Planning Opening Credits - Miss Georgiou

Planning Credits

Introduction

The purpose of having opening credits in an opening sequence to a thriller film is because it tells the audience who the main cast is and how important they are to the film in order of appearance. They also allow you to see the director, editors, costume and set designers in the credits as well as the production company and most importantly the title of the film. The purpose of credits within a thriller opening sequence can also be to introduce the mood/style of the film. The credits are also there to give you a sense of the film because the fonts and colours that are used for opening credits may tell you that you are watching a thriller film. For example if there is a creepy text/font used and the colour of it is red and was the name of the staring actor then it gives you a feel for the fact that this is a thriller film because creepy text says thriller and the colour red represents blood and death. 

Opening Credits Analysis

There was a number of colours used within the credits of the opening sequence to Se7ven not just the fonts and credits styles but within the back grounds to give the audience an overall view and sense of the film and helps them to understand what genre the film is. Colours for the font of the credits were white, and the colour white is conventional to a thriller film because it can represent death but also mystery. Within the opening credits there was only one character and only what he was doing was seen and so the colour white really helped within this to create the mystery to the audience as to who this charter is and what their motives are, this helps to draw the audiences attention and keep them hooked to the rest of the film from the enigma that the font in the opening credits has helped to displace. The font itself looks to the audience like it was written by someone and so that makes the audience why it was written by someone. The someone was probably the character that was shown in the scene as he was reading and flicking through a book. This shows again that there is some mystery to this character and has some intentions that he audience isn't sure about. There is through the opening credits flashes of red which can represent and signify blood, danger or death to the audience and they are already concerned about the fate of any character that he goes near. This is conventional to the thriller genre because there is typically representations of death within most thriller films, and this representation helps to draw the audiences attention to the thriller sequence. The style of the credits were created so that they were creepy. The credits role off of each other and fade into the next credit. This may represent the fact that the antagonist that we see in this opening sequence is unstable, or has some sort of mental health issue. This is conventional to the thriller genre because there is usually a character who is unstable or who has motives that the audience wouldn't expect from them. As a part of the opening credits we can see that that the main antagonist is a bit twisted or possibly unstable, this is conventional to the thriller genre because threre is normally ot tends to be an antagonist who is a bit twisted or had some sort of psycological.

There is a use of a number of conventions in this opening sequence. There is Low key lighting and shadows used within this opening sequnce. As the scene starts there is low key lighting surrounding the book that he is looking through, this shows straight away the genre of this film to the audience of which is the thriller genre. There is also to do with the low ke lighting a lot of dark shadows, the shadows are used in this opening sequence because it creates a scary and reery tone, to he rest of the sequnce and helps to draw the audiene in. By there being shadows, it creates nystery for the audience and creates questions an enigma to the audience as to why there is shadows, maybe there is more than one person, or antaginist that isnt known about. This helps the audience to build a relationship with the antagonist is he is mysterious and the audience want to find our more about him and his possible intentions. Other conventions that were used within this opening thriller sequense was a small glimpse of blood, this obviously is conventional to the thriller genre because there is always blood, and blood signifies death within thriller films. This helps the audience to build a relationship with this person of whom we assume is the antagonist because blood means represents death and that makes the auidnce wonder then who he wil murder or who will or might possibly die and so this creates enigma for the audience and keeps them hooked to the rest of the film. Another convention used in this opening thriller sequnce was iconography, there was a sense that weapons are relevent or will be relevent in this film because there is a number of potential weapons seen throughout the sequense such as a needle and knives. This is conventional to the thriller genre because there is always a weapon used to attract the audiences attention. The use of weapons helps the audience to build a relationship with the character in this case most likely to be the antagonist, we can build a relationship with them because weaopns make the audience realise that he is porbably going to kill someone in the rest of the film and so alreadyt the audience are feeling sorry for the victims even though we havnt met them yet.

The credits appear in this thriller opening sequnce in a specific order as do the open sequense to all films. There is a specifc order tends to be chronological order because it tells the audience who is relevent within the film such as the main actors and to give credit to the director and other people who helped to make the film. In this specific thriller opening sequence the order includes the Director who is considered the most important in the making of the film and then shows the main actors in order of importance and apperance, and then the title. The title is one of the most important things to do with a opening sequense because when you see it and how it is presented and it represents the genre of the film, in this instance the title is written in cript like it had been written by a pencil and this makes the audience know and understand straight away that it is a thriller film. Then there is the rest of the credits, again in chronological order of appearance and then there is the casting, music and costume editors. This normally would be the end of the credits towards the end of the sequense but the Director puts his own name in to the credits again at the end.

Credits for our Opening Sequence

My group members and I, we separately created our own credits with the fonts, texts and colours that we think would be good and then we have looked at then we will look at them together in order to see who's is the best and if it will fit into our thriller opening sequence.

My Credits idea

When I created my opening credits I made sure that they were reflective of the thriller genre and that they would be as conventional as possible to the thriller genre and that they would fit in well to our thriller opening sequence.  Some strengths of my design is that it has the bold letters in capitals of the title and so this is important because it is conventuals and reflects the thriller genre. Another strength is that it is the colour white the text which represents to the audience mystery and wonder and leaves a lot of questions open to the rest of the film. A weakness and something to improve on is the way that these credits of mine fade into the screen as they are boring and would be to the audience and doesn't reflect very much the thriller genre. 

Lizzie's Credits Idea

Again with Lizzie's credits they are conventional because the font is creepy looking which also reflects the thriller genre and helps the audience to get an understanding of the type of film that we are trying to portray to them. The text colour that she has used was a good idea because it is the colour white and this reflects the thriller genre because there is mystery created to the audience and a large sense of enigma which is conventional to the thriller films and the thriller genre. The credits are also written in a creepy font which makes the audience want to know why this film is or why it may be creepy, it also helps to make the audience aware of what type of film it is as in this case it is the thriller genre. To improve I think that another colour needs to be added to make it more conventional and more interesting to the audience to help them get hooked. Some weaknesses of this credit idea again much like mine is that the way that the roll and fade into the screen need to be more conventional and attractive to the audience, in order to want to keep them hooked to the thriller sequence. 

Mirandas Credits Idea

Positives about Miranda's credits is again that the font is written in the colour white. The colour white is a good colour to use for the opening credits because it shows mystery and makes the audience wonder why it is mysterious. This is good because it makes the audience want to continue watching and makes them want to know whats going to happen so conventionally it will provide the audience with a sense of enigma and leave them with a load of questions about the film as they start watching the film. Things that we could improve on for these ideas of opening credits is that she could add some colour to the credits, not in order to make it look pretty but in order for there to be something else for the audience to cling onto and make them wonder whats going to happen. Black would not be a good idea even though it signifies death but however the opening sequence will be dark any way. Colours that i would suggest using so that it is still conventional is red as this represent blood and seeing as someone in our opening sequence does die and that there will be blood it will make the audience wonder and it will give a clue to the audience as to what may happen. 

Conclusion 

In conclusion we have decided as a group to work on Lizzie's credits because they were the most conventional and we decided that they would fit well into our opening sequence and be conventional. We have considered what our opening credits will include and they include the directors name, which inevitably is the most important to a thriller opening sequence and also then there would be the main cast and characters in order of appearance in our opening sequence. We will then include other credits such as hair and make up as well as music and other key people who deserve credit within our thriller film opening sequence. The most important thing for us to work on as a group is the title credit because it is important for the audience to see this as they need to know what the film is called. The title most importantly needs to reflect the genre of the film to the audience so that it is made clear what they are looking and watching, in this case the thriller genre.