One important thing in any big film is the title sequence. A title sequence establishes some of the people who worked on the film, while adding some flavor and enigmas to set the setting up. Some title sequences, like the Bond movies, are classic reoccurring things that mark the series. Good title sequences will be able to establish the genre and set expectations.
If you watch old movies (like me), you can see that most old title sequences have the entire credits of the movie - something that initially annoyed me, although I like the old-school feel now. Most title sequences go like this:
Production company
Producers
Director
Title
Famous actors
Supporting cast
Crew
A common thing people do is mixing up title sequences with opening credits. Title sequences are different from opening credits in that opening credits are a part of the title sequence - the title sequence is the full sequence, using visuals and sound, while the opening credits are the names of important cast and crew members showing up.
I don’t know anyone who goes into movies completely blind, but if you do, this’ll set up your expectations for the movie. Reputable directors and actors tend to have good movies under their belts.
Historically, old movies have rather boring title sequences. A lot of the ones I’ve watched have long shots with just the main character moving, and watching the protagonist walk around while the entire crew is named is just not very engaging for me. If you want to see examples of this, check out White Sun of the Desert (1970), an old Soviet Western.
However, when Saul Bass came along, the world of title sequences was flipped upside-down. Bass made title sequences exciting. They weren’t just like the end credits but with visuals anymore - they were ways to show the genre, setting and plot of the movie. Working with famous directors such as Scorsese, Kubrick and Hitchcock, Bass made movement a central part of title sequences. Take a look at the title sequence for North by Northwest (1959), for example: it starts with lines criss-crossing and then revealing a skyscraper after the title is shown. The music, which is jumpy and features fast, staccato notes, creates a sense of unease. The cars going underneath, being reflected by the building, symbolize big city life, with all the action going on in the streets being reflected on the buildings where people work and live. There then is a cut to shots of the city either from a high-angle view or an eye-level view, establishing empathy between the audience and the people of the city. There is a short shot of a snippet of action in the city in the form of an anxious lady - her moving fast and shouting gives us an idea of the anxiety and chaos of city life. There is a shot of Hitchcock not getting on a bus in time, which is a nod to the director while at the same time being a reinforcement of the idea of the chaotic city. This title sequence works well in establishing the New York City setting of the first part of the movie as well as showing off big names like Hitchcock’s.
In Bass’s work for Vertigo (1958), the title sequence starts off with extreme close-ups of a face, revealing a cerebral and personal tone, with a hypnotic spiral coming from a red eye. This spiral shifts and changes, reflecting the name of the movie itself - Vertigo - a sense of dizziness, and the psychedelic colors contribute to a feeling of being drawn in. The music is dark, oscillating between low-volume strings and high-volume brass instruments, as well as low and high pitch, with the soft chime of a triangle in the background. This builds up tension, but at the same time, the rhythm of the music draws you in. As the title sequence goes on, the musical layers and the amplitude of the musical oscillations build up, reflecting how drawn in the audience is. The face is a symbol, but for what? This action of being drawn in into a world we know nothing about creates enigmas about the nature of the film. How does the symbol of the eye and the spirals reflect the rest of the film? All this while giving out the names of the producers, the director, the cast and the crew. At the time, this was considered revolutionary.
Bass's philosophy was to "try to reach for a simple, visual phrase that tells you what the picture is all about and evokes the essence of the story" and to try to "make the ordinary extraordinary". This opened the way for such creative title sequences as that in Anatomy of a Murder (1958), with cut-up paper that looks like body parts arranged and rearranged so as to create a blend between the art of cutting paper and the anatomy of human beings.
Bass further elaborated on his philosophy of title sequences with this quote: "My initial thoughts about what a title can do was to set mood and the prime underlying core of the film's story, to express the story in some metaphorical way. I saw the title as a way of conditioning the audience, so that when the film actually began, viewers would already have an emotional resonance with it." This, today, is what a title sequence is usually seen as doing.
Let's now take a look at a more modern thriller - Se7en (1995). The images of books, censoring, close-ups on hands, razors, and seeing double makes for a harrowing experience, setting up the movie as a psychological thriller. The idea of Chekhov's Gun is used here, too - most of the objects in the title sequence are used in the rest of the movie. The messy font and the words being moved around seemingly at random give a feeling of unease and symbolizes unpredictable and rapid movement. Heavy industrial bass throbs in the background, and the interweaving of partially opaque frames symbolizes disorientation. All this time, we cannot see the person who the hands in the title sequence belong to, only the hands themselves, creating an enigma. All throughout the title sequence, enigmas are created. Why censor words? Who's writing? What are the books for? The title sequence aims to shake you to your core while creating a sense of mystery.
In my opinion, title sequences are an important way of setting up the movie. When it's consistent with the rest of the film, title sequences can be surprisingly good. It sets expectations in ways that, say, a trailer does, and it can lead to some very engaging results.
We made our own title sequence for our preliminary task - heavily inspired by the title sequence of Se7en, our title sequence features white text (MS Gothic, to further the creation of a dark tone) on dark backgrounds, with creepy music and sound in the form of footsteps to build up the atmosphere and tension. The text was put at the periphery of the screen to not distract too much from the footage being shown, and the flickering effect of the text gives off a feeling of panic and uneasiness. We filmed this together in an abandoned area near our school, but as our two main actors weren't able to film (one was wearing shorts, the other wasn't present), I had to step in along with another team member to fill their shoes (if there's any sort of joke here, it's not intended) as well as direct some shots. Max edited the footage afterwards.
Overall, I feel like this title sequence was a success. I feel like the acting and editing were both well done, and the sound does well in creating atmosphere and tension. This might be nitpicky, but I don't like the way the text moves in the final shot with the title drop - it feels a bit wrong.
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