Film title researchConnor Philand

Why titles are usedFilm titles are used in films to establish themes of the movie. Titles often appear in a title sequence at the beginning of films or in trailers for them. The same or similar looking fonts will be used in trailers and posters to the titles of a film to establish continuity with the theme of a film. Different films of different genres will vary in which styles of titles they use. The titles should match the style of the film plot and genre so that the information which a user consumes is relevant and understandable.

What are included in film titles

Film titles will have different information in them to establish details of the film name, crew, and cast. Most films will usually have the title of a film in a large font which matches the style of the genre. In similar styles of fonts, details of the film directors, producers, crew members and cast members will be shown on screen usually at the start of a film to establish who has been involved in the creative process. Sometimes film titles will be shown over a black screen with an accompanying soundtrack or they may be shown over a set of moving images. Alternatively, sometimes films will use shots that they have used for a opening sequence. The advantage of doing this is that it allows the progress of the film to continue whilst still sharing the information on screen.

Difference in genre

Films of different genres will have to use different styles so that it is easy to understand which genre they belong to. Fans of particular genres will appeal to the font styles they favour such as a space themed font for a sci-fi film.

Teaser trailer title analysis

To prepare myself for the production of our film teaser trailer, I have decided to analyse the titles in a teaser trailer from the teen drama genre. This will enable me to prepare for when we create our own titles. The teen drama teaser I have decided to analyse is The Amazing Spider-Man 2 simply because it is a well known film which features teenagers and I feel as if it would be a good comparative film.

After various establishing shots of locations and characters were used. The first title seen on screen was the ident of one of the production companies ‘Sony’. This is to establish that Sony Pictures were involved in the production of the film.

Another ident is shown just after. This time from production company ‘Columbia’. The advantage of using idents in teaser trailers is that fans of films from the same production companies will be encouraged to go and see the new one in the trailer.

Another ident of the magazine publicist which created Spider-man, ‘Marvel’ is then shown on screen in a comic book style animation. Fans of Marvel Comics or their films will be encouraged by this feature and they may want to see the film.

‘THIS SUMMER’ then appears on screen surrounded by a web themed background. This is the release period of the film to give the audience an idea of how long they will have to wait for until the film is released.

The film title then appears on screen towards the end of the trailer sequence. It features the similar style to the fonts used in other Spider-man films and all of the advertising so that continuity in the them is matched.

A short tagline is then added after this title for dramatic effect. It gives viewers of the trailer a very brief insight into the plot of the film to excite them.

Release date

3D info Social media

Production companies

How this research can influence our film

After analysing the title research powerpoint I now understand some information about how production companies use titles to present their films in teaser trailers. This will help me and my team understand how to use titles in our own film so that we can make a realistic teaser trailer. We should decide upon a font which suits our film style and stick to the conventions of a teaser trailer and include idents, release date information, the film title and additional information such as the social media links.