Research: The Importance Of Opening Titles

Within the lesson we learnt the importance of opening title by using the website: Art Of The Title. This provided us with useful information which we would benefit from when we are continuing to create our Main Task: an opening of a teenage horror film, during post-production.

We then further improved our understanding of opening titles, their purpose, and how they are used to effect the audience and draw them into the film by evaluating the opening credits to the psychological horror 'Se7en'. 

Titles

After familiarising myself with the opening credits, I wrote the times that all the wording appeared. This enabled me to learn the structure in which different titles of roles and jobs that were responsible for creating the film. First of all the names of the most top billed cast, then supporting actors appear on screen in order of relevance to the film. Next, you have the smaller job titles such as casting directors, costume design, music directors and their names ect. The credits then lead up to the film title (which appears several time during this opening but more noticeably towards the end) followed by the name of the producer and directer. 

Typography

In order to identify the effects of different styles and aspects of typography including the colour, font, and size I created mind maps and noted down what typography this opening consisted of an how they helped reflect the genre and style of the film. For  example, the double layered, messy front looks like it was written violently by hand which could be referring to this theme of the film and also matches the visual aspects of the opening which featured similar scrawly looking handwriting on paper in several of the shots. 

Visual Elements

I then took notes on everything I could see on screen without the sound, meaning I could focus on the visual aspects which not only helps set the scene for the film, it also gives the audience a glimpse of what they can expect to see in the content of the film. For example, every now and then you will see bright flashes between shots and still images what seems like the resemblance of the photography of evidence which implies to the audience that this film has the theme of crime and detectives. Additionally, during this opening you can see various close ups and extreme close ups of what seems like an obsessive killer researching and planning, and scrap booking mementos of previous victims. Visual aspects such as this are very intense for the audience which prepares them for the scary and disturbing atmosphere of the film. 

Elements Of Sound

I did the same thing but in reverse with just the sound and without watching the opening to take notes on the elements of sound, focussing on what affects the diagetic and non-diagetic sound would have on the audience. Overall there wasn't much diagetic sound, however there were noises similar to some sort of machinery that was very distorted which related to some of the images and shots shown in the opening. There were lots of different non-diagetic sound that were sometimes hard to decipher which were very loud, creating an eerie atmosphere and making the audience feel on edge even before the film starts. 

The knowledge in which I gained through researching the opening titles in horror films will help me in future when we make and apply the titles for our main task opening for a teenage horror movie in addition to what type of musical score would be best suited along side the titles.