The history of titles and credits in film
Before the 1900, films would just begin. The first hint of the creation of title cards was seen in the film "How It Feels To Be Run Over", directed by Cecil Hepworth in 1900s.
Quick frames of "Oh mother will be pleased" were played in a scene from the film.
In 1901, interfiles (title cards in the film itself) were introduced to provide dialogue, set the scene, etc. This was first shown in "Marley's ghost" by Walter R. Booth.
"The Great Train Robbery" (1903) was the first feature film that included a title card introducing the film's title and the production company's trademark in the beginning of the film. The credits- name of actors and other staff weren't shown in these early stages.
Later on directors started experimenting with animation and animated titles. In 1906, J. Stuart Blackton's film "Humorous phases of funny faces" created their opening titles using chalk and stop-motion animation.
Opening title sequence evolved and became more consistent as all film production would use a similar template of a classic film noir theme. It also now included the studio logo, film title, screenplay credits, cinematography, music, wardrobe and director.
Titles and credits further evolved after 1949, when directors and producer become more artistically involved in the creation of these.
Saul Bass had an impact in the modern title design as he introduced the first animated title sequence "Carmen Jones" (1954). He introduced kinetic typography to the film industry.
Maurice Binder's work on "Dr No" (1952) also had an impact on the film industry- creating the iconic imagery of James Bond 'telescope view'.
Title and credit cards become digital in 1978, in the "Superman" film by Richard Donner.
Evolution of Production company logos- how they've changed over the years?
Our opening sequence's genre is crime/thriller. A couple of similar products that we looked into throughout the research stage were: "Mr Robot" (2015-2019), "Hacker" (2016), "Disturbia"(2007), etc. The theme of the titles reflected the genre through the 'robotic' typography.
We took inspiration from these two videos down below- our idea was to use a 'robotic' font to reflect the theme of hacking/scamming as well as use some of the effects like "Social Network" title sequence.
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