Assignment 2:Conventions of opening title sequence.

By Toby Prichard, Josh Gibson, Liam Cornwall-Tombs and Mykola Serbov.

Opening title sequence:Penny dreadful

The first convention is the “Film title” which as you can see clearly displays the name of the film

OTS conventions (Liam)

Another convention is credit film company,which means it displays the company that made the film. This also tells you a lot about the film, if it is some company like Warner Brothers you expect to see a big block buster.

Credit actors is another convention. This means it shows who the main characters are. This is important as if it is someone who is famous in comedy you know it might be a comedy film. It also tells you if it is a good film as the actor would not accept a bad one.

There are also credit cast members which just mean it shows who the cast are. This is mostly the same as credit actor because if some one is famous for music in films you know that the music aspect of the film will be good. It would also be the same for director and other roles.

Sound is also a convention, it plays a very important part as it helps the audience tell what genre it is. It also sets a mood for the film for example a slow and tense music would be associated with horror. It can also be used to set up audience expectations, practically if the film belongs to a well know franchise.

Another convention is enigma they are used in a opening sequence to help create questions and tension from the start to entice the audience. It also keeps the audience interested in the film and wanting to find the answers and keeping the audience hooked on the film

It also try’s to establish the films genre. Within the opening the audience should be able to establish the genre of the film due to key genre conventions. For example in a psychological thriller they would use low key lighting for tension, eerie music and the colour black, grey and red for death and danger.

Establishing the characters is a convention as it shows the characters importance and place in the film. It is also an enigma as we don't know who they are. So this creates questions as we see them like who, what, why, etc.

Ots convections explainedMykola

All of the text used in the opening title was in the same style and was placed on dark blue/black background. The meaning behind that is too create a dark theme while switching the screens. The colour of the text is grey, making the text look darker. The colour white would be easier to see, but they have used the grey colour to make it too look corrupted instead of “pure”

In the animation there have been used special effects to create a “poisonous” and deadly atmosphere. That is created by the use of different animals and insects representing the people in the show. For example you can see that to the right where this person to the right is represented by the spider. They use filters to give this an even eerier feeling and give a feeling of disgust to the audience.

Compare to the ots in the starterCompared to the start there aren’t many differences in the different convections, therefor I have decided to focus on the text and its colour alone.

The different meaning which we can compare to the start would be the colour of the text, which can represent things such as the atmosphere of the series.

Another thing would be that in this font the of text the all in upper case showing the strong personality of the characters.

The last convection about the text was that it was written in “BELL MT” which also helps to represent the time period its from.

Penny Dreadful use of conventions (Josh)Enigma- as mentioned in the first section, penny dreadful uses enigma in order create mystery and questioning for the audience. Quick clips that show religious imagery and use of low key lighting help to provide this sense of mystery.

Score Music- penny dreadful OTS uses a fast paced violin lead orchestra. This sets the genre as the music sets a tense and mysterious atmosphere.

Text-text used in the OTS uses the font BELL MT. the bell MT font helps set the time period as it gives a Victorian esc look to the text.

Character- in this OTS the characters are established with the use of animals. First showing the animal in the frame followed by the character. This helps set the genre of monster horror

Not useful for penny dreadful(Josh)

Crediting studio- penny dreadful OTS does not have the convention of studio crediting. This is mainly due to the series belonging to sky and only being aired on channels owned by sky.

3rd person narrative- this OTS doesn’t require a 3rd person narrative to introduce any information to the audience. This is mainly due to penny dreadful being a TV series meaning that the OTS remains constant as new information is revealed during the show. This convention only really applies to films where there is only a one off OTS.

Are the conventions in your OTS typical in films of the same genre? Why or why not? (Toby)• the conventions in our OTS are typical to a degree for films of

the same genre. This is because for a thriller/horror film they want you to know as little as possible about the story while in TV Series of the same genre they want you to know basic things to do with the show. The conventions of the actors names and the setting are displayed . This is because TV series and Films serve different purposes and must therefore follow conventions respectively.

The shiningSilence of the lambsPenny dreadful

Evaluate the effectiveness of the OTS (Toby)

• The opening title sequence was effective as it draws in the viewer and shows them what the show is about. It shows the theme, characters, actors and the genre without spoiling the show. It is done quickly and sets the scene for the rest of the show.