Analysing Titles from my Genre
I am going to look at the ways that the titles are presented in three films: The Shawshank Redemption, Zodiac and Silence of the Lambs.
The Shawshank Redemption: Castle Rock Entertainment are obviously keen for their name to feature strongly in the title sequence, featuring as it does in huge white capital letters on a black background. There appears to be a hierarchy in the presentation of the actors, with the big stars (for example Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman) appearing on this same background (black and white title cards), before the film actually begins and then there is less focus on the names on the screen. Black and white itself is classic within the thriller genre, with the black typically representative of shadows, suspense and ultimately, death.The font used places the events of the film in the past.
Zodiac: The font picks up on the main character’s job in the film – the typewriter represents an old-fashioned newspaper man, in this case the Political Cartoonist working for the San Francisco Chronicle. The writing then dissolves into letters of the Zodiac’s cyphers, emitting a sense of excitement and tension, as well as foreshadowing the codes of the zodiac to come.
Silence of the Lambs: The titles of this film appear on the location of the opening of the film, in this case a forest. Indeed, the first title to appear is the location of this opening sequence, tucked away in the bottom corner in small font. Interestingly, the font colour used here is black, with the white outline used to ensure that the viewers can see the lettering. This (combined with the dense foliage) provides a murky introduction to this classic thriller. The titles begin with the production company names, then the names of the most prominent actors before introducing the name of the film.
The Shawshank Redemption: Castle Rock Entertainment are obviously keen for their name to feature strongly in the title sequence, featuring as it does in huge white capital letters on a black background. There appears to be a hierarchy in the presentation of the actors, with the big stars (for example Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman) appearing on this same background (black and white title cards), before the film actually begins and then there is less focus on the names on the screen. Black and white itself is classic within the thriller genre, with the black typically representative of shadows, suspense and ultimately, death.The font used places the events of the film in the past.
Zodiac: The font picks up on the main character’s job in the film – the typewriter represents an old-fashioned newspaper man, in this case the Political Cartoonist working for the San Francisco Chronicle. The writing then dissolves into letters of the Zodiac’s cyphers, emitting a sense of excitement and tension, as well as foreshadowing the codes of the zodiac to come.
Silence of the Lambs: The titles of this film appear on the location of the opening of the film, in this case a forest. Indeed, the first title to appear is the location of this opening sequence, tucked away in the bottom corner in small font. Interestingly, the font colour used here is black, with the white outline used to ensure that the viewers can see the lettering. This (combined with the dense foliage) provides a murky introduction to this classic thriller. The titles begin with the production company names, then the names of the most prominent actors before introducing the name of the film.
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