Upon analysing different opening sequences, i have noticed a number of things. All of which I have watched have included titles, the number varying however. The typography used also varied, with the majority using quite a simple style of font. An example of this is 'To Kill a Mocking Bird', http://www.artofthetitle.com/2008/09/10/to-kill-a-mockingbird/. Se7en’s title sequence uses a hand written style of typography which links well with the story line. I think that this was a clever decision made by Se7en’s title sequence designer as it gave the right impression to the audience of what to expect within the film. I feel it is an important factor to consider as it can reflect the tone that you are trying to portray the film as being.
Films such as ‘Casino Royale’ used colourful graphics within its opening titles, http://www.artofthetitle.com/2008/01/14/casino-royale/. I understand that they was trying to illustrate the genre of the film in a different way, by outlining what props were to be expected, i.e. guns. However I am not sure if I think it worked as well as they perhaps thought. There are no graphics like this within the movie, so I think it may have created the wrong expectations to the audience of the film.
Romantic comedy ‘Juno’ used cartoon style graphics to open the film. Despite looking good and working reasonably well, I am still not sure why the designers choose to do this. Again, there are no other traces of cartoon within the film, it is a ‘rom com’ and for this reason I am not sure why this idea was used. On the other hand, the film is about a teenage girl, so the cartoon opening of her could reflect the girls personality- perhaps she enjoys cartoons.
From watching past students opening titles, I have discovered that very few of them use interesting typography, one in which would link to the genre- alike Kyle Cooper pointed out as important in his interviews. I also noticed that overall, many past student decided to situate the titles of directors, producers, etc, at the bottom of the screen. Although the names should not over take the sequence, I think more recognition could be made as often they are in very small size font. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t_ygjLLVUQ&feature=BF&list=PLD6D3ADD7107903DC&index=2 This production crafted by students from Cherwell School positions the titles at the bottom of the screen in small, simple typography. Despite this, overall, I really enjoyed the opening sequence. I think the decision they made to use a black and white camera created the right type of atmosphere for the audience. The auditory code of the intense music played throughout also anchored with the setting, choice of camera angles and story line featured in order to appeal to its hybrid audience. The only other choice this group choose that I would argue against is the cross dissolve fading to a black screen on the last shot, in which “To be continued…” appears on screen. This is a opening sequence to a film, therefore this was not necessary.
I enjoyed watching http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=YSu5rfqfSPI&vq=medium as I think the music used linked well with the genre and the overall tone that the producers where trying to portray.
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