We are now editing our Thriller opening and have to consider title sequences to make our films a real Hollywood blockbuster. To prepare for this, we have individually researched a variation of Thriller films to find their conventions and impact on the opening scenes. We will later create blog posts with our proof of filming/proof of editing.
PULP FICTION
The film opens without any logos, production inputs, director name or actor names. Pulp Fiction is a cult classic for its multi-purpose story-line and huge director input from Quentin Tarantino who also acted in the film.
The titles open with the iconic song 'Miserlou' by Dick Dale and the Deltones - the soundtrack has an upbeat tempo and has since been sampled in many songs, including the Black Eyed Peas's 'Pump It'.
Additional information is used over a still from the film that shows two characters in the middle of an armed
robbery. The information is a centered yellow font with a thin black border - without this black stroke around the letters, the viability would be limited. The black easily contrasts the white background it is on. The information reads 'Miramax Films Presents'. The screen then cuts to black as the logos and production credits are introduced. 5 screens are shown, with each screen fading in and out of black before the music reaches a crescendo. The titling matches the music and the title of the film is revealed.
robbery. The information is a centered yellow font with a thin black border - without this black stroke around the letters, the viability would be limited. The black easily contrasts the white background it is on. The information reads 'Miramax Films Presents'. The screen then cuts to black as the logos and production credits are introduced. 5 screens are shown, with each screen fading in and out of black before the music reaches a crescendo. The titling matches the music and the title of the film is revealed.
'PULP FICTION' in a traditional, Western font parallels with the soundtrack. The text is also yellow, but has a red drop shadow. This text is a 'wipe' to the top of the screen.
This text then zooms out as the main actors' names are layered on top in a contrasting white font. They put well known actors in first, such as 'John Travolta' and 'Samuel L. Jackson' to sell the movie. A total of 11 actor names are shown before being presented with the 'co-starring' list. By now the title sequence has lasted for a minute and 20 seconds - this is a very long titling sequence compared to most movies.
The opening credits are very similar to the end credits - listing as many people as they could in the opening two and a half minutes. Others include recognition to the Production Designer, Co-executive Producers and Editor of the movie. We will not be making our own title sequence as long as this due to our limitations and guidelines.
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
This title sequence opens with the 'Metro Goldwyn Mayer' trade mark lion roar - this has become an iconic piece of their movie openings. This fades to black, then fades into the movie; we are first put into space for our first piece of additional information as we find it is an 'Orion' picture release. The soundtrack is orchestral and not relevant to the genre - this is hard to pull off.
The first scene of the film is an eye-line match from half way up a tree looking far out to the distance. The colours are desaturated so the enigmatic codes of the Thriller genre are being suggested here. This shot continues for 9 seconds before any additional information is given. The text is a centred again, black, capitalised and bold - because of the images on-screen, the text wouldn't be visible without the white stroke surrounding the font. Already, from looking at two thriller titles I am noticing patterns of bold text centred on the screen - the fact that both films used a coloured outline could just be a coincidence? 
Actor names are listed in this film just as the shot begins to pan down. Only three actor names are given before 'THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS' is shown in the same font and style. The pan finishes as it shows a woman running through the forest during a training/assault course. The film starts here and further credits are shown as the film progresses. Some credits are given when the dialogue starts - this is something we could consider for our film as a lot of our footage is dialogue.
Part of this film's style is to have all the text fade in and out.
SHUTTER ISLAND
This title sequence begins with a fade from black - another reoccurring theme in Thriller genre. We are given additional information first this time, unlike the other two reviewed titles which showed footage. The title backgrounded uses a mixture of live footage and digital rendering. Further reading in the description of the video states that it "plays with the idea of distorting reality in which the main character goes through". Already I can tell that this is the type of film that needs to be watched more than one for us to fully come to grips with the character struggles and background.
Paramount Pictures use a styled font that is subtly discoloured compared to the background - this adds to the idea of distortion as the background slightly flickers. Three pieces of information are presented; including who created the film, the production group and the associated group they filmed with. We are then given the main actors names; much like Pulp Fiction, they want to show of their A-list celebrities first, so Leonardo DiCaprio is plastered on in a darker coloured font as a background image is revealed. The cast names dissolve in then fade out in various positions on the screen for more distortion. As more actor names are presented, the size of the font is slowly decreasing. This film also likes to mimic their end credits and presents us with all the important roles of the film and who played their part. This won't be relevant to our opening title sequence as we are limited to a two-minute special.
The title of the film 'SHUTTER ISLAND' is presented a minute and a half into the film. We can take this into our consideration of our own production - the title of the film does not have to be shown in the very beginning.
As this is the most important part of the title sequence, a darker coloured font is used and is bolder than any other additional information we have been given. The soundtrack also changes around here, more industrial sounds are used and everything seems a tiny bit louder - this is all very atmospheric and makes the opening A colour match would be hard to achieve in our film, but is a very interesting technique to consider!very tense and enigmatic to the genre. The colouring and lighting of the
background flickers during the title reveal to make it important to us. Then using a colour match, the background fades into the film - which shows a boat out at sea. NOTES TO CONSIDER:
- Use a large, bold font (preferably centred)
- Don't clog the opening with additional information
- Use appropriate soundtrack to the genre as this will be hard to pull off otherwise
- Possibly use outlined font if we eventually layer our titles over the film.
- Stay consistent with our style/fonts
