1. Opening sequence analysing essay
Comparing four films opening title sequences has been a valuable task because, it has
enabled me to gain a deeper understanding of how different genres and styles of film
produce their opening title sequence. The title sequences I have analysed vary in many
aspects not only due to the film genre but also the style, such as some are fully animated,
some are partly animated and partly real people and some are fully real people.
Pineapple express was the first film that I analysed and it was fully animated and mostly the
same all the way through. It contained no action and only very small references to the film
so not really giving the audience to much of an idea about what the film contains. The main
colours in the opening sequence are yellow, red and white. This is a choice of colours that
will contradict each other in their connotations. Yellow connotes wealth and happiness, red
connoted blood and love and white connotes peace and innocence. The colours yellow and
red are used in the two different wallpapers that are used in the opening sequence and the
white is used in the pictures and names of actors. The pictures often show illegal things such
as guns and drugs and this contradicts the connotations of peace and innocence. The yellow
that is used is telling us that the people involved in these activities are happy with what they
are doing. The background is patterned like an old fashioned wall paper, showing that the
characters could be living in the past and not up to date with society. The pictures are
roughly drawn sketches showing a laid back nature to the film and possibly showing the
characters as lazy. We are shown the key concept of the film by the ‘joint’ that burns down
to reveal a name. The background changes to a red with a different pattern, it is the type of
pattern that you would expect to find on a bandana which is a stereotype of criminals tying
in with the pictures that represent illegal things. The red background is faded at the edges
and dirty again showing that the characters are living in the past, the stains could be
representing blood which ties in with the stereotypes of the bandana pattern and possibly
showing what is going to happen in the film.
The second film that I analysed was ‘Casino Royale’. The opening title sequence contains the
strongest convention of all ‘James Bond’ films, this is when James Bond shoots his gun and
the blood pours down the screen. This film differs slightly from all of the other James Bond
films because, this key convention is started when James turns around to shoot someone on
the floor which then leads to this, none of the other James Bond films have done this
before. The black tunnel that James Bond shoots at is representing the barrel of a gun
showing that James Bond will have a challenge in the film. The dark tunnel could also be
representing the idea of ‘Light at the end of the tunnel’ for the person who has been shot
and is dying. It could also be representing the opposite because, James Bond is in the light at
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2. the end of their tunnel, challenging what we expect when we think of this because we
associate this with heaven and peace. The main colour on the screen in this convention is
black, this connotes death and evil and this is backed up by the blood on the screen. The
sequence then changes to strongly and clearly show the conventions of the film. The screen
gets brighter and shows a large king of spades with a pattern running all around him. This
represents the idea of gambling and ties in with the name of the film because we associate
gambling and a deck of cards with a casino. The only dark colour on the screen is James
Bond who is in black, this is representing as mysterious. Two people are fighting one red and
one black, representing a deck of cards again because these are the two colours in every
pack of cards, again representing that the film will be based around a card game and
gambling. It also shows that there will be a fight between two sides, possibly good and evil.
The guns on the screen are gold which again connotes wealth. The guns are firing out the
black of clubs and the red of hearts, the black of clubs is a lot bigger and there are lots more
of them whereas the red of hearts are faster but not as many. This could be representing
the battle that will happen in the film and how one side may be out numbered but they may
have the upper hand.
The third film I analysed was Spiderman 3. The screen for all of the opening sequence is dark
with a hint of blue, the blue is shown as a smoke which could again be representing
mysteriousness. The darkness shows us that it is something strange and mysterious. We
know Spiderman to be mysterious because he doesn’t want his identity to be known but he
is not a ‘dark’ force, he is fighting for good. The spiders webs in the opening sequence shows
clips of how Peter Parker became Spiderman and what he can do being Spiderman. The
spider that is shown biting him is coloured red and blue, these are the colours that are used
on his suit, this could be showing that he has turned into the spider and not just gained its
abilities. A video of what abilities Peter Parker has gained since becoming Spiderman is
shown; this is shown after the spider biting him so allows us to see the chain of events that
led to Spiderman. The transition between the shots in the opening sequence is a pan which
travels horizontally and vertically. This represents that way that Spiderman moves, as if we
are Spiderman.
The names of the main actors are shown next to their pictures, which are again within the
spiders webs. One of Tobey Maguire’s photos appears like it is smashed, this could be
representing that Spiderman has a bad fate ahead of him and may be injured in trying to
defeat his enemy, the convention that good always wins means that we know Spiderman is
strong and will win at the end. The Blue is more prominent around Tobey Maguire’s photo,
showing us that the blue is representing Spiderman and that when we see blue within the
film to think of him.
The fourth film I analysed was Reservoir Dogs, this is completely live action and has no
animation or modern camera work. The men are all shown wearing black suits and
sunglasses, this could be showing that they have lots of money and are well off. The
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3. representation of seeing lots of men wearing black suits is that they are gangsters, which we
have already seen to be true by their nature within the restaurant and by the way that they
look. We now know that these men are involved in crime and this could be why they have
lots of money and why they are all together like a gang. Mr white is the first actor to be
named and because of this and the fact that he is walking at the front of the gang, we see
him to be the leader. The name of the actor is shown in yellow which connotes wealth and
happiness, showing that the men are happy with their lives and have earned lots of money
from crime. The black sunglasses are stereotypical of American gangsters and the toothpick
he is chewing we also represent with a gangster or rebellious person.
Mr Pink is also named with yellow writing and we are shown him putting on his sun glasses,
possibly trying to show that he is becoming his criminal self, like it is something he can turn
on and off depending on what he is doing, in this way we are understanding that they are
going somewhere to commit crime. We are then shown the men walking away from the
camera at the end of the opening sequence, showing that they are going somewhere as a
group to commit crime and that it is too dangerous to follow. The name of the gang is
shown at the end and travels from the bottom of the screen to the top, possibly showing
that they are moving up in the world to better places. Again the name is in yellow showing
that they are happy as a group and individually they are the same as anyone else but
together they are the Reservoir Dogs.
Michael Luttners Tickner