Return to your work and check that you have noted:
- how location and genre are indicated in the establishing shot,
- the institutional information about producers and funding,
- the use of the soundtrack - the rock n'roll era and the lyrics 'you're a real wild child'
- the director's name.
- You also note how theme is introduced ( Lennon as defiant, rule-breaking innovator; Lennon as rising to the insult that he will 'go nowhere'). When are the top billing actors named?
- The overall style is significant and carefully crafted to complement the genre and theme. For example, typography, lighting, colour palette, imagery, cinematography, editing. (Nowhere Boy is a biopic so the lighting is naturalistic.)
- Note how the audience's interest is engaged and the main narrative launched.
Functions of the Title Sequence
The functions of the title sequence in a film may seem to be fairly obvious. They are designed to tell the audience the names of the people and organisations involved with the making of the film and in this respect they do the job well.Irrespective of the genre, there is a conventional way of presenting this information in the credit sequence. This information and the order in which it is presented follows a standard format. Later in this study we will be looking more closely at the title sequence in a James Bond film but by way of introduction, we will look at the conventional way of presenting information as shown in the title sequence to the 1978 film Superman.
Codes and Conventions
- The producer’s name will generally be the first to appear followed by the word ‘presents.’ This is because the producer is the person who takes overall responsibility for the planning and the production of all aspects of the film; it is in fact, the producer’s film to offer to us.
- It is usual for the next screen to show the name of the director who is responsible for the artistic and creative elements of the film. In the case of Superman, the next names to appear are those of two of the actors. This is because they receive top billing; they are being used to attract an audience. Generally, only people who have the ability to attract an audience, such as the well known “A List” actors will find their names featuring so prominently on either the credits or the film posters.
- Interestingly, neither of these two actors play the title role as the actor who did, Christopher Reeve, was nowhere near as well known as either of these two actors who by comparison had much smaller roles.
- In this example, we next see the director’s name followed by the title.
- We then move on to the other actors in the film, starting in this case with Christopher Reeve, the actor who plays the title role. The film then lists a further 11 supporting actors alphabetically before switching to the actors with smaller parts who are paired and move off the screen much more quickly. In all, 17 actors’ names appear in the opening sequence.
- After this, significant members of the crew receive their billing.
- The final name to appear before the film commences is always the director’s.
- However, once this conventional approach has been established, there is nothing to stop alternative approaches which challenge these conventions. In some films such as the 2006 film Poseidon, the opening credits are shown over action from the film, thus the credit sequence serves also as an establishing sequence in which we are introduced to the setting of the film and some of the characters.
