film title production. module number 101 aad.pdf

7/30/2019 Film Title Production. Module Number 101 AAD.pdf

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Digital

Motion Graphics


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Film Title Production 101AAD

The Task: Produce a films title credits: Describe the genre that you want towork in, what are its general code and conventions? Highlight some specific

films that fall into that genre. For your intended film title sequence, describe

the overall plot of the film that it will be preceding.Genre

Horror and Noir are the genres Im most interested in working with, as I have a

great passion for both. Personally I feel Noir will be a little more challenging as thereis less reference material as most classic Noir films were made at a time when the

title sequence had little meaning and was not very inventive. Today there are

modern Noir films, Neo-Noir, but even films like Memento and LA Confidential have

very simple title sequences, comprised of basic text. This is a positive and a negative,positive because I have a blank canvas to work with, but negative because I have

fewer places to draw inspiration from.

Genre Codes and Conventions

Horror Codes and ConventionsMany genres are intimately imbricated. In the

horror and Sci-Fi genre this is especially

noticeable, and it can be particularly difficult tomake a distinction between either, for example:

The Thing (1982) contains elements of eachgenre. Here the opening title is reviled as a tear

in space


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Iconography - Dark/shadowy lighting hides unknown

entities. Special effects, blood, gore, screams, death rattles

and unnatural shrieks expose us to extraordinary sights andsounds. The monster usually has a trademark characteristic

way of killing his victims, this is combined with the

exaggerated weaponry he/she/it may use to kill with -ANightmare on Elm Street(1984), Freddy Kruegers finger

knives are very iconic.

Film Noir Codes and Conventions

Many people have argued as to whether film Noir is a genre or simple a style within

film. I personally believe it does contain enough attributes to be identified as its owngenre but I can see how some could refer to it as a style within another genre. Film

Noir lends its self to film; narratives work perfectly in their structure.

Stylistic Traits of Noir:

Chiaroscuro lighting stark lighting, the use of dark and light, high contrast.(Chiaroscuro - the treatment of light and dark, controlling light) Here Light has amoralistic view.

Skewed framing (Dutch angles).

Unbalanced compositions.Voiceovers, narration and flashbacks.

Equal emphasis placed on actors and setting.Themes and conventions:

Characters A femme fatale ho is dangero s and desirable and a detecti e ho


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Neo Noir Codes and Conventions

The Classic Noir era is usually dated between the early 1940s and late 1950s. NeoNoirsimple means New Noir; it acknowledges the time its in. We still find the

familiar traits of film Noir, the conflicted anti-hero, the beautiful and deadly femme

fatale, the low key lighting, use of light and shadow and the alternative cameraangles. What sets Neo Noir apart is simply that it is aware of modern circumstances

and present technology. Modern themes of Neo Noir: Technological fears and

complications and their social consequences and developments - Identity crisis, theloss of an identity (identity fraud) - Memory loss, internal reality and thoughts. Also

in Neo Noir, classic codes and conventions are broken i.e.: the femme fatale survives.

Neo Noir does lack definite form and its in such a state of fluctuation that is can be

applied to other works of film that have a similar recurring subject, theme or idea.

Neo Noir examples:

One of my favorite films Lone Star (1996).Here we can see the use of Skewed framing.Half the film is a flash back, and the main

character, the anti-hero, is a small town sheriff

attempting to uncover an old mystery.


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The Original Idea

Shadow Land - The story of an alcoholic, womanizing, private eye, Hank. He is

approached by a young woman, Jane, who employs him to find her missing husband,Don. He discovers a trail of clues in a grimy underworld of shadows, which

ultimately point to a murder. Jane and Hank fall for each other but she has been

setting Hank up for the murder all along, as he discovers the clues he implicateshimself as the number one suspect. Jane has killed her husband and Hank is her fall

guy.

Design

Fonts Im looking to use a font that best represents

the era, I want the font to be appropriate for the piece

of work, initially not to give any specific meaning, justbe correct in the correct context. This means I will

probably take my inspiration from many Noir filmsfrom 1940s-50s. The fonts tended to be very bold

and dramatic, clean lines and drop shadows were

often used. Art Deco fonts were also popular. The fontill use will use all capitals for DRAMA!


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Visual elements Smoke is an element Icould work with, I can create a mask

from this to revel hidden objects.

I want to use clean lines, creating frames

within frames. The clean lines will be

skewed (Dutch angles) and ill useunbalanced framing.

The idea could be to revel object/clues

as the credits roll. Images move outfrom the shadows and text is exposed in

the light. I want to uses these elementsbecause they are all stylistic traits of

film Noir.

A lone light in darkness.

Blinds: The light allow us to see images or highlight credits.

Outlines and stark shadows.


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Images

Below is a collection of images that are similar to the footage I want to create.


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Effects

I initially intended to use blending modes and masks in my composition; these

effects will allow me to create my reveals.I started playing with effects in after effects and soon discovered a simple design can

be very effective. Instead of using images, Im going to stick with text and shadows,

and use them to create meaning.

Tests

The spin Here Im using a light and

rotating an image, to give thatHitchcock, thriller feel to the credits.

Smoke I have created smoke with fractal

noise and added a blending mode to have

images being reveled behind moving smoke.

Hidd h li ht i d t l


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I have done numerous tests In After Effects in preparation

Here I intended to cast a

shadow across abackdrop and have text

being reveled under aspotlight that moved over

the shadowed areas.


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Context

Shadow Land - My idea is to have the bold powerful text of the title represent the

protagonist; he casts a large shadow over the scene (and story). The credits will beexposed in a feminine font, an elegant script, to represent the femme fatale of the

story and the credits will be reveled under the moving shadow of the films title text;

this representing the hidden clues left by the femme fatale for our protagonist todiscover in the shadows of the storys settings.

I want the floor/back drop for the text to have texture, this representing the texture

of the story, so I found a large image of tarmac, great because of its haphazardtexture and very apt because most film Noirs are set in urban areas. The camera

creates disorientation with its movement as it spins across the shadows of the titletext, moving in and out, this reflecting the hero searching for the clues in the

shadows and being confused and perplexed at what he discovers.

The shadows created are

also similar to the shadows

cast by blinds often foundin film Noirs.

The shadows also mirror

the high contrast lightingfound in film Noirs

Th l fl t th


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The Credits

Paramount Pictures

Presents

A

Blah BlahProduction

A

Dick DavisFilm

David Kent Madeline Green Bradley Everett

Jane Compton Edited by

Frank Holmes

Director of photography

Jim Smith

Written byDom Clement

Produced byTammy Wells

Directed byRichard Davis

The Final Composition

My final composition was kept

simple: the same theme runsthroughout. The camera rotates

over the shadow of the title textand the credits appear within the

shadows of the title text.Picture right: you can see the

composition set up, the lights andsporadic nature of the credit text

positioning.


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film title production. module number 101 aad.pdf

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