Due to the compressed nature of the form, every component of a film is important. Filmmakers have approximately two hours to build a storyline, create predictability and anticipation, develop characters, motivations and goals, set the mood and tone, and introduce the audience to a world they may know little about. Many times credits are overlooked as a tool to set the mood of the film and are dropped in as an afterthought. Credits should be an integral part, and should speak to the nature of the film as much as anything else. An interesting use of opening credits is in the film THE TERROR (1978). A relatively forgettable horror film, the storyline involves a witch’s curse coming to bear on the descendants of the family at odds with the supernatural 300 years before. The movie turns into a standard “who gets killed next” pastiche and for the most part is only memorable for the way the credits are used to begin the film. Moments of mayhem in the movie are freeze framed, painted with various color tints, and set against eerie organ music (see image at right; click on the pictures to enlarge). The most effective part of the credits comes from the fact that the images aren’t clear; their coarseness suggests the sinister violence which is happening to the people shown, but we can’t actually determine what is happening which sets our imaginations into overclock mode. If only the rest of the film lived up to the luscious anticipation of the credits…
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Opening Credits: The Terror
Due to the compressed nature of the form, every component of a film is important. Filmmakers have approximately two hours to build a storyline, create predictability and anticipation, develop characters, motivations and goals, set the mood and tone, and introduce the audience to a world they may know little about. Many times credits are overlooked as a tool to set the mood of the film and are dropped in as an afterthought. Credits should be an integral part, and should speak to the nature of the film as much as anything else. An interesting use of opening credits is in the film THE TERROR (1978). A relatively forgettable horror film, the storyline involves a witch’s curse coming to bear on the descendants of the family at odds with the supernatural 300 years before. The movie turns into a standard “who gets killed next” pastiche and for the most part is only memorable for the way the credits are used to begin the film. Moments of mayhem in the movie are freeze framed, painted with various color tints, and set against eerie organ music (see image at right; click on the pictures to enlarge). The most effective part of the credits comes from the fact that the images aren’t clear; their coarseness suggests the sinister violence which is happening to the people shown, but we can’t actually determine what is happening which sets our imaginations into overclock mode. If only the rest of the film lived up to the luscious anticipation of the credits…
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WOAH! Those pictures are gruesomely cool! I'm a big fan of that bloody junk, especially when it has a creeepy-artsy effect like this.
ReplyDeletetrue that true that. the beginning does set the mood of the story no point if its just a blank screen with words then it goes into the movie itself. the credits se the storyline to me in a way. i know this is a bad example but is La Bamba the beginning 2 planes collide and the children below die. at the end the main character dies in a plane crash
ReplyDeletehey Lecombe nice profile to white though and this is bryen if you have not figured it out
ReplyDeleteThis really give people some insight on how difficlut it can be to cram sometime a very complex story into a two hour file. However, I dont know if I can really agree on the credits.
ReplyDeletei agree with the whole credit section part :] they are important to the whole movie.
ReplyDeletegood god...these are splendid!!!
ReplyDeletei agree, one of the most important parts of the movie is the opening credits
ReplyDelete