The Art of the Title Sequence

The end of silent films

This is what I found interesting about "The Art Of The Title" article

"Words and lettering played an enormous role in films of the silent era. Film titles made their appearance in the earliest silent films, along with letter cards (or inter-titles), which provided context. These cards were the responsibility of the lettering artist, who collaborated with the scriptwriter and director to create narrative continuity so that audiences could follow what they were seeing. Distinct from these inter-titles was the film’s main title, a vehicle of particular concern to film producers because of the legal, copyright and marketing information this footage had to bear."

At the beginning of the article the writer states the importance of words and lettering in the titles of silent movies. This interests me as before I had read this I felt that the titles in the earliest silent movies would be of a low standard due to the time that the film was produced, whereas it turned out to be the complete opposite. It is also surprising that a main title sequence has much more legal information that has to be included. 

"Regardless of the method followed, we see the emergence of typography that seeks to match letter forms with the subject matter and even the zeitgeist — including typefaces inspired by art movements such as art nouveau, art deco and expressionism — as well as the commercial vocabulary of packaging design and advertising."

The writer further explains how the main title and the letter cards of silent movies of that era are able to reflect the era itself. This was surprising as it shows the dedication of filmmakers/typesetters to make the main title and letter cards represent not only the film, but the era the film was made in.

“Humorous Phases of Funny Faces” (1906) — video on YouTube — was directed by J. Stuart Blackton, who many consider to be the father of American animation. Not only is it one of the first animated films, it is among the first to feature an animated opening title, making it a precursor of the modern title sequence"

The writer speaks very briefly on a person named J. Stuart Blackton, who was among the first people to have a film that featured and animated title. This intrigued me personally as it is sequences like these that are classed as the foreground for modern day title sequences, which essentially makes it an important part of history as such. The fact that the writer chose to include this persons’ heritage in their article also possibly portrays America’s affiliation in film, and how they have benefited the evolution of it as a whole.

Section conclusion:

Within this section of the article I have learned how directors of an era where advanced technology was not heard of, were able to make title sequences that engage the audience of even a modern day viewer to feel the zeitgeist of that era, merely through the use of letter forms. This has also allowed me to realize the difficulties of accomplishing a good title sequence at this point in time, as many people specializing in different areas would have to come together to create a title sequence that would be classed as adequate. 

The end of silent films

As the writer moves forward into a time where movies grew more popular, they also explain how this caused title sequences to "evolve" as such. 

“During the 1920s and ’30s, European cinema was deeply influenced by modernism, and aspects of this visual sensibility were brought to the US by filmmakers who were fleeing the Nazis. Meanwhile, the studio systems operating in Europe and Hollywood also delighted in creating titles that featured vernacular graphic novelties. As much as possible, they liked to convey the tone of a movie through the “dressage” of its main title. Thus, black letter fonts in the opening credits were used to evoke horror, ribbons and flowery lettering suggested love, and typography that would have been used on “Wanted” posters connoted a western flick.”

The writer explains how during this time (1920-1930), European cinema was being changed by modernism, and how some aspects of that were passed over to the US by filmmakers trying to escape the Nazi's. This a very interesting piece of information, as not only does it show how Europe had played a large part on cinematic advances, but also how worldwide catastrophes such as the Nazi's were able to shape the way that western filmmakers presented their film titles; It teaches me that real world situations can have an impact on how real world situations are presented in film.

“As much as possible, they liked to convey the tone of a movie through the “dressage” of its main title. Thus, black letter fonts in the opening credits were used to evoke horror, ribbons and flowery lettering suggested love, and typography that would have been used on “Wanted” posters connoted a western flick.”

The writer also reveals how filmmakers at this point in time began to mask their films around the ideas presented by the title. For example, a title that contains flowers was at that point in time used to reveal that the film will be romantic, whilst a film title that contained black letter fonts connotes that the film was based around the genre of horror. This is an interesting aspect as it shows the point in time that films began to use iconography in title sequences, to reveal to the audience the type of genre of the film.

“Hollywood animation studios, including Warner Brothers and MGM, did give some license to their artists to indulge in title antics. But one can also see that life for the titling crew at Disney was strained by the weight of its foreign-language versions and that film exports rarely encouraged innovation in titling.”

The writer goes into some context by speaking about Disney's issues with innovated titling, due to the swayed attention towards foreign language versions of their cartoons. This helped me to realise that alongside innovation in film titles, some filmmakers had to be more immediate with the making of foreign language versions of their films, as the demand for that would be much higher than making a title that is innovative.

"The incorporation of audio into movies — making them “talkies” — didn’t revolutionize how film titles were handled, at least not immediately. However, we do see one avant-garde animator and painter of German origin, Oskar Fischinger, give serious thought to the relationship between visual effects and music. Fischinger’s practice of subordinating the visual rhythm to the audio was repeated often in motion graphics and title design."

The writer begins to explain how it was actually not that common even in the 1920-1930's to have an innovative title sequence, regardless of whether the film had begun to contain audio or not. However, a person who goes by the name of Oskar Fischinger, was someone who spent a lot of time thinking about "the relationship between visual effects and music". Fischinger is a very important individual, as "his practice of subordinating the visual to the audio" was used by many others in regards to motion graphics and design. This is an interesting part of the article as it gives me as a reader an insight into who was able to begin the thought of expanding the diversity of film titles and how they can be changed. 

Section conclusion:

This part of the article was able to give me necessary insight into the development of film titles, and more so the thought of how the developing would be done. It also reveals the struggle that many film companies had to undergo, as during this point in time some companies would have a larger audience than others, resulting in some companies not being able to develop their film titles to the new standard.