F.L - Analysis of title sequence: Insidious (Wan, 2010)

Order of Titles:

'In association with Stage 6 Films' - 0.00-0.03

'An Alliance Films, and Im Global Presentation, of A Haunted Movies Production' - 0.03-0.09

'A James Wan Film' (Director) - 0.17-0.28

'Insidious ' - 1.22-1.27

'Patrick Wilson' (Actor) - 1.32-1.36

'Rose Byrne' - 1.39-1.44

'Line Shaye' - 1.46-1.50

'Ty Simpkins' - 1.52-1.57

'And Barbara Hershey' - 2.00-2.04

'Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson' - 2.07-2.10

'Andrew Astor, Joseph Bishara' - 2.13-2.16

'Casting by Annie McCarthy and Kellie Gesell' - 2.19-2.23

'Costume by Kristin M.Burke' - 2.26-2.30

'Music by Joseph Bishara' - 2.32-2.37

'Edited by James Wan, Kirk Morri' - 2.39-2.44

'Production Designer Aaron Sims' - 2.46-2.50

'Director of Photography John R.Leonetti ASC, David M.Brewer' - 2.52-2.56

'Line Producer Jeanette Volturno-Brill' - 2.58-3.03

'Co-Produced by John R.Leonetti, Aaron Sims' - 3.05-3.10

'Executive Producer Brian Kavanaugh-Jones' - 3.12-3.17

'Produced by Jason Blum, Steven Schneider and Oren Peli' - 3.20-3.25

'Written by Leigh Whannell' - 3.27-3.31

'Directed by James Wan' 3.34-3.42

Typography:

• The text is red which then fades to white and then fades out like smoke.
• The use of red emphasises the theme of horror, and draws connotations of blood and death, which is representative of the genre.
• However, the title of the movie (at 1.22) is still in red, but a different font, which is bolder and fills the whole screen. This puts the audiences focus completely on the title, and the sinister music in the background begins to create tension.
• When there are two names present on the screen, then they will slide away from each other as they fade out. However, when there is just one name, it simply fades.
• Every time the titles fade out, they disappear letter by letter (in a random order).
• The title always appears in the dark area of the screen - on screen will be an object, which is relevant to the story, however, there will be a black faded area around it, which is where the title will appear.
• The red titles in comparison to the black background really enhances their look, and grabs the audiences attention. 
• The font is relatively simple, and in capital, this makes it easy for the audience to read and allows them a chance to look at the cast and crew (any recognisable names, etc).

Text Relationship:

• From this, I have learnt that if you want your titles to be the emphasis of the opening, then you should put them at the start, when there is no acting, and use bold/bright fonts. This will put the audiences full attention on the opening credits, and they won't be distracted by anything else happening on the screen.
• Furthermore, the use of genre-specific connotations, such as a red coloured font, creates a strong link between the films aesthetic appearance, and the genre itself. It reminds the audience what they're about to watch, and builds tension from the very beginning. 

Research and Production:

• For our production we will also put the titles on the screen whilst action is present (although Wan didn't show action, he did show props etc), because we will be limited for time, so by fading to black, this will use precious time. 
• We will also try and use quite simplistic fonts, this will make the reading quite simple and emphasis our theme of on-the-surface 'normality'. 
• Also, we will place our titles in the corner/out of the way of what is occurring on the screen, this is because we want our main focus to be on the action on screen, and therefore, titles that are obstructing the audiences view will detract their attention from the actual opening.

RD: Analysis of title sequence- Hannibal (Scott, 2001)

Order of Titles

• Hannibal (film name)-0 seconds
• Anthony Hopkins (lead actor)-7 seconds
• Julianne Moore (lead actor)- 10 seconds
• Ray Liotta (actor)- 15 seconds
• Frankie R. Faison (actor)- 18 seconds
• Giancarlo Giannini (actor)- 21 seconds
• Francesca Neri (actor)- 24 seconds
• Željko Ivanek (actor)- 29 seconds
• Hazelle Goodman, David Andrews, Francis Guinan (actors)- 32 seconds
• Enrico Lo Verso, Mark Margolis (actors)- 36 seconds 
• Ivano Marescotti, Fabrizio Gifuni, Ennio Colt
• orti (actors)- 40 seconds
• Louis Digiaimo (casting director)- 44 seconds
• Janty Yates (costume designer)- 48 seconds
• Hans Zimmer (music)- 51 seconds
• Pietro Scalia (editor)- 55 seconds
• Norris Spencer (production designer)- 58 seconds
• John Mathieson (director of photography)- 1. 03 minutes
• Branko Lustig (executive producer)- 1.06 minutes
• Thomas Harris (novel writer)- 1.09 minutes
• Ridley Scott, Dino De Laurentiis, Martha De Laurentiis (producers)- 1.14 minutes
• David Mamet, Steven Zaillian (screenplay)- 1.18 minutes
• Ridley Scott (director)- 1.25 minutes

 

Typography

• The denotations of the text are clean cut and abrupt, because the font is clear and plain and is black and white.
• The connotations of the text are that Hannibal is like this, clean and organised killer.
• However the first text is the title which is red and in a fancy font denoting blood, murder and theatricality.
• The positioning of the text moves around the 4 corners of the screen, except for the film title and director which are placed in the middle of the screen to set them aside and show their importance. 
• The animation of the text is quite plain, the text will appear as the clip changes and disappear with the clip as if the word is part of the picture.
• The text is connected to the visuals because the are both black and white and they both appear and disappear together.
• I find in the psychological thriller genre it is very common to have the credits over a montage of clips. 
• I also found that the later titles get more important people than the early ones.

Our Production

• I thought the use of very plain text except for the main title worked very well because it shows the importance of the title and the plain text would not distract from our action.
• While I think the use of montage works well for this clip I don't think we will use it in our film opening because we want to get straight into the action.
• I think having the title first was effective, we were planning to have our title last but we may reconsider this.

Group: Storyboards

 

1. What is the purpose of storyboarding as an institutional practice?

Helps us to visualise our ideas, it also allows us to be quicker and more efficient when we are on set because we know exactly what we want to film and from what angle. It also gives an idea of what the finished product will look like for potential investors.

2. What are the challenges you encountered when carrying out this task?

It was hard to make sure we put enough detail in and that we put everything at the right frame size, i.e. to show if it was a close up or medium shot. It was also hard to covey movement on the pictures, to show how the camera moved. It was also tricky to make sure we included every single shot, so we had to add some in at the end which we had forgotten.

3. What did you learn about your concept when carrying out this task?

We learnt that our location is good because it is all filmed in one place so we don't have to do any transition shots. We also learned how many shots their can be just to cover such a small amount of actual film time. We also thought about interesting shots we could do to receive technical excellence.

Group: Planning Shoots

When: Saturday, 10th January 2015

Where: Harry's house, Tunbridge Wells

What:

• Before we start filming we will need to prepare the house, this will involve moving any furniture that won't fit the setting, and rearranging any items. For example, we will need to create the newspaper wall, this will involve sticking drawings and newspaper clippings on the wall etc.
• We will need to do some test shots to make sure that our lighting is accurate and shows up on camera. We will also need to have a look at some angles and outline any problems and restrictions that may occur, such as tight corridors and walls.
• After the location is set up, we will then need to prepare our actors. This will involve costume and makeup, filling them in on what is expected of them - their lines, actions/movements, character traits etc.
• Once all the admin work is complete we can begin filming - we will try to go through systematically in order of the script/plot line.

We aim to get as much filming done as possible because we are limited for time in our location.

Props:

• Kettle
• Frying pan
• Chains
• Cages
• Meat
• Newspaper cuttings

Equipment:

• Tri-pod
• Camera

Group: Location Recce

Over Christmas I went to the house of a friend of mine to see if it would be suitable for our production. I found that the basement he has was much less open with fluctuating sized rooms and narrow spaces. This was different to the American style basement we had planned initially. However the interesting complex of rooms could be utilised to provide experimental camera angles and the opportunity for excellence in multiple key areas with corners and dingy, dark rooms a-plenty as shown in the video featured above.

Group: Preliminary Task Feedback

A lot was learnt from the preliminary task, our class viewed it and gave us some feedback of what they thought.

Strengths

• Good Planning.
• Seemed well rehearsed.
• A lot done in the time.
• Soundtrack fitted well and was effective.
• It was good that the soundtrack stopped when the dialogue started, so no words were lost.

Improvements

• The continuity could be improved at some points.
• Sometimes the camera was a bit jumpy.
• Technical faults- the box appeared from no where, lighting changes.

We are happy with how the preliminary task came out and have thought about how we will fix the weaknesses for our coursework.

Group: Progress

Today

I drew all the story board pictures, then annotated them and wrote timings with Josh. Josh and Freya then filmed all of the pictures for the time. Freya did some research into Sound and Freddie researched and found the font for our project.

We are planning on editing our animated storyboard together in our joint free and Freddie is hoping to do the location recce and find out a time for us all to film.