Title Sequence Clips

Last week, my class and I spent several days watching and studying opening credits and titles sequences. All of these opening credits of movies were carefully crafted by making certain creative choices. Whether that be song choice, font color and size, or even camera/ movie style. Movies can also use foreshadowing, developing the interest of audiences, and understanding of the characters. To be even more specific, I’m going to be diving into 5 specific movie openings I have studied. 

 

To begin with, “2001: A Space Odyssey”. My first initial thought when the opening first started was “Why is the screen black?” or “Is something going to pop out and scare me?” but then finally after what felt like ages of looking at a black screen and troubling music something emerged from the darkness, a light. I think the light emerging from the darkness is representing a “birth” or an “awakening” because after ages of nothingness, something finally emerges. Assuming that this takes places space, referring to the title, the “birth” of the light could be referencing the “Big Bang” which a way that astronomers use to explain how the universe began. In this movie opening, there was a lot of symbolism and foreshadowing due to the “light” and “birth” of the universe. 

 

Secondly, “Saturday Night Fever”. This movie was by far my favorite scene I studied due to the charismatic and fun opening. The first thing I noticed was the color red being used and played out throughout the whole opening. From the opening credit font color, to Tony’s shoes and undershirt. This constant color use, give us the feel that maybe this might be the main characters signature color. Later in the opening scene, we hear various characters call the main character by name which is Tony. Not only does this show that Tony is well known but also well liked. By the movie directors doing this, we, the viewers can see right from the bat what type of person Tony is just from a few minutes of the opening. One thing I was confused by was Tony’s profession. By the first few minutes, we could tell that Tony was an out there, well-known, confident, lady’s man by just how he strutted the streets of New York. But, he works in a hardware store. This is definitely a use of irony. 

 

Next, “Pulp Fiction”. My first thought was how normal the couple looked. As the opening progressed, so did the couple. You could tell by the dialogue that they weren’t just there to drink coffee. The irony in this opening scene would be how the man talks about robbing a bank and then just a minute later there they are robbing the café. Also, the thing I find quite funny is how they decided to rob the coffee shop right there in then, with no plan. This leads me to believe that they have been wanting to rob somewhere or have robbed somewhere before. My first time watching the opening, I was shocked because I hadn’t seen any signs of foreshadowing, but now watching it a second and third time, I see details I didn’t see the first time around. 

 

Furthermore, “Apocalypse” is the next movie opening. My first initial reaction of the first few seconds, was that it seems calm not considering the title of the movie. A few moments later the calm trees burst into flames. As you see chaos breaking out with the trees in flames and destruction everywhere, you can still hear the calm music going “ This is the end”. I think this song choice really corresponds with the image being shown as its playing. While this happening, you can see a man, who appears to be sweaty and wide eyed, faded into the background of the destruction. I think this is showing the man reminiscing or maybe have ptsd of the events being shown. As the opening progresses all you see is more destruction, and a clearer image of the man. A few seconds later you see the camera panning all over the room that the man is currently in showing liquor, a spoon, a lighter, a gun and cigarettes. All the more evidence that the man could be an alcoholic or drug addiction due to the PTSD. As we get  a clear image of the man he looks as if he doesn’t remember where he is. One thing that I think was clever was the symbolism of the ceiling fan above the man as he was having flashbacks because the ceiling fan blades resemble those of a helicopter blades that were crashing and causing destruction as we saw. In this movie scene there was mostly symbolism. 

 

Beyond that, the next movie opening is “Scream”. The font was very bold and red like blood to foreshadow that it would be a scary movie. One I noticed is that the camera is usually behind her as if someone is chasing her. Also the movie jumps right into the climax, which is odd because most movies build up into that point. The camera jumps to different perspectives a lot of the time like when it jumps to her popcorn while its burning because she’s so scared she forgot about it. Also, the dynamic of the move changes to very calm to scary and scarier. 

 

With that being said, with studying the different aspects and creativity that goes into filmmaking I am faced with a decision to either a) do a movie for my project  or  b) do a magazine. As of now i’m almost positive that I want to do a magazine. Even since before taking this course I have always shown interest photography, modeling, pop culture and basically anything that goes into creating a magazine. But doing a movie will be stepping out of my comfort zone but the question is: will stepping out my comfort zone help me succeed with this project or should just stick to what I know? With reading the assigned article, it really divided into the art of title designing. For example, “First frames: Titles in the Digital Realm” says “Although the role of titles designer as valuable artist waspioneered in the 1950s, title sequence heroes remain few”. Meaning that even though the title designer industry was pioneered in 1950s, there are still few artists.