Institutional Name and Logo

An institutional title logo is shown at the start of every movie, which brands what they produce- normally more than one is shown as institutions collaborate on a film.

History of The Logo

In the early days, institutional logos were very simple- a still image. As studios grew they added things to out-do other institutions.

In 1921 MGM (Metro Goldwyn Mayer) introduced 'Leo the Lion' into their logo, and Universal had a globe.
The video below shows how MGM's logo changed over time, from 1921 to 2008.



In the 1930s, 20th Century Pictures has a 'tower' logo and then merged with Fox to then become 20th Century Fox, as we know them today. Columbia Pictures, on the other hand, first started out with a woman with a sparkler, as seen in the video below:



By 1976 most production companies, except Universal, had changed to cel animation as a particular standard had become expected of institutional logos. In 1984 Warner Bros. switched back to a non moving still- a matte painting- in order to remain 'classic.'
In 1990 Universal had created a remastered digital logo.
As of 2007 nearly every institutional logo has been done on a computer and have reached a level of sophistication expected of htem.

My Logo Design

When designing my logo design that may be considered for the final logo for my group Gemini, I thought about what the term 'gemini' can represent. The idea that came from this was constellations and stars, which is why I thought the logo should be animated to show stars appearing in a random sequence to then form the word 'Gemini.' To me, this idea seemed simplistic but effective and fits with the conventions of the institution being independent as it is not too extravagant or detailed.

I think that alongside this logo, simple sound could be used, such as slow music that fades in as the logo appears.
I made this logo (and the gif) using Adobe Photoshop CS3, with various layers and frames. I chose to make the initial idea digitally as I found it easier to do so than if I were to it draw on paper.

Here is my attempt at making the logo through a gif animation:

My choice of logo is effected by the type of film we are going to create because our film will be independent. The logo I have created is not too extravagent but is kept simple and effective, without appearing to be high budget and mainstream, (in comparison, for example, to Universal Studio's logo which uses CGI graphics) and to actually appear like an independent institutional logo. However, this logo does not necessarily represent the comedy genre of our film opening but is still made clear as an institutional logo.

Research Presentation- Comedy Genre

Comedy Genre

Audience Expectations - Action Genre

As part of research into genre and expectations of genre, I interviewed various people on their opinions of the action genre, using the following questions:

1. What do you expect to see in the first 2 minutes of the film?
2. What sort of main characters would there be? (Male? Female? Age?)
3. What kind of event do you expect to occur/begin within the film?

I noted down what they said after asking each question.

Here are the results:
16 year old:

• In the first two minutes I expect an introduction to the movie, setting the scene
• I think the main character is most likely to be a middle aged man
• There would be build up to an action sequence such as a car chase

43 year old:

• Titles, introducing characters
• Male, around 25
• A fight that results in someone dying, explosions, etc

17 year old:

• There should be titles and introduction of characters
• A young female character, in her 20s, and a male who is a little older
• There would be build up to a gun fight

14 year old:

• The scene would be set, introduces one or two main characters
• Two middle aged males
• An intense fight that would involve explosions

19 year old:

• Introduction of character and setting, probably an urban area such as a big city
• Main characters would mostly be middle-aged men, with a few female characters
• A dramatic fight scene betweens rivals- the 'bad guys' and the 'good guys'

 32 year old:

• Shots of the setting- a city
• Female and male characters, middle aged, probably rich or powerful
• A fight, conflict

From these results it can be clearly seen that most people believe that the main characters in action films are male and in positions of power. The setting for the beginning of an action film is most commonly seen as being somewhere urban, such as a large city, and that the first two minutes should highlight this. These results also show that most people believe that action movies are usually based around conflict- normally peaking with a fight that involves lots of action, such as a car chase, gun fight or explosion.

Film Opening Remake

The film opening we chose to remake was The Shining. (1980) We chose this film opening out of a selection of films and ultimately chose The Shining as we thought it would be more of a challenge to try and remake in comparison to a film opening such as Juno.

By doing this film opening we learnt more about time management and organisation- before we shot the film we had to create a storyboard and shotlist. This helped us be more prepared in what we were going to film and allowed us to discuss ideas and possibilities as a group before filming. Creating a film opening also helped us to think about location, especially as we were only allowed to film on the school site. This will help us when creating our actual film opening as location is important in making shots suitable. Something I personally got out of creating a film opening is more knowledge in film editing, using iMovie, as at times the shots we had to work with weren't long enough or of best quality and so editing was used to tweak them. This taught us that we should attempt to re-film shots more than two or three times in order to have the best to choose from when it comes to editing. 

Genre Certification

Various films of the comedy genre appear to use different certifications dependent on the type of comedy the film includes.

Films such as Shrek 2 (2004), Toy Story 3 (2010) and Finding Nemo (2003) have a Universal certificate. These films generally appeal moreso to families or children due to this certificate, and are often animated movies that appeal to mass audiences.

Finding Nemo (2003) Opening


On the other hand, films such as Forrest Gump (1994), Bruce Almighty (2003) and The Hangover (2009) have certificates such as 12, 12A and 15. This is perhaps due to the fact these movies involve different humor to that of family-friendly animation movies- there may be more adult themes mentioned, more violence and particular language used.

Forrest Gump (1994) Opening


From this information, the target audience and certificate will have to be considered carefully in regards to the type of humor used within the comedy aspect of our film opening.

Jelly Babies Activity

The jelly babies activity involved creating a storyboard for a 2 minute long film opening based on a list of film briefs we were given to choose from. The jelly babies were used to help with the positioning of characters on the storyboard in order to think about framing and composition in regards to shots. The purpose of this activity was to get us thinking about the typical conventions for the genres given and to form a narrative that would only cover the first two minutes of a film rather than tell the whole storyline.

The film brief we chose to create a storyboard for was the genre of sci-fi, in which aliens invade the Earth. Within our storyboard the pace is slow and introduces the main protagonist as this is often the case with the beginnings of many films as to focus the audience's attention on one character. Various shots are used throughout the storyboard, such as close-ups to focus on the radio, an establishing shot of the surroundings to show how isolated and alone the character is and mid-shots of the character driving in order to clearly show expressions and actions.

The narrative shown within the storyboard reveals a male character (shown with the jelly baby on the various post-it notes) driving their car in the middle of an area that is perhaps far off from civilisation and alone. He then proceeds to turn the radio on, in which diegetic sound would be used to show a radio presenter saying, "Welcome to Projection Radio!"- this then links to the title of the film, which is shown through the character's eyes as he looks out onto the road. Establishing shots are then used to focus on the surroundings, showing an unidentifiable object in the sky amongst the stars that peaks the audience's curiosity and prompts them to carry on watching. Diegetic sound from the radio then says "It's a clear night tonight." to which the main character looks up at the sky, eyes looking at the object in the sky for the camera to then show, through various close ups, as to what the object is. From here an extreme closeup is used on the object in the sky- a UFO- and the audience can see lots of aliens inside through a window.

Various things within the storyboard comply to the generic conventions of sci-fi- particularly with how the main protagonist seems to be aware of the UFO, despite it being far away in the sky. It could be argued that the radio represents the ignorant public, who believe that nothing wrong is about to happen. Since we only created the storyboard to cover the opening, this is the only main generic convention used but more would be revealed later in the film- we did not want a lot to happen in the opening but for there to still be enough that would be interesting for the viewer.


Overall, from the jelly baby activity I learnt more about the positioning of characters and how much actually happens within the first two minutes of an opening scene- that not much narrative is revealed but there are still conventions which link to the genre. It also made me think more about the positioning and timing of titles and how they can be integrated within a film opening in different ways depending on the genre.

Consideration of Genre

Genre is a term used to categorise a film or piece of media. There are many various genres, such as action, adventure, comedy, crime, romance, sci-fi, horror and many others. Within this there can be hybrid genres- a genre of film in which more than one genre is included.
Different types of genre appeal to different audiences at different levels- for example, a horror film including gore would be targeted more to older teenagers and above, depending on the certificate of the film. An action film involving superheroes would appeal more to comic book fans, teenagers and males.

Within genre there are conventions which help to differentiate it from different genres. A sign is something you see in its raw, physical form and the signifier is what the sign means and symbolises within its context. An example would be a knife in a horror movie; the sign is the knife and it would signify things such as danger, death and murder- all things associated with horror movies. Alongside this is the denotative level, which is what you see and the connotative level is the thing's connotations.

A clear example of a film scene which uses signifiers and signs is Psycho from 1960, as seen below. This is the example used earlier- involving a knife which has connotations of death, violence and danger.




However, conventions and signifiers can often be specific to the genre of a film. As Psycho is a horror movie, it is part of its generic conventions to involve things that have connotations of death and violence. This is not something expected of a film genre such as a romantic comedy, which may have signifiers such as flowers and letters which would perhaps connote romance and love.

It is for this reason that our group will have to make sure to consider the conventions and signifiers in relation to the genre of our film opening. It is also important to do this because it will be what gives first impression of the film and the representation of its genre to the audience.