Research On How Titles Are Used In Opening Sequences

I took a look at various opening sequences to research on the different ways of introducing the title. I took a lot at the following opening sequences, of the films;

* SE7EN

* Vertigo

* The Terminator

In SE7EN, the opening sequence shows the names of actors, directors, producers, etc in a creepy and ominous way by making various names pop up at certain times. It then has the title "SE7EN" come up a couple of times blending into the background, making it subtle yet we know its there.

In Vertigo the actors name yet again appear to be popping up, making it seem scary as it has sudden movements of appearing and disappearing. We then get a close up of an eye and see the title "Vertigo" fly out and come closer to us. This is very useful for us as we wished to also do something along the lines of this, therefore, we need to look at the techniques used in order to make it seem professional and not to over the top.

In the film The Terminator, the titles of the actors, etc come up in front of a enlarged size of the main title, "The Terminator". This is helpful as it shows us how to make a simple effect seem so effective and professional, therefore we have taken this style of opening title credits into account.

In the title sequence of The Simpsons, it starts of with the main title which gets straight to the point of what the title is. Towards the end of the opening sequence, it tells us the names of the creator and the developers by writing it in a font and a particular colour that fits in with the cartoon. We found this very useful as we wanted to find a way in which to make the font of the title fit in with the surroundings, therefore taking a look at this title sequence gave us an idea on how to do so.

Overall, i believe by looking at all of the different techniques and styles of title credits, it has given us a wide range, therefore it will be easier to choose what style, colour, font and technique we wish to use as our title sequence.

Research into film Institutions

We want to find a film institution which would be a good company to produce our film, we want this company to be a British institution, this is as, if our film was going to be produced it would probably be a British institution, and not Hollywood. We have looked at several films which follow a similar genre to our film, and and produced by British institutions.

We firstly looked at the film 28 Days Later which is a horror/thriller film made in 2002 by Danny Boyle. The film was produced by DNA films which is a British film company supported by The British Film Council. However the film was then distributed by an American company called Fox Searchlight Pictures, which is part of the well known institution 20th Century Fox. The director and producer of this film must have decided that it was best the film was distributed by a large American company, so the film would have got more publicity, ratings and advertisement. As this was not totally a British film, we will probably not use these companies.

Dead Man's Shoes was another British film we looked at, it was produced in 2004 and directed by Shane Meadows, it follows the same genre we want to follow, psychological thriller. It was produced by a British company called Warp films, and also distributed by a British name Optimum Releasing. These were both companies we considered using for our film.

The final film we researched was Franklyn, which is quite a new film released in February 2009 in the U.K, written and directed by Gerald McMorrow. This film also follows the thriller genre. The company that produced and funded the film was British, The Recorded Picture Company, also supported by the UK Film Council. The distributor of the film was again British institution called Contender Films. We feel that these are the film institutions that we would like to produce and distribute our film.

We have made this decision of using these institutions; The Recorded Picture Company and Contender Films as we like that both of the companies are British, which is what we want for our thriller film. As the film Franklyn is also like the psychological thriller film we want to achieve, we feel these institutions would be the best British institutions to produce and distribute our film.

Codes and Coventions for the thriller genre

When we decided on the genre of thriller for our opening sequence, we discussed the codes and conventions of a thriller film, aided by our questionnaire. Before writing and planning our opening sequence we had to decide what an opening sequence of a thriller film consisted of. When researching this we realised that there was different types of thriller films; there is action thrillers, horror thrillers and sci-fi thrillers.

However we found that in all of the thrillers the location of the opening sequence is usually hard to distinguish, this may be to make the characters feel more singled out and scared (such as Saw and The Bourne Identity), or so it makes the setting more mysterious which creates tension (such as The Machinist). This was something we considered when producing the idea for our film, as the protagonist character in our opening sequence is unaware of where she is, and so is the audience.

In all thriller films we found that there was a villain and victim character, like the Joker and Batman in Batman The Dark Knight. These two characters are most common and well noticeable in thriller films, as the thriller genre is produced upon the excitement and mystery between the two oppositions. We have used this idea of a villain and a victim within our opening sequence, as the girl who regains consciousness is obviously the victim, and her attacker is the villain. We also found that the villain character was quite often disguised, unknown, or had their identity hidden for the opening sequence of the film, for example in Saw and Se7en.

Another convention of thriller films we took into account when deciding on our opening sequence was the plot. The general plot for a thriller film is mystery and excitement surrounding good trying to stop evil. However we learnt that in an opening sequence it is usually evil which wins or appears to be winning, this is because this will attract the audiences attention and make them watch the rest of the film as they do not want evil to win the battle. In our opening sequence we have also achieved this, as the girl has been attacked at the party, showing that the villain is winning.

Iconography is another factor we considered, and have made great use of in our sequence. We found that in an opening sequence clues are given to what may happen in the film, or what has already happened in the opening sequence. These are achieved through the visual sector of a film, maybe through certain features of the opening sequence being highlighted. This can also be achieved through the use of camera angles in the opening sequence, as close ups and extreme close ups are very common in thriller opening sequences.

Equipment List

For our film we will need the following equipment:

FIRST LOCATION (FIELD):
* Camera
* Tape
* Battery
* Tripod
* Lighting - torches
* Makeup
* Music
* Protagonist character
* Plastic sheet (incase of rain)
* Umberellas

SECOND LOCATION (PARTY):
* Camera
* Tripod
* Battery
* Tape
* Characters including protagonist
* Lighting- dimmed lighting, disco ball, large lamps
* Not copyrighted music
* Props- drink bottles/cans, food

In order to make our film successful we will need to choose a good location, we also need to have good lighting as it will help when filming in darker scenes. We must make sure that we have our camera set up and that the battery is full. We will need to ensure that the camera is tightly secured to the tripod in order to get good footage. The music is essential in our opening sequence as we need to create a thrilling mood in order to attract our audience. We must also make sure that we have all of the props and extra characters ready for our film as we need to use them. If we do all of these things properly and get all of our equipment ready, we will hopefully have a successful opening sequence.

Storyboard for our opening sequence

Summary of our Thriller opening sequence

We find a girl abandonned in the middle of a deserted field, as she becomes conscious, confused about her whereabouts, the character begins to have various flashbacks of the previous night. As the flashbacks continue we see the character is at a party having a good time, until she gets assaulted by an anonymous person. The journey continues as she staggers off wondering what happened the night before, and who her assaulter was.

Spider Diagram showing our ideas for our opening sequence

Questionnaire and Answers for Research of thriller films

For our research, we asked 9 people the following questions, these are shown above along with the answers.

From our questionnaire results, it is clear that the many of the people who took part in the survey feel that an opening sequence to a thriller film most importantly needs 'strange', 'scary' or 'freaky' characters. In our opening sequence we have an attacker, who plays this scary, villain character, therefore we feel we have succeeded in this sector of a thriller opening sequence. The other top factor our volunteers felt should be in an opening sequence are scenes that make you jump. Looking at our storyboard we also feel we have succeeded in this also as the attacker in the sequence jumps out at the young innocent girl, frightening her and hopefully the audience.

Tension building music is another factor we had to consider, as this was the most common type of music our volunteers felt were found in an opening sequence to a thriller film. We are not yet sure how we are going to meet this need as we are going to have music playing at the party scene, therefore we do not know whether music over the top of this will spoil the effect. However we may use dramatic music at some tense sections of the party, like when the attacker springs upon the character.

We have also come to the conclusion that our thriller film will have the 15 certificate; as it was thought that this was the suitable age for a great thriller film. Therefore this is the age we have chosen to rate our film at, on the other hand we feel that the gender, race and socio-economic status of our audience does not matter.

Opening sequence research - Se7en

I took a look at the opening sequence of the film 'Se7en' as it is a thriller film which is the genre in which we wish to follow. It is a mystery thriller which creates suspense straight away.

The opening sequence to Se7en starts with a man led in bed just finishing reading his book and starts off a clock this makes the audience feel like they are waiting around time on something to happen. The camera work leads up to this clock with silent music as the only thing you can hear is the clock ticking. Then a blackout comes and starts the film with the credits opening with a man's hand in detailed close up handling different pieces of clock pieces before it is built up. We see that someone is writing information down but we cannot see properly what it is says as it all seems a mystery.We get lots of enigmas coming from this opening sequence such as Why has he set this clock? Why is there a big lead up to the clock? Why does he have bruised and cut hands? What is he writing down?

We start to see these hands moving in different direction from writing in this book to pages being turned over. There is a face appearing in the book on a picture where a finger is sliding over it gently, the music in this part of the opening becomes very creepy and evil as you would tend to find in a mystery/thriller.

In the next part, we see this person creating a scrap book as they are showing the pictures that are being put involved within this book, the person has got a needle and thread and sewing up these pages to create this idea of a book. There are words being cut out of newspapers to make it look like it could a serial killer note/book.

The films starts to being normal and starts it off with a simple word 'Monday' we see a young man and a woman lying in bed together with the only noise in the background is the street traffic noise. The young man gets out of bed and leaves the woman in and goes off somewhere.

I think this film brings us to watching the rest of the film, it creates suspense and makes us want to know more. This film has very good use of lighting, scenes, character build-up and music. We need to take all of these into account as this is what is needed to make a successful opening sequence.

Opening Sequence Research - The Machinist

The film I thought I'd take a look at for our opening sequence is The Machinist. I specifically chose this film as it is a mystery, thriller which is a good example as we are looking at thrillers for our movie.

The opening sequence of The Machinist starts off with a view from outside, showing someone at their home, rolling up another person into a rug/carpet. Already form this we get an enigma of who is this person? and why is he doing this? As this is happening we can hear thriller-like music in the background. It leaves the viewer in suspense and creates tension, as they are wanting to know what he is doing. After rolling him up, he hobbles to a table and places a cigarette in his mouth, then comes closer to the window which to us is a close up. His close up is gory, creepy and sort of zombie-like. We immediately want to know who this man is and so we keep on watching. As he smokes his cigarette, he has a look outside as if he is watching out for someone. We get enigmas from this, such as; who is he looking for? what has happened to his face? Why has he rolled someone up in his own home?

We then go to a scene which is shot near a river, we see him park the car and lift something out. As he lifts this person out, he struggles to walk to the river. This makes us think to what is wrong with this man. We get a close up and see his bloodshot eyes popping out of his beaten and bruised skull. The way the scene is shot in complete darkness fits with the gory character who is obviously doing wrong, throwing dead into a river. The music here changes from tension building to a more calm and relaxed song. However, mixing it with this scene makes the music seem creepy, as they are opposites put together.

As he struggles to put the dead person onto a rocky edge, before pushing him off into the river, the music makes the atmosphere very scary. We then see him spot someone in the distance with a flashlight,he quickly tries to drop him onto the stony edge before that person comes. At this point we feel very drawn in as we want to know who this other character is. When he finally puts him down, he doesn't roll. This then makes us sit at the edge of our seats as we wish to know if he gets caught. Also the close up we get of the gory character builds tension due to showing his face being scared of the other character who is approaching.

As the person carrying the flashlight comes closer, the character quickly kicks the dead character, wrapped in the rug, struggling to do so. Finally when he does fall into the river, relieved, he turns around to had back to the car. The flashlight character asks who he is and we then get a close up of he gory character. This close up has a lot of lighting on it and so we can see all the bruises and scars along with his terrifying face.

It then goes to the next scene which is him washing his hands, we so hot water pouring out the tap but what grabs our attention is the fact that he is washing his hands with bleach. Very suspensive music is added to this scene which makes you wonder what he has done. We then get a close up of a flashlight with the character still washing his hands with bleach in the background.

This film has very good use of lighting, scenes, character build-up and music. We need to take all of these into account as this is what is need to make a successful opening sequence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVPgm2bsCds

Opening Sequence Research- The Bourne Identity

The Bourne Identity is the first film from the trio of Bourne films, the other two which followed are; The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. The trio of films are great sci-fi, action, thriller films, which is the route we want to go down, as a group, with our opening sequence.

The film first begins with a mysterious figure floating in the sea on a very stormy night. This quickly cuts to a location shot of an old fishing boat sailing through the mighty storm, this immediately creates an enigma of who, or what the mysterious figure was. After briefly showing a high angle shot of four fishermen, playing cards within the cabin of the fishing boat, a location is given to us. After switching back to the view of the stormy sea at night, the location of the boat is given at the bottom of the screen, it reads "MEDITERRANEAN SEA 60 MILES SOUTH OF MARSEILLES". When a location of an opening sequence is hard to distinguish (such as in the middle of the sea), it is important that a heading is given, to identify to the audience whereabouts the characters are at this sequence in the film. The identification of the location, along with the shots of the old fishing boat sailing through the storm, will give the audience an idea of what genre the film is, probably a sci-fi thriller. This is because the audience will have an idea of what will happen next; either something will be found on the boat, or in the sea. This is as the location was highlighted, telling the audience the boat is situated in the middle of the sea, and therefore something is going to happen, as there is nowhere to go. This highlights that this film is a thriller.

The opening sequence then continues to the fishermen continuing there card game in which one man wins, takes the pot of cigarettes in the middle of the table, and the game is over. For the opening sequence this is the equilibrium as the fishermen are going about there own business, playing a game of cards, however this is probably not the equilibrium for the rest of the film. A disruption in the opening sequence then occurs as one of the fishermen goes out onto the deck and throws some waste overboard, here he sees a figure of a man floating in the sea, close to the boat. Tension building music then begins to play which builds up anxiety in the audience as we wonder who this person is, and if they are dead or alive. As the title for the film appears the music continues and becomes ever louder which builds up more tension. A shot of the fishermen heaving the man out of the sea is then shown, with the tension building music still playing in the background.

Some of the characters and one of the protagonist characters are introduced in this opening sequence. After pulling him on board, one of the fishermen begins to cut open the wet suit of the new character who was found floating in the sea. In the process of doing this the fisherman finds bullets that have been shot at the character, in his back, he also finds a laser torch which was embedded into his neck. When shining the torch on the wall an address is given. As an audience we become aware that the man who is presumed dead, is in fact not, as we see that his head position has changed from one shot to another. This creates more tension as we know something the character doesn’t. When the man eventually jumps up and begins to abruptly question the fisherman to where he is, he is reassured by the fisherman who asks him his name. The character who we later find is Jason Bourne, cannot confirm his name. This indicates to the audience and the character that he has lost his memory, Bourne then collapses back onto the table he was led on.

One of the most important things that an opening sequence should do is create enigmas that the audience want to be answered throughout the film. Many enigmas are created in the opening sequence of The Bourne Identity such as:

• Who is this person the fishermen have found?


• What was the man doing floating in the sea?


• How did he get to be being in the middle of the Mediterranean?


• Why were the fishermen out on such a stormy night?


• Who has shot the character?


• Why has he been shot?


• Why was there a laser pen implanted into his neck?


• How will he find out his identity?
  

From carrying out the research on The Bourne Identity, there is a key point I have realised when making an opening sequence, its location. In this film, the location of the characters and the fishing boat is difficult to distinguish, therefore a location is given in words at the bottom of the screen. In our opening sequence we may consider using this, if the location of our shots could be anywhere. However we will only state the location if we feel it is appropriate, as sometimes it is better the audience not knowing where the character is, this may be because the character doesn't know either.

Feedback

What you have done so far looks good but there are a few suggestions to improve even more:

• first section on opening sequences - Sam(?) - can you briefly sketch in what an opening sequence has to do?
• two analyses - can you find the relevant clips on YouTube and import? also, at the end of each section, can you reflect on what you could learn/use from your research into this clip?
• As well as a few more clips, you then need to define the codes and conventions of your genre - think in terms of iconography, settings, characters/stereotypes, narratives, media language and ideologies linked to the genre and how you will use or adapt these and why...

Opening Sequence Research - Casino Royale

The opening sequence I chose to look at was the James Bond Film, Casino Royale. I chose this particular film as I thought that it had a very interesting, grabbing opening, which is needed in a good thriller.

At first, you see the outside of a building. You then see a caption saying PRAGUE and another saying CZECH REPUBLIC. This is the main aspect of an opening sequence as we wish to see whereabouts the location is. This helps the audience as it leads to them getting a sense of the genre. We also see that the scene is taking place at night, where a car parks in front of the dark, mysterious building. We get an enigma questioning what is this dark building? And who is in the car? This makes you carry on watching, as you will find the answers by carrying on watching.

We then see a character come out of the car and enter the building. This gets you on the edge of your seat as you want to know who this person was and why did he enter this dark building?These are more enigmas we get in which we hope to get answered throughout the film.

We see the character again when he is going up in a lift, in the building. We then have a close up of him, and as he is going up the lift we hear some tension building music. These both mix in together and we get an enigma of why is this music playing at the same time of showing a close up of this man? What has he done? Or what is he doing?

The music is the most important part of the film as it creates a mood, to give you a sense of what is going on.

We then see a close up of the lift numbers changing, then stop. This creates a sense of thrill as we want to know why he has stopped at this particular floor. We then see him walking to a room, entering and shutting the door. As he walks to his desk, still in darkness, he pauses and looks at someone's reflection in a mirror. With the thrilling music still playing, he suddenly turns around and we hear a voice. This makes us jump as there is sudden movement. It then shows someone in his room, they then give a close up of him, and this is now our second character. The 1st character takes a seat at his desk, and as he talks to the second character, who we find is named Bond, he opens a draw in which lays a gun and he removes his gloves as a distraction. The enigmas here are why this man is here? Who is he? What does he want from this man? Why does that man have a gun? Will he shoot him? They share some more dialogue which is very quiet, and is done slowly. This creates a lot of tension, we then see a flashback from Bond's POV. We see him abusing someone in public toilets, in black and white colour and we hear very loud scary music. This scene is fast and is very action-packed. It then stops and goes back to a close up of Bond, with the slow tension building music. These close ups make you jump as they stand out of the slow, tense music.

They share some more dialogue and we get yet another flashback, this time he kills him, by drowning him. We feel feared by this as we want to know why Bond is so violent and why he did it.

Sudden movements are the key aspects in a thriller as they make you jump, yet you want to keep watching. There is a sudden movement of a gun pointed at Bond, but due to the the camera shot, its as if he points it at us. Making you part of the film is a good technique as it draws you in and keeps you watching. He pulls the trigger, which makes you sit on the edge of your seats as you think your enigmas may not be answered if Bond dies. However, we find that Bond removed the bullets from the man's gun, takes out his own gun and shoots him. It then shows him back in his flashback, picking a gun up from the floor, pointing it at the screen, and shooting us. The the title appears.

There are many more enigmas we find in the opening sequence, such as;

* Why is he at the office so late?

* Why is there someone in his office?

* Who is this person?

* Why has he broken in?

* Why has he got a gun in his office draw?

* Why will he kill this man?

* Will he kill this man?

* Does he know this man?

* How does he know him?

* Why did Bond kill that mans contact?

* What did he do?

* Why does Bond no feel feared by this man?

* What does he want from this man?

* Why did he kill him?

* Who is Bond?

Opening Sequence Reasearch- The Dark Knight

This is an opening sequence from the most recent Batman film 'The Dark Knight'. I have decided to research this film as it is an award winning Hollywood film having won two Oscars, and I feel this film creates all the codes and conventions a good opening sequence should.

The location is the first thing that is presented to the audience in the opening sequence, as the camera swoops down over the city targeting a certain glass building. This is one of the main aspects of an opening sequence, to create the location, as this it gives the audience a sense of where the film will take place, and even the genre of the film. It can create this through our understanding of films; for example if the first location shot is of a built up city (like in The Dark Knight) then the genre would probably be either action or thriller, and probably not western or comedy. Also due to the sun shining at the beginning of the film, a structure of time is given, therefore sequences containing horror will probably not be found at this part of the film, as they are usually set at night. During this location shot tensional music is played which straight away entices the audience, as we know something is about to happen.

Immediate action is created at the start of this film, as a gun is fired out of the building the camera was focusing on, smashing the window. Therefore this is probably the first disruption in the film, meaning that there was no equilibrium. This is probably because the director of the film wanted to instantly create action to get the audience motivated, instead of setting an equilibrium, as the audience probably knows what the equilibrium would be.

The characters that are included in the opening sequence are then introduced. These are the villains in the film, and are instantly recognisable as are all wearing masks intending to be the Joker, including the real Joker who is one of the protagonist characters in the film. All of the villains are disguised in this sequence, by the masks they wear. Keeping the villains anonymous at the start of the film is common in many films, as it makes them more mysterious, this is usually achieved by there face not being shown or being disguised as someone else. All five of the Jokers then enter a bank suspiciously, also indicating they are the villains, and begin to fire guns. Here tension is created to again entice the viewers as the mockery Jokers begin to threaten and kill each other, as well as the civilians in the bank. As well as the villains a false hero is created in the opening sequence who attempts to fight back at the Jokers, however fails when is killed by the real Joker.

The most important thing an opening sequence should do is create enigmas, which are to be answered throughout the film. Enigmas are what keeps the audience motivated through the film, as questions that are created need to be answered. Such enigmas are created in the opening sequence like:

• Who are the villains under the masks?
  
• Why do they need all of this money from the bank?


• Will they succeed in stealing the money?


• Wheres the Batman?
  

From researching this opening sequence for The Dark Knight, I have learnt that immediately grabbing the attention and imagination of the audience is key. This is because if the Batman film had not instantly drawn the audience into a sequence involving action then the opening sequence would have been poor. This is as, we as an audience, expect to see action in a film like The Dark Knight. However it just depends on the genre of the film, as when making our film we may not entice the audience through action, but we still need to successfully grab their attention.

Study of thriller opening sequences

We are now going to analyse the opening sequences of several thriller films, to see in further detail how the characters, location, tension and enigmas are portrayed. Also how the use of the lighting, music, dialogue and camera angles creates the scary, mysterious effect, which helps set the scene in most thriller films.

An opening sequence is suppose to entice the audience into watching the rest of the film, this is done by catching the audiences imaginations. It is also achieved by creating enigmas within the opening sequence, this makes the audience continue to watch the film, as they want to find out the answers to these enigmas.

Intitial Idea for Opening Sequence

Our intial idea for our opening sequence is to follow the genre of thriller. The main reason we have chosen this genre is because our main goal is to entice the audience into watching the rest of the film, we will achieve this through creating tension and enigmas throughout the opening sequence. We feel that films with a thriller genre successfully create enigmas more than any other genre of film, therefore this is the genre we want to follow. We have also decided on thriller as we feel that this is one of the most popular genres watched by teenagers; who is the target audience we are planning to aim our opening sequence at.

An attention grabbing atmosphere also needs to be created at the opening sequence, to again keep the audience 'glued' to the film. This atmosphere can be created through the characters, lighting, camera shots, location, music and dialogue, and as a group we feel that a film based in the genre of horror will be able to grow on these aspects the most, and so therefore alluring the audience into wanting to watch more.

prelim task

For our preliminary task, our assignment was to create a continuity task involving filming and editing a character. This included opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down on a chair opposite another character, with which she/he exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue.

The task had to demonstrate a shot/reverse shot, match on action and the 180-degree rule. This helped us understand different camera shots, lighting and sound involved when making and producing a sequence in a film.

Whilst reviewing our filming, we realized we needed to vary our shots, such as close ups, for example when we were exchanging the drugs. We should have differed the angles here when filming the shot of the drug and money handover. We feel this shot should have been a close up not only to help the narrative purposes of the film, but to signify the importance of the shot. The lighting was another aspect we analysed when we played the clip back, we noticed the fluctuation in the lighting due to the natural light coming in through the window, this created silhouettes in some shots and not in others. This gave the impression that we filmed different shots at different times. We will take into account these errors and hopefully improve on our final product.

However, there were quite a lot of good points in our assignment such as the professional editing of our clip. When editing we worked as a team and our combination of ideas created final version. The music we attached to our clip fit in very nicely with the tension and mood that we wanted to accomplish in our film clip. This was backed-up by the different camera angles and transitions we used when editing.

Overall we feel that we have achieved our prelim task goal as we have completed everything in which the task outlined. Whilst doing this task we learnt about various shots, team-work, lighting and editing techniques, we needed to use to create a certain atmosphere. We will take these points into consideration when doing our opening sequence to our real film.