Title Sequence Clips

When I would watch movies, I would often look at the opening sequence as just a blip in the movie. I saw it as an insignificant introduction that made me wait for what I came for. Sure, some opening sequences, such as The Lion King (1994), were fun and entertaining to watch, but in the back of my mind, I really wanted the movie to get on with it. It wasn't until recently, during my AICE Media Studies class, that I realized that opening sequences aren't just filler to get the movie started, but rather a brief summary of the tone, the characters, the setting, or the genre of the entire film.

Going back to The Lion King example, when I watched it as a kid, I remember thinking, 'Why are there so many animals? Isn't this a movie about lions and that pig looking thing?' and 'Awww! Look at that baby lion! It's so cute!' I didn't pay attention, or even notice, the significance of the opening until I re-watched it with the intent to figure out why the opening sequence was the way it is. Starting with the music, it starts suddenly and very loud! The music continues with the lyrics being sung in Zulu, and African language. The screen shows the sun rising then turns to many beautiful shots of the savanna. These shots, along with the music, establish that the story takes place in a savanna somewhere in Africa. Then there are the various shots of different animals, in the savanna, looking in one particular direction and then traveling to that location. This signifies that there is something very important that is going on. The audience is then introduced to three of the main characters: Mufasa, Rafiki, and Simba. They are shown to be important. Mufasa is standing over all the other animals on Pride Rock, the animals clear a way for Rafiki to come through, and Simba gets held up by Rafiki as all the animals cheer. Then BAM! The title card hits as the music comes to its last beat leaving the audience with excitement for the remainder of the movie.

(obtained from the nytimes)

Now, I know that's a lot on just one movie opening sequence, but there is just so much information that is conveyed in those first few minutes. The audience is introduced to the setting, become aware of who the main characters, and gather insight to the rolls that each of the main characters play. The opening scene has so much significance to the movie it is a part of. According to the article First frames: titles in the digital realm, by Miles Merril, it states that, "The typography and visual style created in the opening sequence can establish the mood and image system not only for the film you are about to watch, but for the poster, DVD/video packaging, web site, and all promotion and branding graphics." The opening sequences of a movie can do more than just show the important characters, but it can also set the tone of the rest of the movie. Let's look at an example of that. 

Scream (1996) is a horror movie with an intense opening that clearly sets the tone for the rest of the film. It immediately starts with anxiety filled music with sudden screams as the title card appears in white then fades to red to represent blood. This is then juxtaposed with a girl who is just chilling in her home and getting ready to watch a movie. The phone rings. She answers it with a friendly greeting. A calm male voice answers the phone and they casually chat. The girl says that the caller got the wrong number and she hangs up. A causal wrong number call. The phone rings. She picks it up and it is the same guy on the other end. They continued to talk casually as the caller asks for the girl's name. The girl doesn't give him her name and hangs up again. She goes back to getting her popcorn ready. The phone rings. She picks it up, but this time the conversation is longer. He asks her what she is doing. She replies that she is getting ready to watch a horror movie. The discuss about which horror movies they like and there is some meta commentary about horror movies. The man keeps asking to know her name. When she refuses, the man says, "I wan to know who I'm looking at." Suddenly mysterious music starts to play as the tone shifts from light banter, to a sudden anxiety unsafe feeling. Despite the man's "attempts" to fix his mistake, the girl knows what's going on and hangs up the phone. The music gets more and more intense as she goes deeper and deeper into panic and fear. The phone rings. She picks it up and starts yelling at the man to buzz off or she will call the police (with stronger language). His voice suddenly scowls at her giving a very sudden shock compared to the cool and controlled voice he was using during their earlier conversation. They are yelling at each other, the girl out of shear fear and the man continuing to aggressively yell. She tells him that she has a boyfriend that will find the man behind the phone. The man behind the phone goes back to his calm voice and asks, "His name wouldn't be Steve would it?" She shakily asks, "How do you know his name?" "Turn on the patio light."

(Obtained from Natasha Wilson, a blog)

Now, I did leave out some lines because it would be much longer, but what we just saw there was the tone being set for the entire movie. You see that it went from calm to sudden panic and fear. Even the title, with its sudden appearance turning from white to red, was a big indicator that this movie was not going to be a nice walk in the park. In fact, Miles Merril takes not of this in his article. He states that, "Flim titles are very important because they set up the expectation of an audience." As shown from Scream, the title card immediately showed the audience that the film was going to be very scary and anxiety filled. Three other films that have great examples of using title cards are Saturday Night Fever, Pulp Fiction, and What About Bob?

(obtained from dailynews)

Saturday Night Fever has a very upbeat and chill tone. This is shown through opening sequence and the title card. The title appears in red letters in front of the main character's feet, who is walking to the beat of the song "Stayin' Alive".  Pulp Fiction's title card appears right as the opening scene shifts tones from a really iffy coffee date with racist comments to a full blown armed robbery. The title comes in BIG BOLD ORANGE LETTERS on a black background with a loud heavy metal guitar rift playing in the background. What About Bob has a very simple title card with the thin blue letters overlapping each other as the gold fish in the background is swimming around to calm music. Based on these three examples alone, you get a very close idea of what the film is going to be like based on the way the title card is presented. 

Overall, a movie's opening sequence can show the audience what the movie will be all about and get them in the mindset of the genre that is being presented. All the elements come together to create a great introduction that gets the audience ready for the rest of the movie.