Research: Opening Credits - Mrs. Quinlan

What are opening credits?

Opening credits is written information presented to the audience about who produced the film, who stars in the film and various other production roles. The purpose of opening credits is to provide the audience with enough information so that they know more about the production who is in the film. They are effective in the form that with thrillers when accompanied by sounds it can create tension and fear and anticipation, and can be very effective when the images have no relation.

The chronological order of importance for many films and thrillers is first the studio name (e.g. Pixar), Production Company (e.g. Disney), Producer/s (e.g. Steven Spielberg), Director/s (e.g. James Cameron), Main Character/s (e.g. Tom Hardy), Film Title (e.g. Star Wars), Edited by then Music by and Writer, as in the maker of the script (e.g. Diablo Cody).

With opening credits they make the audience feel a sense of confusion through the use of little narrative and panning shots of a scene, also they use opening credits to distract us due to their use of lighting effects. They give the audience enough starter information for them to create an idea of what the film may be about and the themes behind it which is also a good thing as it links with the other aspects of media. They also create a sense of tension to the story-line as it depends on the progress of the opening credits and the elements of various themes applied to opening credits. Take the opening of the movie Se7en their opening varies from that of other thrillers opening credits this is possibly due to the nature of the film and the possible plot in the story whereas most other thrillers are similar to each-other or just don't choose to differentiate.

Conclusion

From the research I have conducted I will use data from my questionnaires I will take out further on in my planning and ideas from other openings I have seen to create an idea based on mixtures of various films and ideas. I will look at opening credits of different films to see what difference I can add to mine to make sure it stands out and amazes the audience. Basic ideas of my opening credit may be something where I show the Studio Name, Production Company, Director and Producer and I don’t reveal too much on the actors to give that element of mystery and lost identity for the audience to guess who is who and understand the story at their own accord.