Timelines of opening credits

For research, I had to analyse the opening credits of two post apocalyptic, and two other films with a different genre. I decided to do Mad Max and World War Z as my post apocalyptic, and Divergent and Tintin as my others. Whilst watching the opening credits, I found that there were slight variations in the order in which the credits came, and will explain this as I go along.

Firstly, in the opening credits of Mad Max, the production house has been placed first, as this shows the audience who has produced the film. The actors and actresses come second, as these are important and have been placed near the beginning of the credits. The title is quick to come in, as this comes next, even coming before the casting and screenplay credits. Throughout the whole opening credits, tension building music is used, as this leaves the audience wondering what will happen next and will leave them with questions in their mind.

Mad Max

Secondly, the post apocalyptic film World War Z had a slightly different way of portraying their credits. The title of the film is later on in the opening credits than that of Mad Max, and they have used footage from the actual film to create the title. After the actors and actresses names have been displayed, the music starts to get louder and begins to add tension to the piece, and this is when the title is displayed on the screen. Brad Pitt (the main actor) is shown on screen first, as he is the actor who is the most well known and enables the audience to see who the main star is. 

World War Z

 I decided that I would look at the opening credits for Tintin (2011 film). Throughout these opening credits, the Tintin soundtrack is played as a cartoon version of the film is shown throughout the opening scene. I think that this is quite nice, as it is calm and sets the scene.  In these opening credits, the producers are shown first, similar to World War Z. Steven Spielberg is a well known director, however his name is shown later in the credits, after the producers. The title of the film is displayed on the screen in bold writing, which is bright yellow and contrasts with the red background. The main actors are displayed first, as this shows the order of importance of the characters which appear in the film.

Tintin

The opening credits for Divergent included a lot of different names for different things. Firstly, the film producers are shown first with their company logo. Neil Burger (the director) is shown just before the film title, which continues onto the actors and actresses names. Throughout the opening credits, the opening scene of the film is played whilst the names appear on screen and while the characters are being shown. 

Divergent

The opening credits for all four films are very similar, as they introduce the people behind the scene before they do the actors/actresses which appear on screen. I think that this is a form of importance, as the directors/producers are the ones who put the films together, and the people who play the characters are being paid to star in blockbuster films. The more well known the actor/actress, the more money the directors, producers etc will make; this is why I think the names of the well known person are used first.