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 SEMIOTICS1 applied to Warp films

TYRANNOSAUR

Tyrannosaur poster

• Rule of thirds, centrally framed connoting this man as the protagonist
• However, prop (wooden baseball bat), lighting, mise-en-scene etc connote he could be the antagonist
• Own binary opposition - creating narrative enigma
• Serif font signifying a drama genre
• Wrinkles - older man - older audience
• Skin head, vest top - working class
• Terraced houses on edge of poster - working class
• Dark weather - drama
• High key lighting on only one side - reflects his two different personalities - drama
• Small 'a film by Paddy Considine' denotes auteur theory
• 2 awards won & reviews to lead promotion
• High angle - surprising for protagonist
• Bare tree - drama 
• Violence - in this shot - violence to himself - self-loathing
• Contemplating - not stupid like the stereotypical working class
• Narrative enigma - what is he regretting?
• Names but not big or bold
• All upper case

LE DONK & SCOR-ZAY-ZEE

Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee poster

• Bright colours with title, stars, graffiti (not serious)
• Fat character signifies comedy in this case
• Wearing scruffy clothes, therefore not glamourising the working-class
• Underwear hanging connotes a comedy genre
• Setting = covered in graffiti (connotation of rough area) + (typical warp)
• Intertextual reference of 'Spinal Tap' 
• Stereotypes = short hair, relatively masculine colours
• rule of thirds - centred on the cover (protagonist)
• more inviting as character is directly referencing the character with hand gesture
• Text = scruffy serif font
• Narrative enigma as we don't know who the character is + his eyes are covered by sunglasses
• Long-shot/extreme long-shot
• Mid angle
• Shane Meadows made clear on cover = denotes the auteur theory
• Small text showing the actors (not famous actors, therefore no need to have their names clear on the cover)
• Not a star vacuole + film ratings on cover
• Showing off film festival ratings
• intertextuality with name (Martin Scorsese)
• Two shot

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