Analysing Title Sequences

Goldfinger:

The title sequence for this film is very interesting. It has very dramatic music fronted by singing from a woman with a very strong voice. She sings about the actual theme of this film and the lyrics she uses portray the way in which the man with the gold finger is like in the film. The images shown are all projected inside a gold statue of a woman to refer to the film and also it is possibly used to allow a bit of distortion on the images appearing so as not to show the best parts of the film. The guns and fire that is shown also foreshadows the action-packed scenes that are to come throughout the film. It also starts the same way in which it ends and the whole gold theme during the title sequence gives a definite insight into what the film is about and the way in which the statue in the titles is a woman shows portrays the idea of a beautiful woman in the film that could possibly meet a dramatic fate due to the actions of the man with the gold finger.

The Avengers:

The start of the title sequence has a very sudden dramatic and deep piano key and that is used to start off the music of the sequence. The background of the sequence is a tracking camera shot that moves between different props within the film, giving an insight to what is involved in the film. Also, the people’s names fade in and out as the shot moves gradually. The music gradually begins to quicken throughout the sequence as if it is building up to a dramatic climax, foreshadowing the events and the way in which the film is made and based. All of the background images that the camera is tracking between are battle equipment like armour and weapons like the bow and arrow. These definitely portrays that this film is a fantasy action film involving lots of battles and action-packed scenes. Also, when the actors names start to come up on the screen, the background images change to things that are related to that actor. For example, the iron man suit is shown when Robert Downey JR’s name appears. The title sequence also eventually fades into the movie as a large blue window appears and the camera travels into the light and, as if appearing out of the other side, the camera shot is of the mood and space.

Ocean’s 11:

This title sequence begins with very jumpy and catchy music, not dramatic music like the previous two films I have analysed. It begins to count up from 1 to 11 as well in bright lights and different colours with names of the people involved in the film appearing in bold white writing overlapping the numbers. Also the music gets quicker and more dramatic as it builds up to the number 11 where `Ocean’s` appears next to it to give the title of the film. The music then completely changes and becomes really old fashioned classic music from the 70’s. When the name of the director of photography comes up, the background images show the king and queen of spades, giving possible reference to the theme of the film. After the playing cards have disappeared, a bandit machine appears and begins to role, symbolising gambling and a casino atmosphere. Having seen the film, the title sequence has a lot of relevance to the film due to the constant reference to a casino through the bandit machines, playing cards and rolling dice. The classic music is used to let the audience know that the film is not set in the modern day which is helpful as you know that it is a realistic film before it even starts.

 

The Pacific:

The opening to this title sequence starts really slowly to symbolise that this is going to be quite a dramatic film. The chalk writing on the parchment paper shows that it is set in olden day times and a drawing starts to be done that is very distorted at first and not clear on what it is but then it starts to become a proper image and it shows a soldier with a helmet on from the war.