Film Presentation

Title Sequence Analysis

THIS IS ENGLAND (2006)- Title Sequence

This is England holds a social realist genre. The title sequence uses footage from the 80s including news stories from riots in Birmingham to Thatcher and Reagan. The opening titles do not introduce any characters however it does express the time and setting of the film. The shots of news stories put the viewer in the position of a citizen of the 80s and make them aware of the genre. The typography used for the titles resembles that of a dog tag owned by a British soldier. Prior to the beginning of the film Shaun, the main character’s, father had died in the Falklands war. Therefore the font represents him and other soldiers who fought in this war. This gives the idea that the film could be loosely based around this conflict. The song used in this title sequence is 54-46 by Toots and the Maytals. The main characters of this film are a group of skinheads who were generally known to listen to ska music, with 54-46 being one of the first ska songs of the reggae genre its quite conveniently used to set the mood. The sequence has been edited in a way that it only shows short clips of about five seconds at a time, these short clips are put together all the way through. When watching the opening titles the viewer may be aware that the film isn’t set in the present time. Due to the short clips the sequence has a relatively quick pace throughout requiring the viewers full attention in order to understand the titles.

Continuity Sequence

we filmed the clips for our continuity sequence on a flip camera then individually edited them using final cut. In our group Molly was in charge of the camera whilst me and Harry starred in the short sequence. I found this relatively easy and enjoyable. Our continuity sequence included match on action, shot reverse shot and obeyed the 180 degree rule. this was in fact our third attempt to complete the task, our two previous ideas had not met all of the requirements. a few of our clips had to be re-filmed a number of times due to giggling and moving out of the spot we were in. originally the clips we filmed weren't very long which was an advantage when it came to editing because only a small amount of the clip needed to be cut. This enabled me to finish editing quite quickly. Overall i would say that the production and outcome of our continuity sequence was successful :) 

Media Homework

Every sphere of contemporary life — and especially the film business — has been affected by computers.
i particularly liked this line because its a true observation of the constant progression of modern technology. It expresses how the need for human input has decreased.

Throughout the history of cinema, film titles have evolved with the film industry, as well as with social trends and fashion movements.This sentence shows that with time everything moves on together. Potentially anything from clothing to type fonts.

A consequence of this digital era seems to be that modern title design will forever rely on progressive technologies.I found this line interesting because it suggests like the line before that everything in life has a constant progression.