Reacting to Opening Credits — What Makes a Great Title Sequence?

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How to create a great title sequence ►►

Opening credits and title sequences can be purely functional or they can become opportunities to tell a richer story. Film intros (and TV intros) have become artistic achievements of their own over the years. In this episode of The Front Row, we’re going to look at some of the best opening credits through the eyes of a Video Editor and Graphic Designer. They’ll give us their thoughts on what makes these title sequences work and where they fell short, all to give us a better idea of how to design and execute our own opening credits sequences.

The first season of True Detective was amazing (that’s just a fact) but the title sequence is a work of art. In the True Detective intro, we have abstract imagery, overlaid in double exposures and set to a haunting soundtrack. It is only after we progress through the season that we realize they were dropping clues in the True Detective intro the entire time.

Catch Me If You Can has a slick, throwback film intro in the style of legendary title sequence artist, Saul Bass. The Art Deco animation style set to a bright and jumpy jazz track gives the proper introduction to the story we’re about to see. Like the best movie intros, Catch Me If You Can does not waste this opportunity to enhance the storytelling with the title sequence.

Dawn of the Dead (2004) offers us an opening credits title sequence that captures the chaos of a full-blown zombie apocalypse. The fragmented editing, as well as credits written in blood, would be enough to get us in the mood — but the filmmakers added a music choice from left field that puts the whole title sequence into a new realm. Johnny Cash’s “The Man Comes Around” is a peppy piece of country folk but juxtaposes nicely with the apocalyptic imagery, making this one of the best movie intros ever.

The opening credits for Tommy Wiseau’s The Room are competent enough from a filmmaking perspective. However, here is an example of a title sequence that feels obligatory and gives us very little information about the world or the character, other than it is set in San Francisco. One of the best movie intros this is not.

As you prepare your next project, consider all the possibilities you have in your opening credits. Set the mood, tease plot elements, introduce a musical theme, grab your audience and hook them into the story about to unfold. By looking at the best opening titles sequences (and one of the worst), you should be well on your way to creating a truly dynamic film intro.

#filmmaking #filmtheory #directing

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