Title Development for our A2 Media Production By Danielle Duffy

The use of titles within teaser trailerThrough carrying out research into the conventions of teaser trailer; we have gained an understanding of how titles can be used effectively and to inform the viewer of key information including: The film’s title Production logo Text in relation to the narrative Basic credits Website address/social media Speculative release date of the film(The use of these will vary, depending on factors such as trailer length and the type of audience) In this presentation, I will explain and justify our use of certain titles within our A2 teaser trailer production.

The use of titles within teaser trailerAdditionally, in preparation for the creation of our real product; I will be testing out some titles with the software available to us; Adobe After Effects CS6. We used this program in our last production and found it was sufficient in aiding us with the production and application of titles. This will help me familiarise myself with the software once again, and will involve playing around with font, colours, sizes and effects. The titles featured are initial experiments and will provide guidance when we make the titles for our finished production and so are subject to change due to opinions of my group members.

The title of the filmThis is the main and most significant title, and is commonly displayed in all teaser trailers to inform the viewer of the film’s title. Ideally a title that links to the film’s plot, and is memorable is effective. After watching the teaser trailer, we want our potential audience to remember the film’s name and anticipate its later release. This also encourages word-of-mouth promotion, as a viewer may discuss it with their friends. Have you seen the

trailer for that upcoming film

Eve? Looks awesome!

No, not yet. I’ll be sure to check it

out!

The title of the filmFollowing conventions, we will devise a title screen for our title that we will show at the end of the teaser trailer, perhaps after a cut-to-black screen to separate it from the shots and give it the effect of emerging from the darkness. We will select a style that reflects its genre and themes, taking inspiration from these selection of titles below:

I like how the titles are displayed against a black background. This draws our attention towards the title, and the blackness connotes the darkness of the horror genre, and narratives including impending doom. The colours of blue and black work well as they are rather neutral and could be connotative of spirits; coinciding with supernatural themes.

The title of the filmWe decided upon the title of ‘Eve’ for our production. This is the name of our protagonist and this was decided due to the mysterious themes of our narrative. This is because there is no clear antagonist in the production; and the sanity of the protagonist is questionable. Therefore she herself could be seen as delusional or worried. The main focus is upon herself and so I think this title is fitting. This is somewhat conventional as it has been used in films such as Lucy (2014), Thor (2011) and Annabelle (2014) where the characters possess a significant amount of power. It is short and memorable allowing for our audience to recall its name.

The title of the film: practice

Title oneFont: TungaSize: 100ptAV: 220Fill brightness: (+)60%Stroke [fill over]: 0.3ptAnimation effect: browse presets > text > blurs > jiggy

Evaluation: I like how the pale blue colours looks; giving off a sense of the supernatural; linking to themes within our narrative. The jitterish effect creates the effect of blurred or distorted vision, reflecting the protagonist’s questioning of her mental state and fleeting existence threatening by the evil pursuing her. However the font style could perhaps be improved if it were more textured, or if we could add some kind of eerily-themed background. Having an animated title makes it visually more appealing and eye-catching which maintains the audience’s attention.

Production logoWhen publishing work institutions will be sure to accredit themselves in order to promote their name to build a reputation with viewers. We can recognise the conglomerate companies such as Warner Brothers and Disney, and this is likely to raise our expectation of a film, or convince us to watch, as these companies have produced previous successful movies. In our production we will devise our own one of these entitled Pragmatic Productions as we don’t officially have a company but it would be good to include one to make the piece look professional.

Production logoI liked how Warner Brothers company had altered the design of their production logo screen for the teaser trailer of their horror movie ‘The Conjuring 2’. Below is the original design vs. the new one featured in the film. This is a creative way to give the whole teaser a ‘dark’ feel to reflect the genre of the film, and I think we will do something similar for our own production.

Production logoWe will be adapting or recreating our production logo title ‘Pragmatic Productions’ from our AS media production by designing a logo or screen featuring some kind of design, which is conventional of production logo screens. Again we will incorporate an animation effect upon this text using Adobe After Effects to make its entrance more professional looking and compelling. I liked the use of the fade-in so that it isn’t over the top but appears with grace.

Text in relation to the narrativeTo help give the audience an idea of the plot of the film; sometimes short title screens will be displayed. This might be a line relating to the narrative, or the film’s tag line. Sometimes films include words of praise from film reviewers, e.g. The Gallows. We will consider adding this type of text when producing our titles; if it feels right.

This effectively adds to the suspense and builds the anticipation of the film’s release.

Basic creditsThe name of the director as well as leading actors are commonly shown to give credit to these key individuals in the production of the film. We will include our names (Abi, Grace and Danielle) accredited to these roles in order to create a realistic product. For example...

We would include some sort of animation to have the text enter and exit effectively for example a dissolve which is conventional, and I particularly like the way it looks; as if the text emerges from the darkness. It also connotes a sense of mystery and the supernatural as we imagine supernatural beings appearing out of nowhere.

Release date of the film Revealing the date when the film will be first aired is common within teaser trailer. Those with a strong interest in the film are likely to want to see it as soon as possible, and so giving them an idea or date or when it will be first aired is essential to inform the audience. More people going to see the film on its early days of release will increase the opening weekend.; if the film were to be released into the industry. This is perhaps representative of the film’s popularity. As we aren’t producing a full film we obviously won’t have an official release date; but for the purpose of creating a professional-looking teaser trailer we are likely to make up one of these (several months into the future) as teasers are typically released long in advance of the actual product as discovered in my research. We are likely to include the title of ‘Summer’ for the release date as many other products have adopted. Alternatively we could use ‘coming soon’ as several others have.

Social media/websiteSome modern teaser trailers will promote their film based largely on social media; online platforms that are highly popular with younger audiences. This is due to the increasing number of people accessing online media daily, and the low expenditure required to invest in creating a page for the movie on said accounts.

Hash tags are increasingly common; and these can be used and accessed on a range of websites including Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and allow a person to tag a post with the hash tag which you can click on and see related posts. These are included in the teaser trailer of the film to increase the ‘hype’ for upcoming movies as they want audiences to interact and spread their interest of the film.

Websites are a great place to promote a producer as they allow the audience access at any time and they are able to navigate their way round the site to find information that they desire. For our production we may choose to include a made-up website link for our movie.

Social media/website

I find this title within the teaser trailer for the movie The Woods (2016) to be effective as it collates information such as the movie’s release date alongside social media links such as the hash tag and even what appears to be the film’s

Snapchat name showing they are exploiting the latest trends to their advantage to stay in contact with potential audience members. Having all this information and promotional material on one slide rather than several makes it

more concise; and additionally with the imagery it isn’t too boring to read.

Social media/website

I was inspired by the previous title and prepared this rough potential title design that we could use as guidance for this title of ours. In evaluation of this outcome I believe that the title could do

with professional-looking graphics that are reflective of the film’s plot; incorporating colours such as the red and white I have used here to perhaps connote blood or flesh or purity

smothered by evil. Or perhaps it would be best to stick with the thematic colour of blue as to portray supernatural elements and aim for consistent titles which I found to be conventional to achieve satisfying visuals. I devised the hash tag ‘Eyes On You’ as this is one of the messages Eve receives in the scene featured in the teaser trailer and I think it works effectively as a tag

line for our film. As the fear we want to instil is that it could be you who is targeted. Often films have tag lines that serve the purpose of further promoting the film by giving it an established

presence and themes. The addition of a hash tag effectively promotes the film online and prompts the audience to look further into the film and keep connected for its upcoming release.