A credit timeline can be described as a breakdown of the opening credits. Within it there is an idea off how may tittle cards have been used, in out points of audio and when text appears on the screen. This is very useful and can help a student to understand the way opening credits could be written and approximately how long they should be on screen. There is no particular order when title cards appear on screen, many films have it in different orders but there tends to be quite common titles one sees. Such as; Director, Actors, Producers, Executive Produces, Film Title, Editor, Costume Designer & Institution.
The pictures seen below are both Credit Timelines that i have created. The top one was created in class and it is based on the opening credits of 'Panic Room'. It is the first ever Credit timeline that i have created and it was not easy too understand at first but gradually it all came together. I understood the fact that the bottom lines resembles the in and out points of the background music and the top line represents the length of it. Around the lines we have title numbers which represent at what time the title cards come up on screen.
For homework we were told to create our own title card and the one towards the bottom is the one i created using powerpoint. It is based on the opening credits of 'Fast & Furious 6'. There were more title cards in 'Panic Room' but that just means that there were less names on screen even the fact that 'Fast & Furious 6' is longer. Regardless of that i can now fully say i am confident in creating Credit Timeline and i am sure i can do one without any assistance and with full understanding.
During the lesson we were told to get into groups of three and try to recreate the 'Anatomy Of A Murder' opening title sequence. To achieve this we had to use stop animation and edit it ourselves while trying our best to get it too look as close as the original. We aimed to have it at 12 fps (Frames Per Second) making it more simple to create.
One of the hardest things in this task was in fact to keep the camera still and have the cut outs placed in the right place at the right time. Apart form that, this was a very simple piece to create especially in the edit. I was able to add text and the background music with no problem what so ever. In editing we were told to try an get the duration to around about 20 seconds and it was difficult to get it just about right. Apart from that the editing was not very time consuming it was only getting the right duration that took some time.
In class we were told to create a presentation based around our favourite title seqeunce. Within it we had to contain; Conventions, Genre, Codes, Target Audience, Institution, Text & The Reason We Like It. Once the presentation was complete we where told to present it in front of the class. I based my favourite title sequence around Monsters Inc.
A theme can be described as being the underlay of a specific idea. It tends to act as support for the general idea of a specific piece of work, art or medium. The theme would mostly be displayed during the title sequence of a film, TV programme or video game, to give an idea to the audience.
There is a common theme going on through out the opening title sequence of dexter. One can connote that the whole theme of the show is blood. Blood is presented from the very beginning when the fly lands on his arm and he kills. This then persists right till the end with the grapefruit where the remains of it looks like blots of blood, due to the red colour that is presented within the fruit.
Not even that, we can judge themes based on Genre, Narrative and even Location. The location theme is presented in the EastEnders opening scene. as it begins the audience would see a water style animation then as it zooms out one can establish it as being a river. Towards the end people would be able to then understand that it is the River Thames, as it is one of the landmarks of London.
STYLES
A style tends to relate to a method or the aesthetics of a film of television programme, one can ever say that a style is quite symbolic. Yet when someone thinks of a style the main question that would arise is how is something created? This can be done through editing, camera angles or even the colour.
The video example used is from the film Superbad and the style it portrays is the old 70's look. The Mis-En-Scene is what really proves the style of this opening sequence. The sound, lighting and editing give it that 70's look. The sound is an old music track from the 70's it is very upbeat and even the actors are dancing in that very old disco style. The lighting used is very limited and the colour choices used are from that specific era, thus again giving it that look. Finally the editing this helped it too give that old style effect. There is much of a flickering effect used giving it that old TV style look, such as the white lines and the the space between each phosphor dots, giving it a limited PPI.
