Opening Titles

Saw

The simplicity of this opening credit is striking as it is so plain but it’s effective. The Loins Gate institution has a memorable title as its block letters stand tall and look eye catching.  The background is completely black which makes the blue writing stand out. The use of capital letters makes the font look bold and simple.

We could use this technique as we want our opening titles to be memerable and distinctive. 

Psycho (1960)

The writing in the opening credits of this film is in big white letters. This is striking against the black background and draws the audience’s attention to it. The lines across the screen appear between each set of credits; this breaks the writing up and gives the audience time to think about it.

Psycho (1998)

The opening titles of the 1998 film of ‘Psycho’ are very similar to the old version of the film as it starts with the lines, in colour as technology has developed, going across the screen and leading the writing onto the screen. This causes the screen to go from very busy and eye catching to plain and simple. However the emptiness of the screen when the writing is seen makes the audience want to see what it says as it draws attention to it.

The words are in bold white writing and are in capital letters, this makes it stand out against the black background similarly to the first version of ‘Psycho’, although this writing seems to be smaller. When the writing has been on the screen for a while it goes off by the word splitting into two parts just like the original version of the film. This movement makes the audience look as they want to see what is moving.

We could use this when making our film as the simplicity is so effective and the lines are very unusual. The splitting of the writing is a good way of exiting it from the screen.

30 Days of Night

These opening titles seem very dark and mysterious as they fade on and out of the screen. The small but bold white writing stands out clearly as it appears onto the screen. The simplicity of the opening credits causes the audience to concentrate clearly on the words that appear and build the tension. The name of the film, ’30 Days of Night’, comes up white on the screen but then changes to red as it fades away. As it is a black background the audience automatically thinks of dark and gruesome things as it looks so dangerous and mysterious.

We could use this technique in our film as we want our title and production company to be remembered by the audience. I also feel that the red writing is very effective for a horror film as it could cause the audience to associate it with blood and fear. This may because the colour red has connotations of danger.