History of Film Openings
What is a film opening?
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The main function of a film opening is to display the title and show the director, producers and various actors in the film.
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Have you ever thought of what makes you remember a certain movie or tv show?
The plot of the film? Of course that could be true but the designs used in the film - the opening title that stick to your mind.
E.g. Pink Panther, Se7en
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The use of colour+ sound has a great impact on the film e.g. in a horror or thriller (sound buildup+dark colour themes) builds up intensity for the audience or in a (happy?) film the film may begin with colourful or excited shouts etc.
Above is the film opening scene for the film se7en
The way the themes are set in the movie - the text used in the film gives off the psychopathic nature of the film and is very fitting of the sub genre.
The flickering titles show an idea of horror.
The releasing of films dates back to the 19th century with the first ever film released that was Round Hay Garden Scene this was a two second long video clip after which many other short video clips were released most of which were used for advertisements. The first film title was How it Feels to be Run Over by Cecil M. Hepworth.
It begins with both the title, year and Hepworth's name on a black screen which transitions into a scene of a horse wagon driving on the road then smashing straight into the camera.
Film titles made their first appearance with letter cards.
In the silent film era films heavily relied on visual storytelling- to help the audience understand the narrative film makers used letter cards which were shown throughout the film.
These letter cards contained dialogue, scene descriptions, and even credits, which were essential for the audience to follow the story. They were usually written in a large, bold font and often used contrasting colors to stand out against the black and white footage.
The above is a scene from the film The New Janitor (1914)- Charlie Chaplin
In the 1920s the first modern graphic film title occurred in ; the lodger : a story of London fog (1927)
By the 20s most films started with a text design introducing either the film or company name - these were slow opening scenes introducing the names of the actors etc.
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Digital title sequence
Digital titles were initially utilised in films in the 1970s, when titles for films like "Westworld" and "The Andromeda Strain" were made using computer-generated visuals. These early titles frequently consisted of plain, static text and shapes.
The powers of digital title design increased along with technological advancement. With the advent of computer-generated imagery (CGI) and 3D animation in the 1980s, titles got more dynamic and intricate. In this day and age of digital title design, titles for films like "Tron" and "The Terminator" are excellent examples.
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