Digital motion graphics - After Effects 101AAD Task - We are to produce a critical analysis of a film title sequence.

. Critical Analysis Research

Buried (2011) directed by Rodrigo Corts Jorge Calvo's created this opening title sequence for Buried This is the story of a truck driver working in Iraq who wakes up in a coffin. The character is buried alive with a lighter and a cell phone the entire movie, never leaving this tiny location; its a race against time to escape. Jorge Calvo's got the job of producing the credits thanks to his brothers chance meeting with the director. Initially he was hesitant but after watching the first 15 minutes of the edit he was hooked on the project. Calvo is a big fan of Saul Bass, a graphic designer and filmmaker, best known for his design of film posters and motion picture title sequences from the 1940s who worked with the likes of Alfred Hitchcock. Calvo wanted to capture that Hitchcock feel in these titles and went through many design ideas before he found the look he wanted. Initially the titles he created were very 3D, with a background that appeared to scroll up, but he wanted a dry 2D look.

He kept thinking of going down and wanted to make the titles ominous, depressing and paranoid but also high energy. The type isn't rising. We're sinking artofthetitle.com

He also used images related to the story, referencing objects in the narrative. Picture right we can see an old dial phone, not directly found in the film but its a reference to the mobile phone the characters has in the coffin. The pictures are also pieces of a puzzle reflecting the story. Jorge Calvo's use of color in his title sequence is very important. Like music, color can be strongly emotive and expressive. Certain combinations of color can have a special beauty or can be intrinsically pleasing in ways most people recognize intuitively. Black we all have a good understanding of black, its the color of fear and emptiness. Its also associated with power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery. Orange is all about energy and stimulation. Dark orange can mean deceit and distrust Color-wheel-pro.com Combined with red or orange, black gives a very aggressive color scheme. White is used for peoples names as its neutral color and dark Blue color can represent seriousness. Yellow is a happy color, but a dull yellow represents caution, decay, sickness, and jealousy. Yellow and Black combined - Most of us will recognize the combination of yellow and black as a warning, its a cultural signifier of danger or something unpleased to come. The Orange/Yellow of the main text and graphics can be seen as a representation of the character, a bright energetic light enclosed by darkness, the character buried in the box, the energy reflecting his fear and the light his hope. Its clear to see where the color pallets inspiration comes from, inside the coffin the colors match that of the titles. The zippo in this shot is the only light source at present and it creates the yellow and the black colors. As the film progresses the colors change. In this shot the main characters is in the blue light from a mobile phone, this blue color also appears in the title sequence.

As mentioned before initially Jorge Calvo created the title credits moving up but he soon saw the depth of meaning he could create with the camera going down. The connotations of the drop are obvious; the descent into the earth is like a coffin being lowered into a grave. The titles sink down very steadily, with occasional jumps, this steady movement builds tension and we get that sinking feeling. Box shapes are used, mirroring the box the character is trapped in, lines connect the objects and text, just as the character needs to connect the parts of the puzzle. Fragments of information are displayed in the titles; these fragments are also found by the character in the coffin. The imagery in these title credits reflect whats going to happen in the story, it gives us clues that we wont fully understand until we watch the whole film. Font Design When looking at the fonts used in the sequence we find its composed of clashing styles. Fonts here dont match, they are designed to reflect the confrontations in the story, east meets west, dark meets light, good vs evil and life meets death. The text also appears in various locations on the screen, this along with the text composition, creates an imbalance on screen. The clash of styles and positions of the text. The text haphazardly fades up as the camera goes down, this could represent the trapped character returning to the earth when he dies or the worlds thoughts of him fading away Also the fonts dont have typographical serifs (a slight projection finishing off a stroke of a letter) because they dont work well with movement. The fonts here are bold and modern, a modern Sans-Serif font for a modern thriller. The font is also very small in comparison to the space; its buried in the darkness of the screen, just like the man in the box. This use of a small font is also present in the film Harry Brown (2009), and is used to mirror the characters feelings of self worth and his insignificance in the world. The huge empty screen and the tiny credits in Harry Brown.

Shapes & Lines There are three types of shapes; geometric shapes (basic geometry) Natural and organic shapes (things we see in the everyday world) and the abstract, meaningless shapes. These shapes can communicate meaning to an audience in different ways, organize information, symbolize ideas, create movement, convey emotion and emphasize and lead the eye to points of interest. In Buried Geometric shapes are used - the square - this shape suggests structure and origination, its a trusted shape, these are all strong themes in the movie. The shapes are also crammed in, squeezed into spaces; they look similar to the layers of the earth, turned up, like the earth that has been dug up to bury the character. Again we find objects move at different speeds and are of varying sizes, creating an imbalance on screen. There are 4 types of line; Contour lines - used to define edges and create boundaries. Dividing lines used to divide space. Gesture lines used to capture movement. Decoration lines - used to embellish an object. Here dividing line cut through text, they appear to separate things, text is intersected by lines and also confined in boxes, like the character in the story. Its about interconnected plot points, as the plot moves forward lines connect the objects and text, as I have said earlier, just as the character needs to connects the parts of the puzzle to progress the story. Music The thumping driving down of the music echoes the stories narrative. It builds tension just as the tension builds in the film. Good film titles set the tone of the film. Designer Karl Cooper, kicked off the title revolution when he designed the title credits for the film Se7en (1995), a seminal work which received critical acclaim. He was creative in making titles that let us know when to expect from the film.

The text of the title sequence in the film Se7en is blurred, representing the detectives struggle to find answers, its also disjointed, disconnected and raw, this makes it very disconcerting, just like the film its self. Just like Karl Cooper, Jorge Calvo has used many elements which convey meaning to create a title sequence that is visually pleasing and insightful; its a clever and unique piece of work.