Titles And Openings In TV And Film

Titles and Openings

Titles are a very important part in Film and TV. They emphasise and display who put a certain role into a film to get the final production such as producers,actors and hair style.

It is necessary to include titles but they usually go unappreciated by the audience. The list of the main actors usually come first followed by producers, directors and the name of the film, however some films like to mix it up and include a entire credits within the opening which is what Skyfall does.

SKYFALL

Skyfall's opening is very different to the film as it is mostly animated. It also shows what genre the film is going to be which is Action - Thriller type film. The beginning of the film also gives away some major plot points of the story which is not easy to see unless you have seen the film before. The use of titles in this opening are to inform the audience on who did what in the making of the film. The use of white is to make the credits stand out and have the same look to the "Skyfall" in the start of the film and on movie poster/promotional posters.

BBFC (British Board of Film Classification)

Production Companies In TV And Film

Production Companies

A production company is a company that allows the film makers to get the film made. They essentially pay for everything such as props, costumes, scenery etc. production companies provide a physical basis on which to create the film. Without production company's we would not have the quality of film we have today.

This included in the fact that there are so many different production company's allow for such different genre of films to be made. There are the "big house" names such as 20th century fox and universal studios which can provide obscene amount of money to produce a film such as avatar, the Star Wars trilogy's or the avengers and there are many smaller film production companies which have considerably lower budgets. These companies usually produce films such as Blair witch project etc.




Universal studios is an American production co pant which is known for producing films such as E.T, Jurassic Park and Jaws. It is part of what is known as "Hollywood big six" which is comprised of film production companies such as 20th century fox. It's the third oldest major film production company in the world.

The Universal Film Manufacturing was founded on April 30,1912, in New York.  It is a extremely large production company with a revenue of approximately 4.240 billion American dollars.



Film4 is an independent film productions company which is in England. The company has created films such as 12 years a slave, Attack the block and 4 lions.

Film4 makes predominately British films that are catered for a national audience and not an international audience. They do not have very large Hollywood budgets which is why they do not advertise their films to the extent of a larger company. 

The Dark Knight - Code And Conventions

The Dark Knight 

The use of symbolic codes in the beginning is one of the main attractions to the film. The props used are unique such as the zip-line at the start and the masks and guns these bank robbers are wearing. The costumes that are used are not typical of a bank robbery considering the whole team is wearing suits. Also the music played is enthralling and builds suspense which leads up to a climax.

An establishing shot is used to set the scene, it shows a city with many skyscrapers and 2 men standing on top of a building doing something with a device. It zooms in closer to what they are doing and it shows them firing a zip-line from one building to the other which instantly tells the viewer that its going to be an action film.

The opening scene is based around one character and that is the Joker. The bank robbery doesn't introduce any main characters until the end which is when the joker makes a sudden entrance, disguised as a member of the bank robbers.  

The genre is instantly introduced as a action film, the men with the guns, the bank heist, a bus crashing into the building from the start all signs point to an action film. The use of music in this shows that it is an action film without even looking at the action you.

Skyfall - Codes And Conventions

Skyfall Codes and Conventions
The scene is set as James Bond (Protagonist) is slowly approaching a light down a corridor whilst he is in a pitch black hallway.

Conventions

The film introduces us to James Bond, Money penny and EM in the opening scene.

Camera Techniques - The camera techniques have alot of close ups or mid shots on James Bond, I'm assuming this is to interest the audience in the film and introduce Bond as the main character of the film.

The clothing used in most of these scenes are all classy which is unusual because they are in a desert environment next to a slum. They probably did this to introduce who the main characters and make them stand out in an otherwise strange location.

The titles are not in the first scene as the director wanted the audience to focus on the action rather than opening credits, the credits come after the beginning as the film is opening to a song, the word "Skyfall" is written in different font where the F is a pistol.

The lighting of the film is quite dark as the story is quite dark and mysterious. The title is unknown of its origin at the beginning apart from a document which may lead to some meaning.

The film does not give away any plot points apart from Bond begin shot which leaves the audience on the edge of their seat throughout.

At the beginning if the film we see a weak and defenceless James Bond whilst he gets shot off a bridge. As the film progresses, the audience get to see James Bonds development as a character and his developing story with other characters develop further.