Opening Credits

After researching typography for films a little bit more in depth. I'm beginning to realize just how important each detail of the opening sequence is. The slightest change in detail can mean depicting a whole different meaning, and although the audience may not notice every little detail you've constructed at once, it's vital that those details exist so they become a part of constructing the filmic world you're presenting to you audience.

The opening credits sequence roughly goes in the following order:

1. (Name of the studio) - for example Universal Studios or in our case VKLC productions that owns and distributes the film, however may not have necessarily been involved with the production of it.

2. (Name of the production company) - this is the company that produced and/or financed most of the film. For example "A Media House Production" or "In Association with Media House productions"

3. Director and/or the Producer's name- this usually comes up as e.g. "A Gus Van Sant film" or "A film by Gus Van Sant"

4. Starring - Lead actors names start coming up at this point of sequence

5. Title

6. Featuring - featured actors

7. Casting (By) - Casting Director's name comes up

8. Music (Composed by) or Original Score by - Music composer's name e.g. "Music composed by Antonio Pinto"

9. Production Design (by) or Production Designer 

10. A Combination of the following may come up at this stage
      - Set Design (by)
      - Costumes (by) or Costume Design by 
      - Hairdresser
      - Make-up Artist 
      - Visual Effects Director 

11. Editor or Edited by

12. Director of Photography

13. Producer/Produced by/Executive Producer

14. Based on ... - If the film was based on a particular book or characters, this is the place at which the necessary "Based on..." credit begins

15. Story By - This is the person who wrote the story upon which the script is based

16. Written or Written by - The Screenplay writers are credited here

(research from Wikipedia)
Of course not all films follow this format. Sometimes names will appear before others, depending on the desires of the film maker. However it is the way in which these titles are presented which is really essential. Although the opening titles serve to credit the film makers, they are nonetheless a tool used to hint to an audience about a particular mood of a film and engage them further. When I was researching typography in films, one name kept coming up called "Se7en". I had only seen a couple stills from it in an article, however just from the colouring and composition of the shots, it already looked captivating and intrigued me enough to watch it.





  Editing our Titles

For our opening sequence we wanted (just as any other film) to depict our genre through the font we decide on in the end. Whilst we considered the possibilities for titles, we came across a term called "the fringe effect". Looking back on our rough draft of the edited sequence, we liked the initial shots we had into which we thought of incorporating titles. We planned to do this initially, as we thought it would put focus on the busy environment and become a part of the filmic world we were creating. However when we were shown the effect in Final Cut the result looked a bit too cliché and time consuming to achieve. Additionally most of our shots were quite shaky and would therefore take away from the titles becoming a part of the filmic world created-the Fringe effect wouldn't be as effective. In the end we decided to choose a simplistic approach in the way we presented our opening credits-a way in which they wouldn't draw too much attention to themselves but would depict genre and fit with the mood of our film effectively. We chose to have a simple fade in and fade out effect. First we put in templates to get a rough idea as to where the credits would go, which is something we kept in mind when storyboarding and considering our camera composition. After we decided upon this we started to look through the fonts available on Final Cut. I saw in my head something simple and evoking a "serious" tone. We eventually chose a font called "American Typewrtiter". It connoted to our McGuffin in my opinion, and maps in general as it evokes a sense of practicality and functionality rather than being overly decorated or over the top. Simultaneously though, the font evoked an action sequence as it was more modern than another typewriter font we tried. Primarily we had planned the entire way for the title to appear at the end of our sequence, with the build up of sound at the end to evoke tension and emphasize the silent appearance of the title. When we were re-watching what we had edited so far, our group member Lorna pointed out that it seemed quite "trailer-y". We re-watched the clip, meddled with sound and rearranged the titles- did everything we could to eliminate this problem. Later, Keeley pointed out that the problem wasn't the music and everything else as it was having the title appear at the end. Usually in trailers after the compilation of clips from the film, the title is eventually revealed towards the end as it will be the last thing the audience remembers. We were very hesitant about removing this title as it was the one thing we were all sure about and agreed upon would definitely be at the end of the sequence, but once we moved it's place I think we all felt happy with our choice. I also thought it fit better with our ordering of opening as we didn't have this large awkward gap between our smaller credits and the reveal of the title. I think looking back on it, to improve I would've probably researched more fonts for this project before we shot our sequence so we had plenty of time to come to a decision, not that I'm not happy with what we chose- but I think we could've achieved something closer to what we imagined if we would've begun looking for it early on. During our final hours of editing, I still wasn't sure that the simple fade-in, fade-out dissolve effect was fitting enough, so we decided to look up how to animate opening credits.This is how we managed to achieve the slow zoom on our opening titles, for added emphasis as well as it being aesthetically suited to our movie. We lengthened the effect of this zoom on the title to differentiate it from the rest, as well as enlarging its size and moving it to centre screen. With the other titles, as we initially intended, we kept them "fitting into" our surroundings, so not too much focus is taken off what is occurring on screen.