ART OF THE TITLE - ANALYSING FILM TITLES

I am now going to be looking at 'Art of the Title' to help me analyse how titles appear in romantic comedies. I want to find out the conventions of the genre such as: what titles are included, what order they appear in, and whether they appear over a black screen or over images?

This is the link to the website: Art of the title 

I am going to be looking at three different romantic comedy title sequences. They are: 'You've Got Mail', 'My Best Friend's Wedding' and 'Down With Love'. 

'You've Got Mail' 

Link to title sequence

What the titles are: 

• Warner Bros presents 
• a Lauren Shuler Donner production 
• a Nora Ephron film 
• Tom Hanks 
• Meg Ryan 
• You've Got Mail
• Parker Posey 
• Jean Stapleton 
• Dave Chappelle
• Steve Sahn 
• Dabney Coleman
• Greg Kinnear
• Heather Burns, John Randolph, Deborah Rush
• Casting by: Francine Mailer 
• Costume designer: Albert Wolsky 
• Music supervisor: Nick Meyers 
• Music by: George Fenton 
• Editor: Richard Marks 
• Production designer: Dan Davis 
• Director of photography: John Lindsey 
• Executive produced by: Delia Ephron and Julie Dirk
• Executive producer: G. Mac Brown 
• Based on “The Shop Around the Corner” 
• Screenplay by: Samson Raphaelson 
• From the play by Miklos Laszlo 
• Produced by: Lauren Shuler Donner and Nora Ephron 
• Screenplay by: Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron 
• Directed by Nora Ephron 

What order they appear in: 

1. Production company 
2. Production crew 
3. Main cast 
4. Film name 
5. Supporting cast 
6. Additional cast 
7. Casting by
8. Costume designer
9. Music supervisor
10. Music by
11. Editor
12. Production designer
13. Director of photography
14. Executive produced by
15. Executive producer
16. Based on
17. Screenplay by 
18. From the play by
19. Produced by
20. Screenplay by
21. Directed by

How they appear: 

The titles appear over a combination of CGI, a separate title sequence and images in the film. 

'My Best Friend's Wedding' 

link to title sequence

What the titles are: 

• Tristar Pictures presents 
• a Jerry Tucker/Predawn production 
• Julia Roberts 
• Dermot Mulroney 
• Cameron Diaz 
• 'My Best Friend's Wedding' 
• Rupert Everett 
• Phillip Bosco 
• M. Emmett Walsh 
• Rachel Griffiths, Carrie Preston, Susan Sullivan 
• Casting by David Rubin 
• Music by James Newton Howard 
• Music supervisor Bonnie Greenberg 
• Costume designer Jeffery Kurland 
• Edited by Garth Craven, Lisa Fruchtman 
• Production designer Richard Sylbert
• Director of photography Laszlo Kovacs, ASC 
• Executive producers Gil Netter, Patricia Whitcher 
• Produced by Jerry Tucker and Ronald Bass 
• Written by Ronald Bass 
• Directed by P.J Hogan 

What order they appear in: 

1. Production company 
2. Production crew 
3. Main cast 
4. Film name 
5. Supporting cast 
6. Additional cast 
7. Casting by 
8. Music by 
9. Music supervisor 
10. Costume designer 
11. Edited by 
12. Production designer 
13. Director of photography 
14. Executive producers 
15. Produced by 
16. Written by 
17. Directed by 

How they appear: 

The titles appear over a separate sequence set against bright pink backgrounds. The titles are layered on top of music video-like visuals. 

'Down With Love' 

link to Title sequence

What the titles are: 

• Fox 2000 Pictures and Regency Enterprises present 
• in association with Media Stream III 
• a Jinks/Cohen Company production 
• Renee Zellweger 
• Ewan Mcgregor 
• Down With Love 
• David Hyde pierce 
• Sarah Paulson 
• and Tony Randhall
• Jeri Ryan, Ivan Milicivic. Melissa George 
• Rachel Dratch, Florence Stanley, Chris Parnell 
• John Aylward, Jude Ciccoella 
• Casting by Francine Maisler, CSA 
• Music supervisors Chris Douridas and Laura Z. Wasserman 
• Music by Marc Shaiman 
• Costume designer Danial Orlando 
• Edited by Larry Bock 
• Production designer Andrew Laws 
• Director of photography Jeff Croneweth, ASC 
• Executive producers Paddy Cullen, Arnon Milchan 
• Produced by Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinx
• Written by Eve Ahlert and Dennis Drake 
• Directed by Peyton Reed 

What order they appear in: 

1. Production company 
2. Production crew 
3. Main cast 
4. Film name 
5. Supporting cast 
6. Additional cast 
7. Casting by 
8. Music supervisor 
9. Music by 
10. Costume designer 
11. Edited by 
12. Production designer 
13. Director of photography 
14. Executive producers 
15. Produced by 
16. Written by 
17. Directed by 

How they appear:

The titles appear over a seperate, highly stylised sequence with bold, colourful retro backgrounds. The titles are integrated into animated, 1960s inspired graphics. 

CONCLUSION 

Having looked at these three romantic comedy title sequences it seems that overall, they tend to follow a clear and recognisable order, very slightly shifting some credits around. Production companies always come up right at the start followed by the main cast, film name and then the additional cast. It is then followed by the key credits like the executive producers and director. The way that titles visually appear is clearly important to the genre as well. They are presented over separate, stylised sequences rather than the main narrative and use bold colours or playful backgrounds. This sets the mood, genre and personality of the film before the actual narrative begins. These conventions will be useful for my own opening sequence when deciding how and where to put the title cards.