Planning Opening Credits - Miss Georgiou

Opening credits are the credits that are shown at the beginning of a film that introduce the roles of the the cast as well as the other members who were apart of the making of the film. Normally, the opening credits show the director, writer and the main actors. However, since i am creating a short opening thriller sequence, i think i will have enough time to list all of the people that contributed as there were not as many as there would be if i were to have created a long film. The credits at the beginning are normally shown with some background music, and the opening of a scene. I think that this is done so that the audience can start to get into the mood of the film and are fully prepared to watch it. It is as if a 'foundation' of the movie is being built to help the audience gain knowledge of the what there is to expect within the film and this helps them to prepare. It sets the scene of the film so the viewers know exactly what is going on and where most of the film will be taking place. In a thriller film, the opening credits can present the setting that the film will be set, the audience will see this and it will help them to acknowledge that something bad will most probably happen here and that is a key scene that the viewers will eventually see again later on.

As i know, opening credits are important when creating an opening thriller sequence. I was asked to complete an analysis of the film 'Se7en' and had to break it down into four sections; Colours, Styles of Credits, Use of conventions and Order of appearance.

The first section i will be discussing is the use of colour within the film 'Se7en'. The colours that have been used the most within the opening credits of the movie is black. The use of the black is important is it can help the audience with clues as to what will most likely happen within the movie and will help them to understand what the film could be about later on. Firstly, the colour black represents a number of different things and certain emotions that can allow the audience to think and keep them gripped to their seats when watching the film. The colour black can represent the element of death and therefore, the audience can connote that something bad will happen and will be resulting in a number of deaths. This makes the audience kept at the edge of their seats when watching the opening sequence because they can predict things that will happen by using what they can see on the screen. Also, the use of black within the opening can show emptiness and this could be a way of describing a character within the film se7en, this can help viewers to make assumptions about what they will see and how the characters within the movie will be portrayed. Black is a colour of darkness and can show the audience that the film is scary and will most likely be scary. Also, the darkness from the beginning can represent a characters personality in the film and because the black is used for a while in the opening, it can show that the main character will have a dark streak to them that will be seen by the audience throughout. Another point i would like to make is that the picture shows two colours; black and white. Black and white are opposite colours and thinking of it in thriller prospects, the colour black represents evil and white represents goodness. Some characters within the film may dress up in black to show darkness and evil and if the characters wear white, it could represent purity and can show someone as being angelic. This is conventional because in a thriller, the elements of evil and goodness are shown throughout the film. The colours make the audience aware of the possibilities that could happen within the opening and so they are not left in the dark.

The next point I will be discussing within the 'Se7en' film is the style of credits that i could see when watching opening sequence of it. The first thing i noticed was that the writing shown is very child like. I thought this when i saw it because of the way the writing was displayed on the screen. The writing is very narrow and uneven, it isn't written neatly so this reminds me of how a child would write.This could therefore mean that there is a child involved within the story. Also, I can see some blurry writing where is says 'a film by'. This makes me believe that the element of confusion will be added to the story somehow. When looking at this, the audience will feel scared to watch more of the opening as well as want to watch more because of the sinister feel that it is giving off. This is conventional within the opening because children are generally involved within the story, and this will make the audience feel sorry for them. Also, from the look of the picture and the fonts, such as the blurry font used, i can see that this story will be a psychological thriller.

The third section i will be discussing is the use of conventions that the audience aswell as myself can see when watching the 'Se7en' opening credits. The first image that I saw displayed very quickly within the sequence was a photo of a woman being placed onto a black page. The photo could result in many things. Due to the expression that is placed on her face, i believe that she has been hurt. The emotion expressed upon her face is fear, the audience can see this in her eyes.  Another point to indicate that she may have already faced death is her body language and positioning. The audience and I can see that she is laying, and her head is facing forward. The person that took the image is in front of her in order to take the photo, and she is not looking at him, so this allows myself to believe that she is no longer living. My last point to support this theory is the colour that surrounds the photo. Black. As i have previously mentioned, black is the colour that is used to signify death to show the audience that the crime has already been committed. The colour shows darkness, this could represent her killer's personality as well as their soul. Black also means emptiness, which can show that the body of the woman is empty due to her losing her life. This is conventional because death is always used within thrillers and this is done to scare the audience. The photo also allows us to understand that she has already been killed, therefore, scaring the audience from the beginning of the film. This keeps the viewers gripped to their seats as well as making them feel terrified as to what they may see next. Another point i would like to add is that if this woman was the only one that died or that will die, then the person gluing it to the page wouldn't be keeping a photo of her on a blank page. Therefore i am lead to believe that the killer will kill again, in order to fill up the empty page. This is conventional to the thriller genre because generally, in thriller films, there are multiple victims within the story. This scares the audience and makes them think about what they would do if they were in the same position. This is a warning to the viewers to let them know that this woman will not be the only victim. Speaking of victims, the person in the photo is female, this is conventional because the women are usually the first to be killed, this shows them as inferior and weak to the killer. They are unable to defend themselves from the murderer, who is most likely a man.

The last section i will be discussing is the order of appearance in which the images are shown on the screen for the audience to see and connote what is happening and to also guess what will happen within the film based on what the images show them. The first and second image the audience can see that appears on the screen is the name of the production groups that created the film together. The allows the audience to think back to see if they know any films that have been created by them in the past. It also allows the production groups to gain recognition for what they have done to make the film a success. Also, in doing this, the groups become more known and when other films are created by them, the audience will know what they have produced and will want to watch the film. 

The next image that the audience are shown is the image of a drawing of hands showing who the film was produced by. The image of the hands is in complete grey with no colour. This can show the audience that the film is very dark and sinister due to the shades of black that were used. Also, the hands are in a position that you would imagine to show strangling. Strangling is very popular in the film genre, this therefore shows the audience that violence will be present within the film.

The next image the viewers can see is the name of the most important character within the film. This is the main character and is the person the audience will see the most. They are given recognition within the film to show and allow the audience to know what role they will be playing; clearly an important one. Also, by doing this and by hiring someone as famous as Brad Pitt, his fans will come to watch the film, therefore getting more views and more money for the film. If the film is liked by the fans, the more ratings you will receive and the producers as well as the stars will be more known worldwide.

The next image is shows the title of the film. This allows the audience to know what film they are watching as well as to think about why the film could be called 'Se7en'. Also, the blur on the title could show the audience that there will be the constant element of confusion and disorientation that will be present. This will allow the audience to be prepared for what is to come later on in the film.

The next image shown on the left shows the costumes designer getting recognition for their hard work when making the film. As the audience as well as i know, this is a very hard job as there are many costumes within films, so they deserve to be praised.

This is my idea for our myself and Krista's opening sequence title. I made sure that i used some of the conventional themes within my idea such as the colour of the word 'amnesia' as red. Red represents the blood and it is a clue to the audience that blood will be a constant theme within the thriller opening sequence. Using the colour red at the beginning of the sequence allows the audience to know that  there will be blood present throughout the opening.  The red on the word could also represent the anger of the antagonist as he goes on a murderous rampage to get his revenge on the killing of his wife. So this could represent to the viewers that something is coming and they are unaware. Another representation of the colour red is danger. Red is an alertive and bright colour which many see as a way of alerting danger to people. So, i have included red within the word 'Amnesia' to warn my viewers that something bad is going to happen during the sequence. Also, the second colour i have decided to use is the colour white. The colour white represents a number of things, for example, it is a colour that represents innocence. As the audience will find out, during our opening thriller sequence, innocence is used to show the female victim during the time that she is in her home and alive. She has done nothing to deserve being killed. Another thing i have noticed is that the colour white displayed upon a black background can show that it is bright. The brightness can show us that it is an important thing to watch out for. It shows the audience that they must stay alert at all times. One last point about the colour white is that the way it is displayed, it is quite small. However, the black background behind the writing is very large. Black represents darkness and evil and the white represents purity and innocence. So what the audience are shown is that the darkness and evil is bigger and more inferior than the purity and innocence. Therefore showing that the darkness over powers the purity and innocence, so, the antagonist and hitman over power the victim.

The sizes i have decided to use within my title are a variety of small sizes as well as large ones. For example, as seen in the picture above, i decided that the 'Spotlight Productions Presents' should be smaller than 'Amnesia'. I think this is simply because i wanted to emphasize the name of the film to allow the audience to think why it would be called this and who it could be upon. This allows the audience to think outside of the box as to the variety of possibilities that could occur within the thriller opening sequence. Giving the audience a title that seems very obvious is a good way to throw them off guard, for example, the viewers may believe it is about a girl who develops amnesia after she is kidnapped. However, it is about a man who is held hostage and already has forgotten who he is, therefore, has already developed amnesia. Giving the title such a simple name allows the audience to give their opinions and ideas about what the film will be about, this is done so that the element of shock, suspense, surprise and tension are present throughout the opening as they wouldn't have believed that the story line would be how it is. 

The fonts that i have displayed upon my titles are varied, this is because the fonts can mean different things. For example, i have decided that a smaller size for the 'Spotlight Productions Presents' would be good, the production would still gain recognition as the words are still largely visible. The name of the font i decided to use to make this credits page is 'Antique'.  I wanted the audience to catch their eye on 'Amnesia' the most. This was created using the font 'outline'. This is because it is is the main reason that the audience will begin to feel mystery. As previously mentioned, the word amnesia within a thriller could mean a variety of different ideas and story lines to the audience. So, some of the ideas they had could be right, however, our storyline is so unique that is most probably the wrong idea that they were thinking of. Therefore, this creates mystery aswell as tension because they want to know what is happening in the story that makes it have the name 'Amnesia'.

The order in which they appear on the screen is the title 'Spotlights Productions presents', then the title 'Amnesia'. I have presented it in this way to portray it the way that i have seen a variety of films use it. This gets the audience used to watch they are shown on the screen because this is the way that it is displayed in other movies that they have seen. Also, using the 'amnesia' title last, therefore makes it the last title that the audience remember before the start of the opening thriller sequence. This creates suspense as the audience will be kept gripped to the edge of their seats trying to figure out what will happen next.

In order to have good communication and teamwork skills, myself and my partner Krista were asked to look at each other's ideas and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each idea. This was done so that we could decide which one we would prefer to be our sequence credits page. Krista has decided that she would like to use this (pictures on right) as our thriller opening sequence credits page. The first strength i would like to point out is that the use of the 3D font (first picture) is very creative because it is very original and is rarely used within the thriller genre and this therefore makes it unique. the use of the 3D also gives a 'blurred' effect, therefore giving the element of confusion. Within the narrative, the hitman is held hostage and is confused about where he is, so the element of confusion is there. This gives the audience hints as to what the storyline could be about. The second picture shows the font and colour for 'Amnesia'. The use of the colour red makes the word stand out, making the audience notice it more. As the audience notice it more, it makes them remember it, and if they remember it, they will see that the hitman already has amnesia when the film starts.  Also, the colour red is effective when creating a thriller because red can represent many things of which the thriller genre is all about. For example, when i think of the colour red, i immediately think of anger, when the viewers watch the opening, they will see the emotion on the face of the antagonist. Red can also be used to symbolize blood, and as the audience watch more of the sequence, they will see that blood certainly makes its way into the opening. The use of the colour red could show the audience that the element of evil is involved within the plot. This allows the audience to begin to make their suspicions. Blood is conventional within the thriller genre because it shows what thrillers are all about. It is rare to not see blood within a thriller film, and this therefore makes it normal for it to be present. If it isn't present, the audience would be left surprised. My only weakness is that the colour red is often used within the thriller genre. Although the colour represents many things, i believe that the colour is used so often that the audience would be bored of it. It lacks originality. 

In conclusion, my partner and I have decided that we are going to use Krista's idea as we think it would be more professional to use. Also, even though it does seem basic, it is the best idea to use in order to create the most successful thriller sequence that we can. We have taken a wide range of inspiration from the opening credits of 'Se7en' and we will therefore include a variety of flashes within the opening to show different images. We will be using the flashing within the unknown location scene, it will show the encounter of the antagonist and the hit man as the hostage is paid to kill the antagonist's wife. I believe that this creates tension because the audience will be waiting for something bad to happen. This keeps the viewers engaged in what they see on the screen. Within the credits sequence, i believe that the credits should go in the following order; Production company name; I believe that the production company name should be the first title that comes up on the screen. This is because they deserve the most credit as they created the film altogether. Without them, there would be no opening sequence so they deserve to be first. After this, the name of the director(s) should be shown, this is because they helped the actors/actresses with their roles within the film and without them, the cast would most probably forget some of their lines. If they did forget some of their lines when filming, this would waste a lot of time and would make the editing process very slow as there would be alot of the clip to edit. This would then be followed by the name of the film. This allows the audience to know the name and begin to discuss why it could be called that. It allows their suspicions to grow further than they already have. Th element of shock, surprise, suspense and tension will be present when they find out why the name 'Amnesia' was given to the opening sequence. Once the opening has begun playing, the names actors will appear at the bottom followed by the rest of the team who was involved. I think that it is important to add the names of the actors within the credits page, this is because they deserve alot of credit as it can be hard to act and learn lines within a short amount of time. The team such as the costume designer, hair and makeup etc all deserve to be included within this page because although they may not have done the most important roles, they did big enough roles to show that if they weren't their to do their jobs, the film would have been very different.