Opening sequences

Opening Sequence 1- Office Space

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=#t=0s

Genre: Comedy

The first opening title gives of the suggestion that the film genre is comedy, its quite funky looking and comical. Another aspect that gives the sense that the films genre is comedy is the music soundtrack, its quite upbeat and quirky.

Office space is a quite standard and conventional film, in the opening sequence 3 characters are introduced, they are appear to be one their way to work, however each character is introduce differently to give you an idea of their characteristics, for example one of the character is constantly moving in and out of different queues on the traffic to get to work quick rather than sitting in the traffic however, every time he moves in what appears to be the quicker queue out of the 2, that queue then slows down and the queue he used to be in speeds up, the character gets quite frustrated by this and this shows the viewers that he is quite short tempered, in contrast to this one of the other character is shown listening to rap music really loud in his car and singing, at first this makes him look like a strong, quite powerful character, however when a coloured person walks by he turns the music down and locks his car door, until the coloured block has walked by, and then turns the music up, this automatically makes the character look weak and quite comical.

Opening Sequence 2- Train Spotting 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcwgrl_trainspotting-opening-scene_shortfilms

Genre: Comedy

As in Office Space the opening title in Train spotting gives away the genre straight away, comedy and real life drama. As soon as the film starts we are introduced to the two characters and straight away we find out what kind of people they are, they are running away with packages in there arms, which suggests they have just nicked something from somewhere. There are close-ups of the face so we can see their facial expressions, which then switches to a close-up of their feet to show they are running. There are also quite a few establishing shots to show the location of the film, and give you a sense of what atmosphere the characters are in. We learn that the film is set in England not only because of the establishing shot showing the locations, but the narrator doing the voice over has a English accent.

The upbeat soundtrack in the background, matches with the action on the screen, and compliments it quite well.

Each character is introduced by a freeze frame, and then text on the screen of their name, this is quite effectively because it slows down the action, and makes the viewers focus on the characters for all of 2 seconds.

Overall I think this film looks quite interesting, funny and comical, however not your average standard film.

Opening Sequence 3- Sweeny Todd

www.artofthetitle.com/2008/10/10/morrison-on-morrison

Genre: Horror

Unlike the other two films this opening sequence was completely different initially, it started off very dark and eerie, it had very fast pace music in the background, which gave it that dramtic effect. The mainly in black and white and the only colour you saw was red, which was very significant to the film as it suggested that the film was about murderer, for example the titles was made to look like they had been written in blood.
You are not introduced to any characters as it is animations the whole time. All of these gives off the genre of horror/thriller.
In my opinion this is a very clever way of opening a film using credits, it gives of hints about the film, that the viewers may or may not be aware of, it is very effective and draws the viewers attention straight away, by catching your eye, because it is so unusual and stands out from most films..