X VODCAST2: Titles

VODCAST

In this vodcast, I speak about the titles in different movies.  I've looked at some Working Title movies as well as Warp movies.  It is clear that a title is very important as it anchors the genre and the preferred reading.  This is shown through the font, colour, size and case.  It is interesting as a few movies don't have any titles at all.  The order is also important to look at as this will help us create our film opening.  I look at Tyrannosaur (Considine, 2011), This is England (Meadows, 2007) and Four Lions (Morris, 2010) from Warp and Bridget Jones's Diary (Maguire, 2001) from Working Title.  I then looked at some zom-rom-com genre specific movies such as, Zombieland (Fleischer, 2009) and Anna and the Apocalypse (McPhail, 2018).
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X FILM OPENING EG1 Pretty in Pink

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IDENTS

• Only one company ident (Paramount Pictures)
• Now usually a few company idents

TITLES

• Wording, font use, order - all very important
• In older movies, usually all put at the end

TITLES IN ORDER 

(If in bold - bigger font size)

• PARAMOUNT PICTURES PRESENTS (all upper case and sans-serif - less likely to connote sophistication) - Black and white connoting seriousness / drama genre.  Polysemic title - sans-serif font with white on black.
• A JOHN HUGHES PRODUCTION (all upper case, sans-serif).  Expected auteur theory however usually "Film" and not "Production".  

SHOTS

• Exposition shot - narrative enigma.  Some degree of context - a working class area (grass growing over pavement, rusty car, broken roads)
• Panning shot showing both sides of the track - Born/from the wrong side of the tracks - One side is a nice area than the other.

X SEMIOTICS2 applied to Working Title posters

(This post was originally created by Spikey Films)



- Central framing (rule of thirds)
- Both characters set in the middle of the framing, clearly showing the protagonists.
- Also leaving space for the sky, connoting a romantic feel
- Plain colours (both the clothes and the rest of the cover follow a blue and black tone, therefore signifying the movie as a drama, with no comedy elements)
- Style of title (bold serif font, also helping to connote the drama theme)
- Background includes castle, which glamourises the upper-class life
- The physical contact between the characters connotes a love theme
- Facial expressions (look serious, therefore clearly not comedic)
- long-shot

- Main characters holding tools/sport equipment/flowers as weapon (makes its clear it is comedy)
- Flowers being held by female character (connotes rom-com theme)
- Zombies on screen clearly signifies what style of movie it is (zom-rom-com)
- making it a hybrid means it is approachable for more audiences (hybrid)
- widens the preferred reading (could include more negotiated reading and less oppositional reading)
- female holding the flowers (stereotyping)
- although she is also fighting (countertype)

- Pink text connote romance
- Purple font contrasts the pink slightly, as the comedy element shines through
- Female character is centre of the screen, signifying she is the main character
- 2 males and a female connotes their could be a love triangle
- Females facial expression also contrasts the romance with comedy, as she does not look too serious
- Sans-serif bubble font, also clearly shows it isn't a film to be taken seriously
- Binary opposition between male and female

- Black and white split on screen (showing good and bad side)
- Character on black side does not cross over onto the other side, whereas Tom Hardy on the white side crosses over onto the white, connoting he could be an anti-hero
- Bold non-serif font
- Suited up, therefore glamourising the upper-class once again
- Hand in pockets, showing a serious vibe
- man in a suit (stereotyping)

X PRACTICE2 Installing and using fonts

INSTALLING AND USING FONTS
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• Find an website where you can download fonts
• Find the font you want to use
• Click download
• Make sure the font is a True Type Font (ttf)
• Double click on the file and then press 'Install Font'
• Make sure Final Cut Pro is closed
• Open Final Cut Pro
• Drag in a title
• Change font to the one just downloaded

X PRACTICE1 Prelim

This Prelim was to help us with getting used to using Final Cut Pro X.  We could be as creative as we wanted as it was just to help us get to grips with FCPX.  We explored the use of titles, sound and editing.  For the titles, we typed up what we wanted to say and copied and pasted it to put over the top in red so it appears to have a shadow.  We also downloaded the font from the internet.  For sound, we found a useful sound, both for the background and the explosion, on youtube and converted it to an mp3.  We also did a voiceover at the end.  For the editing, we attempted to create a match-on-action cut with the door opening as well as the conversation.  We also found a green screen video of an explosion on youtube, converted it to an mp4 and imported that into FCPX.  We transformed it until it was where we wanted it to be and then added the keyer effect.
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X IDENTS/TITLES: Baby Driver

Baby Driver

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Idents, Companies & Production Context

• 4 idents
• Sony - 14.12 seconds
• Tristar - 13.58 seconds
• MRC (Media Rights Capital) - 8.28 seconds
• Working Title - 12.53 seconds
• Average length - 12.13 seconds
• Sony, MRC, (maybe Working Title) - simple idents
• Tristar, (maybe Working Title) - complex idents
• Order - Sony, Tristar, MRC, Working Title
• Tristar is a Sony subsidiary so it makes sense to put Sony before

SONY

• Black screen until the O in Sony begins to appear
• Roughly 6 seconds in, a high pitched note plays at the same time a ray of light makes the other letters visible
• All letters turn white, then a fade of light blue to white to dark blue
• Zoom into the letter O and rumbling noise and bells play
• High pitched noise still plays

TRISTAR

• Dark shapes which look like trees until another ray of light shows and the set becomes light and shows white fluffy clouds 
• White pegasus runs from extreme long shot until a long shot
• Swoosh sound as pegasus opens its wings
• 'Tristar' appears above and behind the pegasus in a gold, bubble, sans-serif font and 'a Sony company' appears in a smaller gold, bubble, sans-serif font below
• Pegasus goes into slow motion as titles appear
• Swoosh again as it fades to black
• High pitched noise continues throughout 

MRC

• Blue box appears from left to right
• Letters and box fades into view and focuses
• Fade to black after
• High pitched noise still playing

WORKING TITLE

• Circular orange light appears
• White chalk or pencil drawing a circle in this orange spot
• Drawing turns into blue rings
• Blue rings spin around and the working title font in white appears
• Swoosh sfx when blue rings start spinning
• Ringing sound continues throughout
• Fade to black
• Ringing audio bridges into first scene

Titles

• Titles start at 6:23
• End of song Bell Bottoms playing as titles appear - song fades out

• Tristar Pictures and MRC present
• Sans serif stencil font in white, all upper case but 'and' and 'present' in a smaller font than 'tristar pictures' and 'mrc'
• Thin yellow strip underneath 'Tristar Pictures and MRC' and above 'present'
• Appears the same time a tyre screech sound effect
• Line comes from the right of the screen and the words come out from the line
• Font gets bigger until it fades out

• Again another yellow line comes in from the left of the screen 
• 'A working title' on the top, 'big talk pictures production' underneath
• Same font
• 'working title' and 'big talk pictures' in a bigger font than 'a' and 'production'
• Font gets bigger until it fades out

• Again another yellow line comes in from the right of the screen but goes into the middle of the screen
• 'a film by' on top, 'Edgar Wright' underneath
• Same font
• Top line in a smaller font than the bottom line
• Font gets bigger until it fades out