Post 3: Research into Opening Sequence Designs

One piece of information that i found useful when i was researching designs of opening sequences was a 2 part interview with Kyle Cooper, the creator of the title sequence for the 1995 American crime film Se7en, a piece of work which received large critical acclaim and inspired a number of younger designers.
Kyle Cooper Interview (Part 1)
Kyle Cooper Interview (Part 2)


What i learnt form the interview:

• A good opening sequence dovetails seamlessly into the film
• It sets an expectation for the audience
• It should let every one watching forget about everything else and get them excited for whats about to happen
• Font and typography can help set the tone and theme of a film
• It doesn't need to have big special effects to make it good
• You get more freedom with digital images
• It can reflect on the characters in the film
• The opening can be used to set a back story for the film

With this in mind when we come to shooting our opening sequence i think that we will settle on shooting real images rather than having them rendered using another program. This is to not only set the tone of a gritty real life thriller but also to save a lot of time rendering, modelling and animating.
Another thing that I got from the interview is that we should try and keep a sense of intrigue in order to make the audience more excited about the rest of the film. One thing that we must keep in mind when creating our opening sequence, is not to give away the plot, in order to make it entertaining and also mysterious we will have to be very careful not to cross the line with the story and give away the majority of the plot in the first 5 minuets.