Planning Opening Credits - Miss Georgiou

Opening credits are used to list the important members of the production team, actors and directors.  In the thriller genre they are used to set the atmosphere of the initial setting and film, as well as help define the as a film from the thriller genre, with the use of different colours, styles, they are also used to display different conventions.

The film 'Se7en' uses the credits well, to help to create certain effects. One way it does this is by making the credit font white, this stands out against the dark colours and low key lighting used in the opening sequence, this can be used to show the contrast between good and evil, which reveals more about the film. Another effect used in the opening credits was making the font of the credits handwritten, jerky, quick and blurry, this gives the effect that the atmosphere is uneven and can make the audience feel uncomfortable, these are all ways the opening credits have different effects on the audience.

This is also displayed in the film 'Shutter island', in this the colour of the font is in red, with the colour red having the connotations of blood and murder, this gives the audience the initial impression of the film and what is to come in the alter film, this puts them on an edge from the very beginning, this creates the element of suspense, a key convention of the thriller genre.

From the opening credits that my group has researched we an see the re-occuring theme of the colours red, black and white used, and that they are often used in contrast to a dark background. I believe that this is due to the fact that because in thriller genre there is always a killer and a victim, therefore the white and black can represent the contrast between the good of the victim and the evil of the killer. Using the red because of the connotations of blood and violence.

In our credits we are going to have the actors, music producers, director of photography, screen play writer, mise-en-scene co-ordinator, then the editors and producers in that order. We are going to have the actors first as they are an important part of the scene, and they are first seen, we are then going to have the other roles in production following, this is because there work is not immediately recognised, however still needs to be shown, we are then going to have the director and producers last as they were in charge of the whole creation of the scene, however without everyone previously, there would be no opening.

The font we are going to use is a handwritten font, this gives an eery effect as it brings the audience into suspense into who has written it, even though it is only the cast, it still creates an enigma. Adding to this we are going to use the effect of using a white font on a dark background, contrasting the good and bad in the scene representing the killer and the victim. We are going to add a jerky effect over the credits, this creates an instability in the scene, this can be used to show that there is an instability in the scene, in particular the victim's situation, as she is being chased by a masked killer.