Thursday 31 January 2013

Evaluation of our preliminary task

I created a video to evaluate our preliminary task. I hand-drew the text and images before scanning them onto the computer and compiling them into a video file.

Friday 25 January 2013

What I will take from my research



Films such as ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ are very creative with their credits in the opening title sequence. This has showed my group and I that we could be more creative with our titles rather than simply superimposing text upon the moving images. 


The opening title sequence of ‘Twilight’ introduces the audience to several genre conventions of horror such as a dark woods and vampires. This will be key in the production of our opening title sequence as we must create a storyline- this means we must establish a genre.


With our production being an independent film we must take note of other independent films who often credit actors later on as they are not likely to capture the audience being less-known. We must credit the ‘biggest names’ first. In this case it’ll be the fictional production company. 


With our opening title sequence having to introduce characters we could follow films such as Twilight who credit the actors whilst showing shots of them on screen. 


The score or ambient sound in our opening title sequence must match the genre/happenings of our film. I learnt this from analysing the opening titles of the 2000 film ‘Billy Elliot’- the lyrics of the score being “I was dancing”. This relates directly to the film being about a young boy who ballet dances.

The opening title sequence of St Trinians showed me how films can not only use the opening titles to credit the members of production but to introduce the genre, setting and start the story.

What I have learnt from looking at the opening title sequences





After analysing five different title sequences I made several observations and noted differences between the Hollywood Blockbusters and independent films. 

All films (both blockbusters and independent films)
  •  Credit the production companies
  • Credit some actors
The Hollywood blockbuster films tend to:
  • Credit several actors’ names before we get the title of the film
  • Credit the director’s name nearer the beginning of the opening title sequence

This is usually because these bigger budget films have large production budgets. This budget enables the production companies to access high-profile actors. These high profile actors can create a ‘pre-sold-audience’ because of their fans. The actors being a key reason as to why the public may chose to watch this film can mean that they’re credited early on.  It can be noted that the ‘biggest’ actors or the actors with the most credits themselves are mentioned first. Well-known award-winning directors such as Steven Spielberg are often credited early on as they too are ‘big names’.


 Independent films
  •  Credit several organisations who have provided funding
  • Credit several different smaller production companies who have helped in the production
  • Credit the writers (this is not usually key in blockbusters)

The reason that several production companies are credited rather than one conglomerate is because independent film producers will have to look outside of their production teams for editing professionals, for example. Whereas media conglomerates such as ‘Marvel Entertainment’ own multiple subsidiaries under their name to help in the production meaning that only one name is credited.

Research- opening title sequences- Napoleon Dynamite


Research- opening title sequences- St Trinians


Research- opening title sequences- Twilight


Research- opening title sequences- Billy Elliot


Research- opening title sequences- Catch Me If You Can


Research- opening title sequences


Preliminary task


Our task