MEDIA LANGUAGE - TITLES

TWO TYPES OF TITLES:
Inter-Titles + Titles on live action.

Title giving exposition and anchorage to the date and/or location.

Titles will mainly always be edited in, being called non-diegetic titles, however there are examples of titles that are part of the mise-en-scène, called diegetic titles.

Opening EG7 - '71

'71

Yann Demange (2014)

BBFC 15 rating, MPAA R 

LEAD ACTORS: Jack O'Connell
GENRE: Historical action war thriller

PRODUCTION COMPANIES: Warp, Screen Yorkshire

TITLES:

Whether titles appear over the action or a blank screen varies, in this case after the idents, it is white on black screen. One can often connote the genre from the font and style, while it has some minimalistic serif attributes which often signifies comedy, it is a white writing on black screen, and it isn't bubbly. This connote a serious and non-comedic film, thereby signifying the genre drama.  The narrative has already started, as we can already hear the sound of boxing, fighting exasperated breaths and cheering. The information of who exactly has been fighting has been withheld from the audience, thereby creating narrative enigma, another common convention of a film opening.

...

SHOT 1

The narrative enigma is pursued further with a black screen

SHOT 2

A whip pan is being use to cut straight into  the action, we can see a green shirt

SHOT 3


While he has been already been on camera, the protagonist has now been introduced through a medium close-up. His journey throughout the whole film, one of brutality and bloodshed, is signified through the conflict. But the character he is fighting is not the antagonist, but the fact that he is fighting a member of the British army is a possible signifier of the revelation that the true enemy in this film turns out to be figures in the British army.


SHOT 4


Medium close-up of the protagonist, with other young males in the same clothes, who will remain throughout the film as minor characters.

SHOT 5

A slightly lower-angled medium longshot.








Throughout this scene the the protagonist does not speak, signifying his lack of change he can bring throughout the narrative.

Opening EG6 - Blade Runner

WHAT I ENDED UP APPLYING

• Soundtrack signifies the genre and mood

POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCE

• Science-fiction is one of my favourite genres, and while it is possible to create a film opening for a Media coursework production, I personally feel I couldn't achieve this my skills at the moment, as this is my first attempt at a fully-fledged media production
• That the protagonists or primary antagonists don't always appear in the opening scene is useful for my general knowledge of film openings, with my limited time frame of two to three minutes, I cannot afford to exclude the main characters of the planned full film

Blade Runner

Ridley Scott, 1982

BBFC 15 rating (Final Cut), MPAA 12 rating

Production companies: The Ladd Company, Shaw Brothers
Distributor: Warner Bros.

Lead actors: Harrison Ford, Sean Young, Rutger Hauer                                

Budget: $28m Box Office: $33.8m

Opening duration: 6'56

SYNOPSIS:

 sci-fi based on Philip K.Dick's novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" (who also wrote the book the popular Amazon Prime series "The Man In The High Castle" is based.directed by now Hollywood legend Ridley Scott (fun fact: started out as being offered to design the Daleks, but declined!), who had recently brought the highly successful horror/sci-fi hybrid Alien. Now seen as the archetype of the cyberpunk subgenre of sci-fi. Harrison Ford in the middle of his Star Wars prime fame, but his casting plus the IP didn't bring in a mass audience as the Star Wars films, despite being set a year before The Return Of The Jedi when the appetite for the sci-fi icon would have been high.  The narrative can be followed back to the Frankenstein complex, and that book's main theme of a creator being haunted by his creation, both hugely influentual narratives for media in general.. It bears many resemblance to the later remake of Battlestar Galactica of the mid 2000s

IDENTS

The Ladd Company, owned by Warner Bros, defunct since 2007. Their signature sound is used for 

There is a black in between, withholding information from the audience. This is a form of narrative enigma, can be traced back to Roland Barthes's mystery code, the audience being   lured to solve a problem. 

TITLES:


As is common for dystopias and any film set in the future, we get a text setting out the scenario, so we already have narrative exposition  before the opening shot, clearly anchoring the setting, taking away some of the narrative enigma.

The titles start with a sound similiar to a soft version firearm being shot off, or a some form of engine starting.

HARRISON FORD 

BLADE RUNNER [centred]

RUTGER HAUER [] 

SEAN YOUNG

EDWRAD JAMES OLMOS

M. EMMET WALSH

DARYL HANNAH

WILLIAM SANDERSON

BRION JAMES

JOE TURKEL

AND JOANNA CASSIDY

SUPERVISING EDITOR TERRY RAWLINGS

MUSIC COMPOSED, ARRANGED, PERFORMED AND PRODUCED BY VANGELIS

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER IVOR POWELL 

PRODUCTION DESIGNED BY LAURENCE G. PAULL

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY JORDAN CRONENWETH

SCREENPLAY BY HAMPTON FANCHER

PRODUCED BY MICHAEL DEELEY

DIRECTED BY RIDLEY SCOTT 

MISE-EN-SCÈNE:

The opening shot landscape of a city at night, with explosions of fire in the distance going off as it fades from the black. What looks like a fire in the far background soon emerges as a space vehicle, similiar to those of Star Wars, clearly anchoring the futurist setting and sci-fi genre. 

REPRESENTATIONS:

The. 

AGE: D

ETHNICITY: Despite making some points on slavery and human racial arrogance, the main cast is still Caucasian.
 

SOCIAL CLASS: The man in suit, the man in a white can be connoted of much lower class. 

GENDER: 

NARRATIVE, GENRE, EXPOSITION:

The futuristic setting is clearly anchored through the space shuttle. Throughout the opening shots the camera is tracking forward closer to the building. It is not made clear whether the Replicant was in that shuttle, but if he was it could be seen as connoting we should feel empathise more with him.

The first voice we here is not a human voice, but that through a machine, can be connoting the mechanical hubris that this society and its human inhabitants are based on, and that this species isn't trustworthy. The interrogator is in a suit, a deconstruction of capitalism and formality. When we get close-ups of the technology used for the interrogation, soft/shallow focus is used for the background, connoting that these are powerful instruments of technology, but also that they are threatening. The mise-en-scène is bluely-lit, further anchoring the sci-fi genre

The one use of cinematography during between the Replicant and the interrogator is while there, after using medium shots and medium close-ups for both characters while cross-cutting between them. Soft focused with . The one close-up only used for Leon would seem to connote that he is the character we should. However, he suddenly turns from the victim into the murderer, another intertextual feature echoing back to the fate of the monster in Frankenstein, him lashing out at humans in revenge for their misery.

After that we cut to extreme longshots of the city, but still takes a while until the protagonist entering. 

SOUNDTRACK:

The soundtrack is has both an epic and tragic atmosphere to it.

Opening EG5 - The Danish Girl

WHAT I ENDED UP APPLYING

POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCE

The Danish Girl

Tom Hopper (2015)

BBFC 15, MPAA R

Running time of the opening sequence: 4:00 mins 

Lead actors: Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander

Genre: Period drama

Budget: $m
UK/US/World Box Office: £k, $k, £k. 

Production co's:  
Production financing:   
UK, US theatrical distributors: Universal 
 
LINKS: IMDB; RottenTomatoes  BoxOfficeMojo; The-  Numbers; Wiki; Official site/page; Facebook; Twitter

TRAILER

IDENTS:

Two idents: Universal and vertically integrated subsidiary Working Title, as is always the case for Working Title their ident is dubbed over with diegetic sound, however in this case Universal also have been dubbed (has been done, as I saw in Shaun Of The Dead for example, and has been done in early examples such as The Breakfast Club). Pretty Pictures along with other companies's idents are not present. 

A landscape/extreme longshot

....

The rule of thirds is applied, background is in shallow focus. This anchors her as an important character, and without any foreknowledge of the film, one could immediately connote that she is the protagonist, the Danish Girl. 

The time and location is given through a white caption in white upper-case letters. Again reflection, connoting the theme of artistic expressionism.

...
ONE OR TWO PROTAGONISTS?
From the editing it appears that we are following a couple. It is not quite clear, for we follow the two home together, we see them in bed together. Following the husband eventually signifies that he is the main character overall of the narrative.
The actress Alicia Vikander was nominated for and won (ceremony) the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, there was some controversy that she hadn't been nominated for the Best Actress category.

SOUNDTRACK:
The diegetic sound of water and rushing wind is soon added to the incidental non-diegetic sound.

This, like Psycho, only consists of incidental music, unlike historical films of more recent times like This Is England ,there is no music of the time to play alongside the film. The classical-like soundtrack fits the melancholic atmosphere of the film.

Opening EG2 - Le Donk & Scor-Zay-Zee

Le Donk & Scor-Zay-Zee

Shane Meadows, 2009

LEAD ACTORS Paddy Considine, 

                          Olivia Coleman, 

                          Dean Palinczuk, 

                          Shane Meadows

GENRE: Mockumentary

Camera zooms out. This isn't a glamorous location. The 

...

Opening EG3 - The Infidel

WHAT I ENDED UP APPLYING

• Diegetic music becoming non-diegetic music, with the first song from the soundtrack, also like I saw in Billy Elliot.
• An example of counter typing, however mine wasn't as interesting as this, due to the limits of a student production 

POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCE

• I would like to have countertypical representations like we have with the representation of Islam here, but also how I observed the representation of working class in This Is England, generally  going against the stereotypes that Working Title have, 

THE INFIDEL

Josh Appignanesi, 2010

PRODUCTION COMPANIES: Slingshot Productions, 
                                                 Met Film

DISTRIBUTORS: Revolver (UK)
                             Tribeca Film (US)

GENRE: Comedy-Drama (Dramedy) 

LEAD ACTORS: Omad Djalili

                            Richard Schiff

                            Archie Panjabi

                            Igal Noar

                            Matt Lucas

BBFC:  15                 MPAA: TV-PG

BUDGET:    
BOX OFFICE: $m (UK) $m (US) $m (worldwide)


CRITICAL KUDOS

ROTTING TOMATOES:                    IDMb: 

A full list of reviews listed on IDMb here.

You can find the full film uploaded to YouTube here (average quality with subtitles)

TRAILERS:

A recognisable pop tune, Faith by George Michael is used, a commercial touch. The comedy is pushed forward hear, no real signifiers of the dark/serious elements

SYPNOSIS:

Drama-comedy following a middle-aged, relaxed Muslim father who discovers later that he is actually adopted and is by birth Jewish, causing a mid-life crisis as he tries to find his new identity with this revelation, and a comical but very i

IDENTS:

Three idents, the first two being silent, the third having a signature sound.

TITLES:

It starts with red on black, a horror signifier normally, not the most fitting for dramedy.
Each title lasts 3 seconds with 2 seconds black between each. With the third title the audio bridge starts. 

SLINGSHOT, OMRADSMAN & REVOLVER ENTERTAINMENT PRESENT
IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE SALT COMPANY
A SLINGSHOT/MET FILM/OMRADSMAN PRODUCTION

After 40 seconds of live action, we get the next round of titles, this time lightblue and bold, slightly more fitting for comedy. 
We have the four main actors, signified with the final one being marked with and, often used for the antagonist.

OMID DJAJILI
RICHARD SCHIFF
ARCHIE PANJABI
AND IGAL NOAR

Normally we'd expect more actors for the secondary list, but here we only get one, wouldn't it have been simpler to add him on to the the primary list?

AMIT SHAH 

ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS JEREMY AMIAS  YONI MAGID  SHAHIN SOBHANI  

LINE PRODUCER CINDY IRVING 

CASTING DIRECTOR JULIE HARKIN CDG 

MAKE-UP & HAIR DESIGNER SARITA ALLISON 

COSTUME DESIGNER MARIANNE AGERTOFT 

ORIGINAL MUSIC BY ERRAN BARON COHEN 

PRODUCTION DESIGNER ERIK REHL

The return of the red titles on black for one title for the TV, they fade away before we cut back to Mahmud.

EDITED BY KIM GASTER

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY NATASHA BRAIER

The opening track is over, and the film title has appeared, normally that ends the credits, but no, we still get more, in bold non-serif light blue.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS OMID DJALILI  CAVAN ASH
PRODUCERS STEWART LE MARÉCHAL  UZMA HASAN  DAVID BADDIEL
PRODUCED BY ARVIND ETHAN DAVID
WRITTEN BY DAVID BADDIEL
DIRECTED BY JOSH APPIGNANESI

MISE-EN-SCENE:

....

REPRESENTATIONS:

SEXUALITY: ...

AGE: ...
SOCIAL CLASS: 

REGIONAL IDENTITY: 

GENDER: 

ABILITY/DISABILITY:

NARRATIVE, GENRE, EXPOSITION:
 
....

THE PROTAGONIST: Who do we follow? We follow him outside the house, and although we will see his son as well going with him, he has a moment on his own, and as he is pranked by the car, he looks up at the sky, foreshadowing his religious mid-life crisis.

SOUND:

There is an audio bridge when the third title on black comes on.