The title sequence for the film "Don't Look Back in Sadness" introduces the main character Sam and his lost love Emily through flashbacks. It shows Sam's memories of them as children and teenagers under a significant tree, and contrasts this with his present-day sadness alone at the tree after apparently losing Emily. The sequence establishes the romantic drama genre and foreshadows Sam struggling to move on from loss. It introduces the characters through minimal dialogue and uses fades between flashbacks to convey the passage of time.

1. Evaluation Task 1
In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
The Title of the Film
The title we chose for our film was ‘Don’t Look Back in Sadness’. We chose to display it in the final
shot of our title sequence when the boy (Sam) sat beneath the tree returns to the present day and
gets up and walks slowly out of shot, leaving an empty space in which the title appears. Not only did
we choose this shot to place it in because we thought it would be most visually pleasing, but also
because we thought it came best at the end of the sequence as the title itself reflects back on the
longing flashbacks that feature in our title sequence itself.The font we used for the main title was
called “Zaphia“ and the font we used for the accompanying titles was called “Apple Gothic”, both of
which were in white.
I took these print screens from the title sequences of two films also from the Romantic Drama genre
(Titanic and The Notebook) to compare to our title sequence. They both use white text as we did to

2. reflect the delicate nature of the film, however ours seems to be the only one that uses a curly font
to illustrate the main title.
Setting/Location
Our establishing shot reveals the location of our title sequence. The location we chose for our filming
was Danson Park in Bexleyheath. We chose this setting for a number of reasons. Firstly because the
area is quiet and usually quite empty which was good for filming uninterrupted.It also has lots of large
trees and wide open spaces which is vital for our storyline as it revolves around a big tree. The location
could be shown as both romantic in the flashbacks, and isolated and depressing in the present day
scenes. In addition to the appearance, the location is also safe and easily accessible. Our final reason for
selecting this location is because the children we are hoping to use in our filming live very close to this
location and therefore it will be easy to get them to the location for filming.When filming we did have
some issues with things such as dog poo left around our location, however we had covered these issues
in our risk assessment and they were easy to get
around and sort out.
In Titanic the establishing shot shows a crowd on a
docking station waving at a departing ship. The
camera then pans left to reveal the entirety of the
Titanic, where the film is set. The Notebook opens on
a shot of a lake at sunset, creating both a romantic
atmosphere and also revealing one of the key
revolving locations of the film. In that our title
sequence mirrors both of these as it reveals a
location that will feature again within the film and hold great significance.

3. Costumes and Props
The costume and props are very important in most films. For ours the main purpose of them was to
show the aging of the two children to teenager, and also to emphasise that the female character is
now dead. For this the main actor wears a black suit in the present day scenes to signify he has just
returned from a funeral, and is also carrying a funeral program and a childs watch. The costumes in
the other shots weren’t as important because they were just casual clothes both children and
teenagers would be wearing, but the props were vital sometimes in carrying along the opening plot.
Particularly the watch from the first shot which appears again on the wrist of the young girl and the
teenage girl, signifying she is the one who has passed away. Of course our most vital prop was the
tree in the location as our entire title sequence revolved around it and used it to show progressions
in time.
Our title sequence differed from the two I was comparing it to in the fact that neither of them
featured their main characters during the title sequence, and therefore there were no key storyline
props except maybe the presence of the boat in the Titanic.

4. Camerawork and Editing
The camerawork we used in our sequence all flowed together and rotated around the pin point of
the tree. We used a variety of shot types during filming as well as slow pans and zooms to follow
specific actions of the characters. In editing to transition between it we used fades and cross
dissolves to allow one shot to glide over the next, also signifying transitions in time. The most
significant piece of editing that we did was the rotation and fade through of the photograph to real
life.
The Titanic also used cross dissolves in their title sequence in order to show the flashbacks to the
day the ship was departing, however the Notebook used straight cuts which is something we also
featured in the opening of our film and occasionally during some of the memories.
Title Font and Style
The font we used for the main title was called “Zaphia“. We chose this font because we liked how
flowing and delicate it was. It appears like calligraphy, almost handwritten, which relates to the
personal and emotional storyline we chose. We had also previously decided that we did not want a
bold or sharp font as the straight edges and pointed corners would appear too harsh against our
emotional story. The font we chose is also quite feminine so would play out well with our

5. predominantly female audience. During the editing process we decided that we wanted to use a
different font for the credits that accompanied the title so we chose the font “AppleGothic”. We
chose this font because it was quite soft and had rounded edges, however was not too detailed that
it would distract from the main title. The colour we chose for our text was white; not only because it
stood out well against the green grass where we proposed to put all our titles, but also because it
made them very soft and delicate and sympathetic to the story line. We also used a cross dissolve at
the beginning and end of each title so they would fade in and out delicately.
Both films I compared it to also changed their font for the main title, however they used fonts a lot
more similar than the drastic change of ours. We also shared the pale colour of the text in common
with both the films.
Story and How the Opening Sets It Up
We used the first shot to frame the boy under the tree, which is the pivotal point of the rest of the
footage. The opening shows him as he opens and studies the funeral program, whilst fondly
clutching the watch. It sets up for the rest of the film as we already see that he has suffered the loss
of someone close to him which the title sequence will reveal further, and implies that the rest of the
film will be about his strive to rebuild his life and move on.

6. Using memories to set up the storyline is common in our genre, as illustrated by Titanic, however
The Notebook does not follow this and keeps a much simpler sequence overlooking an idyllic lake
instead.
Genre and How the Opening Suggests It
The genre we created our film to fit into was the Romantic Drama genre. We show this through the
use of close intimate shots between the teenage characters under the tree, and then against the
stark contrast when the sequence returns to the present day to find the boy sat in the same spot
alone.
Our film seems to challenge the genre as in the other two films, the characters end up together
instead of being ripped apart before the film has even begun. However death of one of the
characters near the end is quite common and is shown in both Titanic and The Notebook.
How Characters Are Introduced

7. The first character we see is Sam, and although during the title sequence we see him transition from
a child to a teenager and almost travel with him as he grows up, we decided not to introduce his
name in the sequence as we wanted no dialogue for dramatic effect. He is featured first and is the
only person in the shot to reveal that he is the main character and is central to the storyline. The
second character introduced is Emily, she is brought in via the introduction of her name on the front
of the funeral program, then is brought to life when we enter the photograph and travel into Sam’s
memories with her. Although we watch her grow up alongside Sam, the return to the present day
and the lack of her presence emphasises she is dead and that it is affecting him greatly.
Because neither of the two sequences I was comparing with featured the main characters at all, the
introduction of ours so early on was quite uncommon in the genre.
Special FX
Special FX is extremely uncommon in our genre so neither our film did not feature any. This kind of
technique is more common in sci-fi, action and fantasy films.