Film opening research: Titanic

The video above is the actual film opening that lasts for 1.22 minutes.

The following film is opened with a scene of people at the port when the Titanic is about to sail. It is an effective long shot due to how we can see the whole environment, the people, the water of the ocean, the port and most importantly the ship. It is interesting how the ship is framed due to how we can only see half of it, instead of the entire ship. This gives a mysterious feel and the audience is intrigued by it; the fact that not the entire ship is revealed could mean that the director did not want the viewers to know about it  and is hiding the rest of the story, which is shown later on.  There has been affects added to it, which is an old fashioned yellow toned lighting. This is a really good way to tell the audience that the story happened ages ago, as the yellow lighting is typically found in old tapes and videos. There is non-diagetic sound used in the background which is the famous Titanic sound track. The track is really effective as it already tells the audience that the rest of the film is going to be about a love story. This is due to how the music is slow, calm and soothing, typically found in romantic movies.



This is another screenshot from the first two minutes of the opening. The yellow effect is still used because it is the same scene. An over the shoulder camera shot has been used to emphasize peoples feelings. In this picture we can clearly see that the person is waving at someone that just got on the Titanic. The fact that this person is waving with both hands shows the excitement of the sailing of the ship and how one of their friends or family members are leaving. The props used are effective because the way actors are dressed is old, like how they used to dress back in the 1940's. This could be linked to the time period the film was set, which is in fact in the 1940's because it is inspired by the real sinking of the real Titanic. We can still hear the soundtrack at the background which makes the audience get into the film even more and engage them to feel like the characters are feeling.



In the same scene, titles and subtitles are introduced with the name of the people involved in the making, featuring labels or companies etc... Because the background is rather dark and yellow toned, the film editors chose a white colour for the writing and a capital, basic font. There are different sizes used to highlight the main bits that the audience should know. The titles appear and then slowly vanish one after another, as they change position around the screen. Other than titles, if we focus on the background we can see how many people are on the ship which highlights the fact that it was a big deal at that time. A long distance shot has been used to show how crammed people are and almost pushing each other.


The director chose another scene to end the opening. He decided to frame the ocean and the waves moving at night. This is a beautiful way to end the opening of the film as the water actually foreshadows something that is going to happen later on in film: the sinking of the ship. We can see that it is night time therefore the lighting will be dark and the waves are a blue colour. This shot is quite simple as the camera is held steadily without moving around to show the exact calm movement of the waves. We should notice that the soundtrack is still playing in the background and will finish once the opening of the film is ended.



This is how the opening is ended. The title of the movie is finally shown in clear, big, capital, bold writing. The title slowly appears, as soft as the waves, which gives a calm feel for the audience. This fits with the soundtrack due to how soft it is. The writing is with bold and white, which is a good choice of colour due to how there is a contrast with the dark blue background. This is en excellent and useful example that will help me chose the font, style and size of my titles for my film opening. I now know that the titles will have to contrast with background, therefore if the background is light, the writing will have to be dark and vice versa.