Planning Opening Credits - Miss Georgiou

The purpose of having opening credits in our thriller sequence is primarily to tell the audience the members of the main cast, the directors, producers ect are introduced, this gives the audience a better feel for the film and gives them ideas as to if they are likely to enjoy it. From the particular use of font and colours the audience are able to decipher what they can expect the narrative to be. The purpose of credits to a thriller opening sequence can be to introduce the mood or style of the film, they are there to give you a sense of the film. For expel if there is a creepy text or font the audience are able to depict how scary the film is and also what to expect in the opening sequence.

To find inspiration for our opening credits to our thriller sequence we watched the opening credits to the thriller 'Sev7en'. The colours that are used in the sequence are primarily black and white which is conventional to the thriller genre as the black connotes evil yet the white symbolises purity and hope which signifies the victim where as the black is used to represent the antagonist and his dark mentality. As a whole the colours are dark presented through low key light
 


ing which creates a eerie atmosphere which helps to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. The style of the credits shows the flashing of names which are all different heights and unbalanced which makes the audience feel on edge as it doesn't look right. The font looks jagged almost as if it has been hand written by someone poorly educated, this demonstrates the unstable psychopathic image. This is conventional to the thriller genre as the antagonist is usually mentally unstable which leads him to kill someone. During the opening credits it blurs out to a black screen, this is where the title of the film appears which creates emphasis on the significant title. The quick images of the credits compliment the sound track and tempo of the creepy sound track played in the background which is usually conventional to the thriller genre. The quick disturbing movements of the unrevealed antagonist help to create suspense and unsettling atmosphere. There are also various sharp objects shown in the credits such as a needle and a blade which is shown to be scraping off someone's skin off the top of their finger. These objects signify death and could be used in an attack or murder plan of some kind. Further the audience are not made aware of whos hands they are watching keeping the identity of the antagonist hidden, the audience infer that this is the killer hatching a murder or some sort of plan from the progressions of shots that are showed throughout the credits. This is conventional to a thriller opening sequence as the hidden identity of the antagonist is a typical convention featured in thriller films. The order of the opening sequence is as follows; the production company, director, actors, title of film, more actors, casting,music, editors, production, camera operator, co-producer, producer, writers and the  the directors. From this particular order of appearance, it allows the main characters and the  most involved people to be placed first as these are the names the audience will recognise and pay most attention to therefor attracting them to watch the film.





In my credits I used the colours black and white, the black was used to show the connotation of death whereas the white reflects hope of the innocent victims and also their purity. I felt this was appropriate for our thriller sequence as death is a key aspect of our narrative. Both of the colours are used boldly which signifies the juxtaposition between the both of them, in the opening credits the words appear faintly and become bolder which foreshadows how the stalker watches the innocent victim. He watches her from afar at fist which is represented with the faint words. The boldness of the words show how is is waiting to strike. The white writing shows how much black there is onscreen, the audience feel on edge as it is not pleasant for the eyes. The use of black and whet in the sequence is conventional to thriller as it is similar to the opening credits of 'Se7en' the black and white colours are shown in every thriller. I positioned the writing on the side of the screen where the eyes of the audience will be drawn, having the writing on the side of the credits represents how the killer is never in full focus of the shot but is always on the sideline. Having the credits in full focus would not be ideal to fit our narrative it is about a stalking which implies the antagonist does not want to be seen. The title is written in bold writing yet the titles font is uneven and sketchy which creates more of a jagged look, this does not portray a clean image which reflects the antagonist may have a distorted memory or be mentally challenged. The scratched writing also resembles the handwriting of someone, that could be planning a stalking. The use of the font creates an enigma from the unusual, interesting characteristics of which is key in a thriller film. The darkness in the background shows a sense of entrapment from the way the whole screen is black apart from the bright white writing. This is conventional to the thriller genre as the characters often feel trapped mentally or physically unable to escape what the antagonist is doing, this defects the situation that the innocent victims have been put in.

The second person in our group to make their credits was Nojus, his writing was bold and therefor easily catches the audiences eye, just how the victim caught the killers eye immediately in our narrative. The black and white colours Nojus chose to incorporate for the font and the background is conventional to the thriller genre and places emphasis on the good vs evil in our story line. The faded glow around the edge of the letters signifies hope for the victim and that something positive will come from this experience, although this opening is not scary it implies a hidden enigma as the white writing sits directly on top of the black background which symbolises how closely connected the antagonist and the victim may be. This could be a metaphor to suggest that this tim will not run smoothly and foreshadows the plot twist in our narrative. It also displays what is going to take place in our opening thriller sequence. As the writing is slightly off centre it is clear to the audience that something is fragmented this could imply the mental state of the antagonist. The dark background suggests the film has an underlying dark element to it, therefor the colours are typical of the thriller genre this arguably suggests there is an element of mystery to the film. The font used is large and clear which will cause the audience to question what the narrative is about. The title of my groups thriller sequence is undecided however we are thinking of giving it a short title that would signify exactly what the narrative is about without giving too much away.


The last person to do their opening credits was Harry. His idea was simplistic yet effective, he also chose the colours of black and white. This was to again show the contrast between good and evil as our thriller sequence follows the Aristotle narrative theory, as within our thriler there is a significant difference between good and evil. The font Harry used looks like one you would find in a newspaper, I think this will draw the audiences attention as the boldness states something big will happen within the narrative which will have a significant impact on the audience. The way the writing ripples in and out suggests that it will impact all the characters in the scene. Secondly the words 'the' and 'stalking' come in a different times. This exaggerates the word stalking suggesting this is a vital element of the narrative. The advantages of the two different colour contrasts suggests there is going to be a clear divide between the antagonist and protagonist. The only disadvantages is the use of the writing and also the effect used is too time consuming for the opening credits, considering it is only an opening sequence that we are planning we have little time to make a higher deal out of the opening credits it may make audience lose interest before the clip has even begun.

Taking all of the different ideas into account, we have decided that Nojus' would be the most conventional as the font used is more suited to the thriller genre. Fist of all the spacing between the letters conveys how isolated the victim is which fits the thriller theme, it also shows the struggle between good and evil how they have to overcome each other in order to stay alive. Our credits will include all the people that have worked on our thriller, which will be all of our names appearing in the positions of which they are traditionally seen in; production company, director, actors, title of film, actors continued, casting, music, costumes, editors, production, camera operators, co-producer, producer, writers and then directors. Our credits will appear in the background then fade in when the victim walks in.