Title Sequence Analysis - Sherlock Holmes

Order of titles:

• Directed by
• Screen play by
• Produced by
• Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were created by
• Executive producers
• Co-producer
• Director of photography
• Production designer
• Editor
• Cast - Robert Downey Junior then
• Title as title is RDJ's characters' name
• Rest of cast 
• Casting by
• Music/music produced by
• Costume designer
• Visual effects supervisor
• A ............ presentation
• In association with
• A ............ production
• A ............ production
• A Guy Ritchie film

The titles all look like they have been written with an old fountain pen, in an old looking font giving the feeling of mystery, and this also depicts when the movie is meant to be set.  Scenes/shots of the movie are shown before turing them into inky drawings on tea-stained coloured paper.  Once the shot has been turned into a drawing the title comes up and the ink around it keeps moving like someone as spilt it.

The short and snappy shots from the movie show it is going to be an adventure and fast paced movie and the music backs this up with it being up tempo and high.  The scenes shown from the movie are all black and white, even though the movie is in colour, this also tells the audience that it is set in the past.  By using scenes from the film you are giving the audience a taster of what is about to come.

The font used is an olden day type of writing and the colour is either black or white depending on the background, so it can stand out.

Compared to Serenity, they show not a lot of the cast, only the main characters and it also shows what they look like in the film.   This may be because it is set in the past, the actor may not be as recognisable and this helps people show who they are.

View sequence here >>> Sherlock Holmes (2009) — Art of the Title <<<

Title Sequence Analysis - Serenity

Order of the titles:

• The universal logo and music

Then there is about 10 minutes of film before:

• Title of movie
• Cast
• Casting by
• Costume designer
• Music by
• Editor
• Production designer
• Director of photography
• Executive producers
• Produced by
• Written and directed by

This genre of this movie is sic-fi/action/adventure and the titles of the film reflect this.  Firstly the font of the title 'Serenity' looks like it is old and has been written on an old, a bit torn, piece of paper and with the picture/logo behind it, it looks like a sort of martial arts logo, with the Japanese looking writing behind the title.  That's what it reminds me of.  So that may reflect the action/adventure side a bit.  As the shot zooms out, the title is the name of the ship, which gives it, its sic-fi element.

The titles begin once the camera is in the ship.  The font of the tiles is very straight, with no curves, giving it a kind of futuristic look.  Also the way that the titles appear is like an electric blue wave and this forms the words.  Sparks are also formed on top of some of the letters.  The colour of the titles are white as the background colour is quite dark throughout the sequence and this makes it stand out more.

After the first 4 or 5 cast names are shown, the time gap between them grows, maybe meaning that they aren't quite as important or that they want you to concentrate on what is happening in the shot.  However, they do name a lot of the cast, so the ones named must have a decent part in the film.  

Once in the ship, they use one shot for the whole part until the ship lands.  It is here that the titles are shown.  Once this long shot has finished, you know its the end of titles.  By doing it this way, there is a clear start and end to the titles.

View sequence here >>> Serenity (2005) — Art of the Title <<<