Opening credits

Opening credits

The opening credits create audience expectations about what is to come within the film. For example an upbeat, happy opening credits sequence will convey to the audience that the film will be lighthearted, fun and uplifting, whereas a darker, more brooding opening sequence with dramatic music will convey a much more serious atmosphere within the scene highlighting to the audience that the film will not be lighthearted and fun, but one which is packed with suspense and drama. 

The soundtrack is vital to the opening credits as they further enhance the audience's expectations as to the pace of the film, as well as the atmosphere. 

The different type of text, as well as the colour used to display the names of the director, actors and other members of the production can also be used to connote different meanings to the audience. For example a blood red colour font will connote danger, violence and bloodshed within the plot of the film, building up audience expectations and drawing in their attention to the film. 

A fun, girly font with swirls on every letter will connote a fun feel to the film, conveying to the audience what target audience the film is targeted at, appealing to their interests and drawing their attention into the film.

An example of a thriller film which uses the opening credits to create intense amounts of drama and suspense, manipulating the audience's emotions is Se7en, the 1995 film directed by David Fincher.

As the scene opens, the main protagonist is introduced to the audience, yet at the same time their identity remains hidden. The audience watches as the character cuts up pictures, un-developed film, and scribbles out the faces of unidentified individuals in black pen. These actions build up the suspense and expectations of the audience, forming the generic conventions of a thriller film through their enigmatic connotations.

The soundtrack to these opening credits is dramatic, drawing in the audience's attention as they listen to the tension which this non-diagetic sound creates, as they attempt to find meaning within the enigma and try to form expectations as to what will happen in the rest of the film.
Natural sound is also featured within the credits, however all of these sounds are enhanced, made more sharp and dramatic to highlight their importance and sinister nature to the audience. The enhanced sound of a blade being sharpened is amplified to the audience in order to convey the danger of this individual and their violent intentions. As well as this, the intensified sound of the character highlighting words in a book is so magnified that it is reminiscent of the high pitched sound of nails on a chalkboard, a sound which will set many members of the audience on edge, making them feel uncomfortable in their anticipation to discover the identity of the individual.

The font used in order to display the names of the production team is a key part of these opening credits, as the flickering, fragmented nature of the writing clearly connotes the unhinged and dangerously volatile nature of the protagonist's mind. This is another key convention of a thriller film as the audience will be able to recognise the psychotic nature of a traditional triller attacker.

The opening credit also informs the audience of who was responsible for creating the different areas of the film within production, such as the director, actors and camera operator. The director's name (David Fincher) appears within the opening credits twice as he is an acclaimed director of films within the thriller genre, whose name would be recognisable to members of the audience. For audience members who recognise his name and are a fan of his work the anticipation for the film to begin will increase, as they are keen to discover what will take place within his latest film.

Another example of a thriller film with inconic opening credits is Hitchcock's 1960's classic Psycho. Using only black and white images, the audience watches as horizontal and vertical rectangles move across the screen in different patterns. These rectangles are similar to the cell bars which keep dangerous criminals away from the rest of society, and in the case of these opening credits, they are representative of the way in which the twisted mind of the attacker Norman Bates, (whose identity at this time is unidentified) is kept hidden from the public as he hides behind the persona of his mother, blaming her for the murders that he has in fact committed.

The fragmented way in which the title is formed connotes to the audience ideas about the warped mind of the main protagonist and attacker, as he cannot form a straight idea or motive as to his actions. His mind is so splintered that his thoughts are out of place from the ideals of society and turning him into a monster.

  

 

The use of black and white images also holds strong connotations which are interpreted by the audience. Good and evil are two characteristics which are usually represented through black and white, and this is what Hitchcock is aiming to connote through the use of black and white film, rather than using colour. The black background is a huge contrast to the white title and other text on screen, highlighting to the audience the contrast between the characters which hold these traits within his film. However, aswell as using these two colours, Hitchcock also uses the colour grey, as this is an middle ground between the two different extremes, and the connotation that is formed through the use of the grey bars in this scene is that good and evil can both exist within an individual, that there is a duality within human nature. 

The soundtrack used for this opening credits sequence is critically acclaimed for the suspense and tension that it builds within the audience members. The music is packed with various different dramatic notes, foreshadowing the future drama that will take place in the upcoming scenes. 

order of appearence, director, title, actors, screenplay, members of production, editor, costume, make up, assistant director, composer, director

Similarly to the opening credits of Se7en, Psycho also features the names of different members of the production team within the opening credits, and, just like Se7en, the credits feature the name of the director twice. As such a well known director with a reputation for creating well recieved thriller films, the use of Hitchcock' s name will draw in the audience's attention, and for some people simply the fact that he directed the film will cause them to watch it.

For the opening credits of our group thriller film, we collectively discussed our ideas for the text size, colour and the font style. 

Using different films as our inspiration, we decided that we would want the font to appear fragmented (as it does in Psycho) or to flicker, (as in Se7en) as though the mind of the attacker is mentally unstable. 

We also decided that the size of the font for our title should be the biggest, as this is one of the most important elements within this opening credits sequence. The size of the font will gradually decrease as the different names appear on the screen, to connote both the importance of the members of the production team, and also hold connotations about the fading sanity of the attacker, as the unstable and twisted part of his mind consumes him, just like the size of the font decreases. For the font style that we will use in the opening credits, I have found some examples of different fonts which I will suggest to the other members of the group. The font shown in the image below is an example of a font that I think will be a good choice of font that we could use in our opening credits. The font appears to be distorted. This will prove to be a good signifier of the instability and fragmentation within the mind of the attacker, and the way in which his sanity is slowly fading. This will enable us to link the font to the thriller convention of the warped and unstable mind of the attacker. The cracked appearance highlights how the conscious thoughts that the individual holds. This factor makes this font much more convention than the second example below. 

I believe a font like the one above, will be much more effective on our opening credits than the example font shown below. This font does not provide the audience with any signs about what will take place in the film as it is plain and uninteresting. Therefore, I believe the best choice for our font, will be one similar to the font shown above, which appears to be disintegrating (just like the poisonous and rotten mind of our stalker). 

Thriller Film

The order of appearance that we will use is:

• Production company
• Director
• Editors
• Music
• Actors
• Casting
• Storyboards / screenplay
• Costume / make up
• Location manager
• Safety manager
• Director

We will also use a mixture of natural sounds and dramatic music as the soundtrack for our opening credits. As in Se7en, the natural sounds will be enhanced, and play over the top of the dramatic music. This will enable us to make the film appear as realistic, and therefore as threatening as possible.