Opening Titles
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Stolen from another blog is a look at opening movie credits. Kind of interesting to see how the styles have changed:
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Credit Where Credit is Due
I've always been curious about credit sequences. Not as to their purpose in any way, but in how they have this great tendency to be much more abstract than the rest of the film that follows. In many films, they're almost short films unto themselves that add nothing directly to the overall narrative, and yet regular audience will sit quietly and watch them anyway. In a marketplace where plot driven storytelling is generally king, to have a regular feature appear in mass marketed movies that is essentially an experimental film.
First, a history
For most of the history of movies, especially American movies, credits were done almost exclusively at the beginning of films. They were a simple list of those involved with the film over still images that were meant to evoke the rest of the film set to some music from the film, acting as a sort of overture. Casablanca is a good example:
Link to videoThese are informational with little artistry on display.
The form evolved to allow more interesting things to occur at the same time, moving them from purely informational to the more experimental extensions of the films themselves. Saul Bass was one of the biggest names in Hollywood graphic design for decades helped in no small part because of his work with Alfred Hitchcock like in the opening credits to North by Northwest:
Link to videoThe Good, The Bad, and The Ugly fits this bill rather well too:
Link to videoThere were exceptions to the rule (Apocalypse Now comes to mind), but it did become a rule from the Director's Guild that the director of a film had to have his name in the opening credits. You may be thinking, "Star Wars didn't list the director's name." And you'd be right. George Lucas actually paid a $250,000 fine for Irvin Kirshner over The Empire Strikes Back as his producer and then quit the Director's Guild over it. But, the change to opening credits had already formed because the biggest movie of all time wasn't doing opening credits. Opening credits largely became a free for all after that with directors being able to go from putting everything up front to everyone at the end. Mel Gibson just uses the title of Braveheart at the beginning while Andrew Davis did all of the credits over the course of fifteen minutes. Hell, Christopher Nolan didn't include any written titles at the beginning of any of his Batman films.
Experimental
That's all well and good, but it doesn't get to my point about how many modern blockbusters have essentially small experimental films at the start. The most easily identifiable example of this is, of course, the James Bond franchise. From Dr. No's collection of colorful balls set to Monty Norman's iconic theme:
Link to videoTo Spectre's weirdly erotic evocation of tentacles:
Link to videoThe movies all begin with a sequence that may or may not have anything to do with the rest of the story and then stop for a 3-minute short film set to music, and audiences tolerate it. In fact, in the instances of the Bond franchise in particular, audiences actually look forward to it. I find that interesting. My favorite of these is probably Goldeneye:
Link to videoOther Favorites
I have an affinity for credit sequences that tell the entire movie's story in one go. The most stylish and fun one in my mind is Catch Me If You Can, Steven Spielberg's film about Frank Abagnale:
Link to videoIn terms of credit sequences that are more informational, the original feature film of Superman had a great combination of score by John Williams and cosmic visuals really help sell the otherworldly nature of the hero's origins. The credits sequence to Superman Returns essentially repeated this with CGI planets. Here's the original:
Link to videoWatchmen, Zach Snyder's take on the classic comic, went a different route, using the credits as a history lesson of the world within the movie up to that point, showing us an alternate history of the United States from the 40s through the 70s set to Bob Dylan's "The Times, They are a-Changin'". I've always really liked this one:
Link to videoAll of these are examples of the films breaking from the rest of the story in terms of style from straight narrative to something more esoteric. I simply find that interesting.
What Else Is There?
What are your favorites? Share some links.
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A couple of my favorites include The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming:
Link to videoAnd for
Link to videoJonthose that love musicals: -
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@Axtremus said in Opening Titles:
Star Wars did not make the list?
Nope. I don't think the author was doing "best" opening sequences; rather he was looking at different styles. I think the style of Star Wars would be similar to Watchmen in the sense it gives you backstory.
Did you notice that in the Superman titles, Marlon Brando is listed first, then Gene Hackman, then Richard Donner (director), then the title of the movie, and then Christopher Reeve.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@George-K said in Opening Titles:
@Axtremus said in Opening Titles:
Star Wars did not make the list?
Nope. I don't think the author was doing "best" opening sequences; rather he was looking at different styles. I think the style of Star Wars would be similar to Watchmen in the sense it gives you backstory.
Did you notice that in the Superman titles, Marlon Brando is listed first, then Gene Hackman, then Richard Donner (director), then the title of the movie, and then Christopher Reeve.
I think the Star Wars titles were meant to capture the feeling of the Flash Gordon Saturday afternoon serials
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@George-K said in Opening Titles:
Les Preludes
I had to look that up
Yes, that could work in Star Wars, especially from14:00 to 16:00
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Wasn't the Star Wars opening unique at the time, as it didn't list any names?
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