What do we expect to see in a Film's Opening Title Sequence? - Blog Post 4

Black Swan

The opening title sequence for the film 'Black Swan' Has nothing to do with the actual story yet it does tell us what to expect and fits in well with the movie. The Opening starts off with a dancer dancing to a calm classical tune with a monochrome colour palette (Except for the skin colour of the dancer). This makes the very beginning of the intro seem elegant and beautiful. Soon however, black paint get thrown on the veil behind which the dancer is dancing, which shows us that more is going on than what we saw before. As soon as the violin of the orchestra starts playing more intense with even more of the paint being thrown around, the opening sequence gets more creepier and eerie than what it was at the beginning which sets an expectation that the overall story of the film will be more darker and that there is more behind it than just an ordinary ballerina dance movie. The lead Actresses/Actors appear in a black colour similar to the paint before the actual title of the film, with the most well-known actors appearing first. There are mainly too reasons why the name of the actors appear first; It either promotes the film with the use of the big actors to the audience, or their names are put first simply because the actors themselves want it to. 

Stepfather

In the opening title sequence for the movie 'Stepfather'. We can quite possibly already tell from the start that this movie is somewhat a triller due to the overly ambient and creepy music playing as the shots are setting the scene. We then see the 'stepfather', likely the protagonist of the film. (Which we know is the stepfather due to the title of the film appearing when we see the actor) The shaving equipment used by the stepfather is quite unusual and tells us more about the character being dangerous due to the different sharp objects shown along with the character being organised with the equipment. The title Sequence later own shows graphic shots of the characters wrongdoings along with 'silent night' playing in the background which contrasts against what we see in the opening sequence as usually 'silent night' is usually suppose to represent christmas, A time of joy.