A lesson on how to analyse opening credits

1. TITLES
STARTER
To understand how titles work in opening credits.
To analyse & evaluate the use of titles in other thriller films.
• For each of the film titles – try to identify the film’s
genre from the selection below, and give a brief
description of what you can see in the title shot.
To use titles appropriately according to institutional conventions.

2. Opening titles to Vertigo

3. Analysing opening credits
• As we watch the opening credits to Shutter
Island, what do you notice about the titles?
1. Do the titles move or are they static?
2. What does the chosen font suggest about the
film?
3. Are the titles on a blank background or
superimposed over the shots?
4. What are the background images of? Why?
5. What colour are the titles? What colour
motif has been used?

4. Analyse this

5. Analysing opening credits
1. Do the titles move or are they static?
2. What does the chosen font suggest about the
film?
3. Are the titles on a blank background or
superimposed over the shots?
4. What are the background images of? Why?
5. What colour are the titles? What colour
motif has been used?

6. Any similarities?

7. Now it’s your turn…
• Using iMovie and working in groups, you are
going to put titles over your footage so far.
• You should try and use font style, position,
colour motif and movement in order to give
the film a thriller identity.
• As you show your finished opening credits,
explain your production choices to the rest of
the class.

8. Possible credits (use a few)
Producer: A _______ film
Leading Actors: Starring _________
Film Title:
Supporting Cast: Also starring _____
Casting By
Music Composed by
Costumes Designed by
Edited by
Production Designed by
Director of Photography
Executive Producers
Story by
Directed by

9. Reflection
• Which team’s opening credits most closely
reflected a thriller genre? Why?
• What would you have liked to have done with
your titles, but didn’t have the time or the
know-how to do today?

10. Allusion & connotation

11. Directed Study Task (due Tues)
• For this week’s DST, I would like for you to
analyse the representation of mental illness in
a scene from a thriller film on your blog.