Planning Opening Credits - Miss Georgiou

Opening credits are shown at the very beginning and are a list of the most important members of the production. The order of the list usually starts with the director or the most famous actor/actress in the film, this is then followed with the title and then the rest of the members of the production. Credits are usually shown as text overlapped on a blank screen or static pictures, or sometimes on top of action in the show/film. Opening credits within a film are very important as the fonts, style and layout included is what helps convey and foreshadow what type of film the audience will be watching. In this post I will be evaluating the importance and techniques added to the opening credits from the film se7en. 

se7en opening credits

The beginning of the credits of se7en include a variety of extreme close ups of different objects, this gives the viewers an idea of what they re about to watch as it emphasises the size of the subjects. The use of the colour scheme of white and black helps convey that there is a contrast between both good and evil within the film, in a thrillers case protagonist and antagonist. Moreover, both colours represent meanings that juxtapose  each other e.g white represents life, goodness, hope and light. Whereas black represents darkness, mystery , power and death. The use of the two colours makes the scene calming and dull making the audience feel suspense to why the colours are so simple. Also at 0:36 - 0:38 the screen is filtered with the colour red over an image of a man in water, the use of the red filter foreshadows death, blood and murder in the film as red is associated with blood, fire, heat , desire and danger i.e. As the red filter comes unexpectedly this shocks the viewers as they are used to the white, black and greyish scenery that the film was portraying at first, this could imply that there may be an event that is unexpected and will shock the audience.

The Title 

The style of font within this opening credits is a font that mirrors a child's handwriting due to its lack of neatness, this could portray a character in the movie who has the mentality of a child so he could be a psycho in the film. When the actual credits are shown, the words are flashed into different sizes as they dissolve, this gives a 'trippy' visual which makes the audiences eyes widen as they don't expect it. The use of this could represent the mentality of the antagonist and show that his mind set is not balanced, this is conventional to a thriller as it helps portray the characters and make the audience understand a little more about them through the text. 

someone using a razor to peel their skin

The iconography shown in the opening scene of the se7en are sharp objects, drawings and pens etc , the use of these items imply that the person who is creating all of them is planning something that is dangerous which they'll use against their victims. In the scene, theres a hand shown and images but nothing else, this means that the person behind the camera does not want to be seen. The use of this hidden identity is conventional to a thriller as antagonists do not like to be seen as they like to have a surprising introduction in the film which shocks the victims and audience. However, as the audience cannot see who's behind the actions in the scene, they will create a distant relationship with who ever it is as they cannot trust them because they're not showing their identity which creates tension and suspense. The order of appearances and different production jobs are in the following : director, most famous actors names for example Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman,  the title of the film which was shown in larger bolder text,  the other actors that aren't as important as the first two, casting, music  costumes , editors, production , director of photography, co producer, executive producer, written by, produced by and who the directer is again. In this film the name of the director is seen twice, this is because he may be known and they believe the audience will recognise his name due to watching his other creations, so this will be beneficial to the film as it'll produce more sales the more profit everyone makes.

Individual Opening Credit

Individually all of my group members went on the mac and went on the software Final Cut Pro to create our own individual credit that we believed would be suitable for our opening thriller. Firstly when I started creating my thriller I searched for the font I believed had a weird, child look handwriting feel to it. This was the font Nanum Brush Script because the font was clear but a bit crooked which I thought could mirror my antagonist state of mind as when he was child he was traumatised so the font could represent him mentally.  After this I selected the colour font I wanted the writing to be, I decided to use the colour which will be seen on a black screen. The use of this is conventional to a thriller as it extinguishes the "good vs evil "( therefore protagonist vs antagonist). As this followed the narrative theory of Aristotle, I believed the two colours white and black will be perfect together as they both have opposite meanings to each other e.g black represents evil, darkness, death and power whereas white represents goodness, life , hope and innocent. After deciding what colour and font I wanted, I went on the Final Cut Pro x and looked at the effects they had to put on it, I chose the earthquake effect which was simply an effect that made the font shake slyly. I chose this because the shakiness would give the audience a jerky feel because the font wasn't stable. I took this inspiration from the Se7en opening credit because in theres the fonts would flicker and flash foreshadowing that something or someone is not stable within the film. In my film this person would be the antagonist as he has had a bad history so within the film his killing is his instability because he is unpredictable on what his going to do next. This is conventional to the thriller genre because it makes the audience feel tensed as the fonts is not balanced, also credits like this help establish to audience what type of genre the film is and give them an idea on what is going to be about. After adding the earthquake effect, I watched back my opening credit and I thought it was still a bit dull so I searched for more effects add on to the font. I came across the effect prism on Final Cut Pro x and this was simply making the font look more 3D like as the colours added were red, blue and green. The use of the colour red would connote blood, danger and action , all these meanings were essential to my thriller as it did have all three aspects in the opening. So again showing the bit of red will also help establish to the audience what they're watching and inform to them that there may be blood and danger included in the film. I was inspired by the se7en film because of the way it had the flickered font but within mine instead of doing that, I made the font into prism which helped it stand out more which will engage the audience more. Furthermore the positioning of my title will be in the middle so that it immediately grabs the audience attention when it appears. For the order of appearance I decided to copy the format that se7en had which was: famous actors, the title of the film , the actors with less screen time, casting, music, costumes, editors, production , director of photography, co producer, executive producer, written by, produced by and then the directer is again. This is because I believed that the most seen actors should be said first so that audience can learn to know them. When I get back into my group, I will show and explain to them why I made my credits this way and how so that they understand the purposes and why I believe my opening credit will be suitable to our opening thriller scene. 

Rishikas Tile part 1 

Rishika's Opening Credit

In Rishikas opening credit she chose to use the colours white and black for the word ' Humanity' , the font white and the background black. This was to show good and evil within the film, because in our thriller there will be an antagonist and victims which follow the Aristotle narrative theory. The font she used is Octin Spray Paint, this font looks quite odd as it is all in capitals as well as making a bold statement to the audience that this is the title of the film. I think this draws the audiences attention and also the boldness states that something or something big is going to happen within the film which will have an impact on the viewers. The effect she added onto the credit was the underwater effect from Final cut pro x , the use of this made the title move around the screen as if it was wave. This could suggest theres going to be a ripple effect within the film which impacts characters in it, also the underwater effect makes the title look more gloomy making the audience want to continue watching the movie. Secondly in Rishika's title there are two parts, one being the "Humanity" and the other being "Off". The Off occurs straight after seeing the first part, this exaggerates its placement and also emphasises on the word off suggesting that something or someone is going to behave differently. As you

Rishika title part 2

see above, the Humanity is coloured white, however the off in her title is still white but with a red outline. This suggests to the audience that theres going to be blood involved as the colour red indicates death, blood and danger. I think the use of the change of colours of the outline emphasises the danger the protagonists are going to face in the film and plus like the sudden change in the title, it could also imply theres going to be a sudden change in someones life in the film. The advantages are that the separation of the two parts of the title suggest that theres going to be a clear divide between the antagonist and protagonist but as the off is outlined with red, it suggests the victims will be caught by the antagonist. This makes the audience feel curious and tense as they want to know who the antagonist is. Also because the title has a wave effect on it, it makes it catch the eye of the audience and make them want to follow the waves of the title, like they would want to follow the narrative. My only disadvantages are that the use of having two separate parts of the title may be time consuming within the clip, considering this is only the opening thriller it might make the audience feel bored. Also as Rishika stated that she may include an earthquake effect also with the underwater effect, I think this would be too much and distracting for the credits, as the most important thing we want is for the audience to pay attention to our actual thriller opening. In spite of that, I think Rishika's idea communicates all important things across within our thriller to the audience which is very essential.

Ella's Opening Credit

Ella's title included a coloured background which had a ghostly effect as it had a vignette affect but in the colour white. Also in the shape of which could be a splatter of blood, is the title in a dull normal font saying the full title ' Humanity Off'.  As white connotes life, hope and innocence, the colour of the blob like the vignette background could represent the protagonist in the film suggesting they're vulnerable. In contrast the font of the title is black like the soft focus in the middle of the frame, this could represent the antagonist as black usually connotes danger, death and power. When played, the title does flicker and shakes which can be used to show the antagonists life as disturbed and a blur and also how they're feeling. The advantages of her credits will be that theres a clear example of defining that theres going to be an antagonist and victim in our film due to the two colours black and white being used together. Also the flickering and shakes in the title makes the title look more interesting to look at which draws the audiences attention to the title. However, the disadvantages of Ella's credits will be that the use of an X-ray like filter, could be misguided and inform to our audience that the film is a sci-fi thriller, which it isn't and it doesn't really suit our narrative. Also I think that theres too much of the colour white, which could be seen as the film is about the victims when it is really about the antagonist and his power. To conclude, I don't think Ella's credits really connect with our narrative and I wouldn't recommend it for our final credits due to its lack of conventions for our personal thriller. 

The Opening Credits we decided to go with was Rishika's. This is because of the interesting way she introduced the title with the underwater effect, this exaggerated the antagonist mind, implying it is always the same as its a ripple effect and will effect others. Also she use the colours white and black which establish the different roles in our thriller i.e protagonists and antagonist. Moreover the colour red which is outlined in the word off suggests danger, blood and action which is conventional to a thriller. I believe that our credits will be really interesting for the audience to watch because of the effects and the colours we have used and Rishika's opening credits follow the conventions in our thriller easily. Also the order of the production will be similar to the films se7en which was director, most seen actors ,  the title of the film , the other actors that aren't as important as the first two, casting, music  costumes , editors, production , director of photography, co producer, executive producer, written by, produced by and who the directer is again. We chose to include the production order this way because we want the audience to know who directed the film mainly and also the main actors that had a key role within the thriller film.