Planning Opening Credits Miss Geogiou

The purpose of opening credits is letting the audience know who the main people involved in the film are. It tells you the production company and the title of the film. The opening credits also introduce the theme and style of the film. It  is important for us to plan our opening credits as it means we can make sure they suite the rest of the film and are conventional to the thriller genre.

I analysed the film Se7en to see what techniques they used and what effect they created. The first technique I analysed was the use of colour. The credits text was where white which contrasted with the black background. This could represent the good vs evil theme which runs throughout the rest of the film with white representing innocence and black representing evil. There were splashes of red scattered throughout the opening credits, this represents blood and death and shows that the opening credits prepare the audience for the rest of the film as there is plenty of blood and deaths later on.

The style of the credits also matches the theme of the film. The font appears like it was roughly handwritten as it is jagged and looks etched. The credits also stutter and jerk. This creates a jarring effect which creates a sense of unease as well as representing the antagonist unpredictable and erratic nature. The credits are also where we are introduced to the antagonist as in every shot we see movement and the hand belonging to the antagonist. We see him scribbling in old looking books and we also see him holding several sharp blades. Along with the odd passages of texts and the crossed out faces the antagonist is presented as evil and insane.

The opening credits are conventional to the thriller genre. Low key lighting is used to make the sequence more eerie and tense. During the sequence we see someone writing strange text and crossing out people's faces on photographs. This creates an enigma as the antagonists identity is not revealed so the audience are left wondering who he is and what he is up to as it looks like he is planning something.

I also analysed the order in which the credits were shown. The production company was first, followed by the director and some of the more recognisable actors like Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. This raises the audience interest as they are likely to recognise a name they see and expect quality.For example they may like other films made by the production company or they could be a fan of Morgan Freeman's Other films and be interested in seeing him in this role.

My design was the the least suitable out of the design in out group. I went with the white text on a black background theme as I knew it was conventionally for thrillers but the text font was basic. I was very new to Final Cut Pro and struggled to find a better and more suitable font choice. The off centre positioning of my credits is conventional as the credits are rarely shown at the centre of the screen. If I was to create another opening sequence I would make sure I knew how to use that part of the program so I would be able to use a more interesting and unique font choice and possibly use other techniques to make my credits look less basic and amateur and more professional.

This is my group member Charlie Stewarts opening credit. He also went with the white text on black background theme. While his credits were also basic they were better than mine as his font choice was slightly more unique and suitable for our film. In the frame shown above there is a spelling mistake/typo which is very unprofessional and would have had to be fixed if we planned on using his opening credits for our film. His credits also featured a shape in the bottom left corner which has no relevance to our film and and doesn't add anything.

Above is Jessica Day's opening credits and it looks the most professional and matches the theme of our film the best. To make it conventional she also opted to go with white text on a black background. The font she chose to use matches the the theme of our film and looks more authentic and less like a standard computer font. her text is also larger and more bold making it stand out more. Her idea is more conventional as the untidy and bold font matches the erratic and disturbed nature  of our antagonist.

Jessica's idea is the one we will work on as it is the most suitable for our film. The credits will begin with the name of our production company, the names of our actors, our names and then last will be the title of our film. We feel like this order is best as the title of our film being the last credit is the most dramatic.