Analysis of a Title Sequence

The short film "Don't Move" is set on one fateful night, six friends gather for their monthly 'games night'... and accidentally unleash a demonic force that might tear them - and their friendships - to pieces. 'Don't Move' is the 8th slice in Bloody Cuts' anthology of short horror films, made by a team of UK film-makers on low budgets. Directed by Anthony Melton, Produced by Ben Franklin and written by David Scullion it stars Rachel Bright and Jake Hendriks alongside Kate Braithwaite, Beth Cooper, Ian Whyte, Calvin Dean and Martin Skipper.

The beginning title sequence starts with a dark red hue with the effect of blood in water as the "cloudy" looking parts move on the screen. The first writing to appear is the name of the film production company, "Bloody Cuts". The writing is in capital letters in white so that it stands out from the background colour, the white also goes well with the colour. The screen then continues to name the actors in the centre of the screen with the same font, colour and capital letters. This continues until all the actors are named, the reason why they are in the centre is because it makes the audience focus on the names and because the background is all the same colour. This is known as a 'credits over blank screen' title sequence. This type of title sequence is often used for thrillers as people make their own judgement of the film by the colours, font and sound involved. When the title of the film company appears the sound of a glass cup scraping and then someone speaking "Oh my god, it's working". The glass scraping then continues as the actors names appear until someone else then speaks "Look at it, it's fucking disgusting". Then the sound of a demon like presence and screams are heard followed by the sound of stabbing. 

After the actors are named on the screen, the title of the film appears. However, it doesn't appear straightaway in your face, it appears one letter at a time. A misty white appears and then the word "Don't" and then soon appears the next word in the same way, "Move". Heavy breathing is heard as the title begins to appear and then as the words of the title individually appear someone says "Don't" and then "Move" in time with when they appear. 

A heavy low pitched sound then introduces the next shot, a ouija board and playing cards covered in deep red blood. The camera pans over the board and reveals a spinning glass which links in with the title sequence. It could be argued that this is also a discrete title sequence because from the voices in the title sequence to getting to the clip of the ouija board it's obvious that the situation happened just before getting to this clip of the board. However, a discrete title sequence is known as a mini film before the actual film foreshadowing what is going to happen, and this includes separately filmed clips so it could be argued that it is not a discrete title sequence because there were no clips, just voices. Then again, it could also be argued that this is a narrative opening sequence because there were characters speaking. This allows the audience to make a judgement of the characters before they see them in the film, however it seemed that the voices gave the audience more of an insight to the film and not the characters. The shot then fades out and the next shot fades in to reveal a note saying "5 Must Die, 1 Must Live, I AM HERE" covered in blood. Various whispers of what the note says is also heard. No more writing appears and the shot then fades out to start the film. 

This title sequence is very effective, it doesn't reveal too much about the film but it hints to the audience what it is potentially about. Since this film is very similar to ours, using a title sequence like this would be very effective for our film. When the film ends, the ending title sequence opens up. It starts with a cloud of blood revealing the letters on a ouija board and after watching the film it is clearly symbolic and has connotations of the superstition that ouija boards can cause your death. The ending sequence includes more graphics but if the opening title sequence has this manny graphics it would have made the film more obvious and less tense as more would have been opened up to the audience. 
 The title of the film appears with a firework looking effect revealing it and then the words become clear, with the director's name below. The same deep red hue from the beginning, and throughout the film, is kept as the background. The screen fades to reveal the main producers and editors of the film one by one, each one on a separate screen with a separate pattern. The patters are iconic as they are patterns on a ouija board which audiences will recognise, especially the sun and the moon.