Exploring title sequences in a film - The Conjuring (2013)
- 1. THE CONJURING Kenza Mokhtari
- 2. ‘The Conjuring’ is a James Wan horror film, released in 2013. The entire sequence is in black and white and uses documentary type images alongside the newspaper style titles. The images contain themes that are typical of horror films, for example in the images above are the ideas of ghost hauntings and sacrificial rituals. Throughout the titles is eerie music with synchronous sound effects of drums and crows; crows are often used as a sound effect in horror movies as they are ominous creatures whose presence is used to forebode the unorthodox happenings.
- 3. The titles are written in a white, sans-serif font, this allows it to stand out from the dark images and distinguish from the italic, serif newspaper texts. Everything is written in uppercase and so font size is used to reduce the importance of other words and direct the audience’s attention towards the names, for example, the words ‘A’ and ‘FILM’ are written smaller than ‘JAMES WAN’. Again, the images are genre signifiers of horrors and contain images that are emblematic of horror movies. The images above are of an Ouija board and a graveyard, both of which contain the notion of death.
- 4. The audience are introduced to the names of the families who the film is based on. This Is significant as it conveys to the audience that the film is based on a true story, this makes it more scary. The newspapers also contribute to the reality of it, again designed to frighten the audience; this would appeal to them as it would allow them to experience a greater amount of fear.
- 5. The screen begins black and fades up onto the image, the image and titles are left on the screen and the proceed by fading down, this process repeats multiple times and is used to decrease the pace of the sequence. It also allows the titles to be more spaced out and thus more attention brought to each.
- 6. The opening sequence incorporates the layering of images, typically where the text is added to the image on a sheet of rolled acetate, this allows the audience to interoperate multiple messages. For instance, during the final scene, in the initial image there is a large house in the woods; because of it’s location and the audience being cognisant of the genre, they would be likely to assume it be haunted or be the residence of the family introduced at the beginning. The audience are then shown a hangman's knot and the title, brought in by the unrolled plastic. This indicates the theme of death, which was possibly not interoperated from the previous image alone. This is an effective technique that is both thought provoking and pace reducing.
- 7. 00:02 The Perron Family 00:10 The Warren Family 00:17 Directed by James Wan 00:24 Written by Chad Hayes Crey W. Hayes TITLES The titles appear throughout the sequence, with an average of five seconds between them. 00:28 Produced by Tony De Rosa Peter Safron Rob Cowan 00:34 Executive producers Walter Hamada Dave Neustadter They often appear without relevant images, with exception of the introduction of the cast. (Both people whom the story is based on, and characters.) 00:38 Director of photography Jhon R. Leonetti. ASC 00:44 Production Designer Julie Berghoff 00:48 Edited by Kirk Morri 00:53 Patrick Wilson 00:59 Vera Farmiga 01:03 Ron Livingston 01:09 and Lily Taylor 01:14 Joey King Shanley Caswell Hayley McFarland Mackenzie Foy 01:19 Shannon King Jhon Brotherston Sterling Jerins 01:25 Casting by Anne McCarthey and Kellie Gesell 01:29 Costumes designed by Kristin M.Burn 01:35 Music by Joseph Bishara 01:40 A New Line Cinema Presentaion 01:45 A Safram Company production 01:50A James Wan Film 01:56 The Conjuring
- 8. The Conjuring is not yet part of a franchise, but has a sequel that is to be released in 2016.