Structure Of Openings

There are four different types of opening:

Discrete Title Sequence
When the titles come up between clips during the opening.
Narrative Opening Sequence
This is when the sequence gets straight to the story by establishing setting, location and possible characters.

Credits Over a Blank Screen
This ensures that the credits have the full attention of the audience.

In class, we watched two openings to analyse the structure of a thriller opening. The first we analysed was for 'Marathon Man', which is an XX opening.

The title starts with the paramount ident. After the production companies, the important names involved in the film come up. The title comes around 1.01 and lasts for seven seconds.





The titles in both openings were of production companies, the director(s), producer (s), Editors and main actors. When we come to add titles, we will have to add names under these titles.