What is the purpose of a Title Sequence and Film Opening?
Title sequences in film openings are very, very important to the audience as it allows them to get a understanding of the following:
- Characters (often main one, but he/she is always referenced in the title sequence in one way or another.
- Title of the film itself incase you forgot what movie you were going to watch at the cinema.
- Overview of the context of the story/plot of the film. Quite often, title sequences provide subtle hints that you'll understand fully once you watch the movie. If you watch a title sequence, there might be a lot of symbolism that'll fly over your head but say you watch the movie already and come back to it, you'll realise exactly why that was included in the title sequence. The makers of the title sequence love to give subtle hints about the story although most viewers won't bat an eye the first time.
- Provide the audience with the following: Location/place and time era. With the location it's often very clear where it takes place by looking at the scenery, if it were to be set in the countryside you'd see lots of green etc. Time era is shown but in a subtle way like the clothes the character wears or certain props.
- Institutional information, if a big brand published movie such as a James Bond one they'd often slap their name on it for more public awareness.
- Credits, gotta show who's involved in the movie, often showing the starring cast first one by one and then moving onto the rest of the people involved in the filming if it's a longer one, but normally it'll be actors followed by directors, the "more important" roles
- Title sequences more often than not have some sort of non-diegetic soundtrack (the sound isn't from the world the character is in, only the audience can hear it) over it. This can often show the audience an insight of the genre, if it were a drama there would be dramatic music, if it were an action movie it would be quite a heavy soundtrack with lots of drums etc.
- What the genre is, title screens won't just tell you in your face what the genre is, what would be the point of a title sequence for a movie like Skyfall. It would look sloppy if you had: SKYFALL - Genre - CRIME/ACTION. It seems really tacky so the people who are making the title sequence have to give hints towards it, as the title sequence can normally either make or break the movie.
Out of the 4 title sequences I've seen (Skyfall, Forrest Gump, Juno, Hostage) I'd say the most effective one was Skyfall. It was a very abstract title sequence but it still told the audience where it was set, established who the main character was, gave an insight to the genre and story. Right off the bat it kept the audience on edge (which is one of the things a title sequence is meant to do, entice the audience)
Right off the bat, you see the main character, James bond (portrayed by Daniel Craig) Drowning.
This gives the audience 2 things to take away: The character and a rough overview of the story.
As the main character is being dragged down the depths of the ocean you see the film title, that's 3 things ticked off out of 8
You get a cemetery, which could symbolise the genre being action/crime with all the death involved. There's a lot of red which could symbolise blood, this is strengthened by the fact that the "blood" turns into a red skull. Along with the credits that's 5/8 things checked off. The title sequence has the song Skyfall by Adele on it which advertises both the movie and the song by Adele, this is known as synergy as both parties benefit from it.
Overall, the title sequence checks off 7/8 of the "Things a film title should do" list, only missing out on the Institutional information but that's probably posted before the movie commences as James Bond movies are notorious for having a little action scene to set the mood before the actual Title sequence goes on so they skipped that part in favour of the action instead.
