Research: Four Types Of Film Opening [6]

Categorizing Title Sequences

There are four types of title opening sequences which are:

• Titles on a blank screen
• Titles on still images
• Titles over moving images
• Titles using animation or notion

Titles on a blank screen

• Titles on a blank screen usually have a white typeface on a fairly dark background to create a contrast and make it stand out more.
• It's often used in low budget films/movies as they are one of the cheapest title sequence effect out of the four.
• They are described to be simple and also uncomplicated to include the institutional's name and information.

'Psycho' is one of the clips that I looked at that uses the titles on blank screen as their title sequence. Here you can see that they used white font on a dark black background to create a contrast so the title can stand out more to the audience.

I think this title sequence is quite boring because it doesn't appeal to me due to the dull colours used and the static 'Psycho' lettering.

'Pulp Fiction' is another clip i looked at that uses the titles of blank screen as their title sequence. This time you can see that they used yellow lettering on black background to make the contrast quite evident.
i found this title sequence very appealing because the bright yellow font caught my attention is very catchy which made me want to continue watching this film,

Titles on still images

• It's a way to incorporate text with a visual image to hint out the genre or tone of the film to the people watching the sequence.
• Majority of the time it includes hard drawn borders and other images along with the titles.
• They allow the credits to become more longer and allow to incorporate more names than just the film maker's and studio's names
• It requires different media to create the background

 

The film wimbledon used this title sequence for their title sequence. Here you can see that they used more than one background image in their title sequence.

In this first image the word 'Wimbledon' is in white writing and on a background image that looks like the sky/clouds. The effect of including that for their opening title sets the audience that the film is quite relaxing (tone).

Here in this clip they use a different image as their background - they used a tennis crowd. This sets the genre to the audience that it's about sports and could attract tennis fanatics by including this image.

I quite like this type of opening sequence because straight away it sets the scene even when the actual film hasn't started.

Titles over moving images

• Credit titles are shown along with moving images behind the title.
• Moving images serve to offer either metaphor or narrative thread.
• This is known to help introduce the tone or storyline of the film.

'Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window' used the titles over moving images for their opening title sequence. Here I took several screengrabs of their title sequence to show that they use moving images behind their font titles. For example we get to see all the curtains go up one by one starting with left curtain which gradually goes up while they display the main actors names and also the name of the film. I personally like this title sequence because it's quite entertaining watching the moving images in the background.

Titles using animations or motion

• The text and titles become moving images.
• This category of title sequence requires a lot of digital technology and stylized editing.
• They are integrated together with the images we see.

We looked at two clips one was called Casino Royale and the other was 'Catch Me If You Can' both of these films used this title sequence. The effect made me enticed in the film and want to watch the full footage of the films.

The two categories that I will be looking at which are important for the course is 'titles over moving images' and 'titles using animation or motion' title sequences.:

Narrative Title Sequences

• The titles are integrated into moving images in some way and begin as the film itself. 
• Whilst the film is happening this title sequence is shown in the film

In this title sequence we can see that the name of the film 'Panic Room' is shown while the film is going on.
I like this title sequence because even though it's embedded with the actual movie we don't have to wait for title sequence to finish for us to see the beginning of the film.
Another film called 'The Shining' shows their title whilst the film is being played.

Discrete Title Sequences

• The titles is integrated with moving images but is not clear what the storyline or plot is about.
• This specific title sequence doesn't want you to set the plot straight away to the audience watching the film.
• It helps set the tone to the viewers and gives clues that the audience will understand later in the film.

Stylised title sequences

• It's describe to be high quality
• Its a mixture of the other two categories in terms of what we see but the moving images and the titles credits have been stylized to create a combined looking effect.

My favourite title sequence is 'titles over moving images because we get to see who starred in the film whilst being able to watch the film.

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