Film Openings - Summary of Conventions

Films mentioned in this post:
Be Kind Rewind (Michel Gondry, 2008)
Hidden Agenda (Ken Loach, 1990)
Star Wars (George Lucas, 1999)
Atonement (Joe Wright, 2007)
Heathers (Michael Lehmann, 1988)
Up the Junction (Peter Collinson, 1968)
Four Weddings and a Funeral (Mike Newell, 1994)
About a Boy (Chris and Paul Weitz, 2002)
(the films after this are from the other vodcast made in the class)
Violent Enemy (Don Sharp, 1967)
Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood, 1976)
Hot Fuzz (Edgar Wright, 2007)
Nacho Libre (Jerad Hess, 2006)
Bullet Boy (Saul Dibb, 2004)
Wild at Heart (David Lynch, 1990)

Fonts in opening titles
Four weddings and a funeral, Hidden Agenda, Heathers and Atonement all use a traditional serif font. We have found that these are usually used in the more serious dramas and not comedies or films with a more light hearted films like Be Kind Rewind where they would use sans serif fonts. Serif fonts will also be used in films that are not set in modern day to make it look older.

be kind rewind, sans serif font

hidden agenda, serif font

Directors Titles
Heathers, Up the Junction and Star Wars all don't show any directors titles. In Four weddings and  a funeral and about a boy the directors titles are presented as the directors name and then the film. In Be kind rewind, hidden agenda and the atonement they say 'directed by' followed by the directors name. These are the two main ways a directors name is displayed and sometime both are shown in the opening titles.

hidden agenda directors titles

Other Titles
In the majority of the films the main actors names where shown on the screen on their own, but in Be kind rewind this was also framed on the actor in shot. As the less important actors started to get mentioned they came on screen in groups, usually swapping sides of the screen, in the more modern films like be kind rewind  the letters are sometimes animated but in more traditional films like hidden agenda they wouldn't do this.

hidden agenda- grouped names

Transitions
All the old more traditional films mentioned tend to fade from black into the film, the more traditional films mentioned are hidden agenda and the atonement.

Music and Audio
All the films we looked at that had music in the opening sequence was all non diegetic and had and included an audio bridge to link all the scenes. This was also true of all the films looked at by the other vodcast group in the class. The music used in the opening can reflect a lot about what the genre is going to be. For example heavy metal music is usually associated with horror. In wild at heart violins and romantic music is played, this indicates that there is going to be an element of love in the storyline.

Shot types
The films we looked at that included close ups was to show the characters emotion or to introduce them more into film as it may have been the very first time we have seen them. About a boy and Up the Junction also show high angled shots to show weakness. There was use of shot reverse shot in star wars and four weddings and a funeral this helps to show conversations between characters. In all of the films there are establishing shots to show mise-en-scene.

establishing shot, shows mise-en-scene

Overall we have seen a lot of similarities and differences between the different film openings we have looked at. We came to the conclusion that the different conventions are very dependant on the genre and the certain genres have different ways of presenting there openings to give the right impression for the rest of the film.