Title Sequence opening

Title sequences are very important for movies. The title sequence gives us the view a lot of information about the movie we are going to watch. For example it tells us who is acting in the movie, who is the director, who the producer is, the production and distribution companies and most importantly the title of the movie.

A title sequence that I’ve seen and that inspires me is from the movie The taking of Pelham123.

The reason it inspires me is because of its fast pace, but also because it has slow motion in it. This shows that the movie will be full of action.

The title sequence takes around 8 seconds to begin, we see the IDENT for the production and distribution, this is Columbia pictures which we see for around 11 seconds which shows that this is a big movie, also shows us that the company was involved with the making of the movie. We then get introduced to the smaller companies that were involved with the movie such as MGM and relatively media. The first name we see is the director who is Tony Scott. After this we get introduced to the main characters, Denzel Washington and John Travolta. The title of the movie is then introduced at 1:17 of the opening. The director’s name, main characters and the title of the movie are all shown for 5 seconds individually, this is a long time in an opening sequence showing that these are important names. By doing this it attracts the audience by showing that this is a big budget movie with well known actors. From 1:43 till 2:36 many names are shown which includes the supporting actors, more groups of other actors, who the casting was done by and also the costume. These are all shown for 2 seconds showing that they are not important people in the movie.

Through out the opening sequence we have a feel that the movie is about trains, the sound effects and the editing hint us this.

Here is the analysis I have done on the opening sequence of The taking of Pelham123.