Movies for TV - Early Television Foundation

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FUNDAMENTALS
it is essential to maintain the same style of printing and lettering
for any subsequent title announcements during a production, un-
less for any special reason it is desired to change styles.
Book titles, either real or specially faked to simulate books,
present a new approach and one which is not often used. One way
to use them is to compose the title according to the style required
and enter on the fly pages the credits, etc. A hand can take it
down from the shelf and bring it up to the camera into focus.
Then as it moves away from the lens it opens and shows the addi-
tional titles inside. This type is good for children's stories or cer-
tain old tales such as ghost stories, etc.
Following in the same style of ready-made titles, we find the
sign post on the street where the on-location shots were made will
sometimes fit nicely as a title. In other cases, it is possible to make
a very topical title by constructing a fake sign post with the story
title on it. This is done quite often in impressionistic or psychologi-
cal productions; it adds to the atmosphere.
For oldtime shows borders are sometimes used, although for
general use they
are out. The border as an ornamentation to the
title is an old-fashioned device and dates a producer as well as his
product.
Background Titles, Still and Moving So far we have dealt
with the various methods of transmitting intelligence to the reader
and presenting it in the simplest possible ways. Now we shall see
how the information can be dressed up to make a more attractive
picture.
Some form of background, either incidental to the production
or entirely different in subject, will add interest and atmosphere
to it. Every reader will be familiar with movies dealing with, for
example, sea tales or smugglers in which the titles are presented
over stills from the story or suitable backgrounds such as a pirate
treasure chest. In the same way, moving backgrounds are often
seen with fishes swimming
around or even in some trick scenes
forming the letters. All these devices add to the pulling power of
the presentation just at the time when it is most important, i.e.,