Suspense Credit Sequences

    For these blog posts, I will be analyzing 3 different credit sequences for suspense movies. This will allow me to fully comprehend how the style given for each movie affects how the credits of the film are actually portrayed. In doing this, I will gain more of an understanding of the tactics used and the genre as a whole.

Credit Sequence #1: Se7en (1995)

    I had decided to provide an analysis for credit sequence of "Se7en," because I believed that it would be valuable to analyze a very popular thriller-suspense film from the 1990s. Through its gritty action and dark atmosphere, it is a movie that helps to define the genre of Suspense, making it important for me to analyze how it displays the credits in the opening scenes.

    Throughout the entirety of the beginning credits, we can clearly see a harsh and unfriendly atmosphere being created. This is developed through the distorted letters along with the misshaped hands seen in the first shots. In this sequence, we see somebody writing down and analyzing information while organizing different items such as pictures and razorblades. In doing this, the creators of the film help to create an unsettling atmosphere for the audience. In addition to this, they give the audience preliminary details about the plot while still maintaining the veil of what is going on and will happen in the production. This is bolstered through the two closeups of the dollar bill, with the word "God," being cut out in both. In the emphasis on this word, we can see that the director is trying to give the audience more detail on who this character is before revealing who they are later in the story. This also occurs with shots of a black line covering a child's eyes before being completely blacked out. This, in association with the gruesome shots of dead humans, help to quietly inform the audience that this is a deadly individual and most likely the antagonist in the movie. Additionally, with the scratchy and disturbing music and the darkened uncolored shots, the setting and environment of the audience is built before the initial transfer to the story. This allows for a simultaneous transfer from this atmosphere created towards the plot centered around it, easily retaining viewer attention as the story begins.

    In my inspection of the opening credits, I witnessed that not only were the creators of the film able to clearly display who worked on the film, but also keep the audiences engaged with information essential for the rest of the plot. In coupling the story and production information, they were able to seamlessly build the initial story and present who had worked on it in the first place. I will use this information to my benefit by not focusing on either credits or story for my credit sequence, but rather bring them together for an easy combination of my two essential film elements.

Credit Sequence #2: Panic Room (2002)

    I had decided to examine the credit sequence for the film "Panic Room," because of its prominence in the Suspense genre and its reputation of being an exciting and unique film. In analyzing how this movie portrays in credits, I will be able to apply it to my own project, allowing for my own unique credit sequence while receiving inspiration from productions such as this.

    In the first shots of the introduction and throughout the entirety of the opening, we are shown different angles of New York City, with the credits being large and casting shadows upon different areas of the city. In doing this, the director helps to create an unsettling atmosphere while simultaneously making it blend in with the city environment. This helps to create an overall disturbing area as the sequence advances, pulling the viewer in further. Additionally, the creators of the film had used the dramatic and tense music to contrast with commercial and happy advertisements, helping to imply that there is something wrong beneath the surface. This is a common theme throughout the entirety of this introduction, where the citizens of the city drive and live their life with a sinister force beneath their existence. 

    I believe that in my analysis of this introduction, it uses plain text along with tense music in order to not reveal details about the plot as well as make implications such as a mysterious and dark force in the city. I believe that I will be able to use this information by being more subtle in my placement of any possible details in my opening, allowing for the audience to not be overstimulated by consistent actions or events.

Credit Sequence #3: Vertigo (1958)

    I had decided to study the introductory credits to the film "Vertigo," because I believed that I would be able receive a plethora of information and insightful details from a prominent suspenseful film. To be specific, this movie, created by Alfred Hitchcock, will allow me to study now how Hitchcock both begins his movies and credit sequences, giving me inspiration as to how I can format my own production.

    In this credit sequence, Hitchcock relies heavily on extreme closeups of a woman's face in order to initially introduce the main actors of the film such as James Stewart and Kim Novak. He does this to provide a beginning series of extreme close up shots before the main sections of the credits are revealed in the focused shots on the woman's eyes. In doing this, he provides a preliminary stage of the main actors followed by the other workers on the project, effectively splitting the two from each other. In providing a divide between the two sections of the introduction, we are efficiently introduced to the main area of credits followed by details relating to the plot of the film. To be specific, in the main sequence of credits, we are shown various spirals as the camera zooms through them, which relates to the theme and elements of the plot in the movie. In doing this, Hitchcock is able to provide a unique and creative introductory sequence while implying what the plot will be about, engaging and informing the viewer at the same time.

    I believe that in my examination of this credit sequence, I understand exactly how I could format my project. To be precise, by showing the credits in a unique and different way that relates to my plot, I will be able to engage and inform my audience as Hitchcock did for his film "Vertigo." This will allow my project to be higher in quality and more entertaining for my viewers as a whole.

    In my examination of these 3 different credit sequences, I have learned that in order to effectively display these scenes in a suspenseful film, you need to coordinate them to coincide with information that sets up or is related to the rest of the plot. We can see this done in all three films, where they all ensure that they imply or provide the viewers with details that will be explained later in the story. This allows for increased attention and interest by the audience, which heightens the overall success of the movie. In the actions taken by these films for their credit sequences, they have allowed for their productions to become more professional and contain hidden but entertaining messages and information.

    With this knowledge now at my disposal, I believe that I will be able to more effectively fill my project with more in depth shots containing more meaning. This will allow me to increase the quality of my production as well as make my project more efficient in its usage of different audio, lighting, and filming tactics used in the genre. 

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