Create Your Own TV Titles

TV titles have quite a job to do, they need to introduce the tone, genre and characters of the show whilst still holding the audience’s attention. To get across a range of characters in such as short amount of time producers will use stereotypes through symbolic, technical and written codes and in the structure of the conventions of the medium.

For this Outcome you will be working in groups of four to create your own titles sequence for a television show.

The television show will be based around the television genre of your choosing, but must be set at a public high school. Examples of television genres could include:

• Comedy / Situation Comedy (Friends, Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother)
• Soap Opera (Home and Away, Neighbours)
• Action / Superhero show (Agents of Shield, 24, Arrow)
• Gritty Drama (The Wire, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead)
• Reality Show (My Kitchen Rules, The Amazing Race, Survivor)
• Police Procedural / Detective (NCIS, Law and Order, CSI)
• Horror / Fantasy (Game of Thrones, America Horror Story, Supernatural)
• Other (Lawyer show, Doctor show, Prison show, political drama, period drama)

Your titles sequence must do the following:

• Be no longer than one minute
• Signify the genre of the tv show (using technical and symbolic codes)
• Establish at least 4 stereotypical characters of the chosen genre

Step One: Do Your Research

Watch a bunch of TV titles from different genres and eras. Whist watching them, notice what symbolic and technical codes are being used to establish the genre of the show and the types of the characters. Below is some tv titles to get you started.

Student Examples

Step Two: Create Your TV Show

Now it’s your turn. In groups, decide on a genre of a TV show and then plan the following:

Show Title: Make sure it’s catchy and appropriate to your genre.

Logline: A logline is a short, one sentence description of your TV Show.

Characters: For each character, list the symbolic and technical codes that will be used to establish their stereotypes.

Step Three: Make a Shotlist

A shotlist is simply a list of all the different shots needed for your media product. For each shot make sure you include the shot size, location and a description of the shot which would include any acting directions or prop needs.

Step Four: Now Put It All Together

In editing, remember that time is short. Make each shot as tight as possible and carefully consider your music and font choices.