General Conventions - Titles, Idents, Production Context DRFT

SUMMARY 

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Idents 

    You often see 3-4 Company Idents at the beginning of a film, however this may change surrounding several different factors
    E.G ( The production company of the film )

    Different companies have different idents and therefor the length of the ident's time on screen changes, along with the complexity of the ident. A more complex ident may include a lot of CGI and special effects, where as the idents on the simpler side of the spectrum may only have the companies name in a camera shot. This is often based around the companies budget (The higher the budget the better the ident)
    This is a great signifier as to the type of production company ( Whether a subsidiary of the big 5 e.g(Working title) or an Indie company e.g(Warp))

    A lot of Idents will have their own sound however depending on the film the sound may be cut out in order to build narrative enigma. This being said, its unlikely that a high budget production company, like one of the big 5, will have their ident edited in order to add an effect to the film.
    On the topic of audio in the idents of a film, an audio bridge could and often is used ( An audio bridge is when the audio in the film is added before the 1st shot is shown as to allow for a smoother transition from titles and idents into the film. The audio bridge won't cover anymore than 1 ident if it covers any)
    Audio Bridges will most likely be added over the last ident, and that will almost never be a large production companies ident and it's much more likely to be a Indie company's ident or a subsidiary of the larger company.

    The size of a production company has a large impact on the ident sequence in a film. In addition to all the points already discussed, the larger company will be the first ident shown followed by the smaller companies in order. The amount of time a big 5 ident is on screen is much longer then an Indie's ident length E.G( The big 5 ident could last around 20seconds whereas a Indie may only be 6-7 seconds)


    • audio bridge between titles (eg Bride of Chucky, Baby Driver)
    • Foley sound for verisimilitude (Baby Driver, Chucky)
    • music can be diegetic or non-diegetic
    • Can be used to build tension/narrative enigma

    Examples of Idents:


    ...


    (Warner Brothers Ident)
    ...
     ...
    (Paramount pictures Ident)
    ...

    (Summit entertainment Ident)
    ...

    (Disney Ident)
    ...

    One point to note is the fact that three idents for an Indie film combined are still less than the total time the Disney ident is on screen Disney being one of the Big 5 


    Titles 

    - About 20-30 titles, but sometimes only the companies and the director
    - The duration of a title sequence     is usually about 5 minutes long
    - 5 company names are usually mentioned
    • Total time that titles are on screen varies in different scenarios (from 5 mins to minimum of 20 seconds) 
    • When referring to a company, the text will usually say 'In association with' or 'presents'
    • When the director is mentioned, it might say 'a film directed by'
    • Actors will be referred to as 'introducing', 'starring' or 'featuring'
    • If the director is an auteur, their name is likely to be either first for emphasis, or last
    • The fonts change based on the genre 
    • Usually serif fonts would be associated with horror/slasher/thriller style of genre
    • When there is a bigger star, they will earn a bigger title as the aim of the production is to bring more people in with the star power
    • if it is an auteur director, their name is likely to be larger and have a greater focus on it
    • Upper case fonts usually bring a larger focus to them, so the important parts might have a large upper case font
    • The upper case font also depends on the genre as it doesn't fit with genres like romance
    • Colour also depends on the genre
    • A horror might have a red or blue tint (intertextualising Halloween if blue)
    • Zombieland is an example of a movie including interactive titles



    THE SPECIFIC WORDING + ORDER
    - When a title refers to a company, it will present that company with 'In association with Company X' or 'Company X presents'

    - When presenting the director, the wording is usually 'A film directed by Director X', however if the director is an auteur the wording is 'A Director X film'

    - Actors are often listed using ' Introducing' however if the film is a star waggon 'starring' or 'featuring' is more common

    - Films often go company, director, then actors however this changes depending on several factors. An example is if the director is an auteur, their title is more often first. This is a similar circumstance to films that are star waggons.


    Starring, With, Introducing, Co-starring (Actors)
    Technical Roles (about 10):
              - Casting by x
              - Costume designed by x
              - Music composed by x
              - Editor x
              - Director of photography x
              - Lightning by x
              - Production designer x
             - Screenplay by x
              - Executive Producer, Produced by x
              - Directed by x
    Directed by X
    (Director is the only one who always gets credited twice)

    DESIGN
    - The style of the titles usually is based around the genre, similar to points like the title colour and font.

    - Serif fonts are often used in genres such as romance, drama, social realist, horror, slasher and thriller. Serif fonts tend to signify a more serious film. Where as fonts that are Sans serif are used for genres like action and comedy, as they can be impactful or simple

    - Depending on the importance of the title, such as a 'starring' title, or an auteur title, the font size will be bigger and tend to stand out more.

    - Whether the title is uppercase or not depends, as it can be used to bring focus to the title, however it doesn't fit with some genres such as Romance

    - The colour of the title is most commonly white, as it can be used with most genres if not all, in combination with the font. It also allows important titles like star or auteur to be further highlighted by having them on a black background ( a common background )
    FX, ANIMATION
    - Non-diegetic titles are titles that are added post production and often move through the scene all though don't effect, just look cool. An example of this is in Zombieland

    - Equally there are also diegetic titles that are in the scene that actors could touch or see in real time.

    - Often titles just fade out, however different title transitions are also based around genre, so that they fit better with the film.






    Production context

    Indie v Conglomerate



    '71 box office (Warp Indie film)
    Green Zone box office (Big 5 conglomerate)


    There are several points that separate a Indie film from a Big 5 conglomerate film, such as distribution, cast, target audience, budget and overall box office (etc.) Most of these points are intertwined with one another

    To start the budget of a big 5 film will always be larger then an Indie companies budget ( E.G - Le Donk and Scor-zay-zee had a budget of 48k compared to Green zone, with a budget of 100million)

    With the budget then you can get A-list celerity actors, that help market your film and then you are more likely to get distribution and then finally get high box office figures 

    - and clearly Indie companies can't truly do that.


    HOWEVER
    there are outliers for both sides, such as films like avatar and Star Wars with no A list celebrity actors
    and Green zone didn't make profit with the HUGE budget it used




    short audio visual clips played before films

    • first thing to see at a film opening
    • one of the simplest area of film openings 
    • showing their brand to the audience 
    • usually 3 company idents to spread the risks
    • usual to be 1 - 5 secondslong per ident
    • idents for conglomerate or subsidiaries are longer than indie idents
    • a lot of production companies competing
    • Big Six are dominant both in distribution and production

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