Encoding/decoding- hall

Stuart Hall was a cultural theorist, who looked at the role of audience positioning. He thought of 3 ways in which people read a media text. Dominant Reading, Negotiated Reading and Oppositional Reading. 


1) Dominant Reading: the reader views the media text in the intended way set by the producers.

(2) Negotiated Reading: the reader slightly views the media text in the intended way set by the producers, however this changes to suit their own views.

(3) Oppositional Reading: the reader has read a text in a way that was not intended by the producers.

 

Hall thought that media creates dominant ideology and that mass media defines important problems through audience positioning.

Sound in OTS

Sound is a very important part to an opening title sequence.

Diegetic sound comes from things we can see on screen.
Non Diegetic sound is created from an external source, e.g. voiceover/music.

Getting a perfect sound is vital, when somebody is speaking it is important that they speak loudly and clear so that their voice is heard. Microphones or sound recorders should be used so that no background noise is heard.

Foley is sound that is recorded over the top of a clip. This eliminates any background distracting noise if speech is recorded separately to the visual and then edited and layered over the top.

In my OTS it is important that the music we use is copyright free, as this is one of the specifications set by the exam board.

Conventions of OTS

-  Details of cast and crew.

-  The film's title.

-  An introduction to character or character type.

-  Indication of place.

-  Indication of historical period.

-  Information regarding mood and tone.

-  Introduction to signature theme tune.

-  Information about genre.

-  Questions that the viewer finds intriguing.

-  Patterns and types of editing that will be echoed in the remainder of the film.

-  Mise en scene and cinematography that will be echoed or elaborated upon later in the film

History of Opening Sequences

50 opening title sequences

The link above contains, both old and new OTS' to show the differences and how OTS' have changed.





The video above, 'THE FILM before THE FILM', shows how effects in OTS' change over time to attract new or more audiences to watch films.

Making an OTS

This is a slide share from petesmediablog, when we went on our trip to the BFI, Pete gave us a talk on what our OTS' should include and what makes a good OTS. Pete also gave us some tips on how to make out OTS look like an OTS rather than it looking like a short film or a trailer of a film.

What is an OTS?

The purpose of an opening title sequence to a film is to establish the visual style of the film and to introduce the viewer to all or some of the following:

• Characters
• Location
• Narrative/Plot
• Genre
• Themes

unforgettable movie title sequences

In the link above, you can watch the top OTS' to get a good idea on how to make a successful OTS. The link includes a wide range of genres so it is not fixated on one specific film genre.

Outline of an OTS?

Outline of task  - OCR stipulate: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes. All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source. The main tasks may be done individually or as a group. Maximum of four members to a group.