Research: Types of film openings

Different types of film openings

Narrative opening which includes the titles running throughout and two examples of this would be The Shining and Panic Room. 

Panic Room opening subtly takes is into narrative, by mainly focusing on the locations and buildings that possibly will be crucial for the main plot itself. 

The font here is very well fitting due to it's grey colour as it doesn't stand out too much like the bright blue in The Shining, but enough for it to be visible. This particular font and the way it is used also makes it seem like the names belong there and are part of the city.

The Shining opening also takes us into the narrative however more directly than Panic Room. The font is bright blue which contrasts against the background and is clear enough for the audience.

Stylised openings are the ones which are heavily edited with many types of effects, fonts and sounds. Examples of this type of opening is The Taking on Pelham 123 and Mezrine. The Taking on Pelham 123 contains many effects such as zooming in/out of locations, fast paced, distorted effects and heavily edited font and the way it appears on screen. Mezrine uses a split screen opening, which allows us to see several points of views in different angles.

 Discrete title sequences are scenes in the opening which stand apart from the film such as in the movie Enemy of the State. In this opening the credits are shown during a piece of film which may have possibly been taken out of the movie itself and used to illustrate what the audience are about to see.

Credits over blank screen and an example of this would be Donnie Darko where the title is followed by the opening of the narrative, usually with one of the main characters.