The Importance of Opening Titles

Opening titles - they, despite seeming quite insignificant at first, are a big part of each production. They are the opening sequences of a film or a TV show and their purpose is to introduce the production and give credit to the 'most important' people involved in the making. Additionally, they can set the tone of the film/show and give the audience a taste of what is about to come. The use of codes and conventions can significantly affect how we perceive the whole production and even foreshadow some of the events.

Some logos, such as the 20th Century Fox, have become
iconic at this point. 

The  conventions of a typical sequence include: 

-> the production and the distribution company - usually appear before the movie itself begins and can become an indicator of the quality of the production

-> the director(s), the producer(s) and the executive producer(s) - quite often, names repeat (such as Guillermo del Toro in 'Crimson Peak')
-> the cast - usually, the bigger the role the person plays (and the more popular they are in the show business), the quicker the appear

-> people responsible for the screenplay, music, visual effects etc. (only the 'leaders' of the team)
-> the title of the film/show itself - the way the title is presented can heavily impact the perception of the whole production (the codes used)

There is a variety of technical and symbolic codes that can influence the audience's perception of the entire production if used in the opening sequence. They include:
-> Sound - both diegetic (sounds the characters can hear - if the opening includes any, of course) and non-diegetic (added in post production) can set the tone of the film/TV series. For example, an ominous melody can indicate a horror, while a funky tune (like in 'F.R.I.E.N.D.S.') indicates a comedy.
-> Typography - how the text is presented on the screen, the font used, can indicate the genre
-> Lighting - dark or light, very bright or rather dim, the lighting can build tension and play with the audience's eyes
-> Colours - often set the tone and send a subliminal message to the viewers (red - danger etc.)
-> Camera Movement and Editing - they can set the pace of the production right from the start
-> Mise-en-scene - particular objects and settings can foreshadow certain events (however they should never 'spoil' the film/show, as the audience would see no point in continuing watching)

The opening to Hitchcock's 'Psycho' was extremely effective,
despite not using any extremely advanced technology (and
it was still easily readable). 

A combination of all of the above can result in a very effective opening sequence which will encourage the audience to continue watching. The titles of some productions are little pieces of art on their own. However, the people responsible must not only focus on the artistic aspects. Yes, it is important to make a good first impression, but the main purpose of the title sequence is to present information clearly. Visuals are, indeed, important, but if the audience cannot read what's on the screen because the titles are over-complicated, it cannot be called a good opening sequence.

Below are the opening titles to BBC's 'The Night Manager' - a television thriller about a night manager (how surprising) of a luxurious hotel who helps to take down a weaponry trade giant. This sequence has all of the conventions we would expect to see in opening titles - the cast, the producers, the director etc. (maybe not in the conventional order, but that's not important). Luxurious items turning into weapons have clear connotations of danger and the music used goes with that perfectly, adding intensity to the whole sequence. They set the tone of the production, indicate the genre and generally help the audience understand what they're about to watch (all of this while looking absolutely mesmerising).

     

Conventions in Teen Horror

Conventions: they are features (regarding the plot/characters/etc.) expected by the audience in a particular genre of film. This time, I'm going to have a look at the conventions in teen horror:

Secluded location in 'Cabin in the Woods'

-> secluded (isolated) location - often, the action is happening in the woods, far away from any sort of civilisation
-> no signal - phones aren't working, radios aren't working, essentially nothing that could bring salvation is working
-> power is cut - and now, we can't even see the danger
-> fake scare - usually a bird or an animal of some sort

-> the fake scare is often followed by a real scare
-> bad weather - great excuse for the power cut, also, bad things happen during bad weather (pathetic fallacy)
-> the characters forget about threat - "Is this isolated building reported to be the home for many serial killers dangerous? Someone died there last week? Nah, we have immunity"
-> someone runs upstairs instead of outside - "The killer surely won't use the stairs" (often paired with hiding in the bathroom)

A prime example of investigating a strange noise ('Ouija')

-> someone investigates a strange noise - "It's probably just the wind" (hint: it's not)
-> the warning goes unheeded - "Keep out? Pff"
-> somebody dies in the first 5 minutes (usually to establish the antagonist)
-> victim inexplicably falls over
-> characters take a short cut instead of using the longer (and safer) way
-> victim cowers in front of a window of a door
-> victim hides in the closet/under the bed
-> we can travel in time and space - x years before/later (usually establishes the antagonist/the setting)



The trailer for Ouija (I have used the gif from it before), despite being just a trailer, presents multiple conventions even before watching any sort of coherent film footage, such as:
-> it is clear to be seen that one of the characters dies in the first 5 minutes
-> the main characters are teenagers - kind of obvious in teen horror
-> the fake scare (the girl stepping on the board... thing?) followed by a real scare (her death)
-> investigating a strange noise - obviously gets the character killed

The History of Horror Film: A Journey Through Time

The 60s have significantly changed the world – with its sexual revolutions, the loosening of the censorship laws and the creation of a new film rating system by the Motion Picture Association of America. The 70s were a disappointment in a sense – the partying mood of the previous decade has died and it all just went downhill. However, the more and more grim society has created plenty opportunities for the horror industry to blossom and the boundaries of film could be pushed further. 

Count looking rather surprised there.

People started to get bored with traditional Gothic monsters (such as Dracula) and became desensitized. Film makers had to come up with new ideas and step away from the mainstream themes (that is why there weren’t many reincarnations of good old monsters in the 70s) which resulted in the huge increase in the production of gory and graphic horror films – they makers created films noteworthy for their shocking expositions of body mutilation, blood (hectoliters of blood, most likely) and bold use of colour (all the more vivid, because of the realism of films at that time).

The scarily realistic gore in 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'

‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ and ‘Alien’ (which actually received an Oscar for Best Visual Effects) are two great examples of how graphic the visuals could get and how far the 70s have moved in terms of realism.

The 1970s was a pretty grim time – the impact of that can be clearly seen in the film industry. Many horror films dealt with societal issues and addressed genuine psychological fears, which was a great change – horror became a genre not only about  bizarre monsters from faraway lands, but more the intellectual sort of fear (obviously, the genre could be divided into two sub-categories: the one about the deep-seated paranoia or the one all about guts and blood).

Speaking of psychological fears: one consistent fear appeared to be the fear of children (clearly seen in ‘The Omen’ and ‘The Exorcist’ where children were the main antagonists, but also noticeable in ‘Halloween’). Actually, ‘The Exorcist’, (despite the amount of time that has passed since the premiere of the film) has been voted the scariest film of all time (back in October 1999). It marked a beginning of the aforementioned new era for horror, taking its subject very seriously.

Looking at Damien in 1976 'The Omen', it is not surprising people found children rather unsettling.

The crumbling family unit was a source of much fear and mistrust – the danger wasn’t a faceless creature anymore, it could be found in your own house: it was your brother (Halloween), sister (Alice Sweet Alice), husband (The Stepford Wives), son (The Omen). It all links back to the paranoid mood of the decade and the discovering that not only monsters can be spooky back in the 60s.  

The irony in 'The Exorcist' was truly great

Additionally, there is very little humour in the 70s horror (except for the ocassional irony) and also, many of the classics created back in the day were based on books (such as ‘Carrie’, based on a novel written by Stephen King - the original 'Carrie', not the millions of reboots) and the fact is, many of the most successful horror films ever made were actually adaptations of books (‘The Shining’ from the 80s is a brilliant example).

Preliminary Task: Editing and Evaluation

There it is - the final product of our group. It took a surprisingly long time to film it, despite the actual piece being 50 seconds long. At the beginning of the project, we were asked to complete a 12 shot challenge (create a short film consisting of 12 different shots) - in which a character enters a room, sits opposite another character and they exchange few lines of dialogue. In that film, we had to demonstrate a variety of different shots and angles, match on action and the 180-degree rule. 

Firstly, we have created a mind map of ideas, which has definitely helped us with deciding what we wanted to continue with (since we had so many different ideas, the mind map was definitely necessary) - finally, we have chosen the idea I was thinking about for a pretty long time: the secret agents ideas. After that decision was made, we created the storyboard panels of shots we thought work well for presenting that idea. That was most likely the most important step in the pre-production process, as it allowed us to see where exactly we wanted to go with our piece and really focus on the ideas for our shots/angles/movements and props. Then, we planned everything relating to mis-en-scene, including a cast, a filming schedule, a location plan and a shot list (which have some inconsistency, mainly because our plans changed about a 100 times before we got to filming). All of these gave us a really good plan of action for the next step of our task. 

Generally, the filming process went great. We managed to film all the necessary shots quite effectively, despite some of the complications. What definitely helped us with making the process quick and efficient was the planning beforehand - we knew what we were doing. Yes, we did almost run out of time, but the main reason was that we had to change some of our plans, because of the location we were using and the cast problems (the person we have cast to play Agent A did not turn up, so Ashley - who was originally chosen to play B - had to step in to play A and we called our friend Josh to fill in for Agent B). However, in the end, we managed to film everything within the time limit (somehow).  Also, there was a minor issue with our props - the folder, to be exact. We could not lay our hands on  a brown one, like we originally planned, so we had to improvise; resulting in a blue, big folder being used instead. We also had to leave out the establishing shot we planned, as illness and other responsibilities meant no-one in our group was free to film at any point before the deadline (however, I don't think our piece suffered all that much).

The post production was of a huge importance. It allowed us to put all of the scenes in correct order (as during filming we had to change the shot list slightly) and blend them together as one continuous piece. It has also allowed us to get rid of most continuity errors (not all of them, unfortunately) in the actors and props (we did not expect that taking care of small things such as a hand gesture would matter that much!), resulting in our piece being shorter than expected. However, we were willing to sacrifice some footage for the sake of the quality. 

Our film's strengths definitely lie in the variety of shots and angles we have used, some of them being quite unusual (such as the ‘table’ angle when Agent A leaves the room) and the proper use of the 180 degree rule. The shots we used are all appropriate for what is happening in the scene and they - together with the angles - suitably set the tone of our piece: for instance, multiple close ups on Agent A’s feet, instead of showing the whole person, build suspense and somehow dehumanise the character, which is exactly what we were going for. Also, another major strength of our piece: the steady shots. I own a tripod, so we were able to use it while filming, resulting in a piece that looks far more convincing than if the camera was all over the place. The biggest weakness of our piece would be the continuity errors, both in lighting (which, as it was natural light, was beyond our control) and the positioning of props and/or actors. Editing helped minimalise some of them, but since some of the shots were only filmed once (due to the time constraints) we were unable to fix them all, such as the folder closing and opening in between shots. When we get to filming our main task, we will have to make sure that all of our shots are consistent. We also need to make sure we have plenty of time to reschedule filming, as we got to it way too close to the deadline and were not able to find more time when things did not go as planned. Additionally, we should be aware of how long we can use a certain location for, so that we are not put under time pressure (which could lead to some really terrible mistakes) and have time to film each shot enough times without rushing anything.

Preliminary Task: Filming

Our task was predominantly a team effort in all areas. When it comes to camera work, all three of us have contributed, although everyone agreed I had the most experience with the filming equipment (both the camera and my own tripod).
Directing the whole piece was a team effort as well - all of us knew what we were doing and we were really focused on the task. Me and Immy were definitely the most excited about the whole process, running around the location we were filming in (Keystone Youth Centre) and trying to figure out how to use the environment in the best way possible (and talking about the choices with the rest of the group), but overall everyone contributed.

One problem with our filming process was that a member of our cast did not turn up on the day of filming (presumably due to the late notice); after a short group debate on what to do, Emma has solved the problem by calling in another person, Josh, to play the part. Until he arrived, we have filmed the scenes he was not needed in, using our limited amount of time.
Props-wise, we also encountered a problem - the lack of a brown folder - but we solved it by using Emma's folder and making a sheet of paper with a red 'FAILED' on it, in order to make up for the missing prop. The alcohol (which was in fact just tea looking like whiskey) and the glass were supplied by me.
Furthermore, we did not check beforehand how long the location was going to available for, resulting in us almost running out of filming time.


For future projects, we will ensure that our cast members are informed about the filming schedule immediately after we get it sorted out and that we ask the most reliable people possible to help us. We will also ensure we know the availability of the location we will be using, so that we don't have to worry about any time restrictions. Additionally, we will make sure the props and costumes are ready plenty of time before the filming starts.