Schedule | Syllabus | Projects | Moodle | Resources | Email Craig

Project Assignment Page

narrative title sequenceIn this assignment, you will create a set of images for the title sequence of a ficticious television series of your own devising. You will put these images together into an online slideshow that uses precise cuts, panning, zooming, and other visual-editing effects, timed to music.

The sequence should comprise between 12 and 30 images.

You will compose the images or "shots" in Photoshop, and sequence and time them in iPhoto (in the Mac labs) or Photo Story 3 (in the PC labs). We will learn how to edit music and other sound files to fit the short timeframe of a title sequence.

An Original Premise or an Adaptation

The premise of your TV series can be entirely original, or can be adapted from a published book, short story, or other non-visual narrative. It may be something in between.

Whether original or adapted, composition of your title sequence should be informed by a critical understanding of the characters, plot-generating conflicts, settings, themes, and tone which make a series concept. See more about this on the Prospectus for a Series Premise page.

Note that--unlike movies, novels, and stories--the essential conflicts in a television series are usually never resolved (until the series ends).

The Narrative Plan

This one- to two-minute title sequence should be "narrative" in one of two senses--or perhaps a combination of these:

1. a diachronic narrative works by way of plot: "this, then this, then this..," portraying something that happens to a character

2. a synchronic narrative works by way of editing or "montage" to arouse tension, anticipation, curiosity, or a sense of discovery: "this, plus this, plus this," and produces something that happens to the viewer.

We will discuss a number of sample title sequences in class and read Scott McCloud's book Understanding Comics to learn narrative techniques of plot and/or montage (narrative) in visual texts.

Technical Visual Criteria

This assignment will emphasize the composition of shots, backgrounds, and the techniques of sequencing visual images for continuity and other narrative effects.

Another criteria is that your shots be composed to accomdate and highlight textual titles and credits, as well as to perform panning and zooming without revealing the image edges.

Two Models of Title Sequences to Avoid

  1. Avoid simply telling a backstory.

    Instead, your title sequence should introduce your series/movie's essential tensions, themes, and tone using a combination of narrative and montage.) See the Gilligan's Island title sequence as an example of a simple backstory.
  2. Avoid the common style of title sequences that survey the characters or actors without any any narrative intent.

    Non-narrative title sequences are common and perfectly successful, but won't serve well as models for this particular assignment. As an example, see the title sequence for "Arrested Development," which begins with eight seconds of voiceover narrative--the premise of the show--but which, for the most part, is a visual list of characters/actors

Commentary

In addition to fulfilling the requirements of excellent commentaries, your Narrative Title Sequence commentary should:

Criteria

Sample Narrative Title Sequence Project

Examples of Professional Title Sequences

Other Resources