Theory - Film Opening

In oder to make my own film opening sequence, I chose to start with understanding the relevance of a film opening through its historical context and a considering a few examples of good film openings. This way I would be able to find the style that I most identify with, and the method in which I would proceed making the film opening.  

About Film Titles

Purpose:

In early days of the motion picture, film titles mainly consisted the name and logo of the movie studio and the presentation of the main characters along with the actor’s names. This was generally observed on title cards. The more major studios at the time had their own title art and logo used as the background of their screen credits in order to make it look exclusive. In the decades since, film titles have evolved into an art form of their own. 

From the 1940s onwards, the more progressive studios began to change their approach in presenting their screen credits, and reimagined the purpose of the film opening. Apart from solely presenting the credits, a film opening was also seen as a tool to grab the audience's attention and set the tone for the rest of the movie. The major studios looked to produce a higher quality of artwork for these sequences. With increased emphasis being placed on the opening, a greater share of resources also began to be allocated to the credits. Now a movie has a main title designer who is responsible for the titles displayed on screen. This work has been classified as motion graphics, title design, title sequences and animated credits. For a more creative approach, the title sequences are presented through animated visuals which are kinetic, and that appear while the credits are introduced on screen.

These are a few examples of film titles which I found to have a strong symbolic representation of the movie:

(Uses contrasting colours emphasising on ‘me’ with image of an airplane suggesting that it has to do with travelling.)

(Brave: Bold use of font with a pattern and design suggesting the time and era or the story.)

(Edgy fonts suggesting a violent mood with a monochromatic choices of colours.)

(A simple use of font with a part of the earth shown in the background seen from the outer space, suggesting the setting of the movie which would be outer space.)