Title Research: American Psycho

       For this next part of our project we were instructed to research an example film of our genre.Then research what they did for the opening titles of the film. One of the example films we choose is the movie American Psycho. Directed by Marry Harron, made in 2000, this horror film told a story of  a wealthy New York City investment banking executive that had an alter ego that had a psychotic urge for killing. The reason we chose this film was because the opening of this horror film has great images that makes the audiences think about whats happening.
1. How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film?
       While watching the movie American Psycho, my group and I watched and notice thirty opening titles. These titles went from the beginning to 04:26 minutes in the movie.
2. What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?
       In the first part of the movie sequence, it shows what looks to be drops of blood dripping onto a white background. A few sends later we soon find out the substance that looks like blood is actually a red sauce that is being poured onto a dinner dish. Along with the "blood" the camera shows a big, sharp knife that swing up to then chop a big piece of meat. The sequence then continues to show what seems to be a normal group of men, then only to show the main character yelling in a psychotic why to a bartender in a loud and crowded bar.
3. What connotations do the images carry?
      The images that were shown in the opening sequence of this movie made the audience think that the red sauce was blood and that in the knife scene someone was probably going to stab someone. The images gave a feeling of surprise when the audience finds out the images were not what they seemed. The image of the main character shows how easily he can turn his psychotic alter ego on and off.
4.How is genre reinforced though symbolic and technical codes from the outset?
     The purpose of horror movies is to scare and to bring the feeling of fear into the audience. This film used the visuals of the "blood", the knife and the scene of the "American psycho" yelling at the bartender to bring the feeling of fear int the audiences. These scenes in the opening sequence gave an unsettling and eerie feeling to the beginning of the movie. The red sauce symbolized blood. When the audiences saw the red substance it reminded them of blood.
5. How does the film establish an enigma from the outset?
      The film established an enigma from the outset by not establishing any specific characters or the plot. The film makers didn’t explain who the group of men were and where they were in the opening. The eerie scene when the main character yelling at the bartender created a tense and eerie feeling to the opening of the movie. This makes the audience entriged in the movie, ensuring the audience will watch the movie.
6.What strategies are used to ensure the film appeals to its targeted audience?
     Film makers will use many different tactics to ensure their films appeal to its targeted audiences. When people watch horror movies, they usually want scary and eerie aspects in their movies. The film makers use this and make sure to add these aspects into the title sequences to grab the audiences’ eye.
7. How has technology been used effectively?
      Technology has been used effectively by using technology to create the image of “blood” in the opening titles. Along with the CGI the editors also used technology for the eerie music that played in the background while the titles were rolling. All of these techniques come together to help reinforce the genre of horror in the film.

Title Research: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

      There are so many movies in the world and each movie has their own title sequence in the beginning of the movie. My group was tasked with looking at a few examples of title sequences and research them. the one I decided to look at is was the title sequence from the movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. 1.How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film? There were 8 titles displayed during the opening sequence of this film. 2.What images are prioritized in the opening sequence? Images that are prioritized in the opening sequence were mostly red and black pictures that had bodies in the picture. 3.What connotations do the images carry? All of these images had a negative connotations they all gave off scary, and creepy vibes. The images that they showed gave me chills. 4.How is the genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset? The genre of horror is reinforced through the technical and symbolic codes of this through many ways. The main purpose of horror is to scare the audiences by using the creepy and uncomfortable images that the creator imputed is very likely to have an effect on the audiences in a way horror films should.  5. How does the film establish an enigma from the outset? The film established an enigma from the outset by not establishing any specific characters or the plot. The producers didn't tell us who the bodies were so it left us guessing. Throughout the movie the audiences are guessing, about the bodies. 6. What strategies are used to ensure the film appeals to its audience? producers and film makers will use many different tactics to ensure their films are appealing to a large audience. horror movies use tactics that will make these audiences get a very uncomfortable and eerie feeling. they use tactics like using dark red colors or put some creepy images in there so people get scared. 7. How has technology been used effectively? Technology has been used in this movie effectively because they used technology to create the Images in the title sequence and to create all the edits to the movie and the CGI. The editors also used technology to create the eerie music in the background while playing the title sequence. All of these techniques came together to create this great movie.

Title Research: Insidious

     Each movie has its own title sequence in the beginning to show the credits and most of the time particular tactics and designs to help build the story of the movie. My group was told to look at a few examples of title sequences and research them. The first one I chose to do was the title sequence from Insidious. There were 23 titles displayed during the opening sequence of this film. Images that are prioritized in the opening are all black and white location pictures such as an empty hallway, street, parking lot, or trees. All of these have a negative connotation and give off an extremely creepy, scary, and mysterious mood. The genre of horror is reinforced through the symbolic and technical codes of this through several ways. The main purpose of horror is to scare and spook the audience and by using the uncomfortable and eerie images that the creators imputed is very likely to have an effect on the audience in the way a horror film should. The titles are also in red text that slowly fade out of the screen which adds to the scary feeling being projected to the audience. The viewer may see the red as creepy because of the association of red and blood, which would seem fitting for a horror film. This film establishes an enigma from the outset because it doesn't show any specific characters or setting or any sense of plot, only imagery to set the mood. This could get the audience hooked and interested in watching more. They target their audience in this way. If someone is going to watch a horror movie it is obvious they like creepy crawling situations that freak them out and most likely like a little mystery so that's exactly what the title sequence creators incorporated. The technology has been used effectively by using technology to alter the lighting to low and put in shadows and also adding in filters of black and white. Not only that but also with the technology that was used to put in the frightening background music adds a great deal of eeriness to the mood. The transitions had lots of fade in and outs which in a way prolongs the imagery and adds a scary feeling because it seems like the subjects are being drawn out. All of these techniques are chosen for a reason and are very effective in reinforcing the genre of horror into the film .

Title Research: Ginger Snaps

Hello! To help my group and I get a better understanding of how the opening titles of our final project should be, we watched a couple of examples of title sequences from different horror movies and then answered some questions for each film. One of the title sequences that we researched was of the 2000 film Ginger Snaps. Directed by John Fawcett, Ginger Snaps tells the story of two death-obsessed sisters, outcasts in their suburban neighborhood, must deal with the tragic consequences when one of them is bitten by a deadly werewolf. 

1. How many titles were displayed during the opening sequences to the film? 

For the main opening title sequence of the film, 21 slides were shown that displayed the cast, the writers, who the music and make-up were by, the producer, the director, etc... but in the early beginning of the film 3 titles were shown that displayed the movie company credits and the name of the movie. 

2. What images are prioritized in the opening sequence? 

The images that are prioritized are a slideshow of gruesome, macabre, deaths. The reason these images are prioritized is so that the audience can get an idea of the personalities and character traits of the two main leads. Another reason is to set the un-nerving tone for the rest of the movie. 

3. What connotation do these images carry? 

The images displayed carry a heavily negative and dark connotation. The images of violent, gory deaths create an unsettling feeling of melancholy and dread. The images help to show that the movie will not be a happy one and that the main characters in the film will not be the usual nice or friendly girl that are frequently shown in other horror movies. 

4. How is genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset?  

Genre is reinforced through the technical codes by using the hand-held shaky cam. Using this type of shot gives the opening a raw and real feeling. The way the camera pans over the images of dead bodies helps establish the un-nerving feeling that horror movie are supposed to give. In-between titles, clips of the main characters were shown laughing and being happy, this action of the characters show the audience that these girls are not totally evil or psychotic.  

5. How does the film establish an enigma from the outset? 

This film is able to establish an enigma by not giving the main characters any personality traits other than the fact that they have in interest in the macabre. The opening also does not give a shred of any information on the plot of the film, and it allows the audience to wonder “what is wrong with these two girls” or “what is going to happen to these girls”. 

6. What strategies are used to ensure the film appeals to its target audience? 

The strategies used to ensure the film appears to the target audience are the overwhelming amount of blood and gore. A huge element of horror movies is the use of gory imagery. This movie opens with horrific violent images such as a girl with a pitchfork in her throat to another girl was run over by a lawnmower. The use of this element will appeal to gore-lovers and persuade them to want to keep watching the film. 

7.  How has technology been used effectively? You want to consider camera angles, transitions, and editing techniques? 

The technical use in the film is very clever. The camera jumps and flashes between an image at multiple different angles eventually landing on one of the images for a prolonged time to display the title. The way the shot of the images jump and flash before each other makes it look as if a photo camera were taking those pictures with the flash on. This transitioning technique becomes impressive after the titles are done and it is revealed that the images shown in the opening are part of a slideshow presentation. There is also a very diverse use of camera angles. The film uses a lot of oblique angles and high angles to make the opening a little more cryptic and it also separates the audience from the film. 

All in all, Ginger Snaps was a film with a great opening title sequence. The opening used many of the horror movie elements and will definitely leave an impact on the audience. 

Researching more titles

        Hello! To better understand how and what the title markers do to make the opening sequence for a movie, my group and I went to the website www.watchthetitles.com. While trying to find a website to look at for our research on the opening titles we stubbled upon this website. On this website, you can find example titles from many different genres of films. Not only are there block buster films but there are also video games, student projects and tv shows. Along with this array of example films, this website offers interviews with the creators of the different films offered on the website. The opening and its titles are very important. The opening titles set the mood for the whole movie. For our project my group and I needed to do some research on the opening titles for our genre, horror films. While on this website my group and I watched an array of the opening titles of different horror films. While watching the titles we've come to notice a few things. When watching a couple of the films we noticed that the titles didn't often take up a lot of time and are usually short while also giving a creepy, eerie tone to the movie. This is usually done by the editing of the titles and the sounds used in the opening and throughout the movie.The sound is often an eerie, unsetting sound that helps create the tone of the movie. This website was very helpful for our research on the opening titles for horror movie.

Researching opening titles

   Hello! In order to get more information on the opening titles of movies, my group and I went to the website www.artofthetitle.com. At this website, you can find information on titles from all types of films from documentaries to feature films. With this website, you can also get summaries of films along with interviews with the cast and crew of the film. The opening titles of a film are very important because they set up the tone of the film and they are the audiences first impressions of the movie. The reason my group and I had to visit this website was because we need to research title sequences for our project. We watched a variety of horror movie openings and we noticed a couple of things. The first thing that we noticed is that all of the titles that we watched had an unsettling tone to them. The titles are usually displayed on a black screen but sometimes images or scenes will flash on the screen that will help to tell the story. For all of the titles, music was playing and helped to heighten the creepy and disturbing atmosphere of the film. I learned that the titles should be relatively short and should not take up too much time. Another thing that my group and I noticed is that the opening titles seem to be displayed in a specific order. The first title that would show up was usually the main cast but sometimes the main title would be the director and the name of the movie. After the cast, the titles for make-up and sound would be shown. After them, the producers and the movie company that helped to create the film was displayed. And most of the time, if it wasn’t shown in the beginning, the writer and director of the film would show up followed by the title of the name of the film. Using this website showed me what a proper horror movie opening title sequence should look like. 

Genre Research: Get Out

Hello in order to get a better understanding of our genre, my group and I watched and evaluated some horror films. One of the movies my group and I researched was the 2017 horror movie Get Out. Directed by Jordan Peele, Get Out is a Mystery/ Thriller that follows a young man who goes to meets his girlfriend’s family for the first time, but finds out that there something really wrong about her family. We chose this movie because it was one of the best selling movies in 2017. We noticed that there are some camera angles and shots, and movement throughout the film. For angles, there were eye level angles, high and low angles. This movie also used a variety of movement such as tracking shot, tilts, and pans. The shots throughout the movie were three shots, long shots, and medium shots. Throughout the the movie there were also closeup and some two-shots. There were also over the shoulder shots being used throughout the movie. 

The movie Get Out has a very unique mis en scene. The costumes in this movie were very casual clothing, the only unusual costumes were on the house keepers who wore what looked like old clothing for decades ago. The lighting in the movie started out light and towards the middle to end of the movie it started to turn darker. The acting was really good in the movie they really did a good job with acting. There was some really impactful moments in the movie that the actors portrayed. The makeup in the movie was pretty plain, the only time the makeup was over the top was when someone got hurt and they had to make a mark to show that someone got hurt. The injuries in this movie were very intense and gruesome. The overall makeup in the film was very good and the injuries looked so real it was amazing. There were many props in this movie but one of the main one was the house which everything went down. The settings were pretty basic, it took place at an old town and at a house. The settings were nothing crazy or out of the ordinary. The main sound in the movie was dialogue, but there were some other sounds too. A couple of non digestive sounds were in the movie too like clicking of the mouth which went on in the movie a lot. In some of the scenes there was occasionally no sound at all and that helped with the tension.  

This movie followed a lot of the common horror movie elements. The movie followed  the element which an evil force is in the family and they make it look like there normal but there not. The movie also had a lot of tension and violence throughout the movie. Get Out did an amazing job at making people feel fear and creating a unsettling tone. An element I really enjoyed was that the movie had a consistent tone throughout the movie. I also liked how scary and original this movie was. The elements that I didn’t really enjoy was the parts that had violence in it. There was a fair amount of violence in this movie but it’s ok because I closed my eyes. Overall this movie was really good and I would recommend this movie.