Opening Credits Research

Extensive Research on Jobs Appearing in Credits

Common opening credits order:

This is the basic order of opening credits, which isn't always how they are set, as they may be changed slightly depending on genre, but the majority of films tend to use this layout.

• NAME OF THE STUDIO - this is normally the first thing we see in the film and is the name of the studio that distributes the film. It may not necessarily produce it as well (e.g. Walt Disney Pictures).
• NAME OF THE PRODUCTION COMPANY - the name of the company that actually made the film or may have financed a large part of it. Usually credited as "in association with" or "A (studio name) production".
• POSSESSORY CREDIT/S - generally the director, but sometimes the producer or writer (usually "A film by (name)" or "A (name) film").
• STARRING - the names of the principal actors (mostly the main stars). For example, Leonardo Decaprio is a well known Hollywood actor, so in a movie his name would appear here.
• FILM'S TITLE - the name of the film.
• FEATURING/WITH/ALSO STARRING - the featured actors in the film.
• CASTING - the casting director(s)
• MUSIC/MUSIC COMPOSED BY/ORIGINAL SCORE BY - the composer(s) of music.
• PRODUCTION DESIGN - the production designer(s). These may also include:

o   SET DESIGN

o   COSTUMES or COSTUMES BY or GOWNS (older movies)

o   HAIRDRESSER

o   MAKE-UP ARTIST

o   SOUND RECORDING (older movies)

o   VISUAL EFFECTS DIRECTOR or VISUAL EFFECTS BY

• EDITOR - the editor.
• DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY - the director of photography.
• PRODUCER/PRODUCED BY/EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - the person/people who produced the film. Sometimes shown just before the directors name.
• BASED ON THE BOOK/CHARACTERS BY - if it is based on a novel of some kind, or a character, then the name will appear here (e.g. for a book, the writer will appear here).
• WRITER(S)/WRITTEN BY/SCREENPLAY/SCREENPLAY BY - the screenplay writers.
• DIRECTOR/DIRECTED BY - the direcor (normally one is shown, and they appear last).

Mapping of Title Sequences

Mapping of title sequences

From mapping out three title sequences, I have learnt that there are around 23 - 15 titles which appear in the majority of sequences. We will probably make ours have less than this amount because we will only include the most important titles e.g. the director and the top cast members. We may therefore have about 15 titles in our sequence and will include both pre and post production members, actors, and the title of the film. This is the order that we have created:

• 2-3 production companies
• 2-3 main actors
• The film title
• 5-10 pre production workers
• DIRECTOR

This may be changed around a bit because we haven't completed the task as of yet. We may choose to add a few more titles, or move the film name to the end of the opening sequence, depending on how the production turns out. We may change this whilst in the story boarding process but we would like the rest of the titles to stay in their order. We must still work out which jobs we would like to be included in our opening sequence. These are some common ones which usually appear from the mapped sequences I have looked at:

• Casting
• Music 
• Editor
• Director of Photography
• Producer
• Production Designer
• Screenplay
• Based on ___
• Written and Directed
• Director

There are other jobs which appeared in the sequences that depended on the genre of the film. For example, Coraline is an animation, so it is the only sequence out of the three that included titles such as 'lead animators' and 'art directors'. As we are doing a thriller movie, we will most likely just have to include the roles that are in the majority of title sequences and won't have to include anything that specific.

MAPPING OF SEQUENCES - The Purge

MAPPING OF SEQUENCES - The Silence of the Lambs

MAPPING OF SEQUENCES - Coraline