Title Sequences looked at in lesson

Se7en

Catch Me If You Can


Forrest Gump


Lord of War


We watched each of these title sequences in class so that we could look at different types of title sequences by different people. These title sequences ranged from Kuntzel and Deygas' Saul Bass inspired title sequence for 'Catch Me If You Can' to the point of view shot title sequence in 'Lord of War'. The Lord of War title sequence is very different from the rest of the title sequences that we have reviewed, this is because it uses alot of HDR- based CG imagery compared to the likes of the title sequence for Forrest Gump. The Forrest Gump title sequence is shot on one camera and pans from the sky all the way down to the streets, following a single white feather until it lands onto Tom Hanks well played character 'Forrest Gump'.

Napoleon Dynamite Title Sequence

The title sequence starts with an aerial view of a plate of chicken nuggets, with tomato ketchup around the edges spelling out one of the production companies "Fox Searchlight Pictures". A bird tweeting is heard in the background  which I believe shows the simplicity of the title sequence. This tweeting is then taken over by music which begins to become up beat which creates more of a bouncy atmosphere, raising the mood.

We are then show a view of the character 'Napoleon Dynamite' opening up his wallet and taking out his different membership cards which includes a "U.F.O abduction insurance card" and also his school I.D card which helps to show us who the main character is and what he looks like. From this scene we can also tell that the main character is quite geeky as he is into U.F.O's and aliens. The school I.D card also shows the setting of where the film is as it says the name of the school and its location "Preston High" "Preston,      

                                                                                   Idaho".            











There are other plates of food placed out onto old fashioned carpet which state some of the crew and their jobs in the film. By using the old fashioned carpet in the background, we can have a slight guess of the time that this film is set in which is the 1980's. By looking at the foods that are laid out, all of them are junk foods which could connote that the main character is a teenager as teenagers are mainly known for eating junk foods and not having anything healthy to eat.

We then see a ninja star thrown which again shows that the main character is quite geeky and also childish as he is playing around with things that mainly children play with. This goes along with library books and drawings of his made up fantasies. This continues the character's geeky ways.

Barthes Enigma Codes

In the lesson today we began to learn about Barthes Enigma Codes, learning what they represented and meant. Barthes Enigma Codes is a theory that suggests a text (whether that be television, film, poster etc) portrays a mystery to draw an audience in, pose questions and as such, become intrigued in the piece. An example of this is a murder mystery. A murder mystery will often not reveal the identity of the murderer until the end of the story, which poses the question "Who is the murderer?".

Barthes Enigma Codes are as follows:

• The Hermeneutic Code- the voice of truth (this is an element in a story that is not explained and, therefore, exists as an enigma for the reader, raising questions).
• The Proairetic Code- the voice of empires.
• The Semantic Code- the voice of the person.
• The Symbolic Code- the voice of the symbol.
• The Cultural Code- the voice of the culture.