Art of the Title Grid Activity

Our film, The Art of Alchemy, is a thriller which follows the life of a school boy experimenting in a secret lab to create a drug which could potentially prolong human life. The opening introduces the protagonist and the main setting of the film, and suggests the genre to be a mix of thriller, crime and horror. It also shows the audience who was involved in making the film and ends with the title being revealed.

The font used for the titles is fairly simple so as not to distract from the shots in the opening, which provide most of the information. The colours used establishes the tone of the film by representing two main themes in the story: dark and perhaps disturbing.

The opening is intended to be ambiguous in order to intrigue the audience. Most of the shots are close ups which focus the eye on important information without revealing to much; this keeps the audience's attention as they want to find out more about the character and the plot.

Three things that we included in the grid that are important to the construction of an opening sequence:

• We opened with an establishing shot of Louis entering a room underground which tells the audience that he is a main character and suggests that the dark underground room is an important location in the film.
• The close up shots of objects in the lab and the angles used establish the genre as they are supposed to make the viewer feel uncomfortable, which is typical of the thriller genre. This sets the tone for the rest of the film.
• The titles naming the director, producer, actor and the film title are very important to the film as they inform the audience who helped to create the film and revealing the title gives the audience more clues as to what the film is about.