Conventions of Institutional Credits

In this blog post I will looking at the Institutional credits of a film called Ill Manors.

Screen grab taken from 0:55

The opening 4 minutes of this film are just there to build up to the actual start. In these four minutes, you don't get much of a feel for the story and the personality of the each of characters, but more of what the characters in the feel are like, their class and their behaviour as a group rather then individual traits. One thing you can tell from the story, is that, it is mainly based around drugs, as the first four minutes, just show people supplying, buying and using drugs. Another thing it does connote quite clearly, is the location. From the location shots, it's clearly denoted as being an urban area. It's very built up and it shows estates and flat buildings. The costume in the shot above at 0:55 connotes that the characters in the film will be everyday people, like the characters in British Social Realism should be. Denoted is a man wearing a tracksuit bottom and trainers and a hat, while smoking a cigarette.  These aren't very fancy clothes, they're typical clothes that a character from BSR would wear. The clothes also denote the class of the character; he's probably either underclass or working class. The cigarette again ties in with the theme of drugs that has been present in this opening sequence. The location in the screen grab is just a plain bedroom with a single bed and a few possessions, it fits in with the type of character his costume is connoting. 

This film has a few production companies; BBC Films, Film London Microwave and Aimimage. I will be analysing the logo of BBC Films and Aimimage.

Logo of BBC films

The text in this logo is right in them middle, it stands out and it's really the only thing you notice. The typography of 'films' is very bold and slick, it's not cursive. The background of this logo is a kind of mysterious sky, maybe connoting that they make films which are mysterious or unusual. 

Logo of aimimage.

One of the other producers, aimimage, has this logo. This is the only logo from the producers of this film that moves. the four lines on the right start at the left and end how they are in the picture by moving across the screen. It's only a little animation, but it makes it stand out rather than it being a still picture. The typography of this logo is very basic, its all lower case letters, maybe connoting that the company is only small or starting out. Denoted in the actual text is the word 'aim', its bolder then 'image'. This could connote that when producing films, they always have an aim in mind, e.g to make people think about the films they produce. This logo has a plain black background, which makes the text stand out more.

This screen grab denotes the typography of the titles. As you can see it's quite plain. They're just white with no fancy font. This can connote the type of the film, it's not a fancy lifestyle film, it's a BSR film which displays everyday, boring life. The type of font makes the letters very close together, it looks as if they're joined together. This could connote how in the film, the characters stick together. 

Click Here to see my Timeline of this opening sequence.