Title Sequence Analysis

This is the title sequence of the film Sahara (2005). This film is about a master explorer that goes on an adventure of a lifetime, seeking out a lost Civil War battle ship. This is a title sequence that we should take inspiration from. This is because it is a very simple but effective sequence. It consists of superimposed text flashing on and off the screen while the camera is panning and moving around a room to show various pictures and objects. It is simply just one long shot, but it does help to enlighten the audience about the film and the main character. Many modern title sequences like the ones shown in the James Bond films are like short films of their own, they are cinematic and show the viewer what to expect in the rest of the film like this one does. However we don't have the budget to produce a good title sequence like ones seen in James Bond so the simplicity of this one is something we should take inspiration from.

To start of we se a ship being bombed, them the music kicks in and we see that the ship has come from a news article. The camera then moves out and pans to show some objects that would be associated with ships like maps, a cigar, a radio system and some dials. After seeing many pictures and articles associated with ships we see many post cards from different countries. From this we know that the person who lives in this room has visited many places and like to travel.

We then see a picture of two men in a US navy uniform followed by a news article referencing the Navy Seals. This gives the audience the idea that the person who live in this room is an ex or current navy seal.

The camera then eventually moves to a desk full of maps and science equipment like test tubes and bottled chemicals. The camera navigates to a sink to show some old coins underwater in the sink with some tweezers next to them. This make me think of Indiana Jones and give off the impression that the person living on the room is some king of explorer/archeologist. Just before this we see a diary with a timetable drawn in and many different countries written in. This would link to the many postcards and the reason for all of this traveling would be because of this characters explorer roots.

Then we see equipment that is boiling water then on the laptop screen we see something that looks like its analyzing water. This followed by the maps of the sea and a flag in a location in the sea would suggest that the next exploration that character is going on involves the sea in some way.

The Camera then zooms in on a globe and focuses in the place Lagos then it continues zooming in on Lagos at which point we see a car driving a type of poor, desert village which we can only assume to be Lagos. This is a good way to set the scene.

This is a very different film to ours. This film is an adventure film, our is an action thriller. You would expect our film to have a fast, gritty, action filled title sequence with the use of the dark tint on the shots an the colour red (to show blood) to show the nature of the film. This sequence is a slow and kind of enjoyable which is completely different to our film. However the story telling element of this sequence is something we look a using as our film has a fairly deep storyline which we could get across to the audience well using something like this. As our film is a short film our title sequence will be much shorter as we will not have as many staff roles to show before the film.