Film Sequence Research and Ideas

After Monday I have been researching into some of the title sequences of my own. I have been trying to collect the sequences that I feel work very well in aiding the start of the film or tv series. By doing this I am able to gain new ideas and see how the themes of the film are carried through to the opening. Some of the films sequences that I looked at were the following: 'The Great and Powerful Oz' and 'Series of unfortunate events,' both of these opening titles are quite similar however they are both trying to aim for a dark comedy family film. Both of these use a very beautiful and unique style which covey the style of the films very well - they capture the audiences attention immediately with their bold story telling before the film starts. The style that they have been made into a animation that has bee created with mixed media, such as black paper and etc. I also looked into the 'Breaking dawn part 2' and the 'Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory' openings as they both use colour and imagery especially well. Starting with 'Willy Wonka', a montage of delicious chocolate imagery leaves the audience longing for the taste of this food - it also prepares the audience for the film that they are about to watch. The 'Breaking dawn' opening used the colours red, black and white throughout to expresses how the main protagonist has been transformed into a vampire. These colours are presented through image and the text. The imagery shows red objects freezing and becoming ice which connects to the idea of the beauty being preserved and the image of blood freezing also.

As well as this, throughout the second day I have been researching the four different genres and exploring the films that I may want to create the opening sequences too. Although I haven't decided on all four I have found two films and a tv drama that I'm interested in. I know that i want to create the opening for a TV drama and thriller as personally these are the two I am most interested in. The TV drama I have chosen is the BBC series based on the book by Thomas Hardy, 'Tess of the D'ubervilles.' Which is a period drama about a girl facing the aftermath of being raped and the reactions of those that she loves. For the Thriller I have found two films, the first is 'The Others' which is set in the 1940s it is about a mother whose home is disturbed by the presence of ghosts. The other film is 'Wait until dark' made is the 1960s stars Audrey Hepburn as a blind lady who is invaded by con men in her home, pretending to be friendly characters trying to find a doll containing a large substance of heroin.

Day 3 (Friday)
I've been looking at the art of 'paper cut out' recently, and wondering whether this may be a nice concept to use for one of my title sequences. In particular I think it would work best with Tess of the D'urbervilles - when speaking with some of my peers and tutor in a crit we agreed that it had a country feel to it. It reminded us of the decorative art pieces made by women in the English country during the period of time Tess of the D'urbervilles is set. In addition I feel that the paper cut is very beautiful and can have many possibilities within in animation. My initial idea would be to cut out the letters and patterns one at a time to reveal the title of the drama series - slowly and mysteriously. I would use white paper to represent the element of purity - a main theme of the story.