Most, if not all, films have a title sequence. Whether it is at the start or near the end, sometimes in the middle! Typically, a title sequence is used at the beginning, it introduces the audience to what they’re watching, and the title often gives clues as to what the film is about. They have changed drastically from the beginning of films; previously it would be a plain black background with the writing expressing the name of the film and producers etc., however, nowadays the titles appear as layer on top of the moving film. The purpose of the title sequence is to make a first impression, which can result in whether a person continues to watch the film properly or not. The 1950s saw the title sequences become more creative with the likes of Saul Bass and Maurice Binder who have become the biggest inspirations for title sequences since. The soundtrack that goes with the title sequence is an important factor to it being good, for example, if a romantic comedy opened with a blank screen title sequence and in the background had an eerie soundtrack; it’s going to give the wrong impression for the film.
Saul Bass was an American graphic designer and one of the biggest trend setters for movie title sequences. Some of his greatest works include ‘Psycho’, ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘Cape Fear’, two of which are thrillers, this makes Bass’ work significant and relevant to our project. Most of Saul’s works include a plain basic background with just names appearing and then finally the title, but the use of font completely changes the genre of the film.
For example ‘Goodfellas’ shows a bold basic font in caps lock but immediately we know this reflects the film.
In ‘Cape Fear’ the slight change in font (it’s more jagged and italic) completely changes the genre.
I think for our title sequence we’ll show part of the film for around 5 seconds, then a blank screen will appear and the title of the film will fade into the screen in a contrasting colour, lasting around 3-4 seconds. The film will continue for a few more seconds and the blank screen will appear again and only showing the names of the actors, then the directors. We want to keep it basic and raw because I believe it’ll add an edge to the film making it more of a psychological thriller with the use of a particular font.
‘Donnie Darko’ has been a big influence on our film, and the title sequence is again basic, with the title of the film simply appearing on the screen and then fading out into a white screen, without being to state of art, it still says a lot about the film, we like the use of simple impacts.
By Charlotte Mackenzie
