Titles Research & Production Company Research

Today I analysed the significance of titles upon an opening as well as the impact of colour and font.

 

(1) Se7en:  The titles adopt a white colour scheme which alternatives between brightness and shade, this effect ultimately disorientates the audience and makes the titles appear jagged, almost as if they

are made from electricity

 

(2) Insidious: The titles for insidious represent those of a stereotypical horror, in the sense that they are red, bold and cover the majority of the screen, and the low key lighting used creates shadows effectively but i think the main focus is on the devil-like font that has been used as it clearly mimics the storyline (likely to be about a demon and possession)

 

(3) Silent Hill: The chalk effect used doesn't directly illustrate the horror genre however with the contrasting shadows and even spread across the screen, we as the audience feel confused as well as unnerved as a result of this, and the white title itself also creates a sense of worry given the brightness and contrasting nature of them.

 

(4) The Nesting: By not only using a red font colour the title itself comes across as ghostly given the curly and free flowing nature of the title, but in particular the "T" on both the "the" and Nesting" appear to look like tombstones, therefore implicating that death will be apparent during the film.

 

(5) Saw: Once again we see the use of white writing which contrasts again the murky black background, this effect is often used to concentrate the audiences focus on the titles, during this example blood is flicked across the screen, therefore foreshadowing gore and death throughout, this effect is something I think would suit my production but I am unsure if such visual effects will be available for me to use.

 

(6) Annabelle: A shadow is created out of the title , as a result of the shadow effect the audience are self consciously aware of the shadows in the film, but also the the name itself "Annabelle" is an old fashioned name which therefore implies that the film will be quite traditional in its conventions as well as storyline.

 

(7) The Purge: This title contrasts against the last as it is much more technology based- we make this assumption based on the security camera perspective we see during the opening, also the background looks similar to something you would see on a screen, therefore indicating the technological aspects of the film.

 

(8) Dracula: The thin and silver-toned titles come across as elegant, perhaps something not normally associated with Dracula (a well known antagonist in the horror genre) therefore we have to consider that despite the proliferation of filming technologies growing, the classic/traditional conventions of the horror genre have not been lost.

 

(9) Halloween: Typically given the conventions of Halloween its no surprise the colour is in orange, given that the festive celebration always involves pumpkins, however the simple orange title could be leading the audience into a false sense of security.

 

(10)Silence of the lambs: I think that with this example its a case of simplicity- for example the black filling of the already bulky font- implies a sense of danger, whilst the white outline could create the idea of an illness as perhaps it represents the pale and ghostly appearance of the antagonist

Production Company Research:

Firstly I thought it would be only logical to start with our Film Inspiration and the company stategy behind the success and perhaps we can mimic the same methods put in place to achieve their success.

Se7en:

Production Company : These are the three production companies (seen below), all of which have a background in creating Horror films - some even date as far as 1991, which is something we should emulate especially given that our audeince survey suggested that our target audeince prefer traditional films. Perhaps we should consider partnering with a company which has a backgorund of traditional Horror films.

Cecchi Gori Pictures
Juno Pix
New Line Cinema

Budget: $33 million

Opening Weekend: £11,434,343 (UK) (19 January 1996) 

Release Date: 5 January 1996 (UK)

For example: New line cinema has been invovled with the making of The conjuring (2013) and Friday the 13th, which would make this company a good candidate. However we also need to consider the budget, given that Se7en had a budget of 33million which is considerably higher than our production budget. But also we need to take into account the fact that these three companies are all American-based, not only is this therefore unrealistic in the sense that we are a small budget film producers but also we are Independantly British and may only release in England.

Taking into consideration the last example, I am now going to base my research on example which are relevant / similar to our production.

 

28 Days Later

Production Company: The two production companies for this film were British, which is evidently more relavant to our production. Not only this but the burdget of the film is a lot more relatable for our independant company. Additonally DNA films are notoriously known for there Horror and Thriller films, however there is still some diversity amongst the tpyes of films they produce. Nevertheless despite being an independant british company with a relativley low budget, they managed to accumalate a fantastic overall gross.

Budget: $8,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: £1,500,079 (UK) (1 November 2002)

Gross: $45,063,889 (USA)(24 October 2003)