Art of the title

Typography is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading(line spacing), adjusting the spaces between groups of letters (tracking) and adjusting the space between pairs of letters.

The function of a title sequence is its widest sense, the title sequence covers all film titles (beginning and ending), with film’s title as its most important part, while in a narrower sense it refers to the part of the title listing film’s creators, while the title of the film and the end present separate textual parts. Therefore, title sequence is any written text marking the beginning or the end of a film, but does not include scene text, featured in the shot as part of presentational structure of film, nor does it include different kinds of subtitles.

Three films in A Brief History of the Art of the Titles. Singing in the Rain, Iron man and Social Network.

Ironman title sequence

The imagery created in this opening is that it’s like the plan of the iron man suit and the titles of the actors and directors were the labels of some part of the machine, this suggests that this machine that the plan is based on will be the theme of what the movie is about. The sound is Iron Maiden this gives the audience a sense of what genre of movie they are watching and for this movie they feel like they are watching an action movie because the music/sound is getting you quite excited for the rest of the film. You do not have a mood/feeling when you are watching titles sequence because there is no action is happening your just waiting for the film to start.

Catch me if you can title sequence

The imagery in this opening is that its cartoon/printings of the surroundings and the characters, this gives the audience the basic idea of what to expect with the movie. The titles are coming from the lines used for each shot this meant there was a fluid transition between each title. From what was happening in the sequence the audience gets a sense of what the theme though out the movie is that someone is being followed/chased. The sound though out the sequence goes from slow to fast creating tension but also the music is quite dramatic making the audience get a sense that the film will be have tension though out. The mood that the sequence creates is tense because the audience is always expecting something to happen. This gives a sense to what the rest of the movie will be like because you understand that though out you will always be expecting something to happen.

The type of nuance that Richard Morrison looks for is a subliminal energy in a film because then he can work into an idea.  

Sweeny Todd; the Demon Barber of Fleet Street

The imagery of this sequence is that it’s very dark and dirty, though out this scene we see what the barber does, he kills people and turns them into pies, we see that process. The titles are very bold and they stand right out from what is happening behind them. This suggests that the theme of the film will be about how they are making these pies. The sound in the sequence makes the audience feel nervous because the type of music used is the kind that gives you goose bumps because you’re scared. This suggests that the theme though out the film will be scary because just with the music it’s already creating the sense of what is to come. The mood that this sequence creates is scared because you do not know what will happen next, but also you know what they are making the pies out of even though they haven’t shown you yet. This suggests that the theme though out the film is that because it’s so scary because you do not know what is happening.

Title Designer RICHARD MORRISON:

“This industry is very specific and if you do a good job then you tend to be remembered by directors and producers. What I enjoyed most was coming up with the whole idea. I did not have to pitch to Tim but I turned this project into an internal pitch at th1ng. And so, a few days later, I had a room full of some truly outstanding creative work. I took it all to Tim and he just spread the pieces all over the floor and spent around a day or two looking through them. And then he just said: I really like this narrative piece (mine) and those coloured frames (Shay Hamias, director).

Animating blood and its movement became the most crucial and challenging element of the sequence. We had to build special platforms within which we imitated blood movement and filmed it. And we had to give it this comical feel, which worked really well. That was a dream project. We would love to work on something similar.”

I think that Richard Morrison did feel the title sequence was a success because he said “That was a dream project.” This is insisting that things went really well and he really liked it because he links it to a “dream” But also when he shows his work to Tim Burton he has nothing bad to say about it, which suggests that things went really well and was a success.

Vantage point

The imagery in this sequence is dark and mysterious because one half of the screen is black while the other half is of pictures/footages all layered on top of one another creating imagery. The titles had a quick transition on to the screen and by having the red light that went across the words made it look like a light that was searching for something, which we could link to assassination. This suggests that the film will be dark or unclear because of all the images overlapping each other. The sound in this sequence added to the mysterious theme but also created tension because the audience is more intrigued to what is happening on screen.

The feeling of this sequence is intrigued because we do not know what is going on or what will happen, it doesn’t give that much information for the opening.

Title Designer RICHARD MORRISON:

“It is an elegant piece. I liked the idea of random elements coming together before our very eyes, and I thought it would be very clever to use the red laser dot as a motif. It immediately introduced the theme of assassination and threat. Also, I think that the dark gold palette of these images strikes a chord with the filters used later to film Salamanca — there was this smooth transition between the titles and the first scenes shot from the helicopter. 

The sequence had to be based around the idea of perspectives. So I graphically tried to create a web of intrigue to give viewers an accurate insight into what they can expect in the movie.”

I think that Richard Morrison does think this title sequence was a success because he says “elegant piece” from him saying that he does think this was a success because he is proud of what he is done and he doesn’t mention anything that could have been improved to make it better.

Scot Pilgrim

I chose this film because it’s a movie I enjoy and have seen before, but also a part of its genre is action so, therefore, I can study this to get ideas for my film opening.

The imagery in the title sequence is based on the opening of a game, for example a game will give movie to set the scene, Angry Birds does this when you move on to a next level it shows why the birds are angry. The start is just showing the audience of what the characters are like.

In this opening sequence they have titles for the characters and actors. For example the character Scott Pilgrim they had a fact file next to him saying his name and how old he was, and each character had one of these fact files against their name. This tells the audience that the theme of the movie will be based around a game because everything is set out like a game. Also any sound effects had typography with it. For example when the door bell rang “Ding Dong” came up on the screen, almost like a comic book.  

The makers have changed the opening on the Universal to fit in with the movie. For example the sound to it sounds like game sound effects; it’d kind of like Mario. The sound comes up on screen. When they are playing their instruments the sound looks like lightning bolts. This suggests to the audience that the theme though out the film will be based on comic books and games.