Title Sequences Introduction

Week 1: Friday

Today we looked further into title sequences.  A title sequence is the method a film credits production and cast members using visuals and sound.  Many title sequences aim to establish character, setting, genre, mood or atmosphere.

Common Credits are:

• Production Companies
• Producer
• Title
• Director
• Other key crew
• Executive producer
• Top billing actors

There are also different conventions for title sequences which are usually split into three parts.

• Technical convention:  Actual techniques used, e.g: cinematography, mise-en-scene, editing, sound.
• Symbolic convention:  Objects shown with deeper connotations/meanings.
• Genre convention:  Things that hint what genre the film is.

We looked at several title sequences.  These were:

• The Avengers (1998)
• Hulk (2003)
• Se7en (1995)
• Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
• Juno (2007)

We discussed how the elements of mise-en-scene, sound, editing and cinematography all come together to set the mood for the film.  We found they sometimes tell the story and give hints about what is going to happen.

We then looked at the credit timeline for Juno (2007).  This showed us what credits appeared on the screen and what time.

After looking at a title sequence of our choice, we created our own version of this.  I looked at one of my favourite films, Zombieland (2009).