ANALYSIS OF SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE

WORLD TITLE SEQUENCE

INSTITUTIONS

• Universal Pictures, is an American film studio, owned by Comcast through its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal, and is one of Hollywood's "Big Six" film studios. Its production studios are in California. Distribution and other corporate offices are in New York City. Universal Studios is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America. It is the world's third oldest major film studio, after the French studios Gaumont Film Company and Pathé. Three of Universal Studios' films—Jaws (1975), E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Jurassic Park (1993) (all of which were directed by Steven Spielberg)–achieved box office records; each became the highest-grossing film ever at the time of its initial release.

AUDIENCE AND GENRE

• The genre of ‘Scott Pilgrim vs the world’ is a fantasy/action/comedy. The titles incorporate the fantasied genre through the use of animation and graphics with the electricity coming out of the instruments creating shapes as well as spelling out the title “Scott Pilgrim vs the world”. This is effective as it’s visually appealing for the audience, introducing the films use of animation creating an indication of the special effects which will be used throughout the rest of the film. The backgrounds used behind the titles sets a mood to the piece introducing the free, lively and expressive nature of the characters which helps the audience understand the underlying theme of computer gaming. The graphic effects also play a key role in the film. The background never stops moving which could represent the fast pace of the film whilst reflecting the theme of recurring issues of the exes appearing one after the other. The animations on the background are also very eye catching and begin to create enigma codes as they tell a hazed story within themselves giving the audience clues of things that feature in the storyline.

• The rating of Scott Pilgrim vs the world is only a 12A, therefore the target audience for the film is clearly aimed at anyone aged 12 and over. I would say that the film would appeal more to the male gender rather than females as compared to some of the other comedies I have looked at this films contains a lot of action which is stereotypically preferred by man rather than women.

DESIGN OF TITLES

• The titles feature on colourful playful animated backgrounds flicking between font colours of black and white. The use of coloured animation could represent the colourful nature of the characters in the film and the diversity they show in comparison to the rest of the world. The fast flick between these backgrounds could also represent the fast flicking of pages of a comic book as the film is stylised in this conventional way. The font is set out in capital letters which stresses the importance of this section of the film and encourages the audience to pay attention to them. The font is typically white but in places flicks to a black font which on particular backgrounds helps the text become clearer. The interchange of font colours between black and white could connote the constant struggle of fighting good against evil representing the complex fights between Scott and the seven exes. The white has positive connotations and could represent the innocence of Scott’s character juxtaposed against the black which displays negative connotations creating enigma codes suggesting that Scott will have to encounter a number of antagonists.

The title sequence starts with Scott Pilgrims band playing their track to characters Young Neil and Knives Chau. The camera zooms out and we realize it is extended zooming – creating the illusion of a space that isn’t actually there. This is an effective combination of both editing and camera movement and could represent how young people have their whole lives ahead of them and the freedom to do whatever they want to do, they just cant always see the opportunities ahead. The text of ‘Universal Pictures Presents’ comes on screen at the bottom moving with the zoom – making it look like it is printed on the carpet. Every time Scott hits a loud cord drawn lightening blots surrounds the band, which is in keeping with the graphic genre. The lightening bolts connote power and give the band a sense of authority when they play music. Suddenly the text of ‘Scott Pilgrim’ comes on the screen in sharp lightening style font. The camera tilts upwards, leaving ‘Scott Pilgrim’ on the screen and adding ‘vs. the World’ to it, in a bold font.

COSTUME

The costumes that the characters wear in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World are very basic and lack any form of bright pattern or colour. The only character that appears to wear any form of colour in the opening sequence is Knives Chau who is seen in a forest green turtle neck jumper. The colour green connotes jealousy which is well suited to this character as she becomes very attached to and jealous of Scott later in the film as he begins a new relationship. In contrast to this the other characters are all wearing different shades of grey with the lead singer of the band in a chequered shirt. The grey shades represent the monotone atmosphere and mood of sections of the film. This links to the representation of teenagers and the stereotypical view that they are lazy and do nothing with their lives.

EDITING• There is an exceptional amount of editing techniques used throughout the opening title sequence for this film. The

animation of each individual credit and the backgrounds they are placed on. When designing the backgrounds the designers use a technique called scratch film. Scratch film is unpredictable, and the artists needed control over what they were seeing on screen as they had a tight timeframe. First, we doped out the entire sequence on the computer so we could accurately sync to the music, then make micro adjustments to be sure of what we were getting. Instead of scratching directly onto film we then set up up a system of scratching onto sheets of acetate, which is much the same thing really. We could get about a second of film onto one sheet.

• Then, second, they deliberately kicked it around the floor a bit to pick up a lot of dirt, scratches, and hairs. Then each sheet went into a fantastically high resolution negative scanner and the scans were chopped back up into frames. There was a lot of tweaking of colours as printing onto 35mm is a convoluted, maddening experience: a lot of colours — mostly the ones we wanted to use — are illegal. I also unearthed a scratch film I made at college and we had that scanned into the computer. It was perfect for checking our colours and mark-making, and in the end we used little bits of it in the finished piece.

More Editing

• The clear narrative and genre conventions of the titles display, help set the tone for the opening sequence which I feel is fundamental part to addressing the audience to your film. The use of colour, editing transitions, typography and music all contribute to the success of these titles and even more importantly they all relate and work together to produce a visually engaging piece of cinema. It highlighted to me the importance of demonstrating conventions of the genre straight from the start so the audience can gain an understanding of what your trying to achieve. I have found using either black and white text is the best use of colour as they can be represented on most colour backgrounds and are clear and easy to read. I have also learnt that music is also a fundamental part to a success of a title sequence and needs to be relevant to the genre and typography. I have also found that even very graphic, animated title sequences like this one, still use simple conventional editing transitions which look professional and sophisticated.

Sound• To accompany the titles, a prologue briefly introduces the main

characters that makes up a band. The director effectively incorporates the music in to the acting having the characters perform the music as Diegetic sound. This works well as it shows the relevance the music has in setting the scene to the film. The music has strong chaotic and vibrant connotations which links nicely to the style of titles that are displayed. The titles also fit in time with the pace of the music which helps them to flow effectively and appear aesthetically pleasing. Whilst I was researching I discovered the directors initial idea was to have the titles represent Knives (Scott’s first girlfriends) imagination represented through how she responds to the music.

• “We wanted to visualize the music and have every graphic, symbol, and subliminal image in time with the music — a hypnotic barrage of colour, light, and music. The idea was to have it as if the animation is a manifestation of how cool the music is in Knives’ head. That's why we end the sequence on her watching, the titles are like her brain is exploding with how cool the track is.”– Edgar Wright

Links to other sequences and final piece

• I found that a similar layout is used in this title sequence when compared to the Napoleon Dynamite title sequence with regards to credit order. I could perhaps use ideas similar to this in my own title sequence however I would like to use a much wider range of shots and camera movement- which came through much more strongly in the Juno sequence. However I loved the inclusion of the first scene of film and how that led to the start of the title sequence. This is sometimes rare to see in films but it was a really interesting style and layout. This element really helped to bring through enigma codes and a narrative before the film properly started and I am very keen to try this out when shooting my sequence to give myself more options when it comes to editing.