Opening sequence analysing essay

Comparing four films opening title sequences has been a valuable task because, it has enabled me to gain a deeper understanding of how different genres and styles of film produce their opening title sequence. The title sequences I have analysed vary in many aspects not only due to the film genre but also the style, such as some are fully animated, some are partly animated and partly real people and some are fully real people. Pineapple express was the first film that I analysed and it was fully animated and mostly the same all the way through. It contained no action and only very small references to the film so not really giving the audience to much of an idea about what the film contains. The main colours in the opening sequence are yellow, red and white. This is a choice of colours that will contradict each other in their connotations. Yellow connotes wealth and happiness, red connoted blood and love and white connotes peace and innocence. The colours yellow and red are used in the two different wallpapers that are used in the opening sequence and the white is used in the pictures and names of actors. The pictures often show illegal things such as guns and drugs and this contradicts the connotations of peace and innocence. The yellow that is used is telling us that the people involved in these activities are happy with what they are doing. The background is patterned like an old fashioned wall paper, showing that the characters could be living in the past and not up to date with society. The pictures are roughly drawn sketches showing a laid back nature to the film and possibly showing the characters as lazy. We are shown the key concept of the film by the joint that burns down to reveal a name. The background changes to a red with a different pattern, it is the type of pattern that you would expect to find on a bandana which is a stereotype of criminals tying in with the pictures that represent illegal things. The red background is faded at the edges and dirty again showing that the characters are living in the past, the stains could be representing blood which ties in with the stereotypes of the bandana pattern and possibly showing what is going to happen in the film. The second film that I analysed was Casino Royale. The opening title sequence contains the strongest convention of all James Bond films, this is when James Bond shoots his gun and the blood pours down the screen. This film differs slightly from all of the other James Bond films because, this key convention is started when James turns around to shoot someone on the floor which then leads to this, none of the other James Bond films have done this before. The black tunnel that James Bond shoots at is representing the barrel of a gun showing that James Bond will have a challenge in the film. The dark tunnel could also be representing the idea of Light at the end of the tunnel for the person who has been shot and is dying. It could also be representing the opposite because, James Bond is in the light at

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the end of their tunnel, challenging what we expect when we think of this because we associate this with heaven and peace. The main colour on the screen in this convention is black, this connotes death and evil and this is backed up by the blood on the screen. The sequence then changes to strongly and clearly show the conventions of the film. The screen gets brighter and shows a large king of spades with a pattern running all around him. This represents the idea of gambling and ties in with the name of the film because we associate gambling and a deck of cards with a casino. The only dark colour on the screen is James Bond who is in black, this is representing as mysterious. Two people are fighting one red and one black, representing a deck of cards again because these are the two colours in every pack of cards, again representing that the film will be based around a card game and gambling. It also shows that there will be a fight between two sides, possibly good and evil. The guns on the screen are gold which again connotes wealth. The guns are firing out the black of clubs and the red of hearts, the black of clubs is a lot bigger and there are lots more of them whereas the red of hearts are faster but not as many. This could be representing the battle that will happen in the film and how one side may be out numbered but they may have the upper hand. The third film I analysed was Spiderman 3. The screen for all of the opening sequence is dark with a hint of blue, the blue is shown as a smoke which could again be representing mysteriousness. The darkness shows us that it is something strange and mysterious. We know Spiderman to be mysterious because he doesnt want his identity to be known but he is not a dark force, he is fighting for good. The spiders webs in the opening sequence shows clips of how Peter Parker became Spiderman and what he can do being Spiderman. The spider that is shown biting him is coloured red and blue, these are the colours that are used on his suit, this could be showing that he has turned into the spider and not just gained its abilities. A video of what abilities Peter Parker has gained since becoming Spiderman is shown; this is shown after the spider biting him so allows us to see the chain of events that led to Spiderman. The transition between the shots in the opening sequence is a pan which travels horizontally and vertically. This represents that way that Spiderman moves, as if we are Spiderman. The names of the main actors are shown next to their pictures, which are again within the spiders webs. One of Tobey Maguires photos appears like it is smashed, this could be representing that Spiderman has a bad fate ahead of him and may be injured in trying to defeat his enemy, the convention that good always wins means that we know Spiderman is strong and will win at the end. The Blue is more prominent around Tobey Maguires photo, showing us that the blue is representing Spiderman and that when we see blue within the film to think of him. The fourth film I analysed was Reservoir Dogs, this is completely live action and has no animation or modern camera work. The men are all shown wearing black suits and sunglasses, this could be showing that they have lots of money and are well off. The

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representation of seeing lots of men wearing black suits is that they are gangsters, which we have already seen to be true by their nature within the restaurant and by the way that they look. We now know that these men are involved in crime and this could be why they have lots of money and why they are all together like a gang. Mr white is the first actor to be named and because of this and the fact that he is walking at the front of the gang, we see him to be the leader. The name of the actor is shown in yellow which connotes wealth and happiness, showing that the men are happy with their lives and have earned lots of money from crime. The black sunglasses are stereotypical of American gangsters and the toothpick he is chewing we also represent with a gangster or rebellious person. Mr Pink is also named with yellow writing and we are shown him putting on his sun glasses, possibly trying to show that he is becoming his criminal self, like it is something he can turn on and off depending on what he is doing, in this way we are understanding that they are going somewhere to commit crime. We are then shown the men walking away from the camera at the end of the opening sequence, showing that they are going somewhere as a group to commit crime and that it is too dangerous to follow. The name of the gang is shown at the end and travels from the bottom of the screen to the top, possibly showing that they are moving up in the world to better places. Again the name is in yellow showing that they are happy as a group and individually they are the same as anyone else but together they are the Reservoir Dogs.

Michael Luttners Tickner