Planning Opening Credits - Miss Georgiou

 The purpose of opening credits is to not only show the production of the film as well as the title, but it sets the mood of the film by the use of different style of fonts and effects used in the credits. Also, it lets the audience know what the film is going to be about. Moreover, the actors are shown and so the audience know who they are about to watch and who plays what role.

We analysed the film Se7en opening credits so that we know what order our credits should be in what the layout should be like. From looking at the colour of the font used it is in white, this contrasts with the black background. This not only makes the writing easier to read when on top of a dark image but it symbolises the victims innocence and purity where as the dark background symbolises the antagonist and how he is dark and twisted as well as it representing death. As well as this use of black and white there is also hints of red throughout the opening credits, this use of red represents blood to the audience and that there is a lot of danger in this film but also that the victim will most likely be killed in the end. During the opening credits many thriller conventions and element's are portrayed such as tension being created, this is done through the way the images and text on screen are seen at a fast pace. This relates to the theme of an enigma, which is a reoccurring theme throughout Se7en, this is because by the images being fast it causes them to become unclear to the audience about what they are of, causing the enigma. Furthermore, Morgan Freeman's and Brad Pitt's names are shown before the title and the rest of the actors. This is done to show the audience who are the important and most famous actors within the film are and so it helps in promoting the film by having the famous, well known people first. Additionally, by showing there names first it draws the audience in as if they are fans of either actor then it will draw the audience in and keep them focused in watching the rest of the film. 

This is the title and production company design that i created using final cut pro. My title was positioned in centre of the page compared to the production company name, which i had positioned in the top left hand corner.The strengths of my design ideas are that it is conventional to the thriller genre this is because the title contains the colour red, which represents death and blood as well as anger. Also, the white contrasts with the black symbolising the victim (white writing) and the antagonist (black background) showing how the antagonist is bigger, stronger and has power over the innocent victim. On the other hand my design also has weaknesses. These include that the font of the production company in my design could be in a different colour, like a bight red so that it stands out more against the title and matched the titles shadow. Also, this would make the title more bold and stand out more against the other credits. Furthermore, the effect could be taken of the title to make the red shadow more bright and conventional so that it would against the white writing. Although me and my group have not decided on a title for our thriller sequence, we have decided upon using a short one worded title. This is because it is simple for the audience to remember compared to a longer title, which might not then fit on one line.

Group Member: Samara Stevenson 

Strengths:

A strength of Samaras' production and title design are that the glow effect she has use on her text makes it stand out against the black background. Furthermore, her design is conventional as it uses dark colours, which can represent death, power and mystery. This fits in with the themes we are using throughout our group narrative.

Weaknesses: 

Samaras weakness in her design are that she could use a brighter red so that it contrasts more with the black background, which would then make it more conventional as by using a brighter red it could then symbolise blood and danger. Additionally, she used and unconventional font 'Birch Std' this is not very rigid and does not symbolise the unstable mind of the antagonist or the type of rigid dangerous weapons the antagonist might use.

Group Member: Leo Ly 

Strengths: 

A strength of Leo's work is that the font he has used and the way he has edited it to make it unique. Also, his font is conventional to the thriller genre and it is rigid and so it could represent either the mind of the antagonist being unstable and mental or it could represent the sharp edged on the knife, which is the antagonist's weapon.

Weaknesses: 

The colour red is not very and bright, therefore, compared to the white title it does not stand out as much. Which, is a weakness for Leo's design and so to improve it he should make the red slightly brighter and bolder. However, these colours are conventional as the red symbolises blood, death and danger where as the white represents the innocence and purity of the victim.

In summary i think me and my group will most likely choose Leo's design for our opening credits this is because the use of his glow effect and the font he used is effective in making his credits fit in with the thriller genre. However, we will include some of the strengths from mine and Samara's designs to incorporate with his. For example, i think from my design we will take the effect of the red shadow as we all agreed this was effective and conventional as it portrays danger also, it forebodes that there will be blood and death. Whereas, from Samara's design we will include the idea of making the films title and the rest of the credits the same colour and the way she has made the title bigger than the production companies name. This is effective as it makes the title more bold and stand out so that the audience know this is the title of the film, which the audience are more interesting in knowing than who produced the film. Furthermore, this is conventional to thriller film opening credits as they usually show the title as being bigger than the other text, as well as this they usually also have the credits all in the same colour, which is usually red or white as they are conventional colours to the genre. This is because red symbolised blood and white portrays innocence and purity from the victim.
The order that the opening credits will go in are:

Production company - Peach Tree Productions

Director - Layla

Actors - Leo and Rhiannon

Title of film - The Clown

Casting - Fred

Music - Charles

Costumes - Sarah

Editors - Leo, Layla, Samara

Camera operator - Samara

Co-producer - Leo

Producer - Samara

Writers - Leo, Layla, Samara

We will show them in this order as this is the order used in the thriller Se7en and this is also the order used in most thrillers and so it is conventional to the thriller genre.