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 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