Research: Film opening credits/ typography- Ms Heath and Miss Gibbins

Opening Credits?
Opening credits are shown at the beginning of a film. They show the most important members of the production for example the major actors and crew members

Purpose of film credits

• Advertising
• Giving credit to those who took part
• Outlines major actors/ crew members

What information do opening credits provide?
The opening credits tell the audience who the major actors/ crew members are for example the soundtrack creator, director or producer(s) involved in making the film. Furthermore opening credits may be their to honor people that may have died during the production of the film.

How do they make the audience feel?
Opening credits are effective in films as they are usually followed by a soundtrack which automatically helps to build up tension among the audience. Images are often used in opening credits to make the audience ask questions about their relevance.

What do you expect to see in the opening credits?

In the opening credits the audience expect to see the names of the important major actors within the film/ crew members who played a major role.
This is done as it influences the audience to watch the film, e.g. the female sex may be attracted to a film starring Daniel Craig etc. 

Se7en Analysis.

Lighting

Low key lighting

Flashing lights

Protagonist Colors (such as red)

Montage

Information Presented

Actors

Victims picture(s)

Organised crime

Successful (can tell by all the victims presented)

Changes from Extreme to less extreme (Needle through finger- needle through paper)

Generic Conventions

Soundtrack

Close up

Montage

sound effects

In the opening credits of 'Se7en' the names of famous actors are shown in the opening credits. This helps the audience to know who the famous actors are in the film as well as become familiar with the mood of the film due to the actors that are in it, for example Daniel Craig is known to be filmed in action films etc. The keywords such as 'rape', 'transexual' and 'God' seen in the opening credits are there to confuse the audience. In some cases it is also there to relate to the narrative of the film. 

The constant use of close ups throughout the opening credits allows the audience to see the keywords alike before as well as seeing the horrific/ disturbing images. For example the audience see dirty fingernails and splatters of blood using these in the opening scene makes the audience feel slightly disturbed over these images. A pair of tweezers and a needle are used to get the audience to ask questions such as: are they weapons? or are they used for evidence? etc.  This is conventional to a thriller film because the audience expect to see this

Low-key lighting and dark colors are used throughout the opening credits. The low key lighting makes the opening appear mysterious and disturbing when it is mixed with the dark colors and images shown throughout the credits. The color red is used frequently throughout the credits which may represent danger, anger or death. These elements within the credits are conventional to a thriller film because a sense of suspense and tension is created throughout the audience.

Finally the slow disturbing soundtrack added to the opening credits creates suspense among the audience and makes them feel disturbed when they hear metal scratching together or the tuning of a radio. This is conventional to a thriller genre as it gives the audience an insight on the mood of the rest of the film.

The opening credits confuse the audience by catching their attention and then making them ask questions about what they are seeing on screen and how does it relate to the film. This opening credit scene has helped my group come up with a conventional and effective narrative as we now have ideas on what elements to use in order to build tension/ suspense and also confuse the audience.

Typography:

Typography is the term used to describe the font that is used, the font size and it's color.

                                                                                 

This is a picture of the typography from the opening of the film 'Scream'. Firstly in the opening of scream the writing is white and simple until it starts flicking red and finally turns red. This relates to Tzvetan Todorov's theory of equilibrium and disequilibrium's, this is because the writing was white plain and simple at first until there was a disturbance and it turned red. The color red relates to danger, blood and anger. This in turn sets the mood of the film- the atmosphere will be fine and calming until there is a disturbance which makes it completely change.

For the film 'Fight club' the title of the film is shown in white with a glow effect; This makes it stand out against the dark images around it The plain bold font allows the audience to read the title clearly. The white used for the title has the color connotation of 'purity' however it could have been used purposely to confuse the audience and change their expectations of the film so that they can be shocked/ surprised when watching the actual film.

When editing our thriller film my group has decided to use on screen opening credits which means the audience can watch the film while seeing the opening credits; the font color will represent purity so it will be white, we chose this so we can confuse the audience when they start watching our thriller which will be conventional to the thriller genre. Our font will be similar to Fight clubs however we will not have the same glow effect on ours. 

The font shown above called 'Papyrus' may be used in the opening credits; this is because it creates a mysterious effect and may confuse the audience due to them questioning why we chose the font, this in turn will create suspense among the audience.

Overall the exploration of different opening credits and typography has helped with the creation of my own thriller film. I have been able to identify what typography is and how it is conventional to the thriller genre. Furthermore I now know how the opening credits can affect the audience.

In My Thriller:

In my thriller I will include different montages of flashing scenes/ images and medium sized text. I will use different lighting effects such as low-key lighting and different camera angles such as close ups in order to present the images to the audience. My aim is to make the audience question their expectations of a thriller film which in turn will create suspense among the audience and cause them to feel disturbed. Lastly using opening credits will set the mood and the atmosphere of the rest of the film so I must make them effective and conventional to the thriller genre.