Art of The Title Grid Activity

We decided our film would be a horror them, and the story involved a  psychotic man whom had a plan to kill certain people in order to cross them off his 'list'.  Our film opening offers an insight to how he goes about this. We seem him drag his victim in and place them on a suitable work bench. He puts on more appropriate clothing for the task he is going to go through with and collects the appropriate equipment to complete his deathly task of the victim so he can cross their name off the list.

The information that has been included in our opening sequence includes the genre and kind of horror the audience will be getting themselves into. The night vision effect symbolises that the film is not so much about happiness and colour, but more about darkness and death. The title also gives the audience an idea of what the film is about. We get an idea of character from establishing who exactly the main character is and what kind of psychotic mind he possess.

The font we used was Assassin's. It's white colour against the night vision effect creates an eerie atmosphere, and its thin thickness combined with this colour of purity represents the slim chance of purity found in the film. The main title 'The list' links to a our main film idea, as its the heart of the story, as without the list this man would have no-one to kill.

The expected audience reaction should be an on edge feeling of being freaked out and wanting to know more. The audience should be wanting to know why this man has this list, and why it is these victims on the list as well as being horrified of the act he is carrying out. Due to the clarity of what is going on in the opening sequence, the audience should know that the continuing film is one that involves death.

The three main things I feel are important in the construction of our opening sequence include, each individual shot chosen and their style, the order of the shots, and the night vision effect used. The choice of each individual shot was important because it was the deal breaker between giving too much away and giving too little away. Each shot had to be carefully chosen to try and portray as much as we wanted to occur in the opening sequence as we could. This involves the angle and type of shot which were important in order to make the opening sequence clear, and for what we wanted each shot to display to be clearly portrayed. Shots like shot three are very important to the opening sequence because it displays the contrast of the lifeless victim and the man, in order to establish character. The last three shots are also very important because they display exactly what the man is doing with the victim, the last one probing into why exactly the film is called the list.
The chronological order of the sequence is also important because it builds narrative flow. This allows the kind of character we are dealing with to be slowly revealed, creating suspense as we unfold what he does with the victim in order to cross their name off.
The effect used really heightens the genre, and creates an atmosphere that colour would drown. It makes each composition in each of the shots a lot more cynical, which fits our theme.  


I think our project as an opening sequence is effective because it gives a real insight to what the film is about, without giving too much away. A real atmosphere that is very appropriate for our film has been created, as well as each individual shot carrying a meaning of its own.