Project 2: Film Title Sequence

"Hotel Rwanda" Synopsis and Ideas for Titles

You might of have seen "Hotel Rwanda", but briefly it is about the Hutu extremists of Rwanda initiated a terrifying campaign of genocide, massacring hundreds of thousands of minority Tutsis (who had been given power by the departed Belgian colonists), while the rest of the world looked on and did nothing. Don Cheadle stars as Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager at the fancy Les Milles Collines hotel in Kigali. Paul is a Hutu, and a very successful businessman who smoothly greases the wheels, making powerful connections in all strata of Rwandan life. His wife, Tatiana (Sophie Okonedo of Aeon Flux), is a Tutsi. She urges Paul to use his influence to help local Tutsis, who are being harassed and beaten with increasing frequency, but Paul will only use the political capital he's built up to help his own family, if and when they need it. Soon enough, the violence escalates, and the Hutus begin their genocide of the Tutsis. European guests and staff at the hotel are flown out of the country, and Paul is left in charge. He finds that his conscience won't allow him to watch as the innocent are slaughtered, and before long, the hotel has become a well-appointed refugee camp. Paul is seen as a traitor by some, putting his life in danger, and the predicament of his "guests" grows more precarious every day, but despite good intentions on the part of a journalist (Joaquin Phoenix) and a UN peacekeeping colonel (Nick Nolte), the rest of the world is not eager to intervene and stop the massacre.

Alternative complete synopsis http://movies.zertinet.com/2004/hotelrwanda.htm.

First, My thought with this film is to research and use the real photos from its history ( or snap shots from the movie) as the background. I was thinking to zoom and focus on a specific spot of the footage and reveal the title as a apart of the fresh of the victims, or maybe for instance take the photo of a survivor of the Rwandan Genocide, if he has scars on his face, intensely focus on the those areas and animate the titles using those shapes.

Second, maybe use silhouettes shapes ( from the film ) across the lower thirds of the film and have the titles sort of interact with those shapes.

Third, you know that the film is somewhat about the world not noticing or ignored that this was happening in this country. So I was thinking so use that as the concept but I am not sure how yet. Maybe I could use the shape of the hotel to sort of cover up the reveal the titles.