Title Sequence Clips

 There were numerous opening seasons of movies that for some I have heard of but have never watched. On my own, and for my own enjoyment, I tend to watch YouTube videos that spark my humor and intrigue my inspiration. The fascinating thing is, some of these videos I watch are original entirely; but they incorporate music from a famous film to transfer the same emotion for a totally different purpose. For example, a while ago this video popped up in my recommendations: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEGpgo6GdrE

With that, the factor in this video that stood out to me the most the first time I watched it was the music. The music caused anticipation for the sight of the colossal dog. After anticipation, there was a sense of majesty and grandeur. Once the dog was portrayed, the music was like the perfect final touch. With that, I realized that the music in a movie can completely turn the mood of that movie upside down. I never watched Space Odyssey until I watched the opening scene in class, and I immediately recognized the music once things fell in place. With the sun slowly rising over the earth after a long period of darkness, there was light. The music and how the scene was angled right in the direction of Earth made me believe it was a majestic and grand sight. Not only that, but the sun rising over the Earth after a large period of darkness foreshadowed to me that after a long time of stagnancy, something glorious will happen. 

The other opening scene that I found intriguing was of Saturday Night Fever. From only the opening scene, I learned a lot about the main character and his environment. Because of his unique style of clothing not fit for his job, he is very confident in himself. He also is very bold based on how the main character struts on the sidewalk, attempts to talk to a woman on the street, and styles a bold red color with his outfit. Also, with the pizza restaurant and how the woman already knew what he was going to order, it was inferred he was well known in the city. Also, with the camera angles present below and near the ground looking up, it might mean that the main character thinks of things in a unique perspective that not many other people think of in that way. 

In conclusion, I realized that a movie and other types of film can be completely different based on the camera angles, music, physical appearance of the characters and physical aesthetics of the scene being shown. For example, if the music is changed in an adventure movie from upbeat to sad, not only does it gives a hint of what's to come, but it sets a unique mood for that scene.

From the article first frames: titles in the digital realm, a quote stood out to me. "The typography and visual style created in the opening sequence can establish the mood and image system not only for the film you are about to watch, but for the poster, DVD/video packaging, web site, and all promotion and branding graphics." It proves that in the beginning of the movie, the visual aspects will completely alter the rest of the film. Also, the quote "The best film typography isn't superfluous or incongruous, but fundamentally helps to tell the story" helped me understand that typography, as well as other aspects of a film, can make or break a film's success.

The third opening film that I want to talk about is from She's Gotta Have It. The quote in the beginning of the movie, I feel, was there to hint to what's to come in the movie and to spark attention and interest for the audience. Also, the pictures they showed next were all very different but similar at the same time. They showed people of color, males and female but mostly females, from children to teens to adults, living their daily lives. One thing I realized about the typography was that the letters were very thin and had a lot of spacing from each other. This made me think of the space between whites and blacks in the film and how there were rarely any whites in the pictures with blacks. If the font was bold in the typography, I would think that it would represent the people of color as bold, confident individuals. But since it is thin and almost frail looking, it makes me think that the people of color's true confidence, happiness and freedom is not at its highest--almost as if it has been taken from them. Also, the black background with the typography made me think of how the people of color may be thought of as less important or "in the background" at the time as whites were the ones that got more attention, as portrayed with the white text.

With another opening scene from Apocalypse Now, it starts off with what seems like a normal view of palm trees, which then leads to them on fire and a plane flying by and a man's face. It makes me think that maybe the man dreamed of that scene, daydreamed of it, had a foreshadowing, or it just showed a man thinking of what's to come. The fire helped symbolize the chaos that was to come, and the man's facial expression matched with the chaos of the fire as well.

Lastly, the opening scene from What About Bob was interesting. The deep blue color of the font made me think of the fish bowl later in the scene, but it could also symbolize the sadness or misery of the man as he is generally alone and feels unsafe/scared when he leaves his home. The letters being all in caps may symbolize the intensity of how the man feels in his everyday life.

* I am not doing the film project option.