Art of the title

Title Sequences

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.

A title sequence is the method by which cinematic films or television programs present their title, key production and cast members, or both, using visuals and sound.

The function of a title sequence is to:

1. To introduce the programme/film
2. Tells us the genre/sub-genre of the show
3. Tells us location/setting
4. Tells us information about the characters
5. It's a warning that the shows about to start
6. It gives the show a recognisable identity
7. It can give the information about the tone/style/pace

Tells us the period of time the show is set inThree films featured in the A Brief History of the Art of the Title Sequence are Pink Panther, Phantom of the Opera and Saturday Night Fever.

Iron Man Title Sequence:

The imagery created in this opening is by the blueprint of the Iron Man suit and on the labels on the machine are all the names of directors, actors and crew members. This suggests that this machine that the blueprint is of indicates it will be included in the movie. The music used in this clip is an Iron Maiden song  this gives the feel of the type of movie they are going to watch. We can be sure of the action genre by the sound as its very fast and it gets you excited for the rest of the film.

Fight Club Title Sequence:

 The imagery created in this title sequence is from the camera tracking inside the characters brain through cells and existing through a skin pore when then we hear the character speak. The fast-pased music and camera work suggests what the genre is going to be (Drama). We can tell from the sequence that the persons mental perspective is going to be challenged throughout the film or the way he thinks about something is going to change. The sound stops suddenly when the character starts speaking, producers might have done this to grab the audiences full attention. We also see the man is sweating a lot so we can assume this film will have something to do with a sport and the dark lighting makes it a bit mysterious which adds to the enigma of who is he? and, where is he? By the dark lighting we could think he's not really meant to be there and could be hiding from something.

RICHARD MORRISON

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, at the start we see a barbers chair and the the blood starts dripping in the roof top with then automatically shows the genre. Then we see what the barber does, makes pies out of the dead bodies. Which most people know the famous historic story about Sweeny Todd. By knowing this we can tell what the film is going to be about. Also with the rainfall some of the drops are blood this contrasts with the dark background, this also links to the genre. The titles stand right out from the scene behind them, but they don't really distract you. This suggests that the theme of the film will be about what he is doing. With Tim Burtons name being mentioned in the titles also links to genre, he is well known for his thriller/horror films so we can assume that this film is going to be dark.  The sound in the sequence makes the audience feel nervous because the type of music used, the pace of the music changes and the foley sounds used are thunder and blood dripping onto the glass. 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 created in the title sequence is quite scary as you don't know what is going to happen next. 

This is what Richard Morrison said about this title sequence -

"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 Morrison thought this sequence was successful as he refers to it a "a dream project".

Vantage Point:

The imagery in this sequence is dark and mysterious because one half of the screen is black while the other half is footage of a city and it follows a car which is surrounded by security. The montage of footage is mainly events where there is security covering them, this makes me think of the assassination of JFK as the police cars are what you find in America not England. The camera shots are mainly point of views which makes it seem like there is lots of people watching this event happen, This makes the audience believe something is going to happen or someone could be in danger of something. The titles have a quick transition on the screen, when we see this we think of spy and security reports, and by having the red light go across the words makes it look like the light is searching for something, or aiming at a target, which we could link to assassination. This suggests that the film will be dark and unclear because of all the images overlapping each other. The sound in this sequence adds to the mysterious theme, creates tension and  makes the audience more intrigued to watch the film.

Morrison said this about the sequence -

"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."