Series Openings - Use Of Typography

In openings, an important thing to do is to introduce your characters. One of the best ways (that actually gets your audience remember the characters' names) is by using typography to show each character.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles  does this in an almost comic book style, freezing the screen and arranging the text as if it is one panel on a page. All color is taken out of the frame apart from one, a different color given to each character. Since the easiest way to tell the TMNT characters apart is by the color of their mask, this helps the audience to associate each name with a color, so that you can tell the characters apart a lot easier. I think this works really well, and it would even work for characters that are easier to tell apart.




In Teen Titans, the use of typography is a lot different - after the introduction of the show's title at the start, a lot of the letters are used to lead on to the next scene of the title sequence, being either a background or just a path into the next shot. They are again used later on to give you some kind of background on the characters; the negative space around the letters is instead filled with footage or something relating to that character with the text itself staying stationary in black. Again color is used in association with each character, to help them stand out.



Green Lantern The Animated series also uses this idea of animating the text while introducing a character, but instead they put the setting - space - inside the text and fill the negative space with scenes from the show that introduce each character, instead of putting them in the foreground. I think this is a good way of setting the scene and introducing everyone - there isn't as much that you need to concentrate on, so it is easier to watch but at the same time, I don't think that it can give you as much character information as the Teen Titans opening manages to.




 In the Motorcity opening, text is used very simply; for each of the characters' introduction shots, their names are placed in the middle of the screen in the same color, font and size. Being white, your eyes are drawn to the text first, so you read the name, then register the color around it - again a different color is associated with each character and then you watch the scenes that are cut and pasted together in the background, to give you an idea of what sort of character they are and how they look in the show.

Steven Universe's color co-ordination is more subtle I think, not trying to make the colors stand out for each character, but still trying to give you a vague sense of association with that character. There is a lot more emphasis on the name, and less animation going on in the background as a much more plain and simple introduction for the character. As this show is for a younger audience, and is usually a fair bit calmer than some of the animations above, I think that this is a good technique to get you remembering the character, and doesn't give you information overload. This opening is a lot more about setting the scene, so this approach works well.

Borderlands is a game rather than a TV show, but it uses very interesting introductions or each of the characters that are a very good way of giving you a feel for what they are like. I think it could be interesting to experiment with something like this if I had the time to, as it definitely makes you remember the characters more.