1. ASSIGNMENT 10:
FILM BILLING
L/O:
-TO KNOW THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF FILM TITLES AND CREDITS
-TO KNOW HOW FILM TITLES ARE STRUCTURES AND APPLIED IN FILMS
-TO BE ABLE TO APPLY THESE RULES/IDEAS TO YOUR OPENING
SEQUENCES

2. KEY TERMS
• Film title
• Film credit
• Billing
• Opening sequence
• Title sequence
• Opening credits
• Closing credits
• Possessory/possessive Credits
• Cold open / teaser
• Top billing
• Last billing

3. KEY TERMS DEFINITIONS
Film Film Billing Opening Title Opening Closing
Title Credit Sequence Sequence Credits Credits
(Top & Last)
(Cold-
open/Teaser)
Title of film Name and/or The The opening of a The opening The credits and The credits
role of person process of film credits of a film in the beginning of and the
worked on placing which the title and the film end of the
film titles and credits are film
credits in More modern films separate from the
a film that set a scene in film itself
the opening which
creates enigma (like
a trailer) is called
Ex James Bond
cold open or teaser.
Example = 4-3-2-1
opening
Top =
most
important
Last =
least http://www.youtube.com/w
important atch?v=4uaYiWu7uZs&safe=
active

4. THINK OF HOW TITLES AND CREDITS
HAVE CHANGED OVER TIME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pww
-used to just be text on blank screen!
xklLotJ8&safe=active
http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/the-
girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo/
Now there are:
-music
-CGI
-text animation
-images/footage etc
-separate narratives from the film
-symbolism and enigma

5. DEFINITION (WIKI)
• In a motion picture, television program, or video game, the
opening credits are shown at the very beginning and list the most
important members of the production.
• They are now usually shown as text superimposed on a blank screen
or static pictures, or sometimes on top of action in the show.
• There may or may not be accompanying music.
• Where opening credits are built into a separate sequence of their
own, the correct term is title sequence (such as the familiar James
Bond and Pink Panther title sequences).

6. HISTORY
• In 1900/20‟s big film studios didn‟t want actors names to be at beginning as they felt it would create the „star‟
culture that existed in Broadway. This would cause the stars to expect big salaries. Also, the stars who were in films
didn‟t want their names at beginning as it wasn‟t really the thing to do (as it were more popular to be a big
Broadway star)
• In the 1950‟s the film industry changed and studio‟s/directors/stars decided on if their names were billed.
• American films also tended to list the names of the actors before the names of the directors, screenwriters, etc.
(before the crew and film makers were more important than actors)
• After the 60‟s the big stars started demanding that their names be put at the beginning of the film for recognition.
Billing demands even extended to publicity materials (i.e. posters, trailers, billboards), down to the height of the
letters and the position of names. Big actors have top billing and small actors have last billing.
• Up until the 1970s, closing credits for films usually listed only a some of cast members with their roles identified, or
even simply just said "The End”
• Example: „Oliver in 1968‟ had nearly all the titles of cast and crew at beginning = 3.5 minutes long!
• Opening credits since the early 1980s, if present at all, identify the major actors and crew, while the closing
credits list an extensive cast and production crew.
• Generally, the billing order signifies the importance (1st = most important, last = least important)
• By the 90‟s a lot of films completely omit (leave out) the title and credits until the end (for different styles of
opening sequences) such as Avatar, Star Wars, Dark Knight trilogy

7. SOLVIET (RUSSIAN) INFLUENCE
• Most Soviet films presented all film-related information in
the opening credits, rather than at the closing which
consist of just a "THE END“
• A typical Soviet opening credits sequence starts with a
• film company's logo (Mosfilm, Lenfilm, etc.)
• the film's title
• followed by the director
• the film's chief administrator-in-charge, the production director
• then the cast, usually in actor-and-role format for main actors,
in an alphabetical cluster
• The final credit screen identified the studio corresponding to
the logo at the beginning, and the year of the film's
production.

8. RECENT TRENDS
• Many major American films have done away with opening
credits, not even displaying the film title until beginning of closing
credits
• Van Helsing in 2004
• Batman Begins in 2005
• George Lucas is credited with popularizing this with his Star
Wars films which display only the film's title at the start.
• His decision to omit (leave out) opening credits in his films Star
Wars (1977) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980) led him to resign
from the Directors Guild of America after being fined $250,000 for
not crediting the director during the opening title sequence.
• However, Hollywood had been releasing films without opening
credits for many years before Lucas came along, most
notably Citizen Kane, West Side Story, and The Godfather.

9. EVOLUTION (WIK)
• Some opening credits are presented over the opening sequences of
a film, rather than in a separate title sequence.
• In some films/TV shows, the title and opening credits may be
preceded by a "cold open," or teaser (brief scene), that helps to set
the stage for the episode or film
4321 Scream 4
Is a „teaser‟ as it previews a section later in Next slide….
the film
It cuts off suddenly to create enigma, in
which the film will answer the ultimate http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL
question as to why she jumped off bridge rAbsppcjw&safe=active
No credits!!! But has a good reason….
-trilogy (actors/companies and previous
films already known
-way to sell a film which people see as
‘typical horror/slasher”

10. SCREAM 4 OPENING
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
-typical convention with slight -audience sees that part 1 is a like -they discuss stereotypical
modern twists (facebook/texting) a parody of scream 1 – conventions of horror films
-similar to first opening sequence -however the convention of - The chase/kill sequence reinforces
„unpredictable killer‟ is then a conventions but also challenges
parody them!

11. TITLE ONLY BILLING
• Nevertheless, "title-only" billing became an established form for summer
blockbusters in 1989:
• Ghostbusters II
• Lethal Weapon 2
• The Abyss following the practice.
• Clint Eastwood has omitted opening credits (except for the title) in every film that he has
directed since1980.
• Other films to only show title:
• 2001: The Mummy Returns
• 2004: Teacher's Pet
• 2005: Batman Begins
• 2006: Hostel
• 2007: Hostel: Part 2
• 2008: The Dark Knight
• 2009: Avatar
• 2010: How to Train Your Dragon
• 2010: Inception
• 2012: The Dark Knight Rises

12. RULES/REGULATIONS/EXCEPTIONS
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billing_(filmmaking)
• There are MANY complicated rules but they must be followed. Read through the above website for
understanding of these rules. You must consider this when you make your opening sequence.
• There are considerations of fame, role, length of time in film etc.
• Basically the stars all want top billing!
• Sometimes actors have to fight/argue their way with studios (sometimes they want to be first and
sometimes studios want the more sellable and famous stars first)
Example 1:
• Miami vice = was supposed to be Colin Ferrell for top billing but after Jamie Foxx won academy
award he wanted to be top (first name). He got it even though his role is not as long as Colin‟s!
Colin received top bill in closing credits. (agreement made)
Example 2
• Seven = Kevin Spacey‟s name not in opening credits as it would give away his identity as the
killer…..he is in end credits of course
Example 3
• Hannibal = Gary Oldman had extensive make-up done for his role and didn‟t want his name in
credits!!! (He didn‟t want the fame like most stars)

13. COURSEWORK
• A good portion of the task of making an opening
sequence is how you apply titles/credits
• You MUST show titles and credits
• Weaker pieces of C/W tend to just have the title at
the end on a black screen which is not even
common in contemporary films!

14. WIKI
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opening_credits

15. GENRE
• Keep genre in mind when looking at film‟s titles and
credits!
• (Remember the PURPOSE of the film/opening)

16. TASK
ASSIGNMENT 10: FILM BILLING
• Create a PowerPoint that shows your understanding of film
titles/credits
• Slide 1: title page
• Slide 2: Model example from class: (take a picture of your full
list worksheet)
• Slide 3: Chosen film (name of film, genre, film cover
• Part 4: Picture of full list of titles
• Part 5: Multiple slides of screen grabs of titles, annotate their
meaning and annotate why in this order
• Part 6: Chosen film 2 (that is different from 1) and repeat part
3, 4, 5,
• Part 7: Compare the differences between them and discuss
why they are different

17. FILM CHOICE
• Any opening sequence or title sequence from a film on artofthetitle.com
• MUST HAVE TITLES AND CREDITS!!!!! (no teasers like scream 4)
RED = complete a title only sequence (example = signs)
YELLOW = complete a regular opening sequence with simple
background footage (example = crash)
GREEN = complete a regular opening sequence with
narrative/story (example = juno)
• Can‟t do…. (not repeated films from assignment 9)
• Dawn of the dead
• Gattaca
• U Turn
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Cabin in the woods
• Red lights

18. JUNO

19. JUNO OPENING DETAILS
Style & Length of Type of font Colour of font Animation of Placement of
purpose of opening text text
opening
-opening sequence
-title sequence
-teaser
2:26 Sans serif (like a Multiple – yellow, Like an amateur All over the screen
amateur drawing) orange, pinks drawing (wiggling) in various places
Style: (depending on the
-standard opening visuals
sequence
&
-animated title
sequence
_______________ _______________ _______________ _______________
_______________ Why? Why?
Why? Why?
Why?
_______________
Purpose: Short and sweet Teen theme Not serious, comedy No significance
establishments. Cheerful colours appeal
-establish indie
style, character and
setting

20. JUNO FULL LIST OF TITLES

21. START OF OPENING
The film starts as a standard opening sequence which
is normal footage which establishes:
• the main character
• and the setting

22. STYLE OF OPENING
• The film then transitions into animation which more is
similar to a title sequence style.

23. CREDIT 1
• Time: .12
• Possessory
• Distributing company
Typical to have distribution company
as first credit as they invested the
money have ownership of film

24. CREDIT 2
• Time: .17
• Possessory
• Production company
Next it is the production company as
they have a large role as they
produced the film, they have
control over where film was filmed sets,
filming, editing etc.)

25. CREDIT 3
• Time: .21
• Crew
• Director
Director has 1st credit as their role is
quite important in this film (above the
actors as they come after)

26. TITLE 4
• Time: .28
• Title of the film
The main
actress Ellen
Page is
placed in the
shot as she is
quite The title of film has the biggest size and
important the animation flashes in order it gets
the most attention and is very
noticeable.

27. CREDIT 4
• Time: .35
• Cast
• Main actor gets top
billing (first credit)

28. CREDIT 5, 6, 7, 8
CREDIT 5 CREDIT 6 CREDIT 7 CREDIT 8
Time: .40 Time: .44 Time: .52 Time: .58
Cast Cast Cast Cast
Main Actor 2 Supporting Actor 1 Supporting Actor 2 Actor

29. ASSIGNMENT 10:
FILM BILLING
JANE SMITH

30. MODEL FROM CLASS
Take photo on
iPad and put
place here
(handwritten)

31. CHOSEN FILM (GENRE: ________)

32. FULL LIST OF TITLE & CREDITS

33. CREDITS

34. TITLE OF FILM

35. CREDITS

36. REPEAT WITH FILM 2

37. COMPARISON
FILM 1 & FILM 2
ORDER OF CREDITS
Film 1 Film 2

38. COMPARISON
FILM 1 & FILM 2
FILM TITLE
Film 1 Film 2