Opening Title Analysis Part II
I have analysed some more opening title sequences from the thriller genre to help me get a clearer picture of what to include in mine.
I Robot: Classic thrillers very often involve technology, as representative of the unknown and potentially dangerous. The font in the titles of this film is in a very futuristic style to underline this fact. The titles then expand and dissolve as bubbles (complete with sound effects) foreshadowing later events pivotal to the main characters motives. We then cut to a drowning girl – death is obviously a major part of thrillers. Tension-building music plays whilst the ‘laws of robots’ scroll in the background. The lighting throughout is low, and there is certainly an attempt on the part of the film-maker to confuse and bewilder the viewer. The final close- up is purely focused on a pair of suspicious looking eyes.
Se7en: Director David Fincher is well-known for using low lighting and silhouettes – both pop up in the trailer here. The first image we see is a firearm, immediately suggesting danger. The font in which the film is displayed is battered, looking like the print-out from a knackered print cartridge, suggesting disorder, as does the fact that it flashes randomly across the screen, along with blood-red overlays and other disturbing images. The music appears to parallel the thump of a human heart.
Face/Off: Thrillers like to shock and the death of a child in the opening sequence certainly does that. Also featuring here are names of prominent actors connected with thrillers so that the viewers will know what to expect.
Vertigo: The opening sequence starts in classic fashion with a close-up of a face, in this case a woman symbolising vulnerability and fragility. There is also the mandatory ultra-close-up of the eyeballs. Again we see the use of the blood- colour red, and stereotypical tension-escalating thriller music. The scene is set, and the audience will want to know what happens to this women.
I Robot: Classic thrillers very often involve technology, as representative of the unknown and potentially dangerous. The font in the titles of this film is in a very futuristic style to underline this fact. The titles then expand and dissolve as bubbles (complete with sound effects) foreshadowing later events pivotal to the main characters motives. We then cut to a drowning girl – death is obviously a major part of thrillers. Tension-building music plays whilst the ‘laws of robots’ scroll in the background. The lighting throughout is low, and there is certainly an attempt on the part of the film-maker to confuse and bewilder the viewer. The final close- up is purely focused on a pair of suspicious looking eyes.
Se7en: Director David Fincher is well-known for using low lighting and silhouettes – both pop up in the trailer here. The first image we see is a firearm, immediately suggesting danger. The font in which the film is displayed is battered, looking like the print-out from a knackered print cartridge, suggesting disorder, as does the fact that it flashes randomly across the screen, along with blood-red overlays and other disturbing images. The music appears to parallel the thump of a human heart.
Face/Off: Thrillers like to shock and the death of a child in the opening sequence certainly does that. Also featuring here are names of prominent actors connected with thrillers so that the viewers will know what to expect.
Vertigo: The opening sequence starts in classic fashion with a close-up of a face, in this case a woman symbolising vulnerability and fragility. There is also the mandatory ultra-close-up of the eyeballs. Again we see the use of the blood- colour red, and stereotypical tension-escalating thriller music. The scene is set, and the audience will want to know what happens to this women.
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