Research: Importance Of Opening Titles

The opening titles in a film can just be important as the, the opening two minutes of actually filming. then opening titles are key as they give the audience key information that that either they will want to see or the makers of the film will want them to see.

Usually in the opening titles you will see the most important people, who are part of the film, for example the producers and the big name directors. In the open might also see, the a list actors which might be crucial to this film, as they can usually make or break the film. Despite the producers adding their names for fame etc. They also add they for the purpose of the audience as they sometimes go to films because they have a certain actor or a certain director and producer. Another piece of information you see in the opening is the studios names, usually the big companies have their own animation going with their company like Marvel and Warner bros, they sometimes you could see the smaller companies written as "in collaboration with…" or "In association with" as they are less know and the larger companies want more attention towards them. the last thing you see is usually the the name of the the film and this is conventionally done in bigger and more distinguishable text for example in the horror film "Candyman" which is shown bellow;

This is the film title in "Candyman", as shown the title is large and recognisable, as this is important to the company that they get the film name across to the audience.




This image is in contrast to the one above. In this case it shows an example of where the information given is the actors in the  movie. this information is important, and the producers want the audience to know the actors but, but the still it is still not as large as the title.




During the opening titles you will also be given information through the music played, as this can be a key aspect, it telling the audience what genre the film is. A lot of opening tiles have sound as this has become the norm on the opening titles. The piece of music played during the opening titles can also  be be used as a trade mark for the film and the audience will the associate the music to that film, and this is commercially beneficial for the films. One good example of  music used well in the opening credits was in the film the exorcist. this film uses the music, to show that the film is a horror film with the high pitched violins and the distorted notes.The music then changed  in to, old catholic church music, this further informed us that the film might be based on religion, all at the same time as giving use the visual information of the written credits.

Click on the image bellow to watch the opening credits of the exorcist, the video also contains the audio with goes with the credits.

The opening titles can also, present the information through typography one example where typography is used to good effect is in the Exorcist. This typography is good as is is big and bold this makes us think that the film is going to be hard hitting and leave an effect on the audience. the text is also in red, the red colour means danger, fear and blood, so this foreshadows what the film is about.

Conventions of the opening titles

The opening titles also have conventions which most films follow. usually the films follow the same order in what appears first in the opening titles. The first titles to appear, are most likely to be the name of the Studios, these could be the companies, which may have made the film or produced it. These could be films like Walt Disney Pictures, Lions Gate, universal and Marvel.

The second titles to appear are the production companies. This section is where the companies which actually made the the film, the companies which invested a large amount in the film and these are usually titled as in association with .... Productions.

The third title is then the the Producers name, which is labeled as (Producers name) Production. Then separately it is then the director which is labeled as a film by (Directors name) or a Film by (directors name).

The fourth title or Titles are usually the the actors names. theses are usually the more prolific actors, which will impress the audience, or in other cases the actors which have in their contracts that their name will be added to the opening titles .

the last title but in some ways one of the most important titles, is the of name of the film, this usually is in larger bolder fonts, which will stand out and and be unique from the the other title