Deconstruction of Film Titles in 12 Years A Slave

For this blog post I will be deconstructing the use of titles in the trailers for 12 Years A Slave and for City of God.
Both of these films are dramas, and so will have similar titles to what would be expected of a Social Realist Drama film. I will specifically look at the use of director names, any awards, any actors' names, and any other titles which reveal parts of the plot, looking at when each appears, the purpose of each one, and how effective each title is.

The first title in this film trailer tells the audience the setting of the film, which is fairly conventional for historic dramas as this tells us about location, mise-en-scene, and plot, and so will appeal to the audience as this reveals the genre, and if people are fans of this particular period, they will be more likely to watch the film. However, as we are using a social realist genre, we will not need this title as the film will be set in modern day, and whereas setting and year are very important aspects of historic dramas, they are less essential for social realist.

We then see a director mention, which conforms to conventions of all film trailers as the audience may be familiar with the director as they may have directed a previous film that the viewer had enjoyed, and so they will automatically assume that this film will be to the standard of the previous one, and so are persuaded to watch said film. Also, certain directors specialise in certain genres, and so if the director is well known, the audience can make assumptions about the genre.

One minute later there is a second title stating the production companies, 'Regency' and 'Riverroad Entertainment', which conforms to conventions of film trailers as this can tell the audience about the genre, as certain production companies only produce films within a certain genre, and so this can immediately appeal to the target audience. The background for this title is an extreme close up shot of grass, taken from a clip in the film, and so less focus is placed on the text as the information given here is less important.

Less than half a minute later the titles which reveal the actors begin, and these are much faster than the others as little information needs to be transmitted. The actors come after the director as they are of less importance; they will have an existing fan base to which the film will appeal, but not as mass as the director's, and lesser known actors will also be mentioned so as to inform the audience. All of the actors are mentioned within twenty seconds.

The font for the actor titles stays consistent throughout, with a traditional serif font in white against a dark red background. This subverts conventions of a historic drama as this colour palette is usually seen in horror films as it connotes violence, however, the colour scheme is dramatic and eye catching, and so reveals that violence may have an aspect within the film. The font also has an effect to seem as though there is a spotlight on the text, drawing attention to it, conventional as this text is of higher importance.

Towards the end of the trailer the title of the film appears, which is conventional as this is the most essential information, and so by placing it towards the end of the trailer, this assures that the audience are more likely to remember it. This uses a traditional serif font and is underlined to put further emphasis on it, and below it is there is text stating that the film is based on the true story, which suggests that there is a book, and so fans of this literature will find this appealing, and others who enjoy the film may go out and buy the book.

After the title there are these two titles, which emulates the style of a billings block through the use of alternating fonts and text which is central, rather than on the left or right. This provides a large amount of information, including producer/s. director, screenplay writer, production companies and executive producers. This will not be included in our trailer, but will be included within our film poster, as although this information is important, it is not necessarily needed for the teaser trailer, particularly as we want this to be enigmatic.

The last title is the month in which the film will be released, put at the end so as to grab the attention of the audience, and is the most essential information as it creates anticipation. Additionally, the link is included for the film website, which invites the audience to research the film further through modern technology, appearing to a modern audience. We could include this in our film trailer as we will be creating a website and social media is an important aspect of our film plot, and so would link to the film and appeal to the target audience.

Evaluation
We could take inspiration from these titles for our own trailer as we could also consider changing the typography in order to indicate the importance of the information being conveyed. However, in order to fully understand the conventional titles to be used, we should research these specific to the social realist genre, as some titles, such as the date in which the film is set, is conventional for historic dramas, but is not needed for social realist films as they are conventionally set in modern time.