Influences

The main inspiration of my opening is the horror trope of a helpless female victim, such as in halloween and the scream series, as both female leads are seen as fumbling and unable to handle themselves, particularly as this generalization tends to put off female viewers as the character is unrelatable.  One of the aspects that I carried over from these staple movies is the hidden and mysterious element of the antagonist as this was a key feature of the scare actor of the movie.

Another feature I adopted was the emphasis on suspenseful music, I decided to exaggerate this by having the track "In the basement" at a loud volume. To further add the element of suspense, I also used a heartbeat sound effect at the beginning titles, as it tends to be used overbearingly and negate from the element of suspense.

My initial idea was far more serious with more of an emphasis on a dangerous atmosphere and female independence, though I felt this would not clearly show the satirical aspects of horror conventions and could potentially alienate a male audience.

Elements of horror satire

One convention of satirical horror is using strong elements of popular movies and parodying them in order to make them funny, films that accomplish this is "Scary Movie', as the main antagonist, a parody of the Scream villain, who is revealed to be comical in childish mannerisms while killing off the main cast. Another character, Buffy, makes fun of the attack her killer is making on her as she purposefully breaks her own leg out of spite as she mocks the villain, even though he goes on to cut off her head.

This clearly makes fun of the stereotypical female victim trope by making her aware, though the comedy fails through the overuse of the joke, the shock factor also adds an element of surprise, the overuse of slapstick in subsequent jokes lessens the impact as it is expected, yet it does not get weighed down by emotional attachment to the characters as most are unlikable and underdeveloped, though this serves to make the comedic atmosphere lighter.

The comedy is generally very old fashioned as it heavily relies on slapstick over dialogue, although some of the physical comedy is more visual, with the villain hiding behind a couch, failing at being scary by destroying the expected element of surprise. Overall as the movie comes to a close it incorporates elements of action satire as they spoof a section of the matrix where the freeze frame occurs in the jump section. This is so different from the other parodied tropes as it does not fit into any horror aspect and somewhat takes the viewer out of the movie, although this is not a huge issue as the movie does not take itself seriously.

Order of titles

I have decided to use an annotated version of my storyboard to show where I plan on putting the titles.

Film opening Final idea

my final idea for my film opening follows a man, who reveals to be dangerous getting beaten up by the female, seemingly fragile protagonist. The genre is a parody of horror movies and I will be using the subversion of tropes for comedic element. The main trope that I am subverting from is that of the helpless female victim, as she acts in a brutal careless manner, heavily contrasting the expectations her appearance bestow upon her.

The mugger will be given the most screen time in this segment, however will not be developed as he has no speaking lines and his face will be shown for as little as possible. Though the woman will also have her face shown for a short amount of time, she will be clearly set as the protagonist through her speaking lines.

Though I want the protagonist to wear typically feminine clothing, in order to execute the act of kicking the man in the face, she will need to wear flat shoes for health and safely.

To lock on to the horror elements, I will overuse horror sound effects and have a high emphasise on foley in order to create suspense in the beginning. Though I want this to seem genuine to begin with in order to enforce the impact of the surprise ending. In order to show the parody elements, I will have the protagonist speak in a casual manner, with relaxed posture and have the background music become more relaxed. I will also need multiple shoots of the kick in order to get  different angles of impact so that I can edit the kick together to have a far stronger impact in order to create the sense of comedy.

Typography film opening analysis

Donnie  Darko opening

The Donnie Darko opening begins with the titles rolling with the sound of heavy wind playing in the background, the sound is similar to the falling plane sequence at the end. The heavy use of diegetic sound also hints at the open, flat area of the beginning shot. The lack of sound effects as the titles roll in helps to give an odd sense to the movie in its lack of a glamorous nature. This is also shown through the transitions in how they are slow, silent, helping to link in with the mysterious and otherworldly nature of the film.

The mysterious nature of the film is also latched onto through the use of the signature typography for the film, as opposed to the usually associated font, making the odd nature of the film seem to mask any relations to what we know to be true in the real world, as opposed to the alternate reality given to us through the movie, this seems to reflect the plot of alternate realities as seen in the movie.

 

 Overall there are no credits associated to a specific famous actor or infamous member of the production team, making the movie seem much more anonymous, this also reflects the low-budget aspect of the film in that there are no featured actors within the opening credits.  The only acceptation to this is Richard Kelly, the director (however this may only be in the directors cut).

The only credits shown are that of the producer studios and the associates, at a total of five. Excluding Richard Kelly.  The white font against the black background also helps to capture the unglamorous nature of the film, while significantly attracting the viewers’ attention, while the curved cursive also helps to maintain an old, somewhat spiritual nature to the film. The font is big enough to see, though all remain in the same size, leaving them to similar importance.

The darkness then fades into a panning shot, moving left across the screen at a wide shot of the landscape, showing a vast array of colours as the dawn breaks in, as this is happening, the thunderous sounds of the heavy wind is halted by the sound of thunder, leading into the chirping of birds.

Protagonist Donnie is viewed from a distance, crumpled on the floor as the low drone of the music begins, fading into a sad piano melody that describes Donnie’s dissatisfaction of his predicament, later revealed to be his schizophrenia that causes him many issues.

Kill Bill

Kill Bill begins with the signature opening stamps for the production companies involved with the movie, all in full colour, contrasting with the next segment of credits through the title sequence, as they, like the opening cinematic, are filtered in black and white.

The black and white titles are interrupted by the quote, “Revenge is a dish best served cold” perfectly hinting towards the drive of the plot from the movie.  This also shows the importance of the aspect of revenge in the film as it comes before the majority of the credits.

All of the production companies are then shown in a black and white text, flashing onto the screen with no sound effect as the diegetic sound of heavy, loud breathing is heard, emphasising on the element of desperation as no other sound is heard.

This then shifts to a slowly paced single shot of the bride, on the floor and injured, the hard cut gives an element of shock, though is kept in time with the breathing, making it transition more smoothly. Despite this it does not hold back from the shocking nature of the film and leaves many mysteries as to who is hurting this woman and why.

The second segment of credits begin with the sound of a gunshot echoing as the directors name appears first, Una Thurmans name appearing larger, secondly, signifying her importance and main role.

The title of the movie then pops up, much larger than the other typography, with more screen time to capture its importance.

The text of all those involved in the production is in a more domestic, smaller font and grouped occasionally, showing that these people are less important as certain names do not have separate screens for themselves.

The font then shifts back to the font similar to the title, showing the importance of these roles and to signify the movies sense of revenge is coming back in to play. That these are the last credits to roll also maximise the sense of importance to the plot.

Pulp fiction

The opening credits begin at a freeze frame of the two characters Honeybunny and Pumpkin staging a robbery, freezing with her mid shot with the gun pointed wildly. The loud opening music, labelled “pumpkin and honeybunny” on the soundtrack cuts quickly to the producers.

The typography in this opening is exactly the same as in Kill Bill, only yellow, from this it can be assumed as a signature of the director over a stylistic point relevant to the movie.  The only difference is that this is in yellow, perhaps reflecting the bold nature of the protagonists from the very start.

The directors font is no bigger than the producers at this point, though significantly bigger than those who were part of the production team.

 The title of the movie is in a different font, being much larger with a slower draw onto the screen giving it more screen time to focus on. This fades into the background as other credits roll over it in white to stand out.

This starts out with the key casting roles set to the most well-known actors in order, before shifting onto the co-starring roles that roll across the screen from the bottom in groups, this time reverting back to yellow.

As the credits for the production crew is on screen, the music shifts to another track.  The final credit is to the producer. 

Final pitch idea

Final Pitch

My final pitch for the 2 minute opening sequence is a parody of horror tropes in movies. It sets up the stereotypical female victim walking along a dark road all alone, with the protagonist assumed to be the mugger, the man following her. The opening takes itself very seriously with suspense being built along the stalking of this woman, where she suddenly turns to kick him in the face, turning the horror victim role on it's head and presenting her as the frustrated protagonist, as she phones up a friend, her voice is heard complaining to her friend.