Stylised- Stylised film openings is a combination of discrete and straight into the film. With Stylised openings the film has started and we are making our first impressions of the characters yet the titles which are appearing over the top of the film are very different from what you normally expect- black plain writing. A good example of a Stylised opening is 'The Taking Of Pelham 1,2,3'

At first the titles are coming onto the screen by a black strip running along the screen. This reminds us of a train going past because in the background we can here the sound a train.

Suddenly as the camera work speeds up the titles become more fashionable and urban which goes with the loud upbeat music.

Here the titles become in time with the train and come and go as if they were trains leaving station.

The titles are quite cool and suggest that this is a cool movie and that the characters are quite edgy.    You can tell a lot by the title sequence and if the title sequence is bad then this could affect the rest of the movie but if the title sequence is good it gets the audience exited and ready for the rest of the film. However if the opening is to good then the rest of film will have a hard time matching that quality.

Discrete- This credit qequence is separate from the rest of the film. Once the credits have come up the film then starts. An example of discrete film credits is casino royale. Discrete credits are normally fun and exciting because they stand alone. The casno royale credits are exactly that yet they do give us a few clues to what the film will be like.

Straight into film with titles on top- The film starts but the opening ququence can never show to much because the titles which are coming up do not want to destract you from the film. An example of this is the shining. The opening credits is of a car going along the road. The titles pop up over the top but they do not destract you from the film because nothing much is happening with the narrative.

In today's lesson we were looking the order of credits and the title structures. There are four diffirent structures-

Traditonal- This is normally white text on a black background. Once the titles have come up the film starts. You can tell alot through the meaning of the titles because of the font, colour, movement of text and music.










 
This is from One Hour Photo which demostrates traditonal credits. From this title we can see it may be about cameras because there is a flash over the titles which is like a camera flash. Underneath Fox Searchlight Pictures there are camera functions which also tell us this film will be about photos. The music is dark and mysterioyus which suggest this is a thriller.




The titles then fade to red which represents danger and blood which also creates a thriller atmosphere.

We had to pitch our idea today to matt who is going to help us improve our thriller openings and give us feedback on our ideas so far. The feedback I got was- In most films they have an act 1, act 2 and an act 3. For shutter island act 1 is the two characters on the boat. Act 2 is finding the missing person and act 3 is when everything gets revealed. This is the structure that I need for my film. The main thing matt said was not to give to much away but you need enough to know your characters a little. An example of a good thriller opening was "Way of the Gun". The film starts with two men in a queue. A women starts to scream at them because they set a car alarm off. The two men swear at her and tell her to be quiet. Everyone in the queue goes up to the two men and look at them fiercely. One of the men punches the girl in the face and this starts a fight. From this we can tell these two love trouble and they probably think of themselves as bad boys.

Finish what you started is still to complicated and the scenes are to mixed up and a little farfetched. I am sticking with title sequence from finish what you started because they fit nicely with this storyline. The Waiting Game is my new idea which runs on the same tracks as finish what you started but I have made it more interesting and less farfetched. My teaher recomed The Woody Allen film "Match Point" which is in the same frame of mind of The Waiting Game".

After my discussion with my teacher about a girl on an alien island I have changed my idea. I like the idea of a kidnap for money. Bellow is an outline of my story.

Today we were presenting our film ideas. My film idea- A couple goes on holiday to Africa and takes a trip into the rainforest. There car breaks down and whilst the husband looks for help the girl gets taken by a group of men. She is beaten up and rapped whilst her husband is hiding nearby having to watch this. In the middle of the night the husband goes into the camp and takes his wife. They now have to get out of the rain forest whilst surviving the rainforest. They have to face waterfalls, wild animals until a tribe saves them and offers to look after them. The couple stays in this camp for a couple of months and it is here that the girl finds out she is pregnant. One morning the camp is on fire because the group of men who took the girl has found them. They grab the girl but one of the tribesmen manages to shoot the man who has her. Once again the couple are on the run but luckily they come across a group of English explorers who take them to safety. The girl gets very ill from a disease she caught in Africa. She is taken to hospital where they manage to save the baby but unfortunately she dies. The twist is that the baby is not her husbands but it is the child of one of the men who rapped her. The husband returns home with the baby. My opening titles would be of the couple packing and going to the airport but after discussing the story line with the class we felt it was a little farfetched.

WATCHING In todays lesson we were watching a documentary called "watching" which was about film titles. "films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment. While there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistible"- Thomas Sutcliffe. This quote is talking about grabbing your audience in the first few minutes in a film. One man said "if the first page of the script does not give you a hard on throw it away". With lots of films the begging is vital. For example if you miss the begging of Psycho then the rest of the film will not have the same effect on you as it does on those who saw the famous shower scene. On the other hand Jean jacques a french director argues the risks of having 'instant arousal' are the rest of film has to then live up to the begging of the film. A film has to go somewhere after the begging and if the begging was to good then the rest of the film could be a disappointment because it might not live up to the begging. A film is not just two minutes of an amazing opening but its an hour and a half movie which needs to keep your audience going. A good begging should make the audience feel like they don't know too much but at the same time they don't know to little. This is important because if an audience know the plot in the first few minutes then thats it the film is ruined for them but if they don't understand it at all then they might be annoyed and not try to understand it therefore they will have a boring ride. If the audience knows something but not everything then they will be on your side because they will want to stay and find out. Some directors start the film with the ending so that the audience are guessing throughout the film how the ending works. Stanley Kauffmann says the classic opening is a establishing shot of a city- close up of a building- camera rising up the building- go inside a window, past the reception office- ending on the main character at his or hers desk. From this we know the location, we know what job this character has. We know a little bit about the character by his or hers job. For example if the main character was in a big fancy building then we know they are quite high up in their job therefore they are probably quite motivated. Normally the best openings have no dialogue. The miss en scene and camera shots should tell you a lot. The shining opening is a classic example of a good no dialogue opening. The camera following the car makes us seem like predators. They are in the middle of nowhere which tells us they can not escape and if they do no one will be able to safe them. The music is very creepy which makes the audience aware that this will not be a funny film. This is all done through mise en scene and camera angles. Kyle cooper's title sequence to seven is very good because it gets you prepared for a gory film. The title sequence does not tell you much but it shows us this film will be about investications and murders due to quick shots of dead people and lots of newspaper reports. It is quite a shocking title sequence but it gets you ready. Orson Wells's title sequence caused a lot of stress for the studio that made it becuase Orson wanted no soundtrack on the opening sequence and no titles because he wanted the audience to plunge straight into the film and get rid of anything that would make it feel like a movie. The studio put a score in the opening sequence but Orson argued over this and eventually had it his way.