Planning Opening Credits - Miss Georgiou

Opening credits are used within films to give the audience an idea of the narrative by introducing the style of the film through fonts and background music etc. Colours can also reveal aspects of the narrative by portraying certain moods, themes and emotions that you may expect to find in the film. Additionally, opening credits introduce the names of the actors and directors of the film etc. The order of appearance of the names dictates the most popular or recognisable people to the audience. The filmmakers make sure the most well-known directors or actors are shown near the start of the opening credits to catch the audiences attention.

Se7en (1995)

 As a class we watched the opening credits to Se7en and took notes on the colours, fonts and sounds used as well as the use of thriller conventions, style of credits and order of appearance. 

The colours used in the sequence consisted mostly of black and white. The black connotes mystery, darkness, morbidness and danger while the white may represent innocence, vulnerability and hope. The two colours together may be representative of the killer and victim as the connotations of black relate to the antagonist ( dark and dangerous) and the connotations of white relate to the protagonist/victim (innocent and vulnerable).                          

There was also flashes and flickers of red in the credits. This colour could also represent danger and harm as it resembles blood. This suggests to the audience that some people may be harmed or killed in the film and therefore there must be victims and in turn a killer. The flickering  and blurred effects was creating using the dissolve editing technique which gave an unbalanced effect and implied instability. Amongst all of the colours there was a slight filter effect that made the sequence appear sepia. This creates a dark and eerie atmosphere as the sequence is not entirely clear. 

The words were placed over the images as they were the main focus of the opening credits and the .....

The font used in the sequence was messy and scrawly, similar to a child's handwriting. This gives the impression that the person in the opening credits is mentally unstable and psychotic which is conventional to a thriller because antagonists tent to be psychopathic and unpredictable as it creates a disturbing mood and makes the audience unaware of what they will do next and therefore keeps them engaged, uncertain and suspenseful. The characters psychotic nature is supported by the act of him cutting up  items, writing messily, photocopying certain pictures and highlighting particular words. This suggests that he may be a serial killer and implies he is obsessive as he is planning out his acts of torture or murder.  Obsession is a typical theme in the thriller genre because it makes the antagonist appear disturbed and creepy as well as unstoppable.  

There were several conventions of a thriller evident in these opening credits. For example, suspense and enigma was provoked in the audience because there was no characters shown, only the hands of the male antagonist. This makes the audience question who he is, what he is doing and whether he is planning to hurt someone. The man uses sharp objects in some parts of the sequence which depicts danger and further highlights that he is psychotic and capable of killing or harming others. The timing of shots is varied in this sequence; some shots are slowed down and some are sped up by the use of editing. This is conventional to a thriller because it adds emotional impact and creates suspense. The viewer knows that the film will be full of faced paced shocking moments as well as a storyline that gradual builds suspense. 

The last thing we focused on when watching and analysing the opening credits was the order of appearance in the words that appear because we would like to follow and mirror this order in our own sequence. 

Order of appearance in Se7en:

1. Company name - "New Line Cinema Presents"

2. Directors name - "A film by David Fincher"

3. Well known actors names - "Brad Pitt...Morgan Freeman"

4. Title - "SE7EN"

5. More actor names - "Gwenyth Paltrow..."

6. Casting names - "Casting by Billy Hopkins..."

7. Music and Sounds - "Music by Howard Shore"

8. Costumes - "Costumes designed by Michael Kaplan"

9. Editors - "Edited by Richard Francis-Bruce"

10. Director of camera crew - "Director of Photography Darius Khondji"

11. Producers "Co-producers...Executive producers...

12. Writers of script "Written by Andrew Kevin Walker"

Watching the opening credits of Se7en allowed me to develop my ideas for my groups opening credits as well as seeing how I could incorporate our credits into our opening sequence. I understand the different aspects I have to consider when creating and incorporating my credits such as colour, sound, editing styles, fonts and order of appearance. I want my credits to be....simple,bold,creepy,childlike.black white red.. 

Our group then individually created our own draft opening credits to get an idea of what we would want our final group credits to look like. Because I wanted my credits to be simple I did not include any complicated effects and included mostly core colours of black and white to show the contrast between killer and victim and good and evil etc. A few seconds into the credits, when I start to introduce the actors names, the colour red is introduced. This connotes blood and danger which suggests the the audience that the film may be based upon a killer. The three bold colours are simple to look at and process as well as creating suspense and enigma because the audience do not get many ideas about the narrative. However, I do not like the font of the white writing because I think it lacks connotations. To improve this I would make the font resemble a childs handwriting, for example, because then it would create a psychotic theme. I would also make the white writing bigger as it is the title of the film but does not stand out from the other credits. It is not very excited or dramatic because it is too plain and simple and therefore it is not conventional to the thriller genre.



Screenshots of my opening credits



After creating our opening credits, my group all looked at eachothers and discussed and analysed the advantages and disadvantages of them. I like Kerry's opening sequence because it also simple in the use of colours and effects which I find effective in opening credits in the thriller genre. The black and white colours also connote contrast within the film and the glow behind the letters suggest there is something that the audience does not know and will find out near the end of the film. This creates enigma and suspenseThe glow is also significant because it is upside down and backwards which gives the credits an unnatural atmosphere. This relates to the unnatural acts carried out by the antagonist in the thriller sequence. Overall, the credits are basic and simple because the words and colours are bold making it easy to read and understand.  However, I think Kerry's opening sequence wold be better if there were connotations of red to suggest harm and danger and also if the credits were less clean cut and neat they would be more conventional to a thriller because the large, clean-cut boldness can resemble credits from an action film etc. 

Screenshot of Kerry's opening sequence

I believe that Jessica's opening credits are the most effective as they are the most conventional to the thriller genre. Liker mine and Kerry's credits, Jessica's are clear and bold so are easy to read and process but unlike mine and Kerry's, the font is not too simple with slightly positive connotations. Instead hers appears less positive because the writing is slightly more scrawly which has connotations of instability and suggestions of a psychopath. The writing appears gradually in an irregular pattern. This represents the unravelling of events that would occur in the film. The colours are also black and white so they have the same connotations as mine and Kerry's but the credits would be more effective if there was use of red to add more connotations like in my credits. If I would change anything about Jessica's credits it would be the positioning of the words. I would place the words so that they are not in the centre of the screen. This will suggest instability and imbalance.

Screenshot of Jessica's opening sequence