How film openings have changed over time
How film openings have changed over time.
Film openings through the ages.
1970s
2000
Film openings have changed massively one of the main factors is that the credits dont always come at the start of the film anymore they sometimes come at the end of the film because people recently find them annoying or they are after a short peice of action so the audience are hooked. and can even come dure in the action of the film.
1980
1980
At this time there are loads of different techniques and many different approaches and styles were emerging so most films had there own specific opening sequences. And because at this point technology is relatively advanced all the opening sequences became digital and special effects were added to make it more eye catching and making the audience more likely to pay attention.
The credits on the screen also flash by a lot quicker as editing was easier and faster allowing to make them com on and off at a faster pace.
1955 to 1970
From around the mid 1950 the opening sequences and credits started to get long as the film makers started to include the film crew and everyone that helped put the film together. As there were a lot more people as in the construction of the film.
As the opening sequence got long so did the graphic
design and typography as it had to keep the audience engaged and interested. And the graphic designs also got more complexed and improved but this is also because of the improvement in technology and it has to be grabbing.
1955 to 1970
Pre 1970 Examples
As you can see in this opening title sequence to these films show all the actors and directors and film crew are named. while there is an artistic display on the background and powerful music to try and keep the audience occupied and engaged. This is a typical example of what opening sequences were like at the time.
but i feel that these types of opening can get to long and boring and can cause me to lose focus and interest in the film.
James Bond (1964) Gold Finger
1935 to 1950
It is around about now when the film industry starts to get bigger and more popular and film makers are starting to be given larger budgets to make large scale production films like Gone with the Wind (1939) and the The Wizard of Oz (1939).
It was around this time that sound was introduced (1927) and technicolor (1935).
This means there is a big improvement to the opening scene of a film. they start to use graphic language that associated specific typefaces with specific genres. For example if its an old western they would do the opening credits in big bold wanted style letters.
but if its a romance they would do it in pink ribbon letters.
1935 to 1950
This helped established certain genre conventions.
However there was little thought given to the onscreen text and images the credits were still at the start of the film and had not changed much. They still appeared drop shadow to a single static image or a short sequence of an attractive background like a peace of rippling silk or an attractive rural background.
An examples of films that do this is Wizard of Oz and Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times.
The main reason for the opening credits at this time was just to get the audience to remember the title of the production and to see the name of the direct and the most well known actors.
1920
In the 1920 all film was silent film with no noise or color. however some of the were accompanied by music. the main directors of the time were people like Charlie Chaplin.
And The opening scenes of a film from the 1920 is very basic as there was only very basic technology back then.
all the films credits came right at the start of the film. and they were hand written on peaces of card. some had little hand drawn cartoons on but mostly they were just plain text.
1920
this is an example of a silent film.