Dexter Title Sequence Re-Edit Evaluation

1) Summarise the conventions of the title sequence that were most important to this task.

In terms of conventions, there were some key points that we moulded our ideas around such as: 

• A diverse title placement to avoid it looking boring and repetitive,
• Making the programme name stand out from the names of the actors, producers and directors 
• Picking fonts, font colours and animations that were suitable and relevant to the show
• Maintaining these style aspects throughout

From previous knowledge, we were aware that all directors, actors and producers usually had a legal right to be mentioned in the opening title sequence, therefore including them was compulsory 

2) How did your group plan to edit the title sequence (consider timings, industry requirements etc)?

Aidan and I thought the titles would grab the attention of the audience if they were placed/moved around with regards to what was happening in the background. This meant a lot of time was spent perfecting timing and movement - for the ones we completed, it worked very well, but it meant a lot of shots were left with no titles.
We intended to include all the names of actors, producers and directors in the appropriate places on each shot, using typography relevant to the genre of Dexter.

3) Explain the creative decisions made by your group.

As Dexter is a Crime Thriller and a the main character is a serial killer, we found it would be fitting to have our font colour as a deep red as this colour has connotations of danger, pain and bloodshed. The font was very easy to read so the audience would be able to focus on the background and the title, we also dropped titles in places where there was a high contrast between the background colour and the text colour to make it easier to read . When we included animations, they worked in tune with the background for example a rotating title over a moving coffee-maker, this made the background and title work as an ensemble to be more enticing. 

4) How did your re-edit compare with the original?

Our font and font colours were very similar to the original, as well as our title placement because we were able to tease out some of the gaps that had purposely been left in background and place our titles there. However, the original had a lot more titles running over more than one shot which allowed the audience more time to process the title and what was happening in the background, whereas we had a title to a shot so it would have been a bit more difficult for our audience to focus even though we had a lot fewer titles. Timing was an factor that prevented us from adding more titles, although I would not as put in as many titles as they did as it started to look very overcrowded.