This document analyzes the title sequences of several action-comedy films. It discusses how the title sequences of Johnny English Reborn, Hot Fuzz, and You Don't Mess With The Zohan first show the distributor and production company logos to convey information to the audience. The fonts, sizes, and placements of the text in the title sequences are intended to seem professional and balance the composition while introducing key elements like locations. Color choices and imagery provide cues about the tone and content of each film.

1. Titling Research
In Johnny English Reborn, the film starts off
with the distributor; Universal which is part of
the Big Six, and then moves onto the
production company; Working Title, which is
67% owned by Universal forming horizontal
integration. Placing Universal on-screen first,
conveys to the audience that this is a high
concept movie which automatically makes the
audience ready to expect something
wonderful with many effects. It also makes the
audience reminisce the previous movies
distributed by Universal, e.g. The Fast and
Furious franchise which have become famous
known movies.
Placing Working Title second, tells the
audience that this is a British film, made with a
significantly tight budget however, it will be
successful due to Working Titles previous films.

2. Once the distribution and production company are introduced, they are shown again on-
screen to imply that this is the combination of companies which made this film. The
repetitiveness of the distribution and production company states the importance of the
companies. The font is displayed in bold with a medium font size so the writing stands out to
the audience. It is placed slightly off center to create, using the rule of thirds, a deeper
impact and for the writing to balance with the background. Making the titles have moving
animation with a line blurred conveys to the audience that this film will include fast things,
which in an action comedy movie means supercars, bullets and fast action.

3. After a few minutes of footage, which presents the
aftermath of the first ‘Johnny English’ film, the titling
begins to come on-screen. The font is the same size
and body as the previously shown distribution
companies, which portrays continuity which makes the
film flow and look professional even though the film
was produced with a tight budget. In the
background/on the side we see the journey of Johnny
English ,which conveys how he gets to where he is
once the footage starts again. In these small action
packed frames, we see the location of where the film
will be set, we see a silhouette of a woman which is
typical convention of an Action-Comedy film. The font
is placed on the side of the action to balance out the
composition and if it is placed in the middle then it is
placed at the bottom of the frame which could be
because these actors aren’t as known as the others.

4. ‘Hot Fuzz’, another Action-Comedy movie made by Working Title and distributed by
Universal pictures, has a similar titling sequence to ‘Johnny English Reborn’. First the
logo’s of Universal and Working Title, then a reminder of who made the film and who
distributed it through the use of white text in bold, placed in the foreground of the
frame so the text doesn’t distract the audience from the action in the background. The
continuity through two different films states that Working Title have a specific style
when it comes to titling and only change the colour and font. Also, the font and colour
is white which resembles formality. The audience can assume that the man in the
background is a police officer through the way he walks and because the text shows
formality, people associate police as formal.

5. The third Action-Comedy movie I am analysing is ‘You Don’t Mess With The Zohan’
distributed by another Big Six company; Colombia Pictures and distributed by Happy
Madison productions. As the previous films I analysed, the first thing on-screen is the
distribution company, then the production company, repeats the distributor, shows the
association company and once again shows the production company. The font is
continuous throughout the whole titling sequence and it has a medium font size to
seem professional and to not bombard the audience with words. When the title of the
film is displayed against a background which is filled with colour, the font is kept the
same however it is slightly increased in font size so the titles doesn’t get lost in the
background.

6. The third Action-Comedy movie distributed by Universal Pictures, stating that they are the
main distributors when it comes to this specific genre. ‘Kick Ass 2’, made by Marv, the
production company had a different logo in the previous movie but they use a lot of colour as
previously done. As usual, the distribution company and production company come on
screen first, logo-wise and text-wise. After that we see the title of the film in a yellow bold
font, placed in the middle of the frame, direct for the eye to see. The text is yellow and bold
which reminds me of a precaution sign which warns you of danger. The use of the yellow
conveys to the audience that danger will be displayed across the duration of this movie and
the audience knows the genre is Action due to danger being a common theme in Action-
Comedy movies. When the titling of the actors is on-screen, they are placed at the right hand
side, so they don't distract the audiences attention from the action.