Timeline Of Credits In A Thriller Opening Title Sequence

Textual Analyse Of Thriller Opening Title Sequence -

Camera
Quite often a high angle camera positioning in used looking up onto the action, this positions the audience into a sense of vulnerability, which suggests power and dominance of those within the shot. Shot reverse shots are used when two characters are talking to one another, this suggest an equal level of power and importance amongst the two characters and allows the audience to be able to identify with the characters. When filming my opening title sequence I must consider the effect of particular shot sizes and camera angles and how these will position the audience in different ways.

Editing
Short hard cuts are combined together within this opening title sequence which also aid in bringing the effect of a fast paced text, the corners of the image are blurred and blacked out to give the effect of a humans eye perspective, this positions the audience to feel the text being presented on the screen is from the perspective of someone's eyes, building a sense of enigma as to who this character might be. Further more short and faint fades are placed in the middle of each hard cut, this creates the effect of someone blinking, which further supports the possible perspective of the human eye and helps to further build up the sense of enigma around who this character may be. After filming my opening title sequence I must consider the importance of editing, how it can position audiences in a variety of ways, and the pace and atmosphere it can set.

Soundtrack
Within the opening title sequence of the thriller 'Now You See Me' the use of a opening theme which is upbeat and dramatic is used. This helps to generate the sense of the fast paced and upbeat action which is visual within the opening title sequence, this also conforms to the conventions of a thriller genre in which a action packed quick pace is established, the sound track strongly supports this. When creating my own opening title sequence I must consider what soundtrack I wish to use and the effect this will have on the pace of the text.

Mise-en-scene
A crane shot of iconic city's such as Paris and New York are presented at the begging of the opening title sequence, this suggests a variety of location within the text and locations of some of the most popular city's on earth, featuring of such city's in typical of a thriller genre text, as well as this it helps to gives the audience a sense of direction as to where the text is set, a convention seen in a variety of texts, such as TV sitcom 'Friends' opening with a lifting crane shot of New York and TV Drama 'Dallas' opening with a helicopter travelling shot moving into the city of Dallas. A visual repetition of poker cards are used within the 'Now You See Me' opening title sequence, this creates a sense of gambling, this enhances the sense of risk and danger the opening title sequence presents. Mise-en-scene is clearly just as important as it represents a lot to the audience, therefore I must be concious of what props I chose to utilize within my opening title sequence and what this could being representing, especially with regards to particular social and age groups etc.

Coventions Of An Opening Title Sequence

An opening title sequences is the 'opening' to a film/programme/video game etc. in which 'titles' often referred to as 'credits' are presented to the audience within this opening title sequence. The opening titles follow a set of conventions in which the audience will be presented with :

• The name of the production company e.g. 'Warner Bros', 'Columbia', 'Universal' etc.
• Director(s)
• Producer(s)
• Other Key Members Of The Crew 
• Executive Producer(s)
• Main Cast Members
• The Movie Title

Opening title sequences utilize sound and editing effects in order to establish either the character, setting, genre, mood or atmosphere. This is a convention for opening title sequences however opening title sequences have been known to brake away from these conventions.
 

 

An Interview With Mike Harrowes

Today me and my fellow peers conducted an interviewed as planned in pervious posts with BAFTA nominated editor Mike Harrowes, Prior to the interview we as a group decided on ten top questions from all our questions (a minimum of three each was to be put forward) to ask the editor, after much debate these where the questions we decided to ask -

1.) Can you name three key things we should aim to achieve when creating our own thriller opening sequence?

2.) Do you have any useful tips about what we could add to our opening sequences to improve the overall quality?

3.) What would you consider the most challenging aspects of editing?

4.) How would you say editing differs between different genres?

5.) How has the use of Foley enhanced or added something to films you have edited in the past?

6.) How, using editing alone can you increase the intensity of a opening title sequence?

7.) Can you tell us about the importance pace and rhythm have on a film?

8.) How closely do you work with the director in a film?

9.) In terms of editing how would you describe the thriller genre itself and how it should be portrayed through editing?

10.) And finally, what element of editing do you find the most enjoyable/rewarding?

History Of Opening Sequences

In modern media texts such as film, television program's and video game's titles are presented at the 'opening' of the production, in which main cast and crew members are titled in, presenting the audience with these key members of the entire production of the media text each audience member is about to view/interact with. This convention of opening title sequences has been seen since the late 70's/early 80's, an example of such can be seen through this 80's title sequence to an American serial drama 'Dallas' in which main cast and only the most important leading members of crew are presented within the opening title sequence -

Almost as a standard these sequences are followed after the main of the media text with a closing title sequence, often refereed to as the 'ending credits'. These credits tend to list smaller actors and crew members with a smaller importance to the pieces production. The ending title sequences is often simply a list of the individuals names as the ending sequences tend to present a larger quantity of those involved in the production of the text. Again this convention of the ending title sequences has been presently developing since the late 70's/ early 80's such as the example shows here of the ending credits to the opening title sequence shown above -

However in films early days with regards to the beginning of film production such as the 'black and white films' and almost up until the 70's opening titles would present a much larger sequence of those involved in the production of the film some lasting around the time of three to four minutes. Within these sequences more crew members and less notable cast would have been listed, in some cases the entire cast and crew would have been presented at the opening as the entire cast and crew was a considerably smaller number than what it is today, leaving the ending to simply comprise of a single title such as 'The End' or 'Fin' etc. An example of such opening title sequences can be seen below from a film produced in 1944 in which viewing you will notice such titles which you'd now expect as standard in the ending title sequence, also it is key to compare this opening title sequence to the opening title sequence presented above with regards to content of titles per slide, notice in the opening titles below more cast and crew members are listed per slide where as the above more current opening title presents one member of cast or crew per slide -



The convention of title sequences as we known them today is believed to have developed with the quantity of films and similar media texts being produced, as well as the short 'shelf life' of films at the theatres in current times all production companies are more focused than arguably ever before in completely grabbing audience attention and want to focus on the media text being viewed and in order to do that a shorter opening title sequence is the answer, in more recent years it has also been seen that opening titles are presented within the starting of the action of the film/programme shortening the need for a separate opening title sequence. As a result audiences also can enjoy the inevitable of walking out of the cinema as the ending title sequences begins to roll, as a result those involved in the production of films and TV programmes alike have almost evolved into a craze to get their names onto the opening titles sequence in order to gain audience acknowledgement, resulting in vast amounts of issues and arguments to be had with those in charge of producing the opening titles sequences.

Editing Thriller

As a media class we have been fortunate enough to have a Skype call organised with BAFTA nominated editor Mike Harrowes who is currently editing a thriller drama for British television.

Below is a series of questions I wish to ask the editor -

1.) What would you consider the most challenging aspect to editing?

2.) How would you say editing differs between different genres of film you have edited?

3.) What advice would you give to students editing an opening title sequences for a thriller genre film?

4) Can you name three key things we should aim to achieve when creating a 2 minute Thriller opening sequence?

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0366037/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

Independent VS Hollywood

Originally Hollywood in films humble beginnings and up until recent years had the over ruling power against independent movie makers, it's main weapon - money. As often with Hollywood films we see these films as high budget, star cast and largely promoted and successful films all requiring large budgets through all aspects of the films production. As seen in previous posts large budget/Hollywood movies spend almost as much on promotion of the film as they do producing it, with the ability to finance such ventures Hollywood films would appear to hold all the advantages, this is no longer the case.

With the ever more developing and advancing 'new media' formats such as the ability to post self recorded media texts such as film, recordings and images etc. budding film makers and others seeking to be discovered are now finding it more and more easier to do so through these new platforms provided through the internet. However whilst independent movie makers are using these new media platforms and those successful enough to be discovered are becoming successful into promoting there film into success, there is still a misconception amongst modern audiences that independent films will lack in areas that Hollywood movies set the standard for and wrongly label all independent movie makers at an 'amateur' level. This in my opinion however is a slowly changing assumption as more and more independent movies make there way into mainstream film lines and modern audiences begin to experience independent films the future for independent films looks arguably more positive than it ever has done before, whilst it is clear that independent movie makers key weakness against Hollywood films is there low budget and financing capabilities this to me is the key part to independent movies success.

Due to low finances independent movie makers seek funding from film company's and new media platforms allow these company's to discover such independent movies and only select those in which they see vast potential and profit abilities. Therefore only the very best of independent movies will make there way into main film lines and it could be argued that if your to watch an independent film you know the film is going to be entertaining and appropriate to its purpose. Whereas Hollywood films have the budget and the power to place any film into the main film lines and potentially the film could be weak in entertainment values, that however is always at the opinion of the audience.

Media Institutions

A media institution is a confirmed and established organisation (most commonly profit based) that deals in both fields of creation and distribution of three main types of media text. These being the advertising, entertainment and information services media company's provide. Mainly these institutions aid in providing informations and trends of a variety of niche audiences and age groups with regards to appeal and originality of each group. Main largely profit based media institutions include 'News Corporation', 'The Walt Disney Company' and 'Times Warner'.

'News Corporation' or 'News Corp' as often referred to are all responsible for the following -

Film Marketing

Film Marketing otherwise known as Film Promotion is the practise in which a film company will undertake in promoting a film through a variety of formats. It is fundamental that promotion is successful in order for the company to gain the largest possible revenue from producing the film. So much so that film companies finance almost as much into the promotion of a film as they do to produce it! The following presents these key formats in which a film can be promoted -

Film Distribution

The distribution of a film is simply the way in which a film is made available for viewing for the audience by the film distributor themselves. The most typical of distributions comes from the theatrical distribution of a film in which a theatre release is created followed after a four/six month period before the film is distributed to DVD/Blue-ray disc release. However in the vastly expanding and developing film distribution, films can now be found to be distributed to on-line formats such as 'Netflixs' and 'Love Film'. More recently 'Netflixs' has also for the first time advertised series and films directly distributed solely  to the company itself, labelling these variety of series and films as 'A Netflixs Original'.

It is also common for films to be directly distributed directly to DVD/Blue-ray disc formats with no theatre release, this is commonly the case for smaller film companies and independent film company's. This is referred to as 'Straight To DVD Release' originally 'Straight To Video Release'.

Synergy

Massive Multinational Media Companies such as 'Paramount', 'Warner Bros', 'Columbia' and 'Dreamworks' also known as 'Media Conglomerates' are companies whom own large levels of film studios, television stations, record labels, magazine and newspaper companies etc. These media conglomerates can use these subsidiary companies to which they own to promote/market there latest film(s). This is the practise referred to as Synergy. Also refereed to when two companies make a deal together which is mutually beneficial to both the companies, for example a major Hollywood distributor making a deal with 'McDonald's' to produce free toys in meals, this promotes the media text the distributor is wishing to promote as well as bringing in costumers interested in both the movie being promoted and the restaurant.