Analysis of Opening Title Sequences (OTS)

Font- Sans Serif font, very basic. Block letters all in capitals, shows a formality to the film, and gives a hint at the mature genre it may be. Colours- Light colours, pure and white possibly symbolising innocence and simplicity. They fade into the screen, they aren’t colours that the audience would be alarmed by or stand out on the screen. This could maybe be showing the film isn’t going to be aggressive or gory. Placement- At the bottom right of the screen. Not the main focus of the shot, they aren’t in a place that the audience would be drawn to looking at as they eye catching. That is because they aren’t in the middle and the middle is where most peoples eyes are drawn to.

Non Diegetic Sound- A slow, peaceful sound track. Voices singing very gently and calm. Nothing shocking or loud. The singing isn’t in English, possibly showing the film isn’t set in an English speaking country. Diegetic Sound- Quiet singing from the characters. No speaking just background singing, behind the non diegetic music. Again quite peaceful, and not sung in English. Some cheering and other happy sounding noises, not giving the audience anything to fear or feel uneasy about, which is unusual for the thriller genre. In some thrillers happy music is used as a juxtaposition against a disturbing scene to disorientate the audience but that doesn’t seem to be the case in this scene.

No specific characters focused on in this title sequence. A large group/ congregation consisting of men women and children. Brightly coloured clothes could hint at the type of characters that are being filmed. The colours are cheerful possibly meaning the characters are the same. All the characters seem happy, are mostly dancing and there isn’t anything sinister about any of them. As it is a group no characters stand out to The audience, or are hinted at being one of the main characters in the film.

The film starts of in total darkness, possibly making the audience feel uneasy as they cannot guess what is going to be next so there is uncertainty. As the film continues colours start to appear and then finally the setting of the scene and characters appear. The setting seems to be in a foreign country because of things such as the desert like scene. Also in the background huts can be seen, which would typically be found in countries such as Africa. Brightly coloured clothes, not clothes you’d typically see being worn in Western culture, and the fact characters are singing in a foreign language also show it is set in a foreign country.

Editing- The scene cuts from different images of characters dancing and singing together. Over the whole of the picture is a slightly crumpled blurred effect, making it harder to see the characters. The effect makes it look like an old piece of paper. Shooting technique/angles- Some close ups are used to show characters emotions. Had this been a more typical thriller title sequence the emotions would probably be more negative. Mostly wide angle shots, showing the whole group.

Font- The font for this film is all in Sans Serif, giving it a formal serious tone. As With the first OTS all the font is in block capital letters, making the words a statement. Colours- The colours are all dark and sinister. Grey, black, white and very occasionally, red are used throughout. It gives a mysterious dark feel to the OTS and sets the type of dark narrative the film could possibly be. Placement- The placement of the words are slanted and disjointed. There is no consistency to where they are placed as the different words are in different places on the screen. This could possibly hint at and reflect the unorganised slightly crazy characters that may feature in this film.

Diegetic Sound- There is no voices or other natural sound in this OTS leaving very little hint as to what type of characters are going to feature in this film, giving mystery to the film. Although no voices are heard there are occasional, very quick flashed of a humans hand. Non Diegetic Sound- A very loud dramatic orchestral sound track is played during the entire OTS. The drama of it shows that the OTS is going to be intense and dramatic in itself.

No actual characters are shown. Just quick cartoon glimpses of a few characters Featured in the previous film, such as a scary looking clown like creature known as ‘the joker’ smiling at the camera- This may unnerve the audience as it is dark and shadowed, and the joker as a villain in the previous film. Throughout pictures of different people appear. It seems as if a partially gloved hand is reading newspapers and obsessing over these photos. That hints a strange, possibly dangerous personality, as they seem fixed on a few people, including the main character from the previous film, who is shown in a photo the mysterious character is looking at and working on.

In this OTS there isn’t a running narrative. It is lots of jumpy disjointed scenes causing the audience to be confused as they wont be able to follow a Storyline, which will also bring mystery to the film. It is not dissimilar to the opening title sequence ‘Se7en’ which starts with a man reading different things and obsessively analysing them. The one character in this OTS is doing the same thing. Looking through newspaper articles and circling particular things. Also as mentioned previously looking at pictures of particular people. That is the only story line that can be followed in this OTS.

Editing- This film is very disjointed and hard to follow in the way it is edited. Jump cuts are heavily used to show different aspects of the scene, and as Mentioned before this results in a non fluid storyline. Shooting technique/angles- Close ups are heavily used in this OTS. It means the audience don’t ever get to see the full picture, leaving it mysterious. Close ups of things the character is doing are mostly used, showing particular details. At some points point of view shots seem to feature in this OTS, putting you in the view of the character, and therefore possibly putting you in the mindset of what they are doing too.

Font- Unlike most typical thriller films this film uses Serif font in it’s OTS. This font is swirly and extravagant which could be quite a shock to the audience, and slightly off putting. This type of font was popular in the 80’s. Colours- The colours of the actual words used are bright pink, again very different to the usual greys, blacks and reds used in a thriller to set the film. This is Contrasted against a very grey, gloomy scene, set at night. Placement- The placement of the titles are mostly to the right, except the actual title of the film which is in the centre, as it quite fitting for the main title, meaning it is more eye catching for the audience. The fact It is off to the right is slightly less of a statement, And still leaves room for the audience to watch the scene without interruption.

Diegetic Sound- Although a character is featured in this OTS no actual diegetic sound is heard. This leaves an uncertainty as to what the character is doing as he doesn’t speak or interact with people, it is quite unusual, leading the audience to maybe make assumptions as to the type of lone character they are watching. Non Diegetic Sound- Throughout the whole scene the same heavy beat techno music is heard. It is the type of music that would have been featured in the 80’s, just as the font would have been.

Only one character is heavily featured in this OTS. He has a very passive face throughout, not showing any emotion of any kind, not leaving much for the audience to learn about him as a character, except maybe that he uncaring. When another character does enter the scene there is no interaction between the two of them, showing that the main character is disconnected from other people. As he is the only character focused on in the film it hints that he is going to be the main character.

The OTS storyline is a very simple one. The scene is set in the first shot, showing that it is set in New York. It then goes on the feature the main character, who is simply, as the title states, driving. The only scenes featured are streets at night, a city landscape, and a room that the character briefly enters to leave a mysterious bag. It doesn’t give much information to the audience except that the bag may be part of the narrative of the film.

Editing- The scene is a running narrative, which means no big jump cuts or other disjointed editing techniques are used. It is a linear narrative, though occasionally it does cut to things such as the birds eye scene of the car. As more then once place is featured in this scene there are cuts used to jump from one part of the scene to another. Also the beat of the music is edited in time to some of the actions in the film, such as when he turns the light off in the hotel room a beat of the music happens at the same time.

Shooting technique/angles- A lot of different angles are used in this film. These are ones such as- -Over the shoulder, which is similar to point of view in that the audience sees things nearly from the same view as the character, meaning they have the same experiences as the character, making the film feel more realistic to the audience. -Birds eye, which is used to follow the characters car from above, in some films that shot is used to track characters like the are being followed by a bird of prey, leaving the character being shown as intimidated. -Wide angle shots were used to show the whole scene. -Close ups were used to show characters emotion, or in the case of this film, lack of emotion, making the audience understand the character better.