Research: The Importance Of Opening Titles

The first thing we did was watch a brief video of the history of the art of titles. This then gave me different ideas for the way that I could edit the titles onto my opening two minutes of my horror film. It also showed us the differences between titles used in horror, comedy and animation films.
I  then watched the opening credits to Se7en. Whilst watching this I noted down the titles, exactly as they were presented, that came up and at what time they appeared. After this I then watched the opening two minutes again, but this time without sound, so I could write down all the visual elements and images that were shown during in the opening. I then had to watch it again, this time with sound, so I could write down all the sounds that I could hear. Then, lastly, I watched the opening for a final time and looked at the typography of how the titles came up; for example if they were in capitals, bold, colour etc.
This is the opening credits to the film Se7en which I used to analyse the opening titles from and use as an example for my opening two minutes of my horror film.

From this process i have learnt that they way titles are used in films and other media products is a very important effect to give the audience a first impression on what type of film it is they are watching and what may be in the film. The way that the titles look is important, for example, if the titles are colourful and in bubble writing then the audience will get the impression that the film is funny and suitable for children too. However , the writing of the titles is written in blood, then the audience will get the impression of death and horror. I have also learnt that sound in any point of a film is very important and can imply different moods to the audience about that point in the film. for example, loud and cheerful music would imply to the audience that this movie is a happy and upbeat. This is an example of non-diagetic sound. Some diagetic sound that could be used in the opening of a film would be talking or noises from props. For example, the creaking of a door opening would put the audience in suspense and make them uneasy. by doing this i have also learn that the visual elements put into a film opening can have a big impact on the audience. These images are like a sneak preview of what is to come in the actual film itself and this means that the audience take note of them most. They will take what they have seen in the opening titles and think that the movie will be similar and carry on this impression and mood.The visual elements of a media product are the part that the audience take notice of most. Because of this I will carefully select the images used in the opening 2 minutes of my horror movie.