Reaserch into Title Sequences

A film's title sequence is very important as this is one of the audience uses to get a feel of what the film is about, if a certain film is made by a certain director or is starred by a particular actor; may be the deciding factor whether the viewer may want to continue to watch it.

Also details such what studio produced it may also tell the viewer a little about the film as if it is produced by one of the major film companies, it could mean that a lot of time and money has been put into it, which in turn means it's of good quality.

6 of the major film studio which dominate the film industry.

In order to understand how important the title sequence is, I carried out some reaserch using www.theartofthetitle.com

I also noticed that there is a certain format used when displaying the title sequence; the order of the people involved in making the film is always shown in the same way regardless of genre or production company. It is as follows:

(1) 'Your Production Company' Presents

(2) A Film by 'One name - usually the director'

(3) Starring or With

(4) Male star

(5) Female star or other way round

(6) Title of film - or could be at the end

(7) Also starring - 2/3/names - each on separate title

(8) Then 3/4/5 of the following - you choose - each on separate title

1. Editing
2. Music
3. Cinematography or Director of Photography
4. Casting
5. Set Designer
6. Costume Designer
7. Script

(9) Then Producer(s) - can be more than one

(10) Always finish with Director - one name, usually the same as A Film By...

(11) Could put title here

(12) Finish with a fade out & fade music out

I also looked some famous examples of title sequences to se why they were so effective in catching the essence of what the film was about.

 Catch Me If You Can

A good example would be this, the Catch Me If You Can title sequence, it is brillant capturing the essence of the film, the classic situation of a 'cat and mouse chase' between two characters. As the young man goes into various disguises to maintain distance, there is always always that bigger man (The Detective) who is figuring out his every move. 

Flowing type and smooth lines are a playground for this pursuit, which smoothly adapt to the the colorful jet-set world of our young man’s creation, slowly fading to reveal the darkened truth.



Se7en

The title sequence in Se7en is perfect in setting the tense and mysterious tone of the film. It is creepy and dark, which shows a man preparing for what seem to be a sinster deed, this draws in as there is an enigma and watching will sove the mystery behind it. The font used to display the names also enhances this effect too.