Title Research - Alea Holland

The Orphanage
The titles to “The Orphanage” are quite interesting as instead of just being overlaid on an image or on their own on a black screen they match the action of what is happening on the screen with the children tearing away the wallpaper to reveal the titles underneath. This can add to the narrative as one reading of this would be suggesting that there is a hidden meaning in the story that would be revealed as the story progresses. Another reading of this could be that the orphanage could descend into chaos as the audience has already learned from the pervious scene that one of the girls at the orphanage is going to be adopted which could lead to some sort of revolt form the other children. Also the colour that is used in the title sequence creates a rather sinister mood as it is in black and white but the colour of the wall shown underneath where the wall paper has been ripped off is red. This creates a sinister mood as it stands out and could represent blood due to the fact that the wallpaper over the top is ripped away to show it.

The sinister mood is also added to by the soundtrack as the music used is very eerie and some of the beats in the music match the timing of the ripping of the paper which makes it parallel sound as it suit’s the action well.

The font style and colour used in the titles in very basic so stands out more from the intricate pattern form the wallpaper yet does not provide anything else to the plot.


Misery
The titles in ‘Misery’ are a lot simpler than those in ‘The Orphanage’ as they are simply super imposed over the top of a driving scene.
The Text itself is unusual as red is rarely used for titles even in thriller and horror films. However it is effective as the red contrasts to the white and green of the setting in the film allowing it to stand out and grab the audiences attention which is added to by the bold text font used. The credits do take up a large portion of the screen but due to the fact that the section of the film it is overlaid on is just showing a simple driving scene mostly made of of long shots and extreme long shots with no action in it. There are some mid close ups used on the character but in those shots titles are placed further down the frame so it doesn’t block out any key points in the story and just allows for the audience to see the characters journey.

This is an idea I feel we could possibly use for our group piece as one of the scenes is a long establishing scene where titles could be placed as we don’t want to distract form the action in the first scene. The soundtrack used in the title sequence is contrapuntal as the music is quite upbeat but as the scene progresses thing start to become more tense with the build up of weather and the close ups on the characters face allows the audience to see distress in his facial expression so will be anticipating something bad is going to happen. However I also think the soundtrack is dietetic sound as it is possible for the audience to assume that the sound is coming from the car radio and the music doesn’t stop until the car actually flips and hit’s the ground.

SevenThe titles for Seven are quite different when compared to the previous two as the overall style of the title sequence with the style of the text merges very well and almost becomes part of the props and setting in the scene. This connection is made mostly by the text style and animation that is used along with the cinematic style of the opening sequence. The font style used is sketchy and the animation used on the titles creates a distorting effect as they flash and shudder which fits well with the editing and the overall style of the opening sequence as the scene itself is quite distorted at times with use of the manual focus on props in the scene, overlaying images and sudden cuts.

The placement of the text varies as some are just on black and some are overlaid on the footage but placed in dark areas of the frame so no detail in the shots are blocked or missed as most of the shots are close ups of props in the scene.

This technique is also something we can use in terms of placement of our titles as the scene we are looking to place them in has quite a few props in the setting that help to set the scene and we don’t want the titles to be distraction form that nor blocking off certain objects. Soundtrack used in this opening sequence is non-dietetic yet adds to the tense mood and enigma created by this scene as the use of cinematography with restricted narration allows the audience to piece together for themselves the picture of what is happening. The sound used contains static bursts and other similar noises that are coupled with the distorting imagery creating a rather unsettling atmosphere as the audience cannot see clearly what is going on and the beats of the music seem to progressively build up towards the end of the credits sequence creating a tense atmosphere.

For our piece I think combining techniques from both ’Misery’ and ’Seven’ would work well with our scene in which we plan to place the titles.