What I Have Learnt From Mapping Out Title Sequences

When mapping out three different title sequences of two action films and a drama, I have found that the number of credits usually ranges between 30 and 40 but it is surprisingly common for a large production to have only one or two credits which include the production/distribution companies and no mention of the main actors. The main actors are sometimes not mentioned presumably because they are already very well established and are instantly recognizable. I also found that when the anatagonist or protagonist is not as well established as other actors (e.g Transporter 2) there are more credits included in order to cement their presence in the film.

For our film opening, we will include approximately 11 credits which include:

2 to 3 for the production/distribution institutions

5 for the cast

4 for the director/screenplay etc

Institution

institution

cast

cast

cast

cast

other cast members (more than one name onscreen)

title

costume

producer

screenplay

director

The order may change within the post-production stage in order to reflect any changes we may have made within the film opening's production.

From the film mapping, I have gotten an idea of how these credits should appear on-screen and I now have an idea of how many credits should be used for our production. For the institutions, I noticed they were almost always included on-screen with an animation so I believe we could do the same with a GIF. Also, the text size varied much in size and effect, with everything from graphic matches and bold writing for each actor to simple, small text appearing in order to not dominate the opening. It all depended on the approach each opening was going for. Tense, vivid openings going for smaller texts and slow build-ups had larger texts that didn't interrupt any important scenes.

Our film opening will have both enigmas and tension that is important for the audience to see and a less intrusive style of credits will be included with smaller text size and no overly distracting effects on the text's font or entry on screen.