Analysis on Two Title Sequences

Title Sequence Analysis

Our title sequence involves showing titles displaying one after another until the opening ends with the actual title. We wanted to showcase the title like most films by making it stand-out to the audience enough for them to recognise why we named our film Monitored.  

Film openings in the thriller genre have already be covered by my codes and conventions research on one thriller film and a comedy film to immerse myself a lot on typical thriller openings and general films.

For this title analysis, I’ve picked Catch me If You Can starring Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio. I mentioned this film before in the Codes and Conventions essay on its spectacular animated ‘short film’. The second film is Dawn of the Dead, a zombie apocalypse movie directed by Zack Snyder. This opening is a perfect example of how the titles in the opening play a key part in associating itself with the genre and the mood it portrays.

Catch Me If You Can (2002)

The film portrays the title sequence with an enigmatic style of a small awareness of the plot of the film. It keeps us in suspense and presents the audience with some things to deduce. Most of the titles are cleverly used to work together in the animation; they come across as fluent transitions. They run well with this ‘short film’ enabling it to elaborate more on the animation and the film. It sets a series of events.

Like most movies, the order of titles often starts with Production Companies, in this case, its DreamWorks Pictures and Parkes Macdonald Productions. The flair of this title with the lines is very a bit peculiar, this peculiarity makes us feel absorbed into a thriller film, this is because the feelings we receive are quite cryptic.

In Most films, the production company always comes first.

The most interesting titles are next in line; they start with the Director and the actors. The titles start off with a list of big, leading actors that blend in with the surrounding objects. So far, the setting is fairly obvious to us that the bench and the sign narrows it down to an airport. The actors’ titles reference possibly some of the most important scenes in the film. The letters of the titles stretch to form lines, so that they are incorporated into the opening with this influence. This is used to affect the dark figures throughout the title sequence.

Title blends in with a reference to the film.

The titles create the environment to 

There are times when the characters move in between these vertical lines appears often to show the main character is constantly on the move, nonetheless he wants to be unidentified by suspicious activity. This influence is also used for the taxi scene; the titles work as lines on the road to camouflage themselves, this furthers the idea of how things camouflage themselves to hide away from danger. The design choice to have these vertical lines gives an interesting perspective on how the title artist is telling a story; moreover, it gives an unfailing look and feel to the titles.

The title the film is displayed near the end and it appears to be like all the other titles accept the word ‘me’, which looks different. Shortly after the title comes up, the ‘me’ title drifts off like a cloud.  The word could suggest the person running in the opening could be the main character as the opening mostly centres on him. It suggests to the viewers that the person trying to escape from the ‘huge figures’ is not an easy task for them and it specifies the plot of the film.  What links well with the title is that it indicates transport when the lines moves up to the sky where we the movie’s title suggest the process the main character goes.

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

The combination of the red titles and the black background express dark meanings of death and destruction. A few seconds into the movie, we can gather from it that the movie would fit into the category of horror.

The first credit in this opening is shown, the text is red and its placed on a black background, the title looks much distorted when the title is smeared to look like running blood; this and the sound of squeezing liquid can only relate to blood, which may suggest that the subject of blood presents the titles this way.

Red title flows away like running blood

This idea of running blood can also relate how zombies infect humans; when a zombie bites a human, they release a virus into the host’s blood stream and as a result, they’re infected. These titles that are written in blood represents the infected in the film, this is inevitable as most zombie films will consequently have key charcacters dying in their films.

The genre is sub-categorised into a zombie film instantly as the title rolls in, Dawn of the Dead. The typeface is Sans Serif conveying that it is quite modern, this links with how the setting will be set in the present day; this thought provokes the audience to be scared by how realistic it is. The film is set around our time is crafty for the reason that it is a way of presenting the possibilities of a zombie apocalypse, subsequently the title connotes the practicality of the film’s narrative.

Title of Film

The Actor's titles in pair

Actor's Titles grouped together

The interesting way they postioned the titles is unique compared to placing it in the middle of the screen using the rule of thirds.. In this opening, they positioned their titles in various different places on a black background. The positioning of these titles (especially some of the actors’ names who are put onto one title). The positioning of these titles connote how isolated people are in the film, they come across as being isolated in a world struck by the zombie apocalypse. When the actors are mentioned they used the idea of positioning to convey how incredibly distressing the film is for the characters. On occasion, the actor’s names are huddled together in some titles. Based on zombie film conventions, this may suggest they’re in group, so that they can team up to survive. Sometimes, the actor’s names are put into pairs on one title to suggest they work closely or there is some sort of relationship.