A title sequence (also called an opening sequence or intro) is the method by which films or television programs present their title, key production and cast members, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound. It typically includes (or begins) the text of the opening credits, and helps establish the setting and tone of the program. It may consist of live action, animation, music, still images, and/or graphics.
TOP 3 TITLE SEQUENCES
Vertigo
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Sequence Designer: Saul Bass
Year of release: 1958
"Alfred Hitchcock may have been the master of suspense, but Saul Bass was undoubtedly the master of suspenseful title sequences," says freelance graphic designer and illustrator Joe Stone.
"Everything from the shifty eyes, melodramatic music to the swooping typography give a sense of unease, culminating in the shifting, spiralling shapes and patterns that twist in and out of Kim Novak's pupils. Still effective and tense more than 50 years later, this is one of the most iconic title sequences.
J.C.V.D
Studio: Gaumont
Sequence Designer: Gaumont
Year of release: 2008
"A three and a half minute one-take non-stop action-packed choreography whirlwind awaits. This insane crescendo of aggression building to Van Damme's escape – only for the scene to be ruined by a clumsy extra at the last moment – and you to realise that this was all a deceitful ruse.
"The accompanying military font and contrasting backing soul track 'Hard Times' play right into the scene's hands, pushing you further into your initial presumption that this is just another Van Damme trash fest." Erskine Design designer Tim Maggs.
Batman
Studio: Warner Bros.
Sequence Designer: Richard Morrison
Year of release: 1989
This was one of the first films I ever watched at the cinema, and I can clearly remember the impact it had on the unnerved audience," says Autodesk 3D solutions engineer Jamie Gwilliam. "We are confronted by distinctive yellow text on black/blue tones, which echo the bold bat-wing logo. We are then left for two and a half minutes, unsure of what we're witnessing. Is it Gotham City? Is it the bat-cave?
Further research as to what is included within a Title Sequence:
- Title- Film title design is a term describing the craft and design of motion picture title sequences. Since the beginning of the film form, it has been an essential part of any motion picture. Originally a motionless piece of artwork called title art, it slowly evolved into an art form of its own.
- Cast Members- An actor, dancer, or singer who performs (i.e., sings, dances, acts, mimes, puppeteers, voices characters, etc.) in a theatrical production, motion picture, or television program. The actors who perform in the show are collectively referred to as the cast.
- Utilizing conceptual visuals and sound- A term encompassing a variety of art forms that utilize sound, or comment on auditory cultures. Sound artworks tend to subvert, combine, or expand upon entrenched practices in music, the visual arts, and poetry.
- Setting- The context and environment in which a situation is set; the background. b. The time, place, and circumstances in which a narrative, drama, or film takes place.
- Tone- the mood or atmosphere of a film scene, often revealed by the director in the way a film is directed, e.g., serious, humorous, satiric, amusing, etc.
- Live action- As the normal process of making visual media involves live action, the term itself is usually superfluous, but it makes an important distinction in situations in which one might normally expect animation, as in a Pixar film, a video game, or when the work is adapted from an animated cartoon, such as Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones and 101 Dalmatians.
The phrase "live action" also occurs within an animation context to refer to non-animated characters: in a live-action/animated film such as Space Jam, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, or Mary Poppins in which humans and cartoons co-exist, "live-action" characters are the "real" actors
- Animation- the technique of photographing successive drawings or positions of puppets or models to create an illusion of movement when the film is shown as a sequence.
Inside out (2015)
Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Toy Story 3 (2010)
Toy Story 2 (1999)
Up (2009)
Zootopia (2016)
Finding Nemo (2003)
Pinocchio (1940)
Toy Story (1995)
WALL-E (2008)
- Music- A film score (also sometimes called background score, background music, movie soundtrack, film music or incidental music) is original music written specifically to accompany a film.
- Still images- single static image taken from a film or video, which are kinetic images. Still frames are also called freeze frame, still image, video prompt, preview or misleadingly thumbnail, key frame, poster frame, or screen shot/grab/capture/dump. Freeze frames are widely used on video platforms and in video galleries, to show viewers a preview or a teaser. Many video platforms have a standard to display a frame from mid-time of the video. Some platforms offer the option to choose a different frame individually.
- Graphics- visual images produced by computer processing.
Since the invention of the cinematograph, simple title cards were used to begin and end silent film presentations in order to identify both the film and the production company involved, and to act as a signal to viewers that the film had started and then finished. In silent cinema, title cards or intertitles were used throughout to convey dialogue and plot, and it is in some of these early short films that we see the first examples of title sequences themselves, being quite literally a series of title cards shown at the beginning of a film. With the arrival of sound, the sequence was usually accompanied by a musical prelude or overture.
Slowly, title sequences evolved to become more elaborate pieces of film. The advent of television was a pivotal moment for title design because it forced the major film studios to invest in making cinema more attractive in order to win back a diminishing audience.
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