Credit and Title Influences

Zodiac:

Order of credits as they appear on screen and why:

• 0.15secs - 'Paramount Pictures' appears on the screen - production and distribution company/s appears first before anything else and this is usually the case for all crime/thriller trailers. 
• 0.30secs - 'From the Director of se7en and panic room' - promoting the director of the film and his previous work opens up a wider audience due to the fact that people who enjoyed the films mentioned are likely to go and see this one. This is more of a choice, often depends on the popularity/fame of the director. 
• 1.43secs - 'Based on real events' - again attracts a wider audience and creates tension, which is the overall aim of the trailer.
• 2.10secs - the three main actors are now revealed to again attract a certain audience and inform people watching who they are going to see. This is clear from the trailer itself but it is a necessity to show the actors names and often the bigger stars will have their names revealed before the other members of the cast.
• credits appear at the end of the trailer (2.25secs) as they are stating who has been involved in the film/trailer we have just seen.
• Simple white font (something easily found on either word/final cut and/or motion) on a plain black background. 
• order of final credits is similar to the order previously mentioned.   

Departed:

• 0.18secs - Production/Distribution company/s introduced again (usually most famous and most involved) - follows a similar pattern to Zodiac trailer. 
• 0.34secs - 'A Martin Scorsese Picture' - similar pattern with director but this time they have chosen to reveal the directors name. 
• 1.07secs - 'Loyalty is a lie' - the main tagline of the film is introduced, which gives the audience an idea about the major theme of the film, which in this case is 'trust'. I particularly like the way they have used two different colours (blue & white) in the graphics to again further support this tagline, that everyone in the film is 'two-faced' and the truth is not being told. This links into our film and the major theme of 'Two-Evils'. 
• 1.16secs - 'Sacrifice is a test' - another tagline - creates excitement and again reveals the major themes of the film. 
• 1.32secs - 'How far can you take it?' - third tagline.
• 2.07secs - all the most famous actors in the film are introduced similar to that in Zodiac. 
• 2.18secs - title of the film is introduced - good use of connotation with the title appearing in the shape of a gun as it not only suggests the genre of the film but leaves a lasting image in the audiences head, which will then carry into the film itself. 
• 2.22,23,24secs - end credits introduced (same as in Zodiac).   

'Welcome To The Punch':

• 0.19secs - production/distribution company again introduced first (momentum pictures)
• 0.37secs - 'In 2013' - the graphics in this trailer are undoubtedly our major influence with the city landscapes appearing behind the the words themselves. This phrase also creates excitement amongst the audience watching as it adds a sense of pace to the action in this trailer. 
• 0.41secs - 'Know' - same effect as previously mentioned. 
• 0.45secs - 'Your' - interesting use of graphics that wasn't used on the two trailers prior to this one. Keeps you guessing as to what phrase will appear next.
• 0.51secs - 'Enemy' - similar to departed these tag-lines/phrases set up the theme's of the movie as well as create excitement amongst the viewers. 
• 1.08secs - executive producer/director introduced much later than usual. 
• 1.42secs - 'Welcome' - clear that the title is going to be introduced in the same style as the taglines previously. 
• 1.43secs - 'To' - "
• 1.44secs - 'Punch - "
• 1.45secs - whole title introduced - different to previous trailers as their is a short moment of action after the title is revealed and before the end credits are introduced at 1.48secs. 

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After watching the trailer for Zodiac in order to analyse the credits and how they appear, I noticed the final title and thought it was remarkably similar to the look we were going for with a few minor details changed to fit with the style of the film itself. As seen in the aims for our graphics we are particularly fond of the idea of having our titles appear just above (slightly merging) with a city skyline in the background:

I also like the way, as seen in the first picture above, the words almost fade in from left to right and then became brighter as the trailer continues. I am also a fan of the simple font seen above and decided to sample a few of my own in Final Cut in order to see the outcome (skip to 2.21) :

Below are just a few stills showing some sample Fonts from Illustrator that I put together and then screen grabbed before placing them onto this blogpost:

I am particularly fond of the 'Trajan Pro' font as I feel it adds a professional/slick look to the main title that will appear at the end of our trailer. However, I also like the depth of the 'Silom' sample font and would like to combine both of these along with the fonts that my partner has produced to make the final title that most fits our style and tone that we intended for the narrative graphics. Obviously these are just a select few of the many different fonts we looked at throughout the process.

MT