Title/Credit Convention Research

Judy Ibelgauptiene

What is difference between titles/credits?

Titles are shown in the beginning of a trailer with brief information such as the name of the movie or the production or distribution company.

Whereas credits are at the end of a trailer with all the important information, such as cast names, social media sites etc.

What do they say/what are they about? Reviews: Some trailers include reviews by newspapers, other directors etc to attract the audience.

Quotes: Some trailers quote lines from the film/book

Credits: Give credit to the people who acted or the rest of the cast who helped produced

Release date: To inform the audience when the film will be released.

Social Networking: So the audience can interact with the institution

Brief Introduction to the story: Titles are used to introduce/describe the characters or story

Who? (who and what are they about and why is this?)

Actors, to acknowledge and publicities who was in the film and to attract fans of that actor.

The name of the production/distribution companies because they funded the movie and some people may be more likely to see a film if it is produced by a certain company as they expect a certain quality from them.

The cast who helped film and produce the movie. The audience may enjoy a certain director and the way he does things, so they are more likely to go watch it.

Why? (what is their purpose and why are they there)

The purpose of the titles is to inform the audience of what is happening/give a brief back story or mention some of the actors or directors so the audience knows what’s happening.

The purpose of the credits is to thank and acknowledge everyone who helped with the film and also so the audience can find out who played a certain part in what.

When? (when in the sequence? how close together/how far apart/how long do they last etc)

They usually last 3 seconds, and appear in the beginning about 4 times, and at the end 2 or 3 times.

The ones at the beginning are usually 5 seconds apart from each other and stop half way through the trailer and then the ones at the end are 3 seconds apart and appear 10 seconds before the trailer is finished.

Where is the title placed in the sequence? why?

At the very beginning usually production and distribution companies are placed as they funded the project and put the most money in.

Then the main actors as they can attract the audience and they are paid the most and have higher status over the other cast.

And last of all the credits are presented with all the actors and cast who participated because they must be acknowledged and there’s loads of them.

How do they fit in with the narrative structure and narrative enigmas?

Titles fit in with the narrative as they cause mysteries and raise questions through the text used. Who? What? Where? When? Why?

They also change the way the story is told as they give the audience hints about what’s happening, which can help the audience understand the story if they were confused.

How do they fit in with genre/subgenre?

The Thriller genre’s titles tend to be quite plain and simple, and in bold.This fits with the genre because they don’t want the audience to be distracted by the titles and they don’t want to give too much away.

The Horror genre’s titles tend to have a background and look quite creepy and be in capital letters which fits in with the genre as you’re expecting something out the ordinary.

How? (how are they done? (style/font/colours/animation etc)

Thrillers tend to use the colours black, white or grey on a black background. The animation used tends to be a fade in/out.

Whereas horrors use blacks and reds, and the backgrounds tends to be related to the subgenre. They also sometimes have a flashing background to build tension.