Analysis of title sequences and credits

Title sequences and credits are very different in short films than they are in full length films. For example films like the sixth sense have long title sequences.

Title sequences

In the sixth sense, the opening credits are shown like this, with the names of the most important people involved with the film in purple block capitals on a black background. The people mentioned include main actors, costume designers, editors e.t.c. These colours are often associated with supernatural and spooky things, so this does well to set the mood for the film right from the very start. As our film is similar to this film in terms of genre, we could use a title sequence like this for our short film to help create a creepy, unsettling mood.

Some other title sequences play over actual footage of the film, for example in silence of the lamb, where many of the main actors, editors e.t.c. are shown over the image as clarice completes an FBI training course. This allows the movie to start qucikly and grab the audiences attention right from the start. This may be a useful technique to use in our film because our film has to be around 5 minutes long and so we don;t want to be using lots of time on opening credits.

                                                                     However, opening titles are very different in short films. For example in the stairway, a short supernatural thriller, the opening title is simply the title on a black background.








                                                                          And in another short film, a short rom-com, the title is displayed in pink over a still of a picture frame.









This is a recurring theme in short films, where title sequences are extremely short and obly display the title. The main reason is probably because there won't be as many people invloved with the film, especially not big names, and so won't really be useful in interesting the audience whereas in big hollywood films usually the director and/or the actors are big names and will interest peeople watching it.

Credits

In The sixth sense, the credits last approximately 5 minutes. It opens with the directors name, M Night Shyamalan on its own.









                                                                                    It then begins to roll off cast names, followed by assistant directors, memebers of the crew including art directors, storyboard artists and editors. e.t.c., eventually rolling through eveyone else involved in the film, including assistants and even caterers.

The credits in The Stairway last around 20 seconds. It starts with the producer(Realise par) and the writer(Ecrit par) and then goes on to mention the editor, make up artist e.t.c. and ends with a special thanks.







In comparison, the short film obviously has a much shorter credit sequence because much less people are involved in the making due to a lower budget. This means that a lot less roles are included, such as stunt doubles, caterers, assistants e.t.c