Start Of The Main Task

As a group we've started discussing a range of ideas that we could use to create the opening title sequence of a horror or thriller film. We first looked at some examples of opening titles to film that have already been made.





The first minute of this clip is very basic example of an opening title sequence. The aim with the titles is to give some clues as to what will happen in the film. In this clip the film is called Detour so they've put the image of a car driving down the road with the camera facing out the back so the viewer can only see whats going behind the car. By having this very basic clip in the background it indicates to the audience that someone is likely to take a wrong road and going somewhere they didn't originally plan. This however is too basic for us to as our project.





This clip is the opening titles for James Bond Goldfinger which is a very good example of an abstract style for doing the opening titles. The strange image of a women painted gold with the projections being shown on her give a hint that the film with have elements of mystery in them and the projections are mostly of the characters which match up to the right names as they come on screen. Each projection is also on a different part of the womens body which can indicate what the character is like, for example Sean Connery is projected onto the womens head which shows that he is an important character, Gert Frobe who plays Goldfinger is shown over half the womens body which indicates that he has power in the film and is going to be in charge of something.





The opening titles for Seven are one of the best examples for the sort of thing we should be aiming to create. It has lots of images of someone analysing and taking notes on what looks like evidence from a murder case, in none of these do we see the persons face only the main part of action like a close up of his hands turning over a page. The cinematograghy in this is really good because they have mainly used close up shots of items like pieces if evidence, books, photos etc, and have made the background distorted and fuzzy, which i think is useful to our group as its a good example of what our shots could focus on like on items that will reflect the film. The shots are also quite fast cutting which indicates that the film has some fast action in it and this is something we aim to do in our sequence because it creates alot of tension. The credits quickly jolt up and down when they come on screen in turn which gives it a creepy mysterious feel to it. They have also used quite low key lighting which can insinuate that the film itself will be quite dark and mysterious, and the connatations of darkness are usually quite bad and negative. All the shots used are very good indications to the genre and theme of the film which is what we would like to, all the different shots like the bits of evidence, slightly disturbing images, messed up bits of bodies and the case notes all give you the idea that it will be along the lines of a crime thriller type film. For our sequence we want to include some disturbing images and some quite psychotic images so that it will give the idea that ours will be a sort of psychological horror/thriller.









This is the opening to the film Hannibal which is another good example of something we could aim for. All the clips are quite distorted and fuzzy to make them look messed up and reflect the film and part of the main characters mind. Another part of the main characters personality and mind is reflected through the music which is a nice classical piece which is quite calming but also the complete opposite to the images on screen. This contadiction is something we're thinking of doing in our own title sequence. We won't be having an actual scene during any credits though as it will take too long and the task only says to create the opening titles. The writing at the start is in blood red which indicates that the genre is some sort of horror or thriller, they also calmly fade in and out of each other which again puts across the idea that the film will be quite contradictory.

Creep
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peggLQ1fLg8

This is another horror/thriller themed opening sequence that we have taken ideas from. It has very eerie music in the background which creates tension and make the audience feel tense before the films even started. In our openning sequence we want to do something similar with creating tension, we want to have quite eerie music like this but instead we want the music to build in tension along with the shots on screen so that there is a big increase in tension in the titles and in the audience. Another really good thing about this sequence is the effects put on the shots, they're very distorted and blurry meaning you can only just work out what the different things are which can indicate to the audience that some of the people in the film will become very disorientated and un able to focus properly. The blurring and distorting of shots is again something we would like to include because we think that it really makes the genre of horror stand out to the viewer. The titles are on black background and some of them are on the shots which is what we're aiming to do because we think that it looks much better and a little more creepy if the titles are plainly on a black background, because with the music building in tension this will give a good effect. Another idea that we thought was good from this is the way the images become more disturbing and scary as the sequence goes on near to the end because this again creates more tension and gets the audience more interested in the film.




This is the opening sequence for 'Six feet under'. We looked at this because we thought the way the titles have done is quite interesting and we're thinking of using this idea in our own sequence. We like the way that the titles fit onto diffrent parts of the shots and sets, for example when the editors name appears on a beaker filled with liquid and then goes down at the same time as the liquid does, and also when the executive producers name is on a gravestone in the shot. We're thinking of using this because we feel that our sequence will have lots of opportunities to do it, like on the characters shirt pocket for example, and makes the titles more interesting to watch. Another idea we got from this was to do with all the hospital equipment because we want to use some in ours as well and in this they clearly show the association of pure white with being in a hospital which we could use to indicate that our main character isn't completely healthy in more ways than one. The lighting in the hospital is very bright, enough to not let the audienec see beyond that light which we want to use for our ending because we want it to be like he's starting a new life.