Planning opening credits- Miss Georgiou

For the planning of our opening credits we analysed other thriller films opening credits the film our class analysed was Se7en, this film has a good opening credit sequence as it builds suspense and gives you and idea what is going to be within the thriller film. Also it sets the scene about how the character acts and what type of person he is. The colours that are used in the opening credits of the film Se7en are black and white, this builds suspense and it makes the character be mysterious that wants to hurt or attack someone and the contrast of white and black represents the darkness and evil of a character against the innocence of another character. Other colours that are used is the colour red which symbolises blood and danger and it could symbolise that he is angry and wants to hurt someone. The style of the credits that are used is crooked writing, this shows that there may be an evil or stalking character that is in the opening sequence and also suggest that he is not a normal person, maybe mentally ill or has a crooked sense of morality. Also the writing was jumpy which shows that the film is going to put full of suspense and the film is going to make the audience be put on the edge of their seats. The fonts that they were using were also different fonts as they were having bigger fonts for the more important roles within the film like the director, which makes the names of the important people within the production stand out to the audience.

The generic conventions that are used within the thriller film credits is that it builds suspense, as there is a stalker that is cutting up pictures and colouring/writing, which also creates a mystery. The character is also mysterious as there you only see their hands and not their face or body expressions, so the film don't want to give anything away during the opening sequence, which draws the audience in and gets there attention, making them interested in the film right away. The character is sharping weapons which shows he is getting ready to attack someone or getting prepared for an attack to happen and these actions build tension, fear and suspense which makes the audience even more interested in the film. The music that is used is eerie, but there is natural but exaggerated and emphasised as it build suspense, the tempo of the is picked up when the character does things like sharping a blade which gets the audiences attention and lets them know that the action of sharpening blades is very important to the story. The emotions that this has on the audience is that they will be anxious to see what happens next. The order of appearance in the opening credits were the production company, the director, the actor, then the title of the film, I feel that if the title would have been at the end of the credits it would have been more conventional to a thriller film. Then the actors continued, casting, music and costumes. Then the editors, producers , camera operator. co-producers, producer, writer and then the director.

The film I picked to individually analyse the opening credits for was Final Destination there is a good use of colour music and lighting. The colour that is used in this open sequence is dark black and white colours as it makes the audience understand what is happening and it also makes the audience want to watch on. The black and white colours connote evil and darkness (black) and goodness and innocence (white). Also another colour that is used is the colour red at the end of the sequence as it says "this is the end" this shows that they want the audience want to see like something bad is going to happen during the thriller film.  The colour red connotes danger, evil, blood and pain, things that are all conventional to thriller films. The style of credits that have been used during this credit scene is that the writing flickers and when the credits first comes onto the screen it it has a flash of bright light going through the words/credits. Also the writing fades into the background which creates suspense and an enigma about what is going to happen for the rest of the film. When the writing comes onto the screen the background is always dark, so this shows that the film has a dark story line, which shows that it's a thriller.

For the opening credits of our group thriller film, we collectively discussed our ideas for the text size, colour and the font style. Using different films as our inspiration, we decided that we would want the font to appear fragmented (as it does in Psycho) or to flicker, (as in Se7en) as though the mind of the attacker is mentally unstable.  We also decided that the size of the font for our title should be the biggest, as this is one of the most important elements within this opening credits sequence. The size of the font will gradually decrease as the different names appear on the screen, to connote both the importance of the members of the production team, and also hold connotations about the fading sanity of the attacker, as the unstable and twisted part of his mind consumes him, just like the size of the font decreases.

The font that I will be putting forward to my group as an idea is a font that looks like dripping blood with a deep red colour to connote danger the font is distorted as well with a background shadow, I feel that this would be good to use in our opening credits as it is distorted writing and would have the effect that something bad is going to happen through the writing. This type of font gives the audience the impression that the girl is unstable and twisted, characteristics that are conventional to thriller films because characters like this create enigma's, fear and suspense, elements which are all conventional to thrillers as they draw the audience in and help the audience to feel more involved in the film. Compared to the normal font on the right (above), it stands out and has a better effect than the normal font, I would want to use this font as it will help the audience understand that the film is going to be eventful and full of suspense.

The order of appearance that we will use is:

• Production company
• Editors
• Music
• Actors
• Casting
• Storyboards / screenplay
• Costume / make up
• Location manager
• Safety manager

We will also use a mixture of natural sounds and dramatic music as the soundtrack for our opening credits. As in Se7en, the natural sounds will be enhanced, and play over the top of the dramatic music. This will enable us to make the film appear as realistic, and therefore as threatening as possible. The scary, dramatic music will give the audience an idea of how scary and dramatic the thriller will be and it will also get the audiences attention and make them interested in the thriller straight away.