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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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