Analysis: Title Sequences

What is a title sequence and why are they used?

A title sequence, sometimes called an intro, are used in a piece of film to establish names of key importance to the film. A title sequence will often include the title of the film, the most important actors in the film (If actors names are included in the title sequence they are likely to be the, or at least part of the, USP of the film) and the name of the director, if it is deemed to be of importance to the piece. For example, if the director of the film was Steven Spielberg, this would be included in the title sequence, as he would be part of the USP of the film.

Title sequences help to introduce the genre of the film with the typography that is used. Additionally, the background of the title sequence differs in every film, ranging from them appearing on footage of the film, them appearing on still images, or them being part of an animation. Being part of an animation is a more rare form of title sequence, but an example of this would be the Pixar title screen with the desk lamp.

Analysis of title screens taken from existing pieces:

Tangled

This title screen is taken from one of Disney’s most popular animated princess movies, Tangled. The typography used here is representative of the focus of the narrative, and of the genre of the film. The use of the golden colour, and of the elongated typography reflects Rapunzel’s hair, which is a very large part of the narrative. Its golden shimmer represents the magical qualities that her hair possesses, and it also suggests that the film is centred around a princess, due to the colour gold having connotations with wealth and royalty. Due to the fact that the title sequence of Tangled on includes the name of the film, this highlights that the target audience of the film is children. This is because children have limited reading abilities, and are only interested in the name of the film, and not any of the actors voicing the characters, or any of the production team. 

Harry Potter 

This title screen is taken from one of the films in the extremely successful Harry Potter franchise. The typography used here helps to reflect Harry’s struggles in life, with the edges of the letters being very sharp and crooked, and it also suggests the dangers that he faces, and that he battered from the conflicts he has endured. The letter ‘P’ is very significant in the Harry Potter franchise, as the typography represents the iconic scar that was created by Voldemort that is located on Harry’s forehead. The icy grey colour used helps to create fear in the audience, and foreshadows danger, destruction and death in the film. Additionally, the words ‘Harry Potter’ appear larger than that of the rest of the words in the title signifies that the importance is not which film it is, but in fact that it i part of the Harry Potter franchise, due to the fame that franchise has created for itself. The dark, cloudy background creates an eerie atmosphere for the audience and almost creates a sense of foreboding, which further foreshadows the dangers that the characters will face in the film.

Deadpool

Deadpool is a film that took a rather unorthodox approach to the title sequence and its use. Instead of using it as a means to state the USP’s of the film, it used it as a means to add yet another comedic element into the film. As you can see in the photos above, instead of using actors/characters names, the production team have simply stated things such as “A CGI Character”. Also, when stating who the film was directed by it said “Directed by An Overpaid Tool”. The swapping of real names for names that are almost an insult to the individual, is a tool used by the production team as a means to draw a laugh from the audience, which is very much a key element of the entire film. Also, doing the title sequence in this way makes it appear as though Deadpool, the character himself, has written these titles, as he is far from complimentary to people, and delivers one liners that are designed to make the audience erupt in laughter. It also makes the film very memorable, as this is not something that is commonly, if ever, seen in films, so it draws attention to the film from the audience. 

Continuity Piece: Final Edit

Here is the final edit of our continuity piece: 

We completed our final edit at the college, using their media facilities. We got to use Premiere Pro which I found to be a really enjoyable experience. I found the demonstration that we got from one of the college lecturers to be very useful and it gave us a good idea of how to use the software. The software was a lot more complicated to use than Serif Movie Plus, but after some time to get used to it, it was actually quite simplistic.

With the software, we were able to make the changes to our continuity piece to make it run much more smoothly, and make the conversation seem more natural. We also found that when we saved our final edit, we found that the quality was a lot better than it was when we had saved it in school, even when we had saved it as an MP4 file. We decided this was because Premiere Pro is a more professional and modern software. 

An extra change that we made during our final edit, was to cut the slow pan from right to left, at the very beginning of the piece. We did this as we felt that it was a little too slow, but when sped it up, it didn’t look natural. It was for this reason that we decided to cut it, as we felt that it ruined the flow of our piece. 

Continuity Piece: 1st Edit

We conducted the first edit of our continuity piece using Serif Movie Plus. This is Microsoft software that is available on our school network. 

After our first edit, we sat down and discussed what we thought the strengths and weaknesses of our continuity piece were. Our teacher also gave us some feedback. These were our thoughts:

Strengths:

• We successfully kept continuity throughout the piece

• We included a variety of shots and camera angles which made our piece interesting

• Our teacher told us that she liked the high angle shot through the window as it was totally different to any of the other shots we used and it focused on outside, rather than inside

• The first few shots need to be cut shorter, as they are a little too long. Focusing on one thing for too long will bore the audience. Cutting the shots will make no difference to the continuity or sequence of the piece:

Weaknesses:

- To improve the continuity of the conversation towards the end of the piece, the shot of Josh saying “Thank you, I need to finish my homework” needs to be cut shorter. This means that Caitlin’s reply will be straight away, and will seem like the conversation flows.

- The shot of Josh opening the door needs to be cut and sped up. The shot is slightly too long, and as Josh must have opened the door more slowly towards the end of the clip, it almost appears that it is being opened in slow motion. As we need it to look a normal speed, we will have to increase the speed.

When will we make these changes?

We will make the changes to the edit when we go and visit the collage to use their media facilities. In the collage, they have a type of editing software called Premiere Pro, which we have never used before as our school do not have it. As we have never used it before, we have arranged to be given a tutorial on how to do the basics, to give us a basic understanding of the software before we experiment using it for ourselves. I am looking forward to learning how to use Premiere Pro as I have never used it before, and I think it will be interesting to compare it to other editing software I have used such as Serif Movie Plus, and iMovie. 

Were there any issues with Serif Movie Plus?

I thought the software was quite easy to use, and it was simple to navigate. However, we found that when we saved the piece as a Serif Movie Plus file, that it was bad quality and the footage was freezing and jumping. Therefore, we went back and saved it as an MP4 file and we found that this solved all of our issues.