Tiltles: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN

Secondly, I viewed Catch me If you Can (2002),

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/catch-me-if-you-can/

This helepd me to get another expression and idea, how titles are organized and shown to the audience.

The scence starts with the Production Firm, which presents the film. In this case it is Dream Works Pictures. 

 

It continous, with other Labels, which helped to produce the film, The Kemp Company and Splendid Pictures. After the Companies are shown, the opening scene enumerates the persons, who played the biggest role in the production and then it show the person, who´s film idea it was. The font and size of the font is so far everytime the same.

 

After the production Companies and Producers, the first actor is shown. Now a fancy yellow arrow is included, which point at a stickmen. The first actor is Leonardo DiCaprio so it starts directly with the main actor of the film, the person changes then her outfit, from a suit into a uniform of a aircraft capitan. This tells the audience about the plot, because DiCaprio act´s as a imposter. He changes the whole film between different jobs i.g. from Doctor to Aircraft Captian. After this the second protagonist is shown in form of Tom Hanks, he owns the role of the commissar.Afterwards, it show´s steps, which DiCaprio walks up and then they disappears behind him, consequently Hanks can´t follow him. This give the audience another clue for the plot, because nearly the whole time of the film the police is groping in the dark due to this mysteries imposter.

After this short sequence, which tell the audience the realtion between the two protagonists. After that the film title is shown in massive letters over the whole screne. Actually, the whole opening scecne is built up as a hide and seek game, or a kind of the famous child game tag. 

During the sequence  DiCaprio transform into many different Characters, a special detail for this transformation is always that the color of the screen changes completly i.g. Captian = cerulean. As you see in the Picture he changed from a Beachboy into a Doctor. In my opinion they used stripmens that the faces are unseen and not even the audience knows tha characters in deep from the beginning. This the same in the film, because Hanks and DiCaprio never see each other face-to-face until the end.

After the protagonist´s are shown in deep for a long part of the sequence, the different secondary characters are shown. But, they are only shown with names, they do not have a own stripmen character. The names are just, put in a random order.  

Finally all the other party of the production team are shown, like the Casting, Co-Producer and the author of the book. 

Titles: DREAMCATCHER

I analysed the opening sequence of "DREAMCATCHER",

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/dreamcatcher/

this provides me with  knowledge and information how the different Title of Film Comapny, Actors, Directors or others. This will helps me to select a order for my own Thriller.

BUT, the main thing i will looking for is the Filmtitle, Actors, Directors and the Label. These things are the most important things for myself, because i will have exactly these in my own thriller. I will create a own production Label for this film, which will be shown in the opening sequence as well. 

So the Dreamcatcher scene starts with the Logos of the Film Studio's in this case Warner Brothers, Castle Rock Entertainment and Village Roadshow Pictures.

 
Then the Studio, who took probably a massive part in the production. So it say's " Castlerock Entertainment presents ", follwed by the companies, which were included in the production.

After all the companies, which took part in the production, all the actors are shown which have a role in the film. But they don't say, which role he plays, so they only give information  about the actors, but they don't link them to the film plot.

After this the film title appears and when it reached his place in the middle of the screen, the letters move in the write order. This focuses the audience attention on the title.

After this it explains the audience the different roles behind the scene i.g. Casting, Music, Co-Producers, Creature Design, Visual Effects Supervisor, Editing and Production Designer.

It tells the audience also that the film is based on a book from Stephen King. The last thing, which is shown the Director in this case Lawrence Kasdan.

Titles: FORREST GUMP

My 3th and last titles analysis ( and 7th analysis overall) is Forrest Gump (1994) with Tom Hanks.

The whole opening scene follows a white feder until the the feder fell down in front of Forrest Gumps Running Shoes. 

The opening scene presents all labels and companies and the main label, which presents the film to the audience, in this case Paramount Pictures. After that the main actor Tom Hanks is listed.

After that are all other persons listed, which were nessecary to create is awesome movie, i.g. Directors, Screen-play, Photography, Sound and so on.

The Part when the feder lands on his shoes is really important. Actually, Forrest is a really unlucky guy and then when the feder lands on his old and dirty sneakers, he feels kind of a special moment, because it is unlikely that the feder lands exactly on his shoes. 

Opening scene - 21 JUMP STREET

My last analysis of a opening scene is 21 JUMP STREET,

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/21-jump-street/

Creative Director: Brian Mah
Client: Sony Pictures
Production Company: Imaginary Forces
Designers: Brian Mah, Greg Herman, Juan Monasterio, Joan Lau, Kris Fortin, Wes Yang
Animators: Juan Monasterio, John Kim, Clint Chang
Editor: Joe Denk
Sound Design: Keith Roberts
Additional Cinematography: Brian Mah
Producer: Kathy Kelehan

The plot is mainly about, a pair of underachieving cops are sent back to a local high school to blend in and bring down a synthetic drug ring. In the opening secne the used again lots of props in this case i.g. American Flag, Rounds, loads of explosive things, axes and cars. The most of the opening scene is actually all about toys of adults men. There is as well cocaine, cash and woman in the trailer.

All these things attracting a male target audience. The style of the start of the film is about a shot or slow-motion of really short scene ( each about 1-3 seconds). So one thought we had initially was to do the Jump Street show end titles idea and to work in little clips.
The don't tried to create jokes in the Trailer, with new scene's, they just put short clip, which seemed to be funny from the whole film into the opening scene. This procures the audience a random overview of the film with many different shots.

Opening scene SE7EN

This is the opening scene of SE7EN, http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/se7en/

with Brad Pitt and Morgen Freeman. For more informations, read my other post: http://florianberberichasmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/which-thrillers-are-considered-to-be.html
The film doesn’t open directly with the sequence. It first introduces us to retiring Detective Sommerset (Morgan Freeman) and rookie replacement Detective Mills (Brad Pitt).
The opening show the preparation of the serial killer e.g he scuff the skin of his thumb, to render his thumb prints useless. A lot of close up one all different props are used, for exmaple raser blade, letter, pen, tape on his finger. All this provide the audience with clue´s to create a feeling for the killer and plot.
You can clearly see on the picture that the person, always write hin a kind of diary an dtsicks photos of womens next to it, which are probably his victims. 

This kind of opening sequence is similar to that from "The Avengers".
The serial killer makes entries in his diary alongside clippings from books, self-developed photographs, and found images and objects, giving the audience an intimate look into the mind of a serial killer obsessed with religion and, more to the point, attrition.

As a Conclusion, I can say that it is really common for thriller films to use props in the opening scene and most of the time close-up´s to talk in a kind of riddles. This creates a bit of tension and interesst.
Opening Credits:

Opening Scene SHERLOCK HOLMES

Secondly, I anlaysed Sherlock Holmes, ( http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/sherlock-holmes/ )

which is a different type of opening scene. It is a mix between animation and historical atmosphere. It is a kind of Thriller, which units Crime/ Action and Historical sub-genre in a single Thriller. The Actors are Roberty Downey Jr. and Judth Law.

They used always a real shot of a Character or scene, which disappears then into painting on a really old yellowed sheet of paper, which looks a bit like a newspaper from 1800´s or a old sketch pad. This is a really good idea for linking the old historical aspect of Holmes and Doctor Watts with the reamake. they tried also to show a part of the printing process of that time period using the linotype machine and woodblock type headline compositions. As location for this special paper and printing atmosphere they used a printing museum and set up several still shoots to get all the material they needed for storyboards.

This show´s the moment of Character Sherlock Holmes, when the shot of him dissappears into a painting. As you can see they tried to emphasize the old touch with the inc of a fountain pen.

In the Opening scence are the logos of Warner and Village Roadshow Pictures. It is made up really clever it show th elogos integrated into the streets. These sufacing of the street is made up from cobblestones, which was the most common material for streets in city in these period of time, e.g London in Sherlock Holmes.

All the cobblestones are well-crafted 3D instead of real. So the whole sequence is actually created by human hands and with computer software's.

Consequently, it is again not the best example for my own Thriller, but it showed me a nearly perfect opening scene and provided me with knowledge about the importance of a Opening scene and the titles. I learned from this video that the Start needs always to be completely suitably with the whole film. 
So, I should have a rough idea of the plot from my thriller to link it carefully to my opening tableau. 

Opening Scene - THE AVENGERS

I will analyze the opening scene of "The Avengers" to get some ideas for my own thriller opening scene. ( http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/the-avengers/ )

Analyze of the opening scene with a scene, which uses all props of the different Avengers.  

Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Iron Man, The Hulk, and Cap — an assembly of Earth’s mightiest heroes. That is what The Avengers is all about all super heroes from the Marvel Univers in a single film. So the opening scene show´s all the different special props, weapons, shield or armour. 

for Exmaple the armour of Iron Man e.g. the picture I added above it show the special amour from him and with a link to the actor, who plays Iron Man in this case Robert Downey Jr. 

Another Example is are all the gifts, prop´s and item, which the audience know from the film "Captan America" so in the opening sequence are many items used to create a link to all the films, where the different charcaters are from, Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Captn America, Thor and so on. So the audience is provided with known pictures of their heros. Consequently, each character must be given their due and have a moment with their on-screen credit.

This is the moment of David Banner, the broken glasses represent his conversion into the green Monster Hulk.

BUT, this is a exmaple of a opening sence, which dosen´t correspond my own vision of my thriller scene. This is the cause, because prefer a opening scene with a proper plot and not just a collection of known items. This start of the film with the titles is nearly a mashup of pictures. 

This is a great option, if there were parts of a film before and the opening scene is used to remind the audience on special things, but in my case I create a new film and my aim in the opening scene is to create suspense, tension and curiosity.