Titles name and give credit to the people involved in funding, making and producing the film, usually presented in one long list once the film is over.
However, a short list of the key people/companies involved are typically shown in a short sequence before the film starts, these are known as Title Sequences.
These initial credits are included in order to give key institutional information like name the people most involved in and important to the process of making the film: such as the production studio, producer, director and main cast - the addition of celebrities' names in the main cast could also engage the audience more as they look forward to seeing them.
How a Title Sequence is presented also sets the tone and genre for the rest of the film, and potentially hint at narrative or characters.
Typically, 21 titles are provided in these, these usually include:
Money
Production studio
Directors name film
Main star
The film's title
Actor 1
Actor 2
Actor 3
Actor 4
Actor 5
Casting by...
Costume designer
Music credits (e.g. film score composer)
Edited by...
Production designer
Director of Photography (DOP)
Executive Producer
Produced by...
Based upon... (e.g. book)
Screen play (writer)
Director
Title Sequences can set the film's tone and genre through the general stylistic choices of how they are shown, such as how the text is applied to the sequence (e.g. as part of the character's world), the font choice and colour that they use, or even the transitions between them.
g
Scott Pilgrim vs the World, dir. Edgar Wright, 2010
It Follows is a Thriller film directed by David Robert Mitchell that released on February 27th 2015 and was produced by Northern Lights Films, the cast features Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Olivia Luccardi and Lili Seppe.
IT FOLLOWS
NARRATIVE
This sequence opens on an establishing shot of a calm suburban neighbourhood, it pans to the right to a house, whose door is suddenly opened when a young woman sprints out of it in deep fear as she repeatedly looks over her shoulder. The camera remains focused on her, not revealing what she is looking back at, she runs to the middle of the street and stares in pure horror at something unknown behind the camera. Both her father off screen and her neighbour in the background ask her what is going on and if she needs help, she shakily tells them that she is ok as he keeps her full attention on the mysterious entity out of sight. She backs away for a seconds before running to the right again, making a full circle to go back into her house and past her concerned dad, she quickly comes out again to run into her car and drive away. We are then shown her sitting alone in the middle of a beach in the dark, crying, she is calling her dad apologising and telling him she loves him. This is then cut to a jarring shot of her lying dead on the sand with her leg brutally bent backwards. From this, we can guess that the rest of the movie will reveal what mysterious threat she was looking at and running away from, and why her father and neighbour couldn’t see it.
TARGET AUDIENCE
This film mainly targets teenage/young adult audiences; the graphic shot at the end of her dead body rules out any younger audiences, and the fact that the character we are following appears to be a woman in her late teens/early 20s suggests that maybe the characters in the rest of the film will be of similar age, this tends to appeal more to audiences of that same age group as it is perhaps easier to relate to.
GENRE & TONE
This film’s genre is clearly horror, obviously the shot of the woman’s gruesome death makes this clear, but her intensely frightened and odd behaviour paired with the lack of knowledge of what she is running from add to this. The fact that it follows a young woman is also a somewhat typical aspect of a horror. The general tone seems to be very mysterious as we are revealed so little about the threat, it is also highly unsettling simply due to its bizarre nature that leaves so many questions unanswered.
CHARACTERS
The entire sequence mainly follows one character, the young woman. Her costume is made up of what seems to be white pyjamas along with black high heels, this odd combination already creates a sense of confusion over what is happening to her. She acts very strangely; sprinting out of her house and slowly backing down the street before running again full circle back inside; she seems to already know what to do, which suggests she understands the mysterious threat’s behaviours - perhaps she has dealt with this for a while already. She is shown to be an emotional person (although anyone would be in this situation) when she calls her dad and apologises for not being nice to him sometimes, this makes the audience sympathise with her and know her more as a person, only to cut to her dead on the floor.
TECHNIQUES
The camera remains focused on her throughout almost the entire sequence, it tracks along with her in the middle of the shot, only allowing the audience to see that she is terrified for her life, without showing the real danger behind the camera. This creates fear over an entity we can’t see or don’t know anything about, similarly to the two brief background characters who can’t seem to see the threat either. The last moments of this opening show her having a tearful conversation with her father, which then cuts to what she is looking at in front of her by matching her eye-line; we are simply met with a long shot of where she supposedly ran in from, showing no form of threat and yet again depriving us from any knowledge. Her diegetic phone call is then cut off with a jarring shot of her lifeless body in the harsh morning light, with her leg bent in a gruesome manner, covered in blood. This sudden contrast in imagery only leaves the audience with more questions and establishes its gory nature.
SUCCESSFUL?
I think this is a great opening sequence due to the almost frustrating lack of knowledge of what to fear, it makes use of the fear of the unknown as the audience are left wondering what she could possibly be running from. Additionally, the gory death at the end is similarly effective in engaging horror fans that enjoy gore as it confirms that it is not afraid to show graphic imagery - suggesting the rest of the film will feature similarly brutal and unusual deaths.
Get out is a Thriller/horror film directed by Jordan Peele that released on March 17th 2017 and was produced by Blumhouse Productions, the cast features Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener.
GET OUT
NARRATIVE
This sequence follows a man walking alone at night around a neighbourhood in the suburbs, he is on a call with someone, presumably a friend, and tells them that he is in a ‘creepy, confusing ass suburb’ revealing that he feels somewhat unsafe. He hangs up the phone and starts muttering directions to himself; he is clearly lost and confused as to where he is. A white car then drives past him in the opposite direction as a seemingly meaningless detail, before it then turns around in the other direction in the middle of the road. It begins to slowly drive up before stopping right next to him, playing music that sounds old timey and cheerful, the man becomes creeped out and turns around to walk away from the car, the camera then rotates around him to reveal the other side of the car, who’s door is open. Another person suddenly emerges from the shadows and begins to strangle him, once he is passed out, they then quickly drag him to the car before driving away. From this, we can expect the rest of the film to follow the man after his capture and how he escapes, or perhaps we follow the person who kidnapped him to learn why they did it and their motivations.
TARGET AUDIENCE
This film targets adult audiences, this is made clear due to the aggressive strangling shown and the general theme of kidnapping, which is unsuitable for children, the man is also heard swearing a significant amount which further proves that it is not intended for them.
GENRE & TONE
The film’s thriller genre is made apparent through the eerie and unsettling feeling it creates, despite the fact that suburban neighbourhoods tend to be presented as peaceful places, this one is shot in the dark and in complete silence, the odd behaviour of the car driver is similarly off putting. The fact that it opens on a man walking alone at night and obviously the kidnapping sequence are both typical of the thriller genre as we are left wondering what the kidnapper’s sinister intentions are. The general tone seems unsafe and creepy, again due to the dark and empty setting paired with the man’s slight panic from being lost.
CHARACTERS
Two characters are shown in this sequence; the man being kidnapped and his kidnapper. Although the man is the first character we are shown and we follow this situation from his perspective, he doesn’t seem to be the film’s main character; we don’t really get shown many shots of his face, or really any shots that clearly highlight his appearance as he is mainly out of sight in the shadows, his lines of dialogue seem similarly insignificant as he is just rambling to himself - this suggests that his actual character perhaps isn’t going to be particularly present or important throughout the rest of the film as he has no clear defining features made obvious to us. The person kidnapping him is completely hidden by the shadows and their face is never shown as it is covered by some sort of mask - this anonymity perhaps suggests that their identity will be revealed later in the film - they are also dressed in a full black costume which, paired with the mysterious mask, has evil and sinister connotations that clearly establish them as a villain (along with obviously kidnapping a man).
TECHNIQUES
This sequence is filmed in one continuous long take, never breaking away from the man’s perspective which essentially leaves no space for any sort of break, this draws the audience into the man’s point of view as we experience it exactly like he would; in once swift and sudden action. The camera moves smoothly along with him, following him as he turns and walks in the opposite direction of the car, which prevents us from knowing what the driver is doing, this lack of awareness unsettles the viewer as we are essentially forced to turn our back to the danger. The camera then tracks around the man to show that the car door was opened as a first sign of danger, before turning again to the right to show real danger; the kidnapper emerging from the shadows. The sounds in this sequence mainly feature the man’s diegetic quiet muttering to himself, including lines like ‘just keep on walking’ and ‘fuck this… not today’ to further stress the fear he is feeling, and the diegetic music playing from the car that is contrapuntal due to its happy and old-timey tone in contrast to its very unsettling behaviour, this music then becomes part of the non diegetic soundtrack as we watch the car drive into the distance at the end.
SUCCESSFUL?
I think this sequence succeeds in creating an unsettling atmosphere that clearly informs the audience of the dangerous situation the man is in. However, I personally don’t find it especially engaging due to how non specific it is; it is a very common type of scene in thrillers and horrors, I don’t think it did anything particularly special with the concept and it definitely doesn’t do the rest of the plot any justice. This type of opening may however be useful for attracting fans of the genre as it is a simple situation to understand that they are familiar with, though in my opinion it is somewhat lacking in any real substance.
Analysing the opening sequence to Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark is a Action/adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg that released on July 30th 1981 and was produced by Lucasfilm, the cast features Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, John Rhys-Davies.
INDIANA JONES AND THE RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
NARRATIVE
This sequence opens on a group of adventurers walking through a jungle, eventually the majority of them run away from fear after they encounter a hidden trap, except for two men. The sequence’s main action is focused on the scene where these two men enter some form of cave system that is absolutely covered with secret traps and the skeletons of previous adventurers who failed to avoid them. After successfully making it to the last section of the cave, it is revealed that they are there to steal some sort of ancient gold idol, the leader (Indiana Jones)’ clever attempt to replace its weight with a sack of sand fails as the cave system begins to collapse behind them, forcing them to run back to the entrance, where the other man attempts to steal the idol and leave Jones behind to die, only to fall into a trap whilst Jones manages to skilfully escape. From this, we can assume that the rest of the movie will follow him throughout more adventures as he is clearly experienced and very skilled at survival, we can also expect to find out more about the idol and why he had to steal it (despite it never being brought up again).
TARGET AUDIENCE
The target audience for this film seems to be young audiences; the wonderfully adventurous nature of this opening, such as the intense chase scene, appeals mainly to younger people as they typically enjoy the idea of adventures the most. Certain graphic imagery like the various dead bodies shown could be argued to indicate that this film is not for children, but rather for teenagers or young adults.
GENRE & TONE
The film’s adventurous action genre is made clear through its setting deep in a jungle, including shots of arrows lodged into trees, suggesting there are other people in the jungle that potentially pose some form of danger to them. Short sequences like; Jones expertly disarming one of the men who attempted to shoot him using only his whip, the intense escape scene, the various secret traps they must avoid - all further confirm the action genre. The tone established is quite lighthearted and fun for an action film (looking past the dead bodies) due to the secret traps almost appearing like some form of game, including the other man’s somewhat comedic role of looking frightened and nervous in contrast to Jones’ confident and cautious stance.
CHARACTERS
Although two characters are predominant throughout this opening: Indiana Jones and the other man along for the ‘mission’, it is mainly Jones we are properly introduced to. The other man stays with Jones throughout the whole expedition unlike the other adventurers who ran away, this at first makes him seem brave and almost loyal. However, it is revealed that he only stayed with Jones just to get the Idol to himself out of greed; he looks up towards the idol as if it were almost godlike to him, he then makes a ‘money counting’ gesture of sorts, wordlessly revealing that he only wants it for its financial value. Jones on the other hand is presented as a very skilled adventurer who is clever and a quick thinker; he is always in the foreground and middle third of the shot leading the action. Towards the beginning of the opening we are shown a close up of him filling up a bag with sand, this is later revealed to be used in order to replace the Idol on its weight sensitive platform, the close up helps establish that he was thinking in advance and therefore has a lot of experience with these types of missions.
TECHNIQUES
The moment that uses the most technical aspects to enhance its intensity would be the scene where Jones cautiously steps through the final room and takes the Idol. The importance and glory of the Idol is stressed through one long shot that slowly zooms into it, the bright lighting over it allows it to glow a radiant gold, clearly looking like an object of great value. Additionally, once Jones steps in front of it, its warm orange glow shines on his face; exaggerating its golden colour as gold has strong connotations to wealth and high status. In the moments leading up to him replacing it with the bag of sand, the non diegetic soundtrack quickly increases in pitch and volume, adding to the tension and stress created by this important action. The music then rapidly decreases in intensity once the action is completed and seemingly successful, creating a false sense of security, this is then followed by a pleonastic diegetic sound effect of the platform the Idol was on sinking downwards - revealing to the audience that it wasn’t in fact successful for a few moments before the cave begins to collapse.
SUCCESSFUL?
In my opinion this is a fantastic opening sequence; it doesn’t reveal anything about the rest of the movie, its entire purpose revolves around introducing the character of Indiana Jones and presenting him as an excellent and able adventurer who is intelligent and a quick thinker. Yet despite the entire opening purely serving to establish one character’s skills, it manages to remain very entertaining as it also works as its own entire adventure sequence; almost like a short film before the real thing starts.
Analysing the opening sequence to No Country for Old Men
No Country for Old Men is a Western/crime film directed by Ethan and Joel Coen (The Coen Brothers) that released on January 18th 2008 and was produced by Scott Rudin Productions, the cast features Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and Woody Harrelson.
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
NARRATIVE
This sequence opens on a series of shots of what appears to be Texas - setting the location for the rest of the movie, over it plays a non diegetic voice over by a man talking about how he is proud to be a sheriff like his father and grandfather. He talks about how modern times for sheriffs had changed as he recounts horrible things he has encountered working as one, such as a man who killed a 14 year old girl and said he would do it again. This is followed by another sequence showing a man getting arrested and driven to a police station, where we see him release himself from his handcuffs whilst the cop is talking on the phone, before sneaking up behind him and violently choking him using them. We then follow him as he steals the cop’s police car and drives up behind a random car on the road, pulling him over, he then walks over to the random man’s car and shoots him in the head with some sort of highly pressurised oxygen tank, which instantly kills him. From this, we can assume the rest of the film will follow this man’s crimes and perhaps reveal more about him; his morality, backstory, motives etc… it may also reveal the Sheriff’s role in this story, where perhaps he is in charge of hunting him down to arrest him.
TARGET AUDIENCE
This film mainly targets adult male audiences; the extremely violent nature of this opening alone, showing two cold blooded murders, rules out any younger audiences. This type of violence tends to be targeted towards men as they are stereotyped to enjoy violence in movies whilst women are stereotyped to not handle it well.
GENRE & TONE
The genre is instantly established through the first few shots showing a Texan landscape, combined with the narrator speaking about sheriffs and crime in a heavy southern accent, these are all typical aspects of westerns. The general tone is immediately revealed to be violent and brutal towards the end due to the long and graphic takes of two separate murders within minutes of each other, and their cold nature depicted.
CHARACTERS
We are mainly introduced to two characters; the sheriff and the murderous man, using Levi Strauss’ theory on Binary Opposites as they fit the ‘hero’ and ‘villain’ roles. We are introduced to the Sheriff through a non diegetic monologue where he speaks about his work as one, stating he is proud of this role as he is following his father’s and grandfather’s legacy. He reminisces over the older days of sheriffs and says he likes to hear about them from the ‘old-timers’ as apparently times had changed and modern times carried much more disturbing work. He ends this monologue by stating that he isn’t afraid of crime or dying, but rather of facing things he can’t comprehend. This introduces him as a man who is dedicated to and willing to die for his job, yet is still somewhat sensitive (as in, holds genuine emotion) as he speaks of his father and grandfather, and how the disturbingly large scale of modern crime frightens him because he doesn’t know how to approach it. This honest character is then strikingly contrasted with the murderous man, who seems to partake in the type of crime he spoke of, as he commits two murders with no hesitation or seemingly any negative emotion - the first murder of the cop features a close up of his face with a genuinely disturbing expression that almost resembles a crazed smile.
TECHNIQUES
The various techniques used in the scene where the man viciously chokes the cop enhances its intensity and brutality. It begins with the cop making a phone call informing the other of the man, who he found carrying some type of oxygen tank; whilst the cop is in the middle third of the shot and is in full focus, the real action occurs in the out of focus background towards the right where the man frees himself and approaches the cop, this reflects how quietly and efficiently he managed to do this. The man then chokes him and throws both of them to the floor with a pleonastic sound effect exaggerating their impact against the ground. No sound plays throughout this except for the diegetic sounds of the man gasping for air and the shuffles heard from him sliding around in desperation, this adds to the scene’s shock as we are forced to only listen to the sounds of his slow painful death, with no soundtrack to hide behind. The main factor that solidifies its disturbing nature however is the long lasting take going from a long shot of the two struggling to a close up of the man’s face, who’s insane expression is genuinely frightening and could stay in the audience’s mind for the rest of the film to remember his cold lack of remorse.
SUCCESSFUL?
This opening sequence excellently presents the nature of the killer as it reveals his willingness to commit shockingly brutal acts without hesitation for pure convenience, yet it tells us nothing about him as a character, creating a focal point for the rest of the movie. The line in the monologue about crime in modern days ties in perfectly with the crimes we are shown, which yet again creates the question of how the two characters are tied to one another. The questions it creates and the sheer brutality it depicts successfully engages its target audience that enjoy violence who may want to find out more about the killer.
Annihilation is a Sci-fi/horror film directed by Alex Garland that released on March 12th 2018 and was produced by Skydance Media, the cast features Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Lee, Benedict Wong and Oscar Isaac.
ANNIHILATION
NARRATIVE
This sequence features a woman in some form of glass room, with an entire room of people wearing hazmat suits watching her from outside, there are a few inside as well keeping their distance and interrogating her over her stay in a mysterious place, they also list some names of people she was with, asking what happened to them - this is met with either ‘I don’t know’, or ‘dead’. This sequence ends on a shot of some form of meteor rapidly crashing into a lighthouse, emitting a cloud-like mist of different bright colours. We can assume that the rest of the movie will go through the woman’s journey in that mysterious place, from how she got there to what went wrong for her to end up in that glass room - we also hope to find out what happened to the people she was with.
TARGET AUDIENCE
This film mainly targets young adult audiences as the woman’s scared and confused demeanour suggests she went through a very harsh experience, including mentioning that people around her died, this atmosphere created suggests that the rest of the film could contain graphic imagery or heavy topics better suited for young adults.
GENRE & TONE
The genre is made clearer towards the end of this sequence, which shows a meteor like object crashing into the earth and into a lighthouse, the collision emits a rainbow coloured mist; the mysterious object crashing into the earth, the unnaturally coloured smoke and also even the characters’ hazmats suit are all reminiscent of the Sci-fi genre. The film’s dark and mysterious tone is set through the eerie and almost frightening setting in the dimly lit glass box, the woman’s scared mannerisms and lost facial expressions reveal she has gone through something serious, which adds to the dark tones.
CHARACTERS
There are two main characters introduced in this opening; the woman being interrogated, and the scientist interrogating her. All of the characters shown in the room (other scientists in hazmat suits) are observing her on the other side of the glass room, even the ones in the room with her are keeping their distance - this makes her seem like some sort of test subject or hazard, this is further enhanced as she is forced to look upwards to the scientist from a lower angle, making her appear weak and helpless. She looks confused and somewhat frightened, the simple first question she is asked “what did you eat?” leads to her desperately trying to recall previous events with a very lost look on her face, this continues for all of the other questions about what she had been through “inside” that are similarly met with unsure answers; this suggests she was just in some mysterious undisclosed location that caused her to have significant gaps in her memory. The scientist interrogating her seems strongly concerned and similarly lost over the situation; some other characters that could potentially show up later in the movie are also introduced as he lists their names and asks the woman what happened to them, revealing that she is unaware of their whereabouts/fates except for one that is dead, this suggests that they were perhaps with her on her stay in the unknown location.
TECHNIQUES
The main focus of this sequence revolves around the interrogation between the two main characters, this focus is shown through the shot reverse shot consistently cutting between the two at a regular pace with them in the same positioning (directly in the middle third of the shot), sound is also absent in this scene apart from the diegetic dialogue and an eerie high pitched buzzing diegetic sound effect as background, adding to the scene’s main focal point. The dynamic between them of ‘scientist’ vs ‘subject’ is established as the woman’s eyes look over the shot whilst the scientist’s look under, the scientist is also shot at a slightly lower angle - this makes her appear as helpless and him as the stronger individual. The scientist is also under a harsh white light that casts a shadow over his face that is already covered by a protective mask, giving him some fort of eerie anonymity compared to the woman, whose face is uncovered and well lit - essentially giving her no way to hide and leaving her vulnerable.
SUCCESSFUL?
I think that this opening succeeds in engaging the audience as it leaves them with questions about what she is being interrogated over and how she ended up in that situation. Personally however, this sequence feels somewhat underwhelming as it fails to capture the same sort of fascination and genuine eeriness the rest of the movie has, even the short sequence at the end showing the colourful mist and extreme close ups of mysterious changing patterns appears a bit out of place and is simply too out of context to be considered engaging in my opinion. Though the fact that it is engaging at all on its own and leaves questions for the audience to answer afterwards does essentially achieve an opening sequence’s basic goal.
