Typology

As our film is a thriller title, I feel as if the title needs to be in a straight and bold font, as I think this connotes how serious the film is. However, I feel a slim font could work (see Basic title font) as long as the colour contrasted the background and it stood out clearly. I like Bebas Neue and Big Noodle Titling most due to the letters all being the same size. This would make it easy to centre and keep the announcement of the title in focus, instead of letters being sprawled everywhere. However, I do like Bebas as the change in size adds character to the title.

Lots of typology will look different throughout the film, as many of the credits will be integrated with the scene. Most of it will relate to whatever is happening in the scene. For example, our female character smearing red lipstick over her lips could turn into a crab where the credit it seen, also written in red lipstick. Writing with objects that aren’t strictly pens can also be fun, due to added texture and variation in the writing.

Class Notes

Narrative structure

Here is the structure of our narrative, which is what our story will be based on. The structure of this follows Todorov’s narrative structure.

Equilibrium:

-       - Strict family life, dominated by wealthy parents

-     -   Our protagonist, forced into doing very girly activities (Flower arranging, gardening)

Disruption:

-  Particular interest with one flower – Wolfbane/Women’s bane/Devil’s helmet

-       Accidental poisoning of her father, his death

Disequilibrium:

-       - Comes across flower again in later life, triggers memory of killing father

-       - Does it again to test the flower actually works, ends up killing another man and heavily enjoys the power.

-      - Uses it to target men alongside seduction.

-     -   Uses martinis (trademark) to kill off people

Attempt to restore Equilibrium:

-      - Someone/detective catches on to her serial killings

-    -    Tries to catch up with her to prove her as the killer

-     -   Serial killer notices someone watching her, tries to keep them away

New Equilibrium:

-    -   Kills herself using the flower so she can keep control of her life, nobody can also prove that she was a serial killer

Contemporary titles VS. Older titles

Contemporary titles vs. older titles

Contemporary title sequences:

Contemporary style includes quite modern day title sequences, often featuring minimalistic or abstract concepts. Saul Bass, a title sequence designer, produces many of his title sequences to be in a contemporary style, using shapes and typography to set the scene, instead of relying on filmed footage.

Contemporary title sequences allow for a lot more creativity, with audiences in the modern era being very open minded to interpretation and underline meanings. A good example of this is The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), a story about a heroin addict, with the designer of the title sequence being Saul Bass. The use of slim triangles and the contrast with a light grey and black can give all sorts of connotations that the audience can be willing to infer for themselves, with the rectangles perhaps representing the needle used to inject heroin. The black could also connote death, with death being considered a very grim subject.

However, as contemporary title sequences can be so open minded, things may be left lost in translation and audiences may not understand what is going, therefore concluding to a general distaste towards the film. Older titles using footage they have filmed may be easier for audiences to understand, but not as exciting and thought provoking as contemporary styles.

Older title sequences:

Older title sequences use a lot of cards and small pieces of footage to explain what is going on, commonplace in silent films. Text can obscure the scene, however this may not be an issue if the film is being explained through the text. They were often not very adventurous, with typography all being of the same high class stylised look.

Audiences will have got a clear idea of what the film was about if cards explained, alongside footage. Whilst some of the film may have been spoiled, there would be little confusion to it, unlike contemporary title sequences, which might only make sense half way through the film. Also as Technicolor wasn’t invented until the 1950s, anything before that would have had a simple grey scale colour scheme, making it easy to look at.

However, audiences may have got bored quickly of this well established style, for example with Hammer Horror repeating itself with The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Dracula (1958) and Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966). Whilst they had been set classics and were expected to do very well, people may have disliked the similar tone set to the start of each film, and wanted more, which was what contemporary styles brought to the world of film.

Title sequences within the horror genre

These title sequences fit in with the genre that our group has chosen to analyse, which is horror with a massive focus on femininity, as the lead role is a female murderer.

Seven

Seven’s title sequence, made by Kyle Cooper for David Fincher is considered a game changer in the world of title sequences. The artistic novelty of the books makes it a very visually pleasing one to watch, as John Doe takes such care in the order of how his books look. The grey scale, dirty film tells you that this film will not have a happy ending, and is quite grim. The also complete contrast with white and black within some scenes makes it easy to see what exactly is going on, even if it is gruesome and twisted and audience members want to turn their heads. We can tell that he is likely to be the antagonist as we cannot exactly see what he is doing, which displays a level of secrecy villains need to have to ensure their plans do not get spoiled.  The hand written typography shows that there is degree of care this villain shows as it is very neat, but selfish as he is alone (we only see one pair of hands) and keeps to himself.

The glitching of the film signifies chaos, and that the film will have a lot of wrong doings happen. John Doe is a ‘glitch’ in the system of humans as he is a bad person. All of the close up shots on his hands and books keep his face hidden, and do not allow the viewer to guess who the villain is within the first few minutes of the film. Nine Inch Nails ‘Closer’ plays in the background with scratching and screaming, making the viewer uncomfortable with the noises and dystopian music Nine Inch Nails produces.

American Pyscho

American psycho has a very minimalistic style, with many of it relating to small items of food, and how they are presented on the page. The food such as the raspberry sauce could also be inferred as blood, tricking the eye and perhaps confusing the viewer, but intriguing them further. It also has quite light and easy listening style music, which is the opposite style of music when we see the word ‘psycho’. The title sequence leads into the film neatly, which makes the audience member feel like they are now part of the story, especially since there is a place made for the camera at the table.

Goodfellas

Goodfella’s title sequence is very text and sound heavy, with some parts of the film being taken out of context leaving the audience with enigmas. With the simple black background and contrast with white/red text makes it easy to distinguish. Also, the movement of the text parallel with the cars passing by sets the setting very early on that the film is set in an urbanized area. How the text moves also imitates the way that cars move, making it interesting to watch entrance/exit the scene.