Title/Credit Convention Research

Gelsomina De Lucia

What is the difference between titles and credits? What do they say/what are they about?

Titles are used to give the audience an idea about the storyline or introduce us to a characters.

For example in the ‘Insidious’ trailer they repeat the two words ‘insidious is’ and put shots in between these two words to show what insidious is about.

What is the difference between titles and credits? What do they say/what are they about?

Credits give credit to those involved in the movie such as the directors or actors. Sometimes it involves ratings from critics which is a way to sell the movie. For example, in the ‘Insidious’ trailer, 20 seconds in, they give credit to the makers of the movie by associating them with other successful films they have made.

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

TITLESRom/Com – Through titles, they give you a few words related to the storyline for example, in the trailer for ‘What if’. Additionally, they sometimes introduce you to the characters such has in the trailer for ‘The Proposal’. This is to either to make likeable characters so the audience would want to watch the movie or to explain what the storyline is about to interest the audience to watch it.

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

CREDITS Credits usually tell the audience who is involved in the movie such as directors to actors. Sometimes it shows the audience what awards the movie has such as the trailer for the movie 'Starlet’. This is because it shows how good the movie is which makes people want to watch it. Also, if a person likes movies made by a certain director or movies acted by their favourite actor/actress, there would be more chance of them going to watch it, increasing sells and profit.

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

Title Purpose : To make a person want to

watch the movie. Simplistically, without titles,

movies would be nameless.

Credit Purpose : To give the people involved in

the film acknowledgement for their hard work.

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

TITLES CREDITS Titles usually appear at least after 10

seconds into the trailer. There usually is a maximum of 10

seconds between each title sometimes its more sometimes its less.

It usually depends on the pace of editing.

The duration of how long they last also depends on the pace of the editing, for example, usually in the action genre, towards the end of the trailer, the duration of the titles shorten to create thrill amongst the audience.

Credits usually appear towards the end of the trailer or in the middle of it.

They are usually are spread apart from each other.

They last long enough for a person to read them.

For Example: ‘Scream’

Where is the title placed in the sequence? Why?

• The title is stereotypically placed at the end of the trailer.

• This is because it does not distract the audience from the storyline.

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

Horror Thriller Titles in horror trailers usually leave the audience wanting to know either who is the killer? Why is the purpose of the haunting? Why that character? Do they survive?

Titles in thriller trailers either introduce you to a character are say words which are associated to the storyline which gives the audience more of an insight to the movie but they don't give too much away.

For Example: ‘Evil Dead’ & ‘Red’

How do they fit in with genre/subgenre?

Horror Thriller

It creates suspense which a horror movie should do. It creates fear because the horror genre usually explores either the realistic and unrealistic and by leaving so many enigmas, it makes them feel uneasy which would make them want to watch it.

It gives the audience a thrill and excites them. By introducing the characters through the trailer, it gives the film more of a chance to focus more on the storyline and the depth of it.

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

It is hard to define a predominate font style for genres. Now, titles font depend on the storyline of the film because titles are becoming significant in the way we view trailers. Stereotypically, white, black and red are colours which the Horror genre uses for their font colours. For Thriller, it is usually black white with either a black or midnight blue background. The animation for Horror usually fades into the screen or pops out suddenly. This also applies for Thriller.