THE PURPOSE OF AN OTS

Joey Carabini, Charlie Smith, Tom Glasgow, Simeron Singh

ESTABLISH THEME/GENRE

The OTS should include mise-en-scene and sound which is relevant to the genre of the film. For example, a horror OTS should include screaming coupled with images of violence and gore, whereas a comedy would include light-hearted images along with jokes and laughing.

INTRODUCE THE CHARACTERS

This is not as common in a symbolic OTS but most OTS’s will include the characters who play critical roles in the film.

The personalities of these characters are usually shown in the OTS to establish what their role in the plot will be, but are sometimes left in order to create a narrative enigma.

It has become popular in modern cinema to create misleading characters as this allows for a dramatic plot twist later in the film, e.g. Snape in Harry Potter.

ESTABLISH SETTING

Symbolic and non-symbolic OTS’s will do this in different ways.

A symbolic OTS will create the atmosphere of the setting without actually showing it, e.g. the mental hospital in American Horror Story.

A non-symbolic OTS will show the setting of the main events in detail, e.g. Juno showing the town in which the main characters live.

CREDITS

The OTS must display the names of the cast and staff who helped produce the film and may include their job titles.

Different OTS’s may do this in different ways and most will try to incorporate the text into the themes of the film and make it relevant.

An example of this would be The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, in which the credits are written in dark black ink; linking them to the ink in her iconic tattoo.

NAME OF THE FILM

This is simply text which displays the title of the film, usually in large, eye-catching font.

Similarly to the credits, this text is often incorporated into the themes of the film to have a greater impact on the audience.