Genre by gender diagram

'Watching' Documentary on Films Openings

1. What does Thomas Sutcliffe mean when he says “Films need to seduce their audience into long term committed. While there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistible”.

When he mentions that the films need to seduce the audience into long term commitment, he is trying to imply that the beginning of the film needs to make the audience want to know what is going to happen next in the film. Therefore, through out the film the audience would want to watch more to see what happens in the ending. The two ways in which you can do this is to go slowly into the film or go straight into it.

2. According to Director Jean Jacques Beineix, what are the risks of ‘instant arousal’?

If you start strong at the beginning, then you would have to think what to do next or where to go next. The next scene would have to be stronger than the beginning scene because the audience would want something more special. But if they have already seen that in the beginning of the film, you would have nothing to show them later on. This is the risk of having a strong beginning.

3. Explain why “a good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn’t know enough yet, and at the same time make sure that it doesn’t know to little”

At the beginning of the film the audience will be making an adjustment on how the film is going to be and how to react. The audience will be doing this by establishing the tone, characters and environment.

4. What does critic Stanley Kauffmann describe as the Classical opening? Why does this work?

Stanley Kauffmann describes a New York scene with offices and buildings as the classical opening. This is because the whole setting is controlled, the audience know where it is placed and about the person in the film. By this scene the audience is told the basic details.

5. Why is Kyle Cooper’s title sequence to the film Seven so effective?

In the sequence it foreshadowed the things that were going to happen and it showed the audience the obsessive and psychotic behaviour of the character (the characteristics of the character).

6. What did Orson Welles want to achieve with his opening to the film A Touch of Evil? What did Universal Studios do to it? Why?

Orson wanted one long shot for the beginning scene to plunge and seduce the audience into the movie before it starts. But Universal Studios put titles on the sequence when Orson Welles did not want that.

7. What is meant by “a favourite trick of Film Noir”? What is the trick?

Casino is meant by a favourite trick of film Noir because the film starts of by the ending of the film. Then it moves on to show what happens before and plays the beginning again.

8. How does the opening of The Shinning create suspense?

The character going in the wrong direction, full of omens, bad connotation and helicopter following the car like a predator: all create suspense in the opening scene.

Fonts that inspire me

The Guardian Guide

In the guardian guide newspaper on Saturday 27^th June 2009, there was an article on the fonts used in films. This article discussed the different fonts used in different films, which are from different genres.

From the article, the two font types that I really liked are from the films Public Enemies and Seven. The title from Public Enemies is really interesting and suits the genre of the film as the title is really bold and it stands out. It emphasise the bold character of the film and implies that they might be violence in the film. Moreover, the two holes in the letter ‘B’ seem to be very small and almost look like bullet holes. The font used for this title can influence the font I use for my groups thriller sequence as the boldness of the title can link to the violence that may be in the film. Also, it can imply the main characters personality.

Se7en is another film that can help my group with the title as the font used for ‘Se7en’, suggests the disturbed and crazy personality that the character in the film has. I think the font used for ‘Se7en’, can link to our thriller film more, as the title font itself looks disturbing and mysterious.

Font

Sans Serif fonts and Serif fonts are the two type of fonts used in films for the title sequences. Serif fonts are formal and traditional fonts that are normally used for newspapers or writing a letter. Serif is the little flick on the words and Times New Roman, Courier and Bookman Old Style are two examples of Serif fonts.

Anonymous

For the titles in the poster for Pearl Harbour, they have used a Serif font called Palatino. By using this font, it can suggest many things to the viewer. As the font is bold and written in capital letters, it stands out from the rest of the images on the poster and suggests that it is the title. In addition, the font is very formal therefore it can suggest the status of the actors in the film and imply that they be very important in the society. Moreover, since the font is very old fashioned, it connects history to historical films and connotes that the film maybe depictured in the old days. Also, the capital letters imply that the film might be about the army as the actors are wearing formal army like clothing.     

Sans Serif fonts are informal fonts which are more modern and they do not have a flick on the end of the word. Two examples of Sans Serif fonts are Ariel and Comic Sans.

Anonymous

Rocky is a film that has used Sans Serif font on the poster for the film, the font used is called Franklln Gothic Heavy. The font is bold, big and strong, it is written in capital letters which can represent the characters personality and his strength. Also, the word ‘ROCKY’ can connote how the character may look for instance, big and broad. Moreover, the word is very masculine and the word looks like it is going to come off the page, like it can not fit on the page. This title being informal can also represent the character.

Anonymous rough cut

The Structure of Thriller Openings

When you look at various film openings they will have used one of these three different structures for their opening sequence. A narrative opening with the titles running throughout, a discrete title sequence and titles over a blank screen, followed by the narrative opening: are the three different structure of thriller openings.

An example for a narrative opening with the titles running throughout can be seen in 'The Stepfather' and 'The Shinning'. In these films the narrative starts immediately and we are introduced tot eh location, settings then character. Then the narrative is carried on by the titles. In 'The Stepfather', the titles appear throughout the film whilst the opening sequence is playing. But, in the important scenes were the viewer can see the actors face there are no titles. This is because the actors face is important and trying to tell the audience to look at his face and making the audience wonder the significance of the actor’s actions.

An example for a discrete title sequence is 'Seven' or 'Arlington Road'. In discrete titles sequences the sequence is edited separately and stands out from the opening scene. The font are stylised and edited a great deal and they support nearly all of the opening credits and film titles. In 'Seven', the titles have been stylised and edited a lot as they are in a sans serif font and they disappear into the film.

An example for an opening scene, which has credits over a blank screen followed by the narrative opening, is 'Donnie Darko'. In these kinds of openings scenes the movie begins with the titles running over a blank screen. This is often shown with sound effects or a soundtrack, before introducing any narrative or introducing images. The titles continue to show over the images. In 'Donnie Darko' the titles are shown right at the start of the film and then the opening scene is played. Around, the end of the opening scene at 1.51 seconds the title is shown. The titles are in san serif fonts and in a bold and white font.