Mama Opening Credits Analysis

1. Mama Opening Credits
Analysis
Patryk Baran

2. Institutional Context
The names appear at the start of opening credits, 0:20
seconds into the opening credits. The text appears by
a fade in and disappears by a fade out so another one
can come in. It is positioned in the bottom left of the
corner. The colour is white to make the writing stand
out on the orange background and to contrast so
people notice it. The name is in a completely different
font and size than the “Production” or “Director” is to
make an impression of the characters in the movie,
and make them seem like they wrote it. Through out
the title’s the writing that comes up is consistence,
using the same animation and colour scheme
however some times changing position to places on
the scene. However the title of the actual movie
appears differently, there is no background characters
involved when it appears and it comes onto a screen
with a different animation and different font. The font is
bigger and the colour of the writing is brown to make it
dark and stand out more. Furthermore the animation
is someone writing the letters onto the background, so
the people get in the theme that it’s a scary movie.

3. Narrative
In the two minutes of the opening credits the characters are created as young kids, more than likely sisters that are
almost all the time together. By the camera work at the start of the opening credits we can see that the older sister is
cuddling the younger one. This signifies that the older sister is protective and it makes the audience create
protagonist feelings for her. Also that scene makes us feel sorry for the younger sister as she is depended on her
older one. Furthermore during the titles coming up on the screen we can see paintings on the wall of them two
sisters. During that it creates effective animal-like image of the sisters and that they have to pray to survive. They are
presented as animals more than human. Also it looks like they almost went back in time, as kids those they we
assassinate with mobile phones and internet where as they have nothing like that and have to use crayons to draw
on the wall, just like cavemen. At the start of the images we can always see happy two sisters one always using her
hands and legs to walk whereas the other one is walking normally ;towards the end however we can see one of the
sisters on some scenes, or one being happy and one being sad. The sequence looks chronological as it’s telling a
story, more likely foreshadowing the story of the film. The amount of settings established in this sequence is about 8,
one of them being a house and a cave. Which suggests in the movie they will get a real house. Through watching
the opening credits we get introduced to three characters which looks like two sisters and a mum.

4. Representations
In the sequence of the title opening we get the representations of the girls as being animal like or mentally unstable.
By the fact that on the pictures drawn on the wall we can see them having to use hands and legs to move might
suggest they struggle with walking as they haven’t got taught how to or they are mentally unstable and get them self
mixed up with animals. We get the representation that they also don’t live in the house as all the pictures are drawn
in the cave. The older sister is represented as the more caring and protective one as at the start of the scene we can
see her hands being wrapped around the younger one which suggests the close relationship both sisters have with
each other. Furthermore during the opening credits we can see that the third person is most likely to be their carer or
mum as the credits present with the big title of the movie.

5. Genre
During the film credits openings we can easily tell the genre of the movie as everything is based around dark colours
and contrasts. However another reason why we can tell it’s a horror genre movie is because of the blood include in
some of the movies. As we know little girls are more likely to draw pony’s and be playing with barbie dolls but in the
movie they are drawn as animals which eat other animals. The drawing contains blood which is a sterotypically
involved in horror movies. The dark theme is to present the darnkess which we also conotate horros with being, as
people wouldn’t get scared if there was alot of lighting. The dark theme helps to build up tenstion and to introduce
the audiences to the genre of the movie. Sound also plays important point in creating the image of a horror movie as
the music is quite creepy, loud and mysterious which we assosinate those sounds with horror movies. Finally it uses
two fonts to create the effect a mystery. Also one of the fonts is childish and we assionate children playing imporant
parts in horror movies.

6. Use of Camera - 1
There isn’t many camera angles as the camera is recording the drawings on the wall, however we can see loads of
neutral view. We can also see one different shot which is birds-eye view. In contrast there is many distances that
have been used in creating the opening credits of MAMA. We can see the shots starting from medium shot, close-
up, long shot and extreme long shot. We also get a lot of camera moving most of it being zooming in or zooming out
either fast or slowly. However we also get tracking shot which reveals more of the background and sometimes
characters. We also get panning shots to introduce the characters to us and what the drawings of them look like. We
also get one spin shot as the camera is spinning around and zooming in at the same time. There is a lot of conected
shots as we can also see zoom out and tracking shots being connected and used to present the characters
backgrounds. The most used camera distances is medium shot and the most used camera angle is the neutral view.
Furthermore the most used movement is the zoom.

7. Use of camera - 2
There is no shots in the credits of MAMA which are hold steady. All of them have a camera movement. This is used
to introduce all the background which will take place in the movie but also all the characters. Some of the shots have
the panning shots to see the difference between them and the normal family. Also most of the shots are moving as
there is more to show in each scene then just the characters such as the background or props. Furthermore there is
a lot of zooming in as well to show little details to the audience.

8. Use of camera -3
Most of the shots in this movie opening is open framed. This is to reflect the representations of both of the girls. As
the girls are described as being animal like the open frame suggests that they live in the wild, which is opposite to
what normal girls would do. By making the frame open it shows that the girls have freedom and they are not trapped
between the walls of a normal house. Furthermore also the compositions of frames show that they are outside using
the mise-en-scene and including trees, bugs etc. in the background. This suggests that the girls are litterually wild
and no one cares about them as they have to get food on their own by killing other animals. However the only shots
that are closed frame’s are the ones when the girls are inside the house suggesting that the house is like a prison for
them.

9. Ues of camera - 4

10. Sound
In the starting of the film MAMA there is only the maximum of two sounds at once .At the start of the movie credits
we get the scary music which builds up from quiet to loud slowly as we move towards a character. This helps to build
up tenstion for us but it’s non-doiegetic so the characters can’t here it meaning they ain’t scared of the character. As
we get closer to the character in dark we hear something which sounds like a frog. This suggests that the character
is like an animal. Furthermore that sound effect diseapers and so does the music by fading out. Then another music
comes in which sounds peaceful but also doesn’t match the theme which tells the watcher that the music doesn’t
match to the video which builds up tenstion for the audience and creates and effect of them wanting to continue
watching the movie. There isn’t any dialogue used at all which creates the effect of the people being animal liked as
animals don’t talk to each other through words. This also explains the frog like sound effect at the start of the credits
which suggest that the character might be an animal.

11. Editing - 1
Through out this film opening there isn’t many editing involved as the mise-en-scene introduces us to the characters
by the paitings on the walls. However the costumes of the characters are always the same informing us that they
don’t have any other clothes as they don’t live in a house judging on the drawings on the walls. The lighting cuts from
dark at the start when the character of MAMA is near to light when we only have the drawings of the two girls
suggesting she is making them out to be monsters which we assionate horror with.

12. Editing – 2 and 3
The sequence doesn’t use any straight cuts to build up tenstion by using only the dissolve and fade trainsitions as it’s
dark and it reflects on the genre of the movie. The longest fade is at the start of the movie after the introduction of
the character of MAMA. It fades from a dark screen onto a brighter screen therefore the fade makes the contrast
smaller as we have more time for getting used to it. Most of the other dissolves or fades are quite short just to
change the drawing on the wall. Furthermore most of the shots are 6 seconds long as there is a lot of to look at
during each scene.

13. Mise-en-scene
The mise-en-scene in the opening credits of this movie is pretty simple. The lighting is really dim in order to reflect
the genre of the movie and build up tension. The characters are made to be animal like to show the difference
between them and normal kids. Furtheremore on almost every shot there is another location, foreshadowing that
there will be a lot of location provided in the movie. I managed to count 11 locations and there’s only 15 shots in the
credits.

14. Titles & Credits
The titles and credits start apearing after we get introduced to the dark character most likely „MAMA”. They appear in
almost every place on the screen which is propably to make the girls look like they don’t know how to be clean like
normal girls are. The font and size also creates this effect as one part of the writing is childish and the other one is
formal and they clearly don’t match. This foreshadows that the family which adopts the girls won’t get along. They
appear by fading in and disappear by fading out. Furthermore there is also one writing that isn’t a credit and that’s
the movie title. It has it’s own animation as when it comes on the screen it’s in a capital letters and the animation
looks like someone is writing it but there’s no one there suggesting a sterotypical ghost for horrors.

15. Crew
The role’s that were mentioned in the credits opening are:
Produced by, Production Menagment by, And the actors names
Music by
Cinematography by
Film Editing by
Casting By
Production design by
Art. Direction by
Set Decoration By
Costume Design By