Opening Sequences To Films

First Things seen in the opening sequence to a film.

• Title
• Credits
• Character introduction
• Elements of the genre and narrative.
• Atmosphere of the film
• Establish the location.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Title Sequence Example

• Dark themes
• Fire
• Credits
• Harsh sounding music with crashing themes - Led zeppelin 
• Black represents death
• Violence seen
• Eagle on fire
• Narrative snippets shown
• Mysterious
• Black ink heavily linked - Tattoo holds importance
• Technology seen - hacking

The Discrete Title Sequence - A form of a title sequence in a film like a mini film before a film which reveals some information about the film such as the themes and the characters. This can set the tone of the film

Traditional Opening Sequence (Drive)

• Scene with credits running through
• Starts with the Title appearing
• Shows the setting
• One character is shown - Suggests they are the main character
• Theme shown as driving
• Over the shoulder shot - shows everything ahead of the driver, suggests that the driver only focuses on the road 
• Slightly stylised however the title of the film has a font which will reflect the genre and sound creates a mood

Straight into the Film (Scream)

• Goes straight into the action
• Doesn't have extra title credits
• Doesn't introduce the characters
• Most commonly seen in horror films - Wants to scare you straight away

The Stylised Opening Sequence (Mesrine: Killer Instincts)

• Sets the tone of the film
• Introduces the characters
• Introduces the title of the film
• Credits
• Effectively combines all title sequence techniques into one
• Contains stylish and creative elements

Art Of The Title - 11.22.63

This opening sequence is a descrete title sequence and it does extremely well at getting its message across to the audience of the tone and plot of the series. From the outset we enter a magnifying glass which immediately informs the audience that this series involves investigation of some sort. The non-diegetic music sets the suspenseful and tense tone as it plays through the opening sequence. We then proceed to see a continuos reel of switching images which suggests the plot, we also see red strings coming from each image or location seen suggesting they are all connected. Newspaper tabloids are seen stating "Kennedy killed" which reveals the subject under invention is the death of Kennedy. The clock seen proposes that time is a big factor of this tv show and suggests a possible race against time or time travel. The lighting is very dark and mysterious and this contributes to creating the tone. The last image seen is a sniper which tells us that there is violence seen and the gun then extends out with string to a date in the middle of many more strings, which shows that everything seen plays a part in what happens on that date. It also puts emphasis on the date as it is in the centre of everything.