Title Research: The Dead Zone

This blog is title research on the movie 'The Dead Zone' from watchthetitles.com.

How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film?
20 titles were displayed during the opening sequences of the film.

What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?
Images of nature/ a town, which is most-likely the setting are prioritized.

What connotations do the images carry?
The images carry a mysterious connotation because the audience wonders the significance of the images and may infer they are of the setting.

How is the genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset?
The thriller genre is reinforced by bringing a sense of mystery by playing mysterious-sounding music and showing images in which the audience does not understand the significance of yet.

How does the film establish an enigma from the outset?
The movie creates a sense of mystery by showing the images and the music as well as titles.

What strategies are used to ensure the film appears to its target audience?
Strategies of suspense and mystery are used to attract audiences who crave the common aspects of the thriller genre and who may of read Stephen King's novel, which the film is based on.

How has technology been used effectively? (Consider camera angles, transitions and editing techniques)
The editing techniques are very appealing, with an outline of the title over the background images appearing more and more as time goes on. There is also a fade out at the end of the title. There also is a lot of motion during the images being displayed, but not in an unprofessional way.

Title Research: Seven

This blog is title research on the movie 'Seven' from watchthetitles.com.

How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film?
31 titles are displayed during the opening sequence to the film.

What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?
Images of newspaper articles and what looks to be evidence of the article content is prioritized in the opening scene.

What connotations do the images carry?
These images carry a negative connotation as well as suggests an eerie/creepy mood.

How is the genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset?
The genre is reinforced by playing intense and scary music. This creates a level of suspense often seen in thriller movies.

How does the film establish an enigma from the outset?
It creates this level of suspense and makes the audience wonder what is going on next. It leads the audience to have to infer what the movie is about or what is going on.

What strategies are used to ensure the film appears to its target audience?
Strategies of suspense and intensity gets the audience nervous and intrigued, wondering what will happen next. Looking at the intro, it uses common thriller conventions, which attract usual audiences of thriller movies.

How has technology been used effectively? (Consider camera angles, transitions and editing techniques)
This intro uses transitions in between titles well. The titles are able to be read easily when they appear, and when they're not on screen, interesting flashes and glimpses of pictures appear that make the audience want to keep watching.

Title Research: Art of the Title Website

One website we are using is Art of the Title. We are using this website to research title sequences of

movies of the same genre as ours. They seem to be a great website for finding title sequences of recent

movies. They have a variety of title sequences of all kinds of movies on this website, including ones

which we plan on using to look at to research for our movie clip. The website has title sequences of

different movies from comedy movies to horror movies. It even has some show's opening title sequences

as well. It also includes lists of a lot of designers and studios that made the title sequences. One thing it

has that is useful is articles about some of the title sequences. These are helpful in finding descriptions

of the sequences. It also gives descriptions of each title sequence which is extremely helpful. When

using the website, you can search for specific movies you want. Which turned out to be really quick and

easy. Another thing it allows you to do is search keywords to find specific genres of opening titles.

We found this to be even more helpful in finding good opening titles. Overall, this website will really

help in our research.

Title Research: Watch the Titles Website

This site is called watchthetitles.com and we are looking at it to help us with research on titles. This site is going to help tremendously with the final task. The first two minutes of a film include a large amount of titles. Because of this, research is required to make sure that our titles are accurate. They also should follow the conventions of our genre (thriller). On this site, there are multiple categories of titles to watch. This includes films, TV shows, and video games. For this research, we will only be watching titles from movies in our genre. The site also includes a list of movie designers, as well as movie studios. The site also allows you to search for keywords. This helped a lot because we were able to search up our genre and find titles from that genre to watch. Before being able to look at the site ourselves, our teacher gave us a rundown on how to use this site (and another). Using the site is fairly simple- you can select the type of media that you want to watch the title sequence from. It then gives you a list of them (movies in this case) to browse through and watch. Overall, we believe that this site will prove very helpful in researching titles and with the final task.

Genre Research '47 Meters Down' (2017)

Camera angles:

One camera angle they use very often in the film is close ups. In a lot of the scenes the characters are in small spaces and to
show that, they used close ups. They also used POV shots to show things from the character’s point of view and increase
suspense. They also used wide shots a lot, since most of the scenes are underwater and they needed to show all of the open
space and sharks.

Costumes, lighting, actors, makeup, props, setting: 

The characters change between a few different costumes throughout the film. At first they are wearing tropical clothes and
bathing suits that you could wear to the beach. They also wear dresses and party attire in the beginning of the movie.
For the majority of the movie they wore scuba gear and diving suits though. The lighting at the beginning of the movie was
bright and natural. When they go underwater it gets darker and more blue tinted. When something starts to go wrong it is
usually darker or redder in color. Throughout the film they wear no makeup because they are underwater.

Sounds:
There are many sounds throughout this movie, such as the shark banging against the cage, screams muffled by being
underwater, and a sort of bubbling noise.

Editing:
A lot of the film was one like event occurring, but there were many cuts between the shark and the divers.

Elements of thriller in the movie:

There was a lot of gore as well as action and suspense.

What elements of the genre did the movie have that you liked?

I liked how the movie left you on edge for a lot of it and made you feel nervous for what would happen next.

What elements of the genre did the movie have that did not appeal to you? 

I usually don’t like gore and this movie had a bit of it.

Genre Research 'In the Tall Grass' (2019)

Camera angles:

Throughout the movie they use a variety of camera angles. To start off, when the movie begins they use and aerial shot of the car and field of tall grass. They also use a tracking shot of the car and a few close ups of the faces of two of the main characters. They also use panning and tilting to show movement in the grass. There are also a lot of low angles and medium shots used.

Costumes, lighting, actors, makeup, props, setting: 

The characters wear normal clothes, with the pregnant woman wearing a dress and everyone wearing casual attire. The clothes get increasingly more dirty to show passage of time in the field. The characters don’t ever change costumes because of it taking place in the same day. The lighting is pretty natural, only changing when it turns to night. Though when the characters see visions the lighting turns red and green to show it is unnatural. The props the characters have are the things they brought with them into the grass, for example the necklace the pregnant woman had on her that her ex gave her. Other than that they didn’t have many props. The setting is a large neverending field of tall grass next to a church.

Sounds:

At the beginning of the movie they used non-diegetic and diegetic sound. There was a song playing from the start of the movie that was revealed to be playing from the car’s radio. In the background there was yelling from the people in the tall grass which would get louder or quieter to show the distance between the characters changing. When it cut to the car the song became background noise. The movie also relied on the sound of grass moving throughout it. Some of the sounds were also just the sound of the characters walking in the mud. They also played whispering and chanting whenever it reached a climatic point to show suspense.  

Editing:

One of the main things they used in the movie was blurring and focusing. It would slowly reveal what was happening by slowly focusing on the subject in front of the camera, leaving you to want to know what was happening. They also used slow motion on the grass in some parts to show the rain or blood dripping on it. They also used a lot of cuts from scene to scene. 

Elements of thriller in the movie:

The movie kept the viewer in constant suspense and never really gave too much information, leaving those watching on edge. There were a few points where you would think you understood something only to be revealed that something else entirely was going on which would surprise you.

What elements of the genre did the movie have that you liked?

I enjoyed some of the suspense and getting to see if what I thought would happen would happen.

What elements of the genre did the movie have that did not appeal to you? 

The constant shift from point to point left me a little confused so I didn’t particularly like that.

Genre Research 'Bird Box' (2018)

Camera angles:

 At the beginning of the movies there are plenty of aerial or crane shots. It also has high angles and close-ups. In the middle of the movie, there are many eye level and low angles shots. This resembles the beginning of the movie because there are also close-ups and medium close-ups. At the end of the movie, there were extreme close-ups, medium close-ups, and eye-level shots.

Costumes, lighting, actors, makeup, props, setting: 

At the beginning of the movie, the actors are scared and extremely serious. They are dressed in normal outfits suitable for cold weather. They are also wearing little to no makeup. The lighting is a little dim but seems to portray natural lighting.  The main prop is the blindfold. In this movie, they must wear their blindfolds at all times so it could also be considered part of their costumes. The setting is in the woods and a fast-flowing river. In the middle of the movie, The actors are still very frightened and anxious. The costumes are the same as before, and now there is natural lighting. They are wearing little to no makeup, and the props consist of blindfolds and a box filled with birds. The setting seems to be an abandoned medical center filled with empty beds. At the end of the movie, the costumes, props, and makeup all remained the same. The lighting is lighter than average lighting and the props are the box of birds and blindfolds. The setting changed to a blind institute, and that is where the movie ends. The actors are all happy because they have lived through a traumatic event, and are safe.

Sounds:

 At the beginning of the movie, there are voiceovers to bring the audience up to speed with part of the plot. This is an example of a non-diegetic sound. Throughout the movie, the audience can hear the water flowing in the river and the wind blowing in the trees. In the middle of the movie, there is mainly dialogue from the actors. There are also other sounds such as cans falling on the ground, and fishing lines being reeled inwards. The water is in the background, along with the wind. At the end of the movie, the sounds are mainly kids playing and actors talking. This is diegetic sound because they are in a building full of people.

Editing:

 Throughout the movie, cutaways are frequently used. There are also a few points of view scenes where the camera has a blindfold. This gives the audience an idea of how the characters are feeling.

Elements of thriller in the movie:

 The movie had a few plot twists, and kept me on the edge of my seat. It also had some interesting action scenes that were complimented by unique camera movements.

What elements of the genre did the movie have that you liked?

 I enjoyed the flashback scenes. They allowed me to see the main character's reasoning behind her actions. It gave the audience a well-rounded knowledge of the entire scenario.

What elements of the genre did the movie have that did not appeal to you? 

Personally, I didn't like the plot twists. It made the plot more difficult to follow, but overall I enjoyed the movie.