Planning Opening Credits - Miss Georgiou

Planning Opening Credits

The purpose of opening credits is so that audience can have an introduction of the actors/actresses names which will make the audience more knowledgeable about the film. They can also have a small introduction of the style of the film so that they know roughly know what to expect. Opening credits can also define/show the different job roles within the film e.g director, producer, music. Furthermore, the colour's being used within the opening credits can also define the style of the film e.g black symbolises death which links to horror styled film. However, the main purpose of the opening credits is so that the audience can have the knowledge of the film title which is the most important part of an opening credit.

Se7en's opening credits

Firstly, I have analysed the opening credit's of the film 'Se7en' which is a thriller film directed by David Fincher. I have decided to analyse this particular film's opening credits as it is based on the thriller genre therefore helping me with my own idea's as my sequence is a thriller genre and will also give me the opportunity to take inspiration from the opening credits and use it within my own sequence. The colour's within the opening credits consist of black and white which creates a more mysterious view on the sequence. The black displays that there is something that is secretive and hidden, and unknown which then creates a mystery. It keeps things bottled up and hidden from the world which then impact the audience by making them more eager to continue watching and makes them question what's going to happen. The white however displays the innocence, purity and completion. So together when the colour's are merged together it creates a lot of curiosity as this is now making the audience more doubtful as it is clearly displaying a contrast in good and evil also associating with the idea of death and mystery.  This is conventional towards a thriller genre as the contrast in good and evil is displaying that the idea of antagonist and protagonist are being included within the film. The style of the credit appears as if they have been handwritten by someone which makes the audience more eery and aware of the situation. This can represent the instability within a character which can create a mental, psychopathic image towards the audience. This is conventional towards a thriller genre as typical thriller genre would usually consist of an individual character who is mental and unstable, so the style of these particular credit's are representing an unstable character within the film which is conventional to a thriller genre. The opening credit's contain a variety of different thriller conventions such as unsteady movements of the camera which suggest there is an instability within the sequence. This is conventional to a thriller genre as it builds up the tension as it is making the audience more cautious as they find that it has specifically been set up like this to show that there is a mentally unstable character within the film. Furthermore, there is a low key lighting being used throughout the opening credits which then creates more suspense towards the sequence as it makes the atmosphere more mysterious as the audience can only suspect that they is danger within the sequence. Also, there is a continuous use of flashing lights which also displays a dangerous, instability within the sequence. This is conventional to a thriller genre as it builds up the intensity and tension as the audience are assuming that the flashing light's may be representing one of the character's life's as it makes it seem as if their life is on the edge and creates a sense of panic. There is also a use of iconography consisting of sharp object's such as knives which creates a sense of tension and panic which is conventional towards a thriller genre as it makes the audience more nervous and engages them more into the film. The order of appearance roles is scene in the order - production company ("... presents.."), producers, director, main actors, title of the film, continuation of characters, music, costume, editing, co-executive, photography, writer and then director. The order of appearance is based in terms that the vital roles are seen towards the start, then the not as important roles are displayed through the middle appearance and then another set of important roles appear towards the end of the credits. This is so that the audience will not lose their attention because if they was to put all the important roles all at the start then after the important ones come to an end the audience will automatically lose interest so if they put the vital ones at the start and end then the audience will be more interested and will become generally more knowledgeable of their roles. 

My design idea

This is my design idea for the title for our opening credits within our group.To create this opening sequence, I used the software 'Final Cut Pro X' to ensure that I could include the effects and colour's to make the credits to have a bigger effect and impact the audience more. I used a characterized font to create the basic outline of the title then added a black background to ensure that the title would then stand out. This is conventional within a thriller genre as it makes the intensity levels rising the title is more bold and the audience will have a clear view of it. Furthermore, this makes the audience eery and question their original thoughts as the title looks more dominant and powerful making them feel uncertain.  Over the top of this layer, I added a blurry, colour effect to create an unfocused view on the title to display the instability within the sequence. I then added a natural looking, yellow-green colour because our sequence was being set within a forest so I find that it would be more ideal to use a colour that would match the setting. This is conventional to a thriller genre, as the forest colour's in the middle of a black frame suggest the danger as black is associated with death and the forestry colour tend to appear within the middle of the blackness which then suggest that the people within the forest are in danger and are being associated with death. This then makes the audience more paranoid as it creates the isolation which is a convention as it makes the audience doubtful of what is to happen to any of the characters within the setting.  I placed the title within the centre of the frame so that it immediately will capture the audiences attention as I believe the title is the most vital part of a sequence as it gives the audience a better understanding. This is conventional to a thriller genre as it immediately captures the audience attention making it more dominant and creates more fear and nerves towards the audience as it builds up the tension. The title consist of all capital letters to make it more bold and demeaning. This is conventional to a thriller genre as it creates a higher intensity which then makes the audience more paranoid and anxious.  After the title we would intend to include the actors being seen within the sequence next to their character, then we would include the director of the sequence, then we would include the producers and co producers, then we would include the smaller production roles such as cameraman, sound etc. We done this based on the levels of importance; the most important roles towards the start of the sequence then only the minor roles towards the end.

Bettie's design idea

This was Bettie's opening credits idea that she created to use within our sequence. I found that some of the strengths within Bettie's design idea is that it bold, eye catching, intriguing and that it display's a clear view as she has only used capital's which automatically draw the audiences attention. This makes the design more intense and rises the tension level as it creates a higher intensity within the general atmosphere as the boldness gives the ability to be  engaging the audience. Furthermore, she has included a red title which then symbolises the danger and blood which impacts the audience as it makes them more eery. This is conventional within a thriller genre as blood is a typical convention to be used within the genre as it stating a clear danger and then makes the audience more eager to continue watching as they want to find out who is responsible and is causing the danger. She has also included a black background which then may suggest that the use of the blood will eventually lead to somebody's death which is another key convention to be used within a thriller genre. This build up the general suspense as the audience are more engaged within the sequence as they want to find out who is going to die and how it will be caused. I find that some of the weakness are the style of the credits itself has she has used only a basic font which doesn't emphasize the title as much as it could. I also find that she could include an effect on top of the title to make the credits more conventional towards a thriller genre as the credits so far are only building up the tension. I believe if there was to be effects being included within the credits then there would be a possibility that the levels of suspense could rise which would then make the credits being used more conventional and that would then lead to making our sequence more effective. However, I still find that the credit's that she is including is matching the style of thriller that we are creating so it would still be effective to use within our sequence as it could still help create a sense of suspense if we was to use a fade on the end of each credit so could impact our sequence effectively.

Kane's design idea

This was Kane's opening credits design idea that he created to use within our sequence. I find that the strengths within this particular design idea is that the faded red underneath the title which is a similar tone to realistic blood which gives the impression of blood being included within the sequence which is a key convention towards a thriller genre as it increases the tension as the audience suspect who's blood it may be. Also, around the edge's is a faded black border which then suggest the convention of death being included which is another key convention however this time is build up the suspense along with the level of tension which is vital towards a thriller genre as it makes the audience more aware of the scenario and automatically captivates them as it gives them the ability to become more engaged within the sequence. I also like the idea that he has used only capital letters which then makes the title stand out more and automatically captures the audience attention to it which is what we want as the title is the most important part of the opening credits. I find that some of the possible weaknesses is that the style of the credits could be altered in order to produce a more effective impact towards the audience, as the font that is currently being used is not basic however isn't as effective as it could possibly be as I find since our general setting is being set in a forest the font could match that unstable look which would then also link to Bettie's unstable character. This would then help build more suspense and tension within our sequence. I also believe that instead of the blurred, pale colour being used inbetween the red and black along the edge, can be edited into possibly a green so that it could help contribute towards our sequence as it would help the audience become more knowledgeable about where our setting is being set as the pale colour that is currently there is irrelevant towards our sequence. This would then help build a higher level of tension as it would display the blood within the forest.  Apart from this, I find that this is appropriate to use within our sequence as it matches the style that we intend to create. Furthermore, the use of the blood will help impact our sequence more as blood appears to be one of the most important conventions being used within the sequence.


I believe the design idea that we are going to work on is Kane's. This is because Kane's design idea appears to be the most effective and contains the most conventions which is ideal for a thriller genre. Furthermore, if we was to make Kane's more effective so that it would have a bigger impact, we would only need to make minor changes such as colour's and fonts. In addition, in contrast to mine and Bettie design ideas, Kane's design seems the most appropriate and matches the style of our thriller the most which then helps our sequence to become more effective then leading to impacting our target audience. In terms of the appearance, we plan to firstly display the production team (MKB PRODUCTIONS PRESENT...), then the actors, director, cast (background characters), music, editors and sound. Then at the end of the appearance we will show the title in the centre of the frame. The credits will be overlapped on top of the start of our sequence when the setting is being shown from different angles and views. Just before the character's start talking the title will appear then fade out then only the sequence will properly start. After every role is displayed, each one would fade out to help create a sense of suspense so that they would be appropriate towards our thriller genre and will match the style of the thriller.