Codes and Conventions of a crime TV show and Film title sequence

Seven opening title sequence



We have looked into seven's opening title sequence before and have found that a code and convention in many crime films title sequences they never seem to show the lead role. This is an aspect we would like to incorporate in to our title sequence. As all the way throughout seven's title sequence we see the lead role writing, and scribbling. He's crossing out faces and looking into certain texts and this sort of in depth studying is an apparent convention in many other crime films. We would like to also incorporate this into our own title sequence, as we want our investigator to be studying texts and looking in to particular cases. Another code and convention found from seven is that of a tense atmosphere and a mysterious aroma. As the lead role is still not unmasked by the end of it, this code and convention appears in many other crime films as they like to make audiences feel insecure about what is going on. We can compare this greatly to another opening title sequence we found from the movie "The Departed". As this shows there lead role looming amongst shadows which for audiences is very eerie and unnerving.

The Departed opening title sequence

The departed opening title sequence codes and conventions feature the lead role being covered by shadows and constantly hidden in the dark. This is a very common feature to crime movies to not show there lead role in the opening title sequence as it adds an element of surprised when he or she is unveiled. It is also a common code and convention as it gives audiences strong emotions and opinions upon the lead role. As the lead roles distance creates a sense of power amongst them, a massive sense of importance and that they seem wise and all knowing. His presence not be particularly visable makes his welfare much more unkown for audiences therefore it is creating audiences to feel worried for him but also a little bit nervous for how things are going to pan out.

Click Here for "How to Kill a Mockingbird" Opening Title Sequence

In the title sequence for "How to kill a mockingbird" the codes and conventions that we have found are that it also contains elements of mystery as we only see a characters hands. Following the charcter throughout their journey of writing and looking for things, gives the title sequence the codes and conventions of making its audiences feel insecure about their current situation.

Codes and Conventions of title sequences

*Music sets the tone for a film.

*The text connotates the type of film it is.

*Details of cast and crew.

*Films title.

*Introduction to character and character type.

*Indication of place.

*Indication of historial period.

*Information regarding mood and tone.

*Introduction to signature theme tune.

*Information about Genre.

*Questions that the viewer finds intriguing.

*Patterns and types of editing that will be echoed in the remainder of the film.

*Mise-en-scene and cinematography that will be echoed or elaborated upon later on in the film.

Journal for 6th- 10th December

As a group this week we have talked over many matters, such as the production schedule. We have decided what we want all of our deadlines to be and have accounted what we want to be doing throughout all of this time. We have even accounted for one whole day to be for tying up loose ends. As a group we have also decided what each of us shall do in our Christmas holidays for our personal schedules. We shall make new schedules for ourselves in the new year when our work really commences. We decided for our Christmas holidays schedules that we shall all do our own research and analysing of the genre crime. Also to delve into planning props, actors and settings.

8th December
Particularly on this day we chose a number of opening credits from crime TV shows and films to look at. We all contributed the TV shows and films we have seen that fall under the crime genre and here is a list of the programmes and films we shall be looking into.

-"To kill a mocking bird"
-"Rear window"
-"White Chapel"
-"Cold Case"
-"Criminal minds"
-"Southland"
-"Holby Blue"
-"The Wire"

As a group this week we have also decided upon a certain element we want to appear within our title sequence. That is of our investigator using an SLR camera to stalk the suspect, and we would like to show him taking pictures with this camera. Then we would like to show him back in his office uploading them to his laptop. We want the photos to all pop-up quickly covering each other and the screen. We thought that perhaps to enhance the speed of this we will possibly use final cut pro. Also we decided upon using a fast paced typography movement as we don't want the main focus to be on the actors more the films meaning and the images and camerawork that will appear upon the screen.

Personal Schedule

*Friday 17th December 2010 - January 4th 2011

-Research setting, props and actors.

-Analyse and research crime films and TV shows' opening credits.

-Apply everything on to my blog to add journals and latest research updates.

-Find out own research into particular typography, music and editing.

Production Schedule

*December 8th-17th storyboarding, planning setting, props and actors.

*January 4th -Stop planning and story boarding and start filming.

*January 27th finish filming the title sequence.

*January 28th start editing the title sequence.

*February 16th finish editing the title sequence.

*February 17th to finish off any little bits left, or to perfect everything.

*February 18th everything is due in.

Further Research of Crime Genre...(Item 1-6 of Research Evidence)

For my Research i have chosen to look into different aspects of crime genres and they are TV and Films. I wanted to section each aspect off and look at them individually to demonstrate the codes and conventions needed for each one.

TV-
Firstly I would like to start by looking a television series that falls under the Crime genre. The television series i have chosen is that of "The Closer", this is also representing that of American TV. Perhaps how there codes and conventions are similar to those that are presented in English television shows.
THE CLOSER-

















The closer is a hit American TV show that looks into the work and lifes of a Los Angeles homicide provision team. Here is a breif sypnosis so that the codes and conventions can be easily demonstrated.The programme mainly delves into the life of its lead role "Deputy police cheif Brenda Johnon" who is control of her team of policemen, who look into serious homicidal cases everyday. The programme looks at how her work affects her life, and the realtionships she has with her husband and family. Typical codes and conventions here of a crime TV programme are that of the cases being relatively easy, and like a guessing game. So they can get them over with quickly and move on to the next case. This theme to crime TV shows is relatable to that of the work of real policemen and women. Other codes and conventions are such as the camerawork being typical over the shoulder techiques to demonstrate lots of conversations.

Films- The film i have chosen to look at is that of the film "Shutter Island". I want to look at this films synopsis and the films codes and conventions to compare it to those of a TV programmes. As this will be research within the actual genre to demonstrate how key aspects are similar and very much the same.

SHUTTER ISLAND-

A very breif synopsis of the film is that it is about a police investigator who goes and investigates the disappearance of an mentally ill patient from a high security island. The codes and conventions of this film are that of very dark lighting and dramatic use of camera positions. But also has a lot of over the shoulder shots this refers back to the work seen in that of a TV crime series.

Analysis of contempary vs. older title sequences...(Items 1-6 of Research Evidence)

For my analysis the two title sequence designers i have chosen are Saul Bass and Paul Donnellon. I have chosen Paul Donnellon as i have researched his work before and he continues to have contemporary elements to all of his title sequences. I have chosen Saul Bass as i have looked upon some of his work previously and found out that he has inspired many title sequence designers. I found some evidence to this is some aspects of Donnellons title sequences appear to have Saul Bass interpretations. To star off with it shall be better to look upon Saul Bass' work to illustrate the theory of him inspiring many other title sequence designers.

Saul Bass:
When looking at Saul Bass' work there are many elements to all of his title sequences that are similar he definately seems to have his own style and mark on things. Spirals and the use of lines are very prominent throughout Bass' work, this is a good key in making him a recognisable figure. The main reason why i chose to look at Saul Bass is that he has worked on many famous old movies, and the ways in which he chooses to project the emotions and illustrate the genres interests me. I believe this has indeed helped to path the way title sequence designers work today, Bass' use of relatable music and iconography really demonstrate the themes of the film early on for audiences.When looking at Saul Bass' work one particular title sequence stood out for me and this was from the film "Psycho". As i have seen this film many times before and watching after say a huge blockbuster movie you can definately see how the newer films have incorporated these elements of music and typography into there movies. Here is a link to the title sequence in particular...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tek8QmKRODw

Paul Donnellon:

When looking at the work of Paul Donnellon i found his references to comic books and cartoons very interesting. He seems to take a very humorous angle to them, yet very surreal in a sense as he puts in iconic elements to the film. For example a particular prop or a characteristic of a person within the film. His work seems very rare to me as i feel as if not many title sequence designers choose to use cartoon Esq title sequences when the film is not in fact a cartoon at all. I feel as if this is a unique edge to Donnellon and as if he is trying to relate to older title sequence designers. Now to compare this to that of a piece of work by Paul Donnellon, I chosen the film "Smokin Aces" although this film in particular may not be seen as brand new. It is still contemporary as it was made in 2006 this is still a vast time difference to that of "Psycho" which was made in 1960. I have chosen "Smokin Aces" because it has similar themes and conventions to psycho. As "Smokin Aces" is a crime drama i feel its relatable to that of "Psycho" as it has the same elements of desperation and anticipation. One feature i found in the title sequence to "Smokin Aces" was its uses of blocked shapes and colours. This is what made the title sequence stand out for me with references to comic books. This shows massive similarities to Saul Bass by the ways in which Donnellon uses block lines and the movements of the lines are comparative to Bass'. Below is the title sequence to "Smokin Aces".

Bass inspiring new and contemporary title sequence designers has been proved. There are many similarities between the two title sequences that can even be broken down even more, into there connotations perhaps being similar. Yet in looking at the differences that are evident we can see that the times have changed. Th technology is far more advanced in the present, so the use of advanced cartoons and cgi are changing the ways in which we view our title sequences. As we can see from comparing the two the Saul Bass' title sequence is far more simplistic. Where as Paul Donnellon's is visually more compelling and divulges into the characters and the themes more. e

I feel as if analysing who prevails old or contemporary, that it is close to a draw but overall i think in my own personal opinion that old prevails. Looking at many title sequences you can see the Saul Bass' inspirations. For example the other day i watched "Sweeny Todd" and was astounded to see so many Saul Bass' references. Through spirals and swirls to project his iconic imagery into a contemporary film. This is an example in which for me sums up conclusively why i feel old prevails. As other the many years Saul Bass is still being referred to a lot, this is a vast achievement. Also this has shaped how we view title sequences all together, so in a sense we are thankful to Saul Bass as now we have compelling and structurally beautiful and iconic imagery to introduce to us plenty of movies.

Planning: Treatment

Narrative plot of our title sequence:The narrative of our title sequence is that our investigator re-opens a cold case and sort of task is apart of his normal day to day life. What he does not realise is that he is about to investigate a world that shouldn't be tampered with. The people in which he is about to investigate into find out that he knows what they are up to. So due to this the gangsters are all trying to kill the investigator, so he will be forever silent. They then kidnap him due to many failed attempts, they torture him so that he will give them everything he has found out about them. He does not let go of the most important pieces of information and with the gangsters thinking they have forever silenced him they let him go. The investigator has no real fear of the gangsters so he takes his chances and gives all the information his has of them over to the police. But the police are only able to bring down a few of the gangsters and the ones in which they are able to bring down are not the worst therefore justice has not been served. Meaning there needs to be sequels to this film that will divulge much further into this case and the individuals within it

Target Audience:
The mass audience that we are aiming at for our film is men. This is because we believe they will be more interested in the gangster characters and there gritty lifestyles. As we want the final product to involve car chases, explosions and fighting. Although we do realise women may be interested in it also due to these factors. So we have put women in to be our niche audience as we believe a lot of women will be interested, just not as many when compared to the number of men that will be. We believe our primary audience will have a normal working class lifestyle as this film will be a source of there escapism. We believe that they will be intrigued by violence, that sort of gritty troublesome lifestyle. This is what will interest them in the film. But we think they will be normal law abiding citizens, who would like to rebel but wont ever be likely to. We think there beliefs would be in speaking their minds and doing what they want to do. The risk takers there optimistic and hopefully, but at the same time are consumed by everyday pessimistic attitudes towards work and family life. We believe that there interests are in women, fast cars, drinking at the pub and trying to live on the edge a little. We want them to love our final product we want it to make them be stunned, horrified but exceptionally overwhelmed by excitement and anticipation the whole time. We want them it to become one of there favourite films, a film they can watch many times and still find something new about. Also for them to still feel the same way they did first time round. We are going to make it appeal to them by using recognisable and familiar people, such as Martin Scorsese as the director plus Tom Hanks and Jet Li as the lead roles. This instantly gives them trust and a sense of security to the film. We are going to offer a life of excitement and pure fear ad unpredictability that many of them wish they could have, through the use of our lead roles. We shall entice them with car chases, woman, villains and explosions. Our niche audience we hope will be exactly the same just with slight lifestyle choices and beliefs. Also the male characters within the film will be used to appeal to them. There lifestyle choices will be that of wanting a more exciting and free life. With beliefs about being able to change your own path and being open to have a lot of fun in life.


What will the style of product be?
We will use the forms and conventions to overall portray a very dark and depressing environment. The lighting that will be used will be rather dim, not vasts amounts over the inspector as he is to remain mysterious and unknown throughout the title sequence. The lighting we hope in certain scenes for it to be limited to convey signs of distress and danger. We hope to be able to possibly use filters over some shots to connote a deathly essence and to add tension to the scene. Yet this is a possibility still for the moment we still have to figure out how to do filters, so this idea may have to be lost. The camerawork we would like to use would be that of steady, yet shaky at certain points. As the stillness shall connote someone running for dear life, and the steadiness will connote that they are in control. We shall use a variety of mid shots, over the shoulder shots, close-ups, extreme close-ups, long shots, medium long shots and 3/4 shots. We hope to be able to incorporate a birds eye view and a worms eye view. Again this is still in deliberation as we need to figure out exact settings and locations still. We want our titles typography to be comparable to that of an old type writers. Some kind of official typography that is bold and relatable to that of an inspectors official files. So not necessarily a type writer but in that form. We do not want the titles to be the main focus either as we want the audiences to have more focus on to the footage given rather than of is in it. We are still figuring out ways in which for the text to appear as we could have it being typed on to the screen or it being stamped on to the screen. Something to make the titles original but not too flashy so it steals the limelight away from the footage.

Institutions: We would want our film to be placed rather high up in the film industry. Possible candidates for the distributor would be 20th century fox, Warner brothers, Universal pictures and paramount pictures. As these are just some of the biggest names in the industry and arguable the most known and relatable to audiences. Overall we may be tempted to chose paramount pictures as it is the distributor that has worked with our films director Martin Scorsese before. Those particular blockbusters they worked together on such as "Shutter Island" were a big success, so this is a promising aspect to us. Plus this means we can cut certain deals with the distributor through our links our director has with them. We are still deliberating on what our production companies logo will look like. As we are still figuring out what it shall be entitled and what theme we want to accompany it so its memorable to its audiences.


Representations:We have thought about the issue of using stereotypical characters that the media often project. But we have thought about how we want the investigator in particular to be portrayed. We have thought about the persona we want him to carry. We want our inspector to be seen as emotionally challenged and detached. In many respects we can see that the persona we have chosen can be relatable to many other movies. But in a sense its this rawness of the character that we want to project amongst him to make him memorable. We are not in anyway relating him to a character we have seen before on TV or in films. We have just simply made him up upon the basis of how we would want an investigator to look. We put ourselves into the shoes of the audience and we want someone new who can offer more compelling acting. In making him emotionally challenged we feel that when he chooses to open up audiences will respect him for more it and relate to him more from this. These ideas of ours have also sprouted from our audiences, as we have now established who they are we now know how to make what they want. As we know men don't want an emotionally investigator who's spilling his feelings all of the time. But we don't really want to project a Mr. cool to our audiences either. More of a troubled everyday man who is fighting against his own inner demons.

What generic codes and conventions will be operating in your text?
We are looking deeply at the codes and conventions of other crime genre movies, such as "The departed" and "Infernal affairs 2". Both of these films project the ideals that we want to be established in our film. As a group we have looked at both films title sequences and compared them to how we want ours to look. There are a few similarities perhaps with the use of camerawork and lighting. Yet we don't want to seep into the same codes and conventions of every other crime film. We do want to offer something new and emotionally dark. So although we shall be incorporating typically iconography such as an investigators office and certain props such as guns, badges, files and filing cabinets. We want to present them on the screen in different angles and lights so that everything on the stage and in the shot has a vastly extreme emotional change. For everything to feel uncertain and to be in a constant state of tension and anticipation.

Planning: Production Breif

Project name:PI (Private Investigator)
Length: 90sec – 2mins
Deadline: Friday 11th February
Group members & their roles: Charlotte Beaird= Filming and Editing
Libby Rowe= Camera work and Director
Si Hin Tuong= Acting and Editing

Brief overview of content : The film is about a private investigator who is going on about his normal day-to-day lifestyle of re-opening old cases for people. Only one day he opens up a case that he will not be able close quickly. So to begin with he lays the ground work starts to scope out where this one suspect in particular lives. But this time he's not as professional with the job as he is seen. As the man he's stalking is in a gang, and one of his fellow gang members See's the investigator and they all seek a means to keep him quiet. By doing this they kidnap the investigator and they make him tell them everything he has found out. But the investigator takes a risk and does not tell them anything as by doing this he has the upper hand. The gang members simple believe they have scared the inspector far too much and this is why he is not talking. They believe he is silenced forever and let him go. The inspector then takes a trip to the police station and hands over everything he has found out about the gang members. Meaning that some are sent to prison, yet the leaders and most dangerous members of the gang are still out ad free. Now there is trouble on the horizon for the inspector as the gang members know it was him who got them arrested. So the gang are now out seek revenge upon the inspector and officially silence him forever. (This means that there can be a sequel to the film).

Target audience (age group, gender): The primary audience is men, with a niche market of women. Within the age groups of 15-50 year olds.

What comparable products have you researched? As a group we have all research "The Departed" and "Infernal Affairs" which are both fall under the crime genre. Also both are very comparable with our film with similar narratives.

How will you test whether the product is successful? We will put the title sequence on to a DVD and show it to a room of people so that they are able to give us responses verbally. But also we shall make a questionnaire so we can go back to there thoughts and look over them at later dates.

What generic codes and conventions will be operating in your text?
Our title sequence should be made to the exact codes and conventions of a typical "Crime" movie. It will also have the codes and conventions typically of that of a Martin Scorsese film, it will be dark with harsh lighting and characters that can be rather emotionally detached. But with essences of a crime genre's codes and conventions being prominent throughout such as explosions, car chases, villains and an inspectors workspace.

Identify any resource constraints (time, money, equipment, human resources) that might affect your production and your hopes for your product:
The only resource constraints we could find, was that time and money may be wasted. As we want this movie to be perfect and with Martin Scorsese working on it we will need a lot of time. For him to work his technical skills and for things to work well, this may mean we could possibly go over our deadlines. Perhaps also w have found that by hiring Martin Scorsese we may have spent a lot of money already, this may mean a possibly loss of money that was destined for other places. Yet we are figuring this one out as we believe that hiring him, with all of his vast experience and knowledge on this genre means it could all be made easily down to him. Therefore they may not be a real loss after all.