Research: The Importance of Opening Titles

Film titles are important because:

It gives information on who the cast is and sometimes who they are playing. It may have the character in action the underneath it for instance it may say 'Channing Tatum' who is a cast member in the film. Usually the most seen or important cast member's name is all the top of the list of first name shown to show the importance of them.

   

This is Grease's first cast memeber John Travolta he's first as his one of the most important character and cast memeber in the film. It also says he plas Danny, so instead of watch the film and watch for the one of the characters to say 'Danny' to John we already know he plays Danny which is helpful.

They also give credit to the producer/ producers, the director so they have a mention and so also the audience knows who made them for instance if the name Nicholas Sparks came up on the screen in the Notebook the audience may go 'I remember him he did Dear John, Last Song and the Lucky One' again because his name was on other film titles the audience know what films he's produced.  

There's also the film company's title and logo in the opening credits it is important as it tells the audience what company made the film.

Most importantly it gives away the film the audience should be told the name of the film. Sometimes the film can give away what the film will be about for instance 'Harry Potter' in the title the audience should get the idea the film will be about someone named Harry Potter before even watching it.


What is the difference between opening and closing titles?

1. The opening credits are the one that give out the important information like the film name, the cast and director. The end credits is everyone from the person doing the make up to the person who was the sound editor.
2. The opening credits has the title in bold and see able font, the end credits doesn't have the title in it, and if it does its not bold and big like the opening credits.
3. The end titles very likely has a song played in it, yes the film titles do but not as often.
4. The end titles sometimes have bloopers in it and after the credits has a sequence like at the end of the Iron Man 3 there is a trailer of the next Marvel film.
5. The opening credits can be on top of the action in the corner of next to the character they play. But the end credits roll upwards with a blank background behind sometimes there are animations to make them more interesting but there not for example fighting scene with end credits rolling over the top of it.


What else can opening titles do?

It can give hints to what genre the film is, if the title is pink and red with hearts all around it then it's most likely a romance film. If the title has blood dripping off of it then its a horror.


This is the film title for Scream. The title is distorted which makes it look eerie. The font is red which associated with blood, with the black background the title stand out and looks quite scary. Before I even what the film I know its a Horror by the way the title looks.





The title is pink which hints the film is quite a girly film. Behind is a picture of the 2 characters dancing. The font is quite plain and joined up looking quite sophisticated but causal with the font and readable.