Title Sequence Clips

    Every film has an opening scene but the impact of a good one is more important than you'd think. While watching a few opening scenes I noticed a few things that deemed to be important in developing the interest of the audience, the plot, and character development. 

    The main thing that came to my attention is that the opening scene must be interesting and well planned out to make sure that it will grab your attention. I'm the type of person to not watch a movie if the beginning seems boring so this is very crucial to me as the audience. There are many factors that affect the quality of the opening scene, as no scenes are the same. One interesting factor I saw was in the movie "Trainspotting", was that the characters were introduced at the very beginning. I found this as an interesting approach but it's very smart because it captures the audience's attention at the very beginning and forms that character connection sooner rather than later. 

    Another interesting factor that I noticed in a few films was that they incorporated the style of the movie into the word, like in the fonts, colors of the words, and style of the text. For example, in "Jaws" they made the title red sharp, and bold which gives you the idea that something bad is going to happen in this shark movie. First frames: titles in the digital realm state "The typography and visual style created in the opening sequence can establish the mood and image system,". Another movie that I noticed did this was "Saturday Night Fever", which had a bubbly bold red title that signifies that the main character Tony Manero. It kind of captures his character as a bold outgoing guy, who's very confident. In that case, it helps the character development a little bit. 

    Something that the opening scene helps with is an idea of what the movie is about, and what the main purpose of the movie is. First frames: titles in the digital realm states "An opening titles sequence generally engages with the big themes of the film and looks at overarching themes and metaphors of the film". That is another thing that can draw the audience in and gives them something to be interested in from the very start. 

    Visuals aren't the only thing that makes an opening scene great, the music can have a big effect on it too. In the movie "scream" the eerie music at the beginning suggests that something bad may happen and builds suspense for the audience. 

    Foreshadowing can be implied just from the opening scene, like in "what about Bob", there's an image of a fish on the beginning credits, and the fish caries into the movie, and ends up playing an important roll in the movie. 

    I feel as if I want to do the newspaper article for my portfolio project after taking into account everything that needs to be put into a good opening scene. A newspaper article is just more my style and I feel like I can really take my time to fit everything necessary into it.