Our construction main titles

After looking at many different film opening titles for my research, Alex and I planned out the titles we are going to use before we go straight ahead and add them to our film.
Because our project is only 2 minutes long as that is the maximum, we knew we had to limit the titles we used because other big production films have longer titles altogether and are able to have a long list of names to add.

Even though wikipedia is an unreliable website to base research on, I found a page on it where it explained what normally features in the opening credits of a film. That page can be found here
The first opening credits is a shortened list of of the major actors, producers, directors, etc who have worked on the film whereas the closing credits feature a much more detailed and extensive list which can last roughly 4-5 minutes.
Although nearly all films before the 50s and definitely the 70s, did not feature ending credits and only used opening credits, our film is made in present day so it follows the 'norm' of today's basic opening credits. This norm is:

• Name of studio
• Name of production company
• (Producer name) production and/or a film by (director name)
• Starring (usually the main actors)
• Film's title
• Featuring actors
• Casting by
• Music (usually composed by or original score by)
• Production design
• Editor
• Director of photography
• Producer
• Based on the book/novel by  OR  based on the characters by
• Story by and/or Written by
• Director / Directed by

Variations of these are below:

• Set Design
• Costume
• Hairdresser
• Makeup artist
• Sound recording
• Visual editor

Like I previous stated, Alex and I decided to feature a more condensed list of opening credits but to make sure we followed the ones regularly used and the standard ones to make sure we followed the codes and conventions of opening titles.

Most films, we decided, show their studio or distributor over black (depending on their chosen logo but they usually are over black) Here are some examples from my research I have used throughout this assignment.

Beetlejuice 1988

Inception 2010

Fight Club 1999

Pulp Fiction 1994

The Other Boleyn Girl 2008

Limitless 2010

From this research we created our own 'Studio' who funded our film and created a little logo and title for them over black.



Also from our research..

Limitless (201)

Raising Arizona 1987

True Grit 2010

The Other Boleyn Girl 2008

we chose to include our 'Production Company' and 'a film by' over the first visuals. This is the first appearance of our names and as most film's show 'a film by' we followed this technique. Usually it features the directors name(s). Our whole production is an equal group effort and input so we put our names together on the front to show it is a film we both created entirely.

Fight Club 1999

Beetlejuice 1988

Kick-Ass 2010

Now we chose to show our main 'actors' in the top right/left and bottom right/left corner of our visuals. The right and left would change each time.

We decided to use the important standard titles for our project as by this time we only have roughly 40-30 seconds left of our project and want it to look professional still. We include a casting director, music by, production design, written by and finally, director.

An actor in Limitless 2010

An Actor in Beetlejuice 1988

Castin in The Other Boleyn Girl 2008

Costume in Terminator 2 1992

Written and Directed by in Ferris Bueller's Day Off 1986

Music in Kick-Ass 2010

Our main film title features before any titles first appear. The title will appear at the end of our cold open 'prolouge' (first part of our film). Then the rest of our credits will follow.
From research I found that most film's end their opening credits with the director. We chose to follow this in our production by making our last credit the director.
Examples of film's last credit to be director

Ferris Bueller's Day Off 1986

Beetlejuice 1988

Fight Club 1999

Kick-Ass 2010

The Other Boleyn Girl

Terminator 2 1992

For the most part, we made up names to use in our opening credits, but where we could be honest, we used the names of people w ho actually were a part of our production.
Studio - Purple Mammoth - a company Alex and I created in a media lesson prior to our practical.
A film by - Nadine and Alex - our full names as we are a team
Starring- Gavin Bedford, Fiona Kettle, Sebastian King, Freddie Hitchcock, Phoebe Kudrow,  - Gavin and Fiona are actors we know. Gavin featured in our film but we did not require Fiona. The other three are made up names
Casting director - Tony Stone - a made up name
Original Score - Tom Spall - a made up name
Production design - Leanne McArtha - a made up name
Written by - Nadine - me
Produced by - Laura Skelton - a friend who's name we used as a thanks as she offered to act in our film
Directed by - Alex Matthews - my partner