Starting at the beginning

I hadn’t really given much though to title credits before this, and now that I think about it, there really are a lot of cool ones out there.  Like the overture in operas, musicals, etc., they give viewers a hint at what’s to come and set the tone for the rest of the story.  Title credits are really an art form in and of themselves, and it turns out there are even awards each year for the best in TV and movies! Who knew!

Kyle Cooper, the be-all end-all for film title design, said in an interview that he was originally inspired by the opening credits to the movie, “The Dead Zone.”  He loved the way the letters slowly faded in, the simple typography, and the foreboding music, and how all three of these elements combined to create a creepy atmosphere that sets the audience up for the movie.  This immediately reminded me of the opening credits to Ridley Scott’s “Alien” which follow the same principles: the word ‘alien’ is kerned to take up the entire screen and the letters are all caps, but otherwise there is no style to the type, each line of the letters slowly fades in one by one over a slow pan of a planet eclipsing.  It is so suspenseful, I just love these titles.  The great thing about the “Alien” titles is that they used the same principle for the sequel “Aliens” with a slight variation.  This time the letters form from horizontal blue lines, like old-school computer screen feedback, backlight from the middle where the I is lined up.  The analysis on art of the title believes this effect is meant to represent gestation, as when the aliens are gestating inside their human hosts, but I disagree.  I think the light at the I, which is grows brighter and forms an oblong that is almost eye-shaped, is meant to represent the opening of the alien pods, the beginning of the alien creatures’ life cycles.  But that’s a little beside the point.  The real point here is that the titles for “Alien” and “Aliens” work because of the time it takes for the letters to appear, setting the suspenseful mood that pervades the rest of the movies.

The other factor that is really crucial in opening titles to me is the music that is chosen to go behind them.  For example, the title sequence for “2001:A Space Odyssey” are very simple; the sun is slowly coming up over the moon (or Earth? a planet, anyway).  The theme of the movie is very epic, and so this otherwise plain shot is given a really majestic feel.  But, let’s say that a different part of the score was chosen.  This shot could have had a completely different feel with a more foreboding piece of music, or even no music at all.  Sometimes the focus is all about the music, since before movies came around the opening to any theatrical production was prologue music.  “Rocky Horror Picture Show” is such a cool example of this because there is nothing on the screen except a pair of lips mouthing the words to the opening song until the chorus comes around and the title of the movie comes in.  The type looks like dripping blood, and is even blood red,  so it fits the theme of the movie but is simple enough that the focus is still on the song.  Plus the static card-like credits look like that of the movies of the 1930-40s which “Rocky Horror” parodies.