Intertextuality

Intertextuality is the shaping of text meanings by other text.
With thriller films the film Psycho set the benchmark on how most thriller films are conducted now. 

Since the making of this film most films have copied the following:

The size, and shape of the knife

The white shower curtains 

The running of the shower

The white tiled background

The sliding down from the tiles of the victim 

In the stepfather you will see some of the features from psycho. The stepfather is one of many past and present thrillers that have used intertextuality from pschyo, the features used are almost compulsory for thrillers now.

Structures of film openings

Narrative opening
discrete opening
stylized opening
titles over a blank screen

Title Sequence Analysis

State the Production and Distribution companies. How are they introduced? What purpose do they serve at the start of the movie? Production and Distribution Company - 20Th Century Fox, A Leonard Goldberg Production and A Joseph Ruben Film.These companies are introduced by appearing on the screen with a white font. The main purpose is to inform and aware the audience of these companies.

 Film Title- Where exactly is this placed? Start, Middle, End? Sleeping with the Enemy 1991 - the film title appeared at the start.

                                                Sleeping with the Enemy

Conclusions of Title Sequences

The Name of the Films i did the Title Sequence Conclusions on: Enemy of The State (1998) - Arlington Road (1999) - Panic Room (2002).

 

Where does the film title nearly always appear ? The film title tends to always appear in the first 60 Seconds during the opeing of the film.

 

 

 

What types of fonts tend to be used in title sequences ? The font tends to be bold and in the colour white. This allows the text to stand out from the opening of the film and grabs the viewers attention.

 

 

 

Is your timeline conventional ? if not, how does it differ from the 'norm' ? The timeline is normal as that pattern occurs in many other film openings and its quite frequently aswell.

 

 

How many times does the institutional information such as production company and distributors appear ? It roughly appears about 13 times within the opening scene of the film.



Title Sequence Timeline

This Title Sequence Timeline shows the start and end times of the Film Opening; Sleeping With The Enemy (1991).

The purpose of showing the Distribution Companies & Production is to inform the audience. The first to appear on the screen is '20th Century Fox' followed by 'A Leonard Goldberg Production' then 'A Joseph Ruben Film'. They are introduced by appearing in a White Font on a Plain Black Background on the screen, which allows the font to stand out and appear clearly.

The Film Title is placed at the start of the Film in a Bold White Font. It is 0:41 seconds into the Film. This film plays with the conventional film titles. The film titles are also printed in the order of importance as it relates to contractual editing.

TiTle Sequence Timeline

 

 

 

Film Title Questions

 

 

Where does the film title nearly always appear? The film title tends to appear in the first few seconds.

 

What types of fonts tend to be used in the title sequence? They tend to be bold and many of the white coloured therefore can stand out.

 

Is your timeline below conventional? if not how does it differ from the ' norm'? My timeline is conventional as this pattern occurs in many other film title sequences.

 

How many times does the institutional information such as production company and distributors appear? 13 times (estimated) the production company and distributors appear.

 

 

The Title Sequence Timeline

 

Jaws Film Opening Analysis

Sound Bridge in the beginning which is iconic. The audience are introduced to a sound motif, which is alarming and ominous to the audience as it is only played when the shark is nearby or on scene. It is a intensification sound which is iconic to Jaws.

The Characters in the beginning are established around a fire situated on the beach. Drinking, smoking and playing music. The characters actions are one of a hippy nature, which indicates their young and carefree personalities. Usually in a film, these kind of teenagers are the ones to be targeted on as victims in the film and happen to be disposed of one by one. So the audience are already bracing themselves for an act of violence, especially when the girl and boy are running away together far from the safety of the group. The audience will initially question the need for safety towards the young teenagers, as one they are under the influence of drugs and alcohol and two the girl is running away naked therefore she is asking for some sort of confrontation.

There is a Cross Cut between the lady being killed and the man who is drunk on the beach. The film also consists of jump cuts, Graphic match and Fades.

Shot Types: at the beginning the camera pans along the characters. This creates a great establishing scene amongst the youngsters. The director is trying to create an atmosphere one of a predator picking its prey. The shots consist of various close ups, great for the audience to analyse and establish the surroundings and characters. The film contains a shot reverse shot, which engages the audience into the film as they feel that they are involved through the use of psychological camera positioning. The most effective shot of that scene is the worms eye view which is established as if it’s the point of view of the shark. The female character is positioned as a venerable object therefore the audience knows that something is going to happen between the binary oppositions.The opening sequence also consists of a few long shots.

Titles and Credits; Jaws opens with a black screen. There's a studio logo – which is a sense of institution. Red – connotes danger and blood which foreshadows what is going to happen later on in the film.

The Jaws opening sequence underlines two types of narrative theory's which is an important element of a successful film opening: One of the elements is Barthes's five codes theory- Enigma code. The musical motif at the beginning makes the audience feel threatened and also curious, as to what is going to happen next as the audience already are feeling in suspense. The second element of the narrative theory is the popular and vastly used, Binary Oppositions. This theory is founded by Levi-Strauss. In this case, Jaws, have the binary oppositions of good vs.. evil and human vs. sharks!