RESEARCH - Edward Scissorhands title sequence analysis and order of credits.

       Edward Scissorhands

The title sequence I decided to analyse was 'Edward Scissorhands'. The credits in the title sequence appeared in this order:

 0.02-0.12 Ident

0.19-0.22 20th century fox presents

0.24-0.27 A Tim Burton film

0.32-0.43 TITLE
' Edward Scissorhands'

0.49-0.55 Johnny Depp

0.55-0.59 Winona Ryder

1.00-1.04 Dianne Wiest

1.04-1.08 Anthony Michael

1.09-1.13 Kathy Baker

1.14-1.19 Actor

1.19-1.23 Actors (2)

1.25-1.29 Actors (2)

1.30-1.33 Actor

1.34-1.38 Actors

1.40-1.44 Music by Danny Elfman

1.46-1.49 Casting by Victoria Thomas

1.50-1.54 Costume designer Colleen Artwood

1.56-2.00 Special makeup and scissorhands effects produced by Stan Winston

2.01-2.05 Edited by Richard Halsey

2.10-2.14 Production designer Bo Welch

2.15-2.19 Director of photography Stefan Czpsky

2.20-2.24 Executive producer Richard Hashimoto

2.25-2.29  Story by Tim Burton and Caroline Thompson  

2.31-2.35 Screenplay by Caroline Thompson

2.36-2.40 Produced by Denise Di Novi and Tim Burton

2.41-2.45 Directed by Tim Burton

The type of title sequence used was ‘titles over moving images’ I know this there was no dialogue, the sound giving was the quite dark, mysterious, high pitched soundtrack. There was no narrative (voice over) giving but the moving images gave the audience some indication to what is expected in the movie as the objects shown relate to movie itself including the scissors. As this one object is the title of the film and also being one of the main focal points of the movie.

 

RESEARCH- 4 Types of film openings and my favourite

RESEARCH - Order of titles for 'Coraline'

This is a timeline showing the time of each title shown in 'Coraline's sequence opening.
The font is like the one i am using now and for the 'stars' names it looked sewn into the background which gives a little hint about the movie being about dolls. The type of opening is Titles over moving images. As each title shows there is movement in the background and it is foreshadowing the occurrences in the movie. The sizes used is big for the stars names and small/medium for the rest. (However the Idents in the first 15 seconds are large).
A pattern i noticed was many of the videos i had watched had equal gaps and, as shown above between 00:14 and 00:42, they were mainly 4 seconds. I think they used this gap frame to give the audience time to see what was on the screen.

RESEARCH - Analysing 2 movie opening sequences

Gone Girl; Gone Girl (2014) — Art of the Title

Upon watching this opening sequence I was drawn to watching the rest of the movie. They started with the (assumed) main character talking about ‘his wife’ but what is said is something you wouldn’t expect from a husband. He talks about wanting to know what she thinks but thinks about ‘cracking her head open and spooning her brains out’ to try and find out what she actually thinks and feels. This aggressive and violent imagery instantly grabs the viewers as it is the opposite of a loving husband and this gives hints that the film with have some violence or something similar within the movie. We then see the wife looking up into the camera. The lighting throughout the whole video is dark and slightly dark blue tinted. This gives a very low and dark atmosphere and we can get the feeling it’s a mystery, dark and action movie. We also get shown quick shots of a setting with titles popping up in each place.

Coraline; Coraline (2009) — Art of the Title

I had seen this movie before so when re-watching the title sequence made me notice the slight puns used and intended in the opening. The movie comes across as quite a dark movie because of the dark setting around the animation but also the use of unstitching a doll completely. Dolls are originally viewed as innocent as they are a child’s toy, but watching it get unstitched to slightly evil/ eerie sounding music with the humming of someone at work gives a more horrifying atmosphere. We are introduced to the undercover of the main ‘villain’ but no one knows that until the end of the movie and introduced to the theme of it which is dolls and the dolls being in trouble. We don’t really get shown any setting. The titles pop up randomly at equal intervals in different scenes.

film title sequence analysis

The interview:

As the title sequence starts we see the animation (shown through gifs) that represents the context of the movie as well as part of the movie being shown in the movie. Furthermore, all of the names of the people who helped are shown in a much more fun way than just listing them along to bottom of the screen. Finally, there is music playing in the background which could be from the soundtrack or it could be something that was composed just for the title sequence. 

Gone Girl:

The title sequence begins with a voice over of the actor (Ben Affleck) who plays Nick Dunne talking about how he wants to crack open his wife's head just to see what she is talking about. Even thought the beginning seems odd the title sequence continues to show eerie establishing shots of the town that they live in. The only characters that are shown in the title sequence are Amy Dunne and Nick Dunne. This is because they are the actors who the story is mainly about. Finally, the way the actors, production company, directors e.t.c was shown was mainly along the screen but it faded in and out so it was just bold and in your face. 

What is the purpose of a tittle sequence and film opening?

The purpose of a tittle sequence is to show who produced the film (production company) and if possible, the distribution company. Furthermore, the title sequence is used so the audience are introduced to the key locations, main actors and possibly the basic plot of the film. An example for this would be the tittle sequence for 'Skyfall' where the plot of the movie was shown through the title sequence while showing the producers, production company, actors and makeup/costume designers.

Prelim evaluation

The skills that I developed while filming the preliminary task where mainly how to move the camera according to what was happening in the scene. Furthermore, I also learnt that using different camera angles helps change the mode of the scene. Personally, I think that the film was successful in showing the different shots e.g. someone walking through the door, 180 degree rule and shot reverse shot. This is because the shots we used where effective in showing what the scene’s entailed. 

The skills that I think I was partially good at where mainly filming, as I enjoy filming as well as editing. The skills that I am not good at are mainly acting and script writing. The best part of the film was the variety of shots that we used/filmed and the least successful thing was the script writing. If we were to film the prelim again, we would aim to film in a bigger space and have a more detailed script. Story boarding is important because when we are planning our big production piece, the story board will tell us exactly what shot goes before or after the other shots.