Titles And Fonts

Throughout out film opening we used titles – when showing the our names in between shots with very plain font on a black background – this simple yet effective style is a convention used by thriller films regularly, however for the title of the film we had to use a more sinister style to make it stand out from the names. We downloaded a few fonts from www.dafont.com and eventually decided on a stony style font which represented the cold, harsh nature of the hooded man in our opening.

We also used the Paramount title at the start of the opening to show what institution we were using to distribute our film; we decided to use Paramount as our institution as it is a large institution that can screen our film world wide, and with the large budget that it has, it can help us produce a good film. At first we weren’t sure whether we could use the Paramount logo at the start as we thought that we might be accused of copyright, but eventually our teacher gave us permission to feature it.
Overall I feel that the fonts and titles that we used were very effective and worked well in the film; I think we did very well to use the conventions effectively.

Filming Hotel Road

Thriller Conventions
When filming our film opening we had to consider what conventions ere used in thriller films, so we did some research by watching several film openings.
In our film opening we used many thriller conventions, one of the main and most effective being the music that we added which caused a great deal of suspense as the eerie sounds helped create the mood that something was wrong. Another major convention that we used was the darkness that featured throughout the whole opening; however there was a problem with the darkness as we in fact made the opening too dark and you could not see some of the main bits of action, such as the figure who wore all black was very hard to see, and since he could not be seen very clearly, you do not feel the full effect of the film.
We tried to create a tense feeling throughout the opening by contrasting slow zooms onto harsh objects, which we got from the opening of Final Destination, and quick sharp cuts. This tense feeling leaves the audience on edge and makes the character seem more threatening when he appears subtly throughout the film – although we did not use the traditional jumpy appearances I still feel that it scares the audience.
The opening credits of our film opening were originally jagged but after watching several film openings we decided that the conventional font is to have plain, white font on a black background.

Problems When Filming
When filming this opening we experienced many problems the main problem was finding time to film the opening as we set it at a member of our group’s home; however she was very busy as it was the Christmas period and she was working a lot so it wasn’t very convenient. We also had many editing problems as we had only just learnt how to use Pinnacle Studios, so we had to re-film several times, which proved to be very time consuming, which was an issue after we started to get a bit behind.

institutions

Institutions are a huge factor in everyday life, it is almost impossible to go a day without seeing something owned by an institution such as Disney or Sony. we now see institutions so often that we don't even realise and simply ignore the impact it is having on us - such as the biased view that it is implementing on us, as institutions own nearly every single medium from films to newspapers.

one of the biggest institutions is Sony Corporation who own blu-ray, dvd, playstation, sony ericsson, sony music entertainment, columbia pictures, sony pictures home entertainment and sony computer entertainment.

owning dvd means that they gain money and have a say in every dvd that is released, and playstation means that they can put the biased opinions into many games which is a key area in the life of many young people who are easily influenced.

film opening example

Lauren was wearing a long dress and Jen was wearing a colourful dress which showed that they were going out and I was wearing all black and a hoodie covering my face creating a hint of danger.

Animated Storyboard

Final Destination Opening Analysis

Final Destination starts with non-diegetic music. The music is orchestral but creates an eerie mood through the high screeching sounds that sound like screams. The film starts with a lightning strike immediately creating a sense of danger, as it often signifies horror; the camera then pans down the window showing the rain on the window and displays the title which is written in quite plain font except for the letter 'E' which stands out, the writing is then slashed and fades away - the slash also creates horror as you imagine the writing being sliced. the opening credits also appear in this plain white font throughout the opening. I think that the writing is so plain and small because the director does not want to distract you from the actions that are occurring in the background, as there are many hints that also suggest the genre of horror/thriller: the first is the strange figure which looks harmless, but thanks to the ark light does create tension - there is then a shot of the shadow of this figure which enhances the thought of this figure being a threat.

The next shot is a very important one as it uses a plain household appliance, a fan, and makes this fan seem terrifying by using a diegetic growling sound that the fan is making as it blows and flashes past the camera. The fan is used throughout the opening, with this growling sound and blowing pages over to show images and stories of death. The camera makes certain words stand out with extreme close up shots of words like "death" and "evil".

As the fan moves there is a face that appears quickly in a flash behind it. This creates terror as the face is unclear although it looks like a clown and there is a short sadistic laugh - although clowns are not very scary in real life, the dark room and the flashing motion that it appears in does create fear in the audience.

The final shot is a close up of a page in which the words "this is the end" are written, this shot ends with a fade into darkness but the words stay on screen for a couple of seconds longer and then they fade as well - this emphasizes the phrase and makes the reader think about them more; this is also a great way to set up the film and let the audience know what the genre is.