Interactive menus
Interactive menus are special menus found on certain DVD’s, video games and many other media
where the audience can use the remote control to interact with the information on the screen. A
few simple examples of this can be found here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKzNdX2HT5E
This video shows several interactive DVD menus from James Bond films, the interaction in this video
is fairly basic whereas it is possible for the menus to be far more in depth such as including games
and quizzes such as a driving test DVD. However most of the time the menu is simply there to
provide easy, clear, understandable access to all of the functions available with the click of a button.
The menus shown in this video are both impressive looking and clear to read and use, each one
includes a small animation surrounding the interaction.
Web banners/attractors
Web banners are small advertisements
found all over the internet that take up a
small amount of certain web pages to
advertise a specific product. They commonly
look something like one of these examples
shown to the right. Web banners exist
because the owners of the web page select
certain areas of the site that are considered
less unimportant and sell this space to
anyone who is looking to advertise a product
online, The more popular the website is the
more the advertising space will cost, due to
the fact that more people will then see it.
When the website is very popular, the
advert will only be shown every fewtimes
someone loads the web page, this way more
adverts can be fit onto the website, the company advertising will then have to pay more money to
have their banner shown more often. A lot of web users consider these adverts annoying because
they distract your attention from the original purpose of the website however a lot of websites and
companies get most of their funding from simple advertisements such as these, so the advert being
there is allowing the whole website to exist.
Title and Credit Sequences
Title and credit sequences occur at the beginning and end of many media productions, mainly TV
and film. The purpose of the sequences is to inform the audience of the important companies and
people who were involved in the production of the media. Opening titles tend to be a quick flash of
the main people involved in the making whilst the credits include all the names over a longer period
of time, title sequences usually flash names over the action that is taking place, this can create the
right mood for the film whilst also getting the film underway during the opening titles. An example
of this is the opening titles to the film Se7en http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yALjuJcfg90this
works well because the writing styles and black jump cuts help to create tension whilst setting the

scene for the film. A good example of ending is credit sequence the credits to The Avengers
Assemble http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxN2IsLbZqoThe ending credits usually takes the
whole screen and takes place with no action in the background. All the names involved in the
production of the film are usually shown in the end credits; making the ending credits a very long
sequence. In this particular credit sequence there is a clever and impressive animation behind the
credits, this keeps the audience’s attention on the credits and also doubles as something to tell the
audience who the name coming up on the screen belongs to.
Animated Captions
Animated captions are simple animations used all over things such as video games, television and
other media. The captions can be used to describe what is happening, advertise or even to display
other details such as news or coming up next. A good
example of an animated caption on TV is on a WWE
wrestling match during the wrestlers entrance a
short animated caption appears giving the audience
some information on who has entered the ring.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rrx4tERN_g
Animated captions are digitally placed over the
footage and can be manipulated in modern times to
take advantage of the 3D effects some TV sets have.
Stings
A sting is a form of motion graphic used on TV and even on the internet, used to advertise
something. A sting differs from an advert in many ways however because they are usually only a few
seconds long and don’t tend to contain any speech or information and just include a random graphic
that fits in before a program or something similar. For example I looked at a sting that was used on
E4 that was basically just advertising the channel. I found it on YouTube. The sting basically includes
a deep purple background with some white houses as a backdrop. A creature is stood in the
road as another small creature comes past and uses a machine to turn it into the E4 logo,
the camera zooms out and there are multiple E4 logos all along the street. The sting is
animated and therefore has a more cartoon style making the sting look funny and more
abstract. The purple colour effect is also used a lot in correspondence to the logo. The visual
effects involve zooming out and movement of the character and the transformation of the
e4 logo. There is a weak blur effect used in the whole sting but the E4 logos are sharpened
to make the E4 logo itself stand out.

Idents
An ident is essentially a method of identification. In this case it is a station identification in
the form of a motion graphic identifying either a radio or television station. An example of
an ident is a channel 4 ident that was shown in-between programmes to identify and
advertise the channel itself. In this ident the
camera moves along an old airfield for
about 20 seconds and then slowly pans
upwards to reveal a very subtle channel 4
logo between the planes on the ground. The
fact that the channel four logo can only be
seen subtly is clever because this is the style
of all the channel four idents so this one fits
in well with the style the viewer expects and instantly lets them know it is channel four.