Different types of sequences used in films

The art of the film title

• The name of the film
• An understanding of the tone/atmosphere of the film
• Narrative information
• Introduce all/some of the characters
• A sense of the film genre
• Actors names
• Establish the location

The girl with the dragon tattoo

• Gives the name
• Tells you the names of the characters and shows you them in black and white
• Sense that female character is powerful as she turns into a phoenix
• Introduced to lead actors in a sexual relationship as we see them kissing
• The intensity to opening sequence with dark non diegetic music and dark colours give a sense that it is quite dark in content
• We get the sense that water and fire are involved, so it could be somewhere near the sea and is set in a dark landscape where there isn't much sunlight

The discrete title sequence

• Like a miniature film before the actual film and gets audience in the mood to watch the film before it starts
• Discrete title sequence includes lots of animation and editing work

Traditional title sequence

The traditional title sequence still quite stylised but goes straight into the beginning of the film. In this type of title sequence, the films use sound and font, alongside the images to create the mood of the film. For example; we see this with Drive where the clothing is quite 80's as in is set in the 80's and the music is old fashioned. The font is also quite 80's looking as it is bubbly and pink. there is a sense of loneliness and isolation as he is driving alone at night through the city highway. This gives the sense that he is a lonely guy.

Straight into the film

This is a film that goes straight into the story and doesn't have an extra title sequence. A very good example of this is the title sequence of Wes Craven's Scream. There are no titles at all and the film starts directly with the action of the opening scene. This type of title sequence is far less common and is more likely to be used in horror of action films as it racks up the tension straight away with no sense of longing in the introduction.

The stylised opening sequence

A stylised opening sequence is a combination of straight into it and discrete. The film goes straight into the action but it is interspersed with titles at the same time. This helps create a mood for the film. The combination of sound and editing are vitally important in this sequence as they create meaning for the audience about the film. Mesrine does this by splitting the screen into parts, denoting that they are being watched from different angles by surveillance and the non diegetic music is cinstant throughout the sequence which creates the same tensional feeling throughout

Art of the title sequence - Halloween II

We can tell the genre of the film through the orange font and the slow zooming into the pumpkin and skull, indicates that it is a horror as skulls and darkness are symbolic of this genre.

The non diegetic music of something creeping in minor key builds up in tempo and the darkness all around the pumpkin creates an eerie atmosphere, again symbolising the horror genre. As it zooms into it with a flickering light inside and splits in half, revealing the skull within, this creates suspense and heightens the tension of the sequence. We don't meet the characters, but that slow zoom gives us a sense of something watching or stalking someone which is something we would expect in a horror film. We can tell this is a discrete title sequence as it tells us nothing about the film but gives us the information of the genre and what it might be about, i.e halloween.