of flats, we hear the sound of screaming which makes the scene look more realistic otherwise we would not know why the man looks up deciding to run. Music has been incorporated into the opening and has been played all throughout. It is fairly quiet at the beginning and then as the man witnesses his wife being murdered, the pitch of the music begins to change to a much more deeper tone at a higher volume which signifies a change in mood/atmosphere.

Titles/Transitions I also like the use of titles and transitions in this film opening. For example at the beginning, titles are used in order to inform the audience of who produced the movie as well as who the actors and directors are etc. The choice of colour was also good as we could read it clearly without it blending in with the actual filming

Camera Shots A variety of camera shots/angles/movements were used in the film opening such as the establishing shot being a long shot to show the setting of the scene. A high angle long shot has also being incorporated where it looks like it has been taken on a bridge, and this also helps the audience to establish the setting if they didn’t already know where he was from the establishing shot. The fact that the shot has been taken from behind him gives the impression that someone may be watching him. Panning has also been used on the man chasing the antagonist as he turns the corner to go through the doors. The effect of this allows the audience to follow his route/footsteps as if we were actually in that scene watching him.

By Sophie.C