The Texas Chainsaw Massacre titles open with woman cutting dead meat within a dark room with dead animals hanging from the ceiling. This creates a dark atmosphere and makes the audience unnerved, as the images are unpleasant and somewhat unfamiliar. The traditional horror icons include blood, the dead bodies, these images are used introduce the audience to the genre of the film. The woman then screams in pain and dies whilst giving birth to a facially disfigured baby. This toys with the audience’s morbid fascination and makes them want to watch more even though it disturbs them.
The titles roll alongside the dramatic music, which has a slow heart beat noise. The titles are written in a typewriter font. Whilst the titles are shown images of a disfigured child, dead animals, and a child killing animals are shown. The images are shown very close up, with dim lighting, which is unsettling for the viewers as it sometimes unclear to see so the audience has to focus and some images are shocking, and repulsive, this enables the audience to react with the film. Images of a warehouse full of hanging, blood dripped butchery equipment, in the middle of a deserted land, introduce the eerie setting to the audience.
There are also images of a man with very bloody hands and covering his face with a rag, who is told by another male that “its ok Hewitt you don’t have to be pretty to work in a slaughter house” showing the audience the possibility the man is the boy in the images with the disfigured face, this may also create a tense feeling for the audience as they are unable to see the mans face properly, therefore they are left imagining repulsive faces which could look like the man named Hewitt’s face.
Newspaper cut outs are shown with headlines such as “Texas Town Dies”, which tells the audience the setting of the story, is very desolate. This is proved again when the titles end and an establishing shot shows a large remote house surrounded by large spacious dry and deserted land. This makes the audience feel the eerie atmosphere of the film as it shows it is isolated aloneness.
During meeting one we discussed different genre types and thought about which genre we should choose for our product. We talked about doing a comedy with influences such as Dodgeball, Anchorman and Little Miss Sunshine. However we decided not to do comedy as we thought it may be too difficult to introduce the film as a comedy in just the opening sequence. So then we looked at horrors and thrillers instead, this is because it is much easier to create the atmosphere of a horror or thriller in an opening scene than for a comedy. This is because simple things such as music, lighting and the pace can easily be used create a darker mood also there are plenty of icons that hint at these genres; such as blood, candlelight, knives, weapons, darkness, and eerie music. So we decided upon doing a thriller, because we believed we would be able to create a believable atmosphere for our opening sequence.
The three opening sequence titles I analysed are; True romance, which is directed by Tony Scott, Rocky Horror Picture Show, directed by Jim Sharman and Dodgeball, which is directed by Rawson Marshall. True Romance is a romantic crime film written by Quentin Tarrantino, the opening titles are quite ambiguous as to introduce what genre the film is. This is because the music is quite upbeat and the titles are in bold blue letters, which could suit many genres and there is no violence or law breaking in the opening so the fact that it is a crime film isn’t conveyed through the titles. The vagueness of the titles entices the audience to keep watching, as they want to find out what the film is about. The upbeat music livens up the audience and makes the viewers feel more excited about what the film is about.
The first shot is a medium long shot of a few people in a bar, which has icons such as neon lights advertising drinks, a jukebox, a T.V and people smoking and drinking. One of the main protagonists is introduced at the bar and he is talking to a female which shows the possibility that the film would have a romantic storyline within it. True Romance’s opening sequence differs from that of the Rocky Horror Picture Show as the titles are separate to the actual start of the film because the titles show and then the film starts, whereas True romance’s titles roll in with the start of the film.
Rocky Horror Picture Show starts with a black background and a pair of red lips which zoom in and sing a song which is quite strange, this encourages the audience to listen to the lyrics, which are a vague summary of what happens in the film, this makes the audience want to know more about the film, making it more watchable. The titles then start to appear in a red font that looks like dripping blood this introduces the audience to the genre of the film which is horror, the song also shows the audience that the film has humour in it as the song is meant to be funny.
Dodgeball’s opening sequence is different from the other two as the genre is conveyed straight away, with one of the main characters seeming to be advertising his gym, which is very large and the place is colour coordinated with black, purple and silver. The genre is introduced as comedy immediately as the character introducing the gym is portrayed as an idiot, which is funny. This makes the audience laugh and shows them that the film is funny and makes the rest of the film appeal to them making them want to watch it.
Then another character is introduced who is also funny as he comes across as being lazy and unorganised as he wakes up on his sofa, has a call from blockbuster saying some films are overdue, and his car doesn’t work very well. Immediately the audience has a vague idea of who this character is and therefore they want to find out more about him. He also arrives at a gym but it is very shabby unlike the other characters gym, this shows the audience that there might be some sort of competition between the two businesses. This opening sequence is very typical of a comedy genre film as it opens straight away with a vague overview of what happens in the film and the sequence is light hearted and easy to watch.
