Opening Sequence Titles and Credits Analysis

The Film Sherlock Holmes uses an interesting style for its titles and credits. The text is accompanied by  selected clips (some of which are related to each other, e.g. Clip of character and the credits are for its actor) which are then inked onto a page. This is relevant for Sherlock Holmes as it is a famous novel, this creates the effect that the film is making reference to the novel. The order of the credits are; Director, Screenplay composers, Producers, Editor and lastly the main actor before the title appears. After this the remaining actors are then listed, followed by the casting manager, music producers, costume designer, visual effects supervisor, film studio, production companies and lastly the director.

The titles and credits for films tend to generally follow this patter whilst some making some minor changes to the order of it to better suit their sequence. I will take this order into account when making the credits for my opening sequence and apply it so that the credits are in an order that makes sense.

Audience

The target audience for our opening sequence will be 15+ due to the inclusion of street/knife crime, as films such as Adulthood, Turning Point (Short UK Knife Crime Film) are rated at 15. There is a big demand for this target market due to teenagers are more likely to go to the cinema due to the amount of free time they have and that ticket pricers are cheaper for their age group compared to adult tickets. Street crime films are also popular in this age group as it is a viewpoint of urban life which attracts young viewers. The video below is of Turning Point (Short UK Knife Crime Film) which was uploaded to YouTube and has been given a PG rating by its up-loaders, this shows that even young audiences can see this due to the fact that there is no swearing or shown violence.

Editing Credtis

Today during academic mentoring I made the final adjustments on the credits which involved; splitting up the actors names throughout the sequence in the order that the characters appear, adding last names to the credits for the actors and lastly rotating the credits and adding shadows to superimpose them into the scene. This was all achieved in Adobe Premier's title creator/editor.

Max Payne Opening Sequence

Max Payne Extract

Shot Number	Technical Sound Description	Effects
1	Motif: 20th Century Fox	The 20th Century Fox song gives a motif that the audience can relate to as it’s a well-known piece of sound featured in the majority of films
2	Off screen dialogue: the main character narrating	The off screen dialogue gives the audience an idea into what they can expect from the scene and gives an insight into what the character is like.
3	Diegetic Sound: Water Splashing Foley Track: Breathing	The diegetic water splashing creates the effect of a realistic 3D world for the audience, providing an authentic sound experience. The Foley track of breathing gives the effect of a first person experience and helps put the viewer in the diegesis with the use of more realistic sound
4	Diegetic Sound: Muffled Audio	The diegetic sound of the muffled audio gives a realistic approach on how the environment would sound when underwater
5	Foley Track: Breathing	The Foley track of breathing gives the effect of a first person experience and helps put the viewer in the diegesis with the use of more realistic sound
6	Diegetic Sound: Air Bubbles	The diegetic Sound of the air bubbles rising gives the viewer a sense of realism as well as an indication of what is happening in the scene
7	Diegetic Sound: Air Bubbles Sound Bridge: Off Screen Dialogue	The diegetic Sound of the air bubbles rising gives the viewer a sense of realism as well as an indication of what is happening in the scene The sound bridge of the dialogue from the opening sequence gives the audience a build-up of the story and creates suspense of what is to come
8	Sound Bridge: Off Screen Dialogue Foley Track: Clock Ticking, Baby Crying	The effect of the Foley track is that the baby crying in a faded tone gives the impression of past memories and creates the sense of the unknown to the viewer. The clock ticking creates a link between the flashback and the underwater scene, showing that time is running out as he can’t breathe underwater
9	The same as shot 8	The same as shot 8
10	Foley Track: Clock Ticking	The Foley track of the clock ticking comes back to the scene in which it was linked with from shot 8. This shows a progression in time and helps to build-up tense for the viewers
11	Foley Track: Door opening	The sound of the door opening accompanied by a swooshing sound helps to represent a flashback of events and travel from one scene to another.
12	Foley Track: Clock Ticking	The sound of the clock ticking could in  this case be used to enhance the feeling of the past, which continues from shot 11
13	Foley Track: Clock Ticking	The sound of the clock becomes distorted as if to give the impression that something is depressing, which fits in with the previous shot where a body is shown. This creates an un-nerving feeling for the audience
14	Diegetic/ Foley Track: Baby Cradle Chimes	The sound of the baby chimes fading out and distorting gives the viewer the impression that this has stopped and is a thing of the past (possibly saying that there is no need for the chimes anymore, regarding the loss of a child)
15	Sound Bridge: City noise, Sirens	The fading in of sounds from a new scene gives the viewer the impression of a fresh start and the previous experiences have moved on
16	Off Screen Diegetic Sound/ Foley Track: City Noise, Sirens	The use of off screen diegetic sound gives the viewer the realistic feel of a city, as if tis a 3D world (Diegesis)

Title

Due to our media room getting robbed I used the old iMacs with the programme Live Type to create the title for our groups opening sequence. The title of our opening sequence is Graves and the font that is used is an adaption of the Stencil font. I chose the title to have a white shadow in order to give it the feel of street graffiti, this is because in some graffiti stencils are used in order to mark out words. I chose to have the graffiti style even though the genre is detective as I felt that with the fight scene it gave the sequence a feel of street crime due to the actors having the stereotypical "street thug" costume.