Film Titles research.

A method by which cinematic films or TV programs present their title, key production and cast members, or both, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound.

Opening credits or titles are shown at the beginning and end. The creativeness of film titles has advanced massively, they were always usually shown as text superimposed on a blank screen or static picture, or sometimes superimposed over a piece of action. However, a new trend has started to be explored and introduced, where opening credits are built into a separate sequence of their own, this is called title sequence.


Opening credits since the early 1980s, if present at all, identify the major actors and crew, while the closing credits list an extensive cast and production crew. The idea of credits and titles were to set a mood and to capture the audience before the film began.

The example below is the work of Saul Bass in 1950s and 60s. His modern title sequence for the films of Alfred Hitchcock were key in setting the style and mood of the film even before the action began, and contributed to Hitchcock's "House style" that was a key element in his approach to marketing.


Superimposed on Blank screen


The above film titles are very animated but the characteristics and repetitive use for action film titles, may mislead the viewer into thinking that the sequence is an action film. For this set of titles, there is little opportunity to build in our own characteristics and symbolism around our production company name.


Superimposed over Action


The above titles are used as a reminder of previous series or events in the film, for our purposes this style of film titles would require extra footage whilst also the film title is too long, we will need the film titles to last around 10-20 seconds at the maximum. The film titles are also very action film style and would take some serious time for planning and then creation, in which we have not got either the time or the ability to create such film titles, as the titles use a mix of animation, real footage and digital photo editing.

Own title sequence


The above film titles are an animated sequence for an animated film, in our production team, none of us have got the ability to create such a film title due to the lack of time and animation software. However, this film titles do not match the genre of the film.



Once again, the title sequence contains mostly animated footage, in which we are unable to re-create. The timing of the sequence is also another large issue, as the sequence is over 4 minutes long and our task is only a 5 minute short. The actual titles would be easy to create with the 'flying past' titles for the actors and production teams names. This sort of titles also does not match the genre, however, parts could be used in context of our production. eg. using religious items instead of planets.

Saul Bass


The film titles could be re-created due to large usage of text and camera movement rather than full animation. Every title or name is set as one large picture, the creator has then used camera movement to show different names or titles. However, these titles are once again too long and would needed to be shortened. There is also very little or no way of incorporating our own theme of religion into the titles other than the text font.

Brand Identity

As we are required to produce a media product, two ancillary products and research and planning into the products, we need to create a 'Brand Identity' that is evident across all of our products.

What is Brand Identity?
Brand Identity represents a company's values, services, ideas and personality, it can generate loyalty from the company's customers, however, it isn't just a logo, it is the whole identity; name, terms, design, symbol, websites, logo, colour, fonts and font colour.


Why is Brand Identity so crucial?
A strong and distinctive brand identity can position a company above it's competition and in the film company, the requirement to be above the rest is evidentially crucial in the fight for ratings, viewings and reviews.

Brand Identity in the Film Industry.
Most cinema tickets are one-off purchases. Most people don't buy a cinema ticket, in the same way as you might buy a particular brand of soft drink, knowing that you will go back to this brand again and again. Millions of pounds are spent making the film, however, nearly the same amount of money is then further spend marketing and advertising the film, as each new film release needs it own 'brand'. 
An example is the Harry Potter sequels, millions of pounds were spent on making the initial film but Warner Bros. spent alot of money creating the 'Harry Potter' brand, as before the film release there was an equally successful series of books from which they were able to further the brand identity. The techniques that were deployed on the creation of the 'Harry Potter' brand were:

• The typography has remained a constant design feature in all of the products from the Film title's, DVD series, film posters and magazines.
• The brand does not rely on the use of 'Stars' or actors names or faces, all of the products do not contain any pictures of the actors.

The steps of Brand Identity in Film.

The Film:

• The film needs to be clearly identifiable in its advertising and marketing; the genre, actors, story, special effects and style all need to be easily identifiable to the audience.

Release:

• Films need to be released at very specific periods of time. e.g. a Christmas film at Christmas.
• Do not class release dates with other big release's.

Advertising:

• Print (Posters, Adverts in newspapers and magazines).
• Trailers (Shown at the cinema, TV, Radio or Internet).
• Internet (Social Networking sites, fan sites and forums).
• Merchandise (Books, T-Shirts, DVD's, Soundtracks, games, toys or anything related to the brand).

Publicity:

• Actor interviews.
• Director commentary.
• The 'Making of' tv shows and documentary's.
• Reviews.
• News stories.

Brand Identity for our Product.

As we are creating a new product, we will require a new brand identity, however, we have not got a budge so all of our brand identity will be based around the actual design of the products (film, poster and magazine review), rather than the release, advertising and publicity side of brand identity. Below, I have made a list of a few things that we could do to achieve brand identity throughout all of our products;

• The use of the same type of font and colour for the colour of the title in the film and poster, however, magazine film reviews are normally generic fonts used in the magazine.
• As we are a small product company, we will need to include photo's and the name of our actors, as a means of further audience attraction and a 'unique selling point' (USP).
• The use or little use of colour across all of the products. e.g. Love is often symbolised with the colour red. Could we use red for the titles, filter over the film, effects in the poster, titles in the poster, titles in the magazine review, background colour in the review?
• Tag line - can it be used through all the products?

Specific Brand identity;

Magazine Review:

• Empire use the same layout through all reviews. Do we use a standard layout for the review or do we create another new identity by changing the layout?
• Image from footage or just location? Include actors? USP?
• Do we only reveal certain pieces of the plot in the review.
• Colours used?
• Fonts used?
• Title and tag line importance? Are they identifiable?

Poster:

• Image from footage or location? Include actors? USP?
• Target audience identifiable?
• Genre identifiable?
• Tag importance, positioning, size, font and colour.
• Title importance, positioning, size, font and colour.
• Layout represents the product?
• Fonts used?
• Colours used?
• How does the tag line work? USP?
• How is attention gained?

Film:

• Music used: Does the music represent the brand, is the brand recognisable from the music? USP? e.g. Harry Potters theme is recognisable even without the visual branding.
• Ident used to further the brand? USP?
• Are the credits also linked to the brand identity?

Shooting Schedule

Our Shooting Schedule is currently a draft version, this is due to us not being able to fill in details about shooting date and time. I will republish the shooting schedule when definite details are confirmed.
Shooting Schedule

Property List

The following shows a list of props that are included in our film. The previous post shows research into the props we have chosen to include in our film.

• silver crucifix
• rosary beads
• pregnancy test
• abortion leaflet
• wrapped box
• box containing baby memorabilia
• birthday card (reading 17 years old)
• baby booties (blue)
• baby scan photo

Property List research

One of the most important props we have in our film is a crucifix. When beginning to research this product it was important that we had chosen the right religious symbol for the correct faith. This is why I researched the differences between a crucifix and a cross, as both of these are symbols of christianity. However both of them resemble a different viewpoint in christianity. I found that the crucifix is a common symbol of the Roman Catholic religion, in our film Samantha follows the faith of Catholicism. It is also important to understand the reason of which why Catholics prefer the crucifix to the cross in order for a more in depth understanding of our characters. As well as this, using something as important as religion in a film is very risky in the sense that it may offend someone of that faith. This is why that during the construction of our treatment we assessed the plot by reading it to a follower of the Catholic/Christian faith. It is thought that the reason in which Catholics prefer to use the crucifix as it is a reminder of the fact that Jesus died for the sins and beliefs of his followers (the Catholics). There is also evidence in a passage that Jesus himself did in fact want people to follow him through the use of a symbol.

John 3:14-15, Jesus says in correlation: "And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

The story behind this passage is that the Lord said to Moses to carry a bronze sculpture of a serpent, and that the people who were suffer from the bite off a serpent would look at the sculpture and be cured. Jesus references this quote to his followers, he makes comparisons between the serpent sculpture and man, meaning he wishes people to carry a symbol of man as moses carried the symbol of a snake. This is why the crucifix is used in Catholic belief instead of a cross.

Another religious prop we use in our film is Rosary beads. Rosary beads are a common Catholic devotion. The beads are used to count the prayers that make up the Rosary. The rosary is a catholic act of veneration to the blessed Virgin Mary, meaning to honour her. This comes from the scripture "In the fullness of time, God sent his son, born of a virgin". The prayers consist of repeated sequences of the Lord's Prayer followed by ten prayings of the Hail Mary and a single praying of "Glory Be to the Father". The use of rosary beads in our film will help justify the faith of our character Samantha and also add effect to the film as it intensifies the strong religious theme.




Along with the religious elements we also venture into the subject of abortion. This is another sensitive subject in which we have to be very careful when addressing, this is why I am researching into the type of information and utensils that would have been used to determine pregnancy or abortion in the 70's. These include pregnancy tests, abortion leaflets and also baby booties etc.

In the 1970's pregnancy and sexual health had began to improve greatly. abortions were now made legal and were becoming increasingly popular. contraception was being improved along with prenatal care and prenatal testing. this has significance to our film in the sense that it would not have been out of the ordinary for our character Samantha to contemplate abortion in the 70's. however her faith would not allow this still but there are no significant problems that issue sexual health or abortion. after researching into what pregnancy tests looked like in the 70's, there is no definite look, meaning we could use an ordinary non-digital pregnancy test.

Following on from the pregnancy test we have chosen to show an abortion leaflet, this has to be considered very much in depth as the subject of abortion is very sensitive. however it will add dramatic effect to our film and so have chosen to use it. we need to make sure that we use an appropriate leaflet that suits that time as it is shown in the past. on the other hand when the leaflet is shown in the film it is crumpled up, this means we really only have to show the words abortion and so could make ourselves if need be

Costume Plot

To Sin No More Costume Plot

Special Effects; Hair and Make up

As Holly did the special effects make up for her AS Media Studies portfolio, we have decided that Holly should be in charge of any hair and make up that is required within our film. Holly will also be responsible for making sure that actors have the correct hairstyles of the time period, this preventing any continuity errors.

In one of the scenes, Samantha is required to have bruises and scratches on her wrist and arms, after consulting with Holly, she realised that in order to create a professional looking special effects, that she would need a bruise wheel, however, due to our production company having no budget this was not an option. However, Holly said that between the actresses and herself, that she would be able to create a professional looking special effects.

Script

To Sin No More Script