It is an interesting task to watch these title sequences without the context of the films themselves. It seems some good movies have great titles, some bad movies have really great titles, and of the films I haven’t seen I am intrigued to see whether or not they can live up to their sequences.
As an avid and frequent movie watcher, I love the titles sequence because they come after the deluge of the previews and remind you of what you are at the theater to see. When done right they also wash away any thoughts of your outside life and allow you to immerse yourself into the world of the film. For a few hours you can escape into a new world and new life and the title sequence should begin your journey there. It’s got to set the right tone or otherwise you will spend too much time just trying to figure out where you have ended up and find yourself unable to enjoy the ride.
A lot of the examples I watched didn’t actually do too much with typography (The Shining, Into the Wild (student version), Super), using a single font and keeping to simple methods of the text entering and leaving the screen. The strength of these sequences were both the visuals and the music.
In the Shining the eerie music contrasting with the splendid aerial landscape shots is so creepily contrary that it sets up the perfect mood for the film. The only text is a bright blue sans serif that scrolls upward on the screen. Simple and not distracting. Even the mere fact that the opening titles move in a way traditionally saved for closing credits, adds to the disorienting feeling of the title sequence.
In Super, the font used is reminiscent of boy/comic book handwriting, but the animation is the real highlight. In an attempt to recreate someone’s notebook comic drawings, the 2D animation introduces the characters in a light, fun way. The animation is obviously and appropriately hand-drawn and interestingly an early storyboard of the animation was done in Flash. This film is a tongue-and-cheek super hero story, and the opener highlights that mood.
I wanted to check out this acclaimed student version of the Into the Wild Credits because I was curious to see what a student like ourselves could create. The type is of such little consequence in this sequence that it is often obscured by the amazing graphics. A simple character walks away from the camera and goes the world beneath him revolves through a myriad of different environments. The title isn’t fully 3-D but it has more dimension then a 2D animation. The revolving animation is especially cool at moments like the Grand Canyon, the beat is also matched in tune with the music to create the feeling of moving to tunes like on a road trip.
One title sequence that I found played with typography in an interesting way was The Blue Horse. Over micro closeup footage of someone drawing with a blue crayon, the text comes in fractured by the letters. In every name one of the letters in “The Blue Horse” is drawn as if with the Crayon and lingers longer then the others (similar to what they did in titles to Gattica). The music is melancholy and the crayon’s movements are audible adding to the flow of the score. The titles end to reveal that the crayon has been drawing “The Blue Horse” with the H in the shape of a frontal view of a horse. Unlike the more graphically driven sequences, I have no idea what this film is about, but I think the titles have created the right mood. The simple flow of the crayon and the almost eerie serene of the music have made me forget outside distractions and I am ready to enter the world of this film.