TITLE ANALYSISRED LIGHTS (2012) dir. Rordrigo Cortes

■ Using http://www.artofthetitle.com/ I was able to find lots of different title opening sequences, and I picked Red Lights as it is a an interessting thriller that I have

watched before.

■ In this PowerPoint presentation I will be examining what is established within this title opening sequence and how some of conveniences occur. Using

■ The main purpose of a title opening is to establish the genre, character, mood, atmosphere.

■ Some movie openings are either using just a blank screen,

some, however, choose to have action in the background.

■ In title openings, the names of distribution companies, movie title, directors, writers, actors and cast and their roles are displayed.

■ The names/roles appear in order of importance, that means

the director is likely to appear before the costume designeror cast.

These are 9 key shots that appear during the 2 minute title opening.

However, I decided to make my own screenshots of the shots that I

thought very important.

The director plays a very

important role in all stages

of film production, therefore

their names are usually

displayed in the very

beginning of the movie.

The title sequence starts

with some dramatic music

played by various

instruments, this kind of

sound is often played in

thrillers to create suspense.

The title of the movie is displayed

on a very blurred background

with white and also red light that

is linked to the title of the movie.

Using a very simple futura font

they also decided to use an effect

that makes each leather appear

at different time very quickly

making viewers more

suspended.

Some of the letters quickly

appear bigger and smaller

throughout time.

While making this title sequence,

they were inspired by the opening of

the movie Se7ev, where they show

things in perspective of characters

mind.

This shot shows someone's eye

which could mean that the movie is

about a character's perspective of

life/situation.

Inspired by 30 Days of Night, they used

lots of documents such as photos,

articles, records. It shows that the movie is

about past or someones actions.

The movie Red Lights is about a study of

paranormal activity of someone who

passed away which could relate to that as

in those movies articles from news papers

and photos from old family albums are

used in order to investigate a person.

(Ref. The Ring, Silence of The Lambs)

In the background, although not

clear, we see someone doing

something that looks

paranormal, such as moving

objects using power of mind.

This could relate to the

paranormal theme of the movie.

Here in the background we

see a news paper, which in

the movie could be used as a

secondary source to

investigate the actions of the

person.

Here we are also able

to see something that

seems paranormal.

The title sequence is

made in black and

white which makes the

most important things

to stand out.

Using more and more cutting

with different visuals and

backgrounds that show

something related to the

movie, they also increased

the tempo of the music which

makes it even more intense

and viewers are more

suspense which is the aim of

a thriller.

Evaluation

■ This title opening is rather hard to explain as there are numerous of visuals shown, with moving titles and letters appearing at different times it creates tension.

■ The use of black and white makes some details pop out which makes us want to

watch it more.

■ The opening doesn’t tell us almost anything about the story line apart from that it might be a movie about paranormal activity, aliens. However, it is clear that it’s a thriller/horror/sci-fi movie.

■ The increased tempo of music and increased cuts of visuals towards the end tells us

that the movie is going to start soon and also keeping us suspensed as we cannot tell what is going to happen.