Title Sequence Research 2

The Thing

John Carpenter’s 1982 film, “The Thing” starts out with immediate non diegetic music, a proairetic Code to create intensity, a black screen and presents in a white font “universal pictures”, what the company was the produced it and then goes onto various flashing pictures behind text which lists the actors staring in the film. With each new a name a new image arises. The music then stops and the screen goes black once again, this is for a few mille-seconds, then it starts again, flashing images both still photographs and moving text, with the names of various people who played an important role in creating this film such as the music producer and the screen play, who edited it, director of photography, production manager and Directed by. After this the title comes up on screen with a moving image of a hand behind it trying to grab something. The editing on this part if good because it’s made out like the camera was shaking to add a more intense and scary effect. The screen then goes black like it has done previously but the music continues, leaving the audience with a cliff hanger as to what the point in the hand was and what it has to do with the film.
All the photos and moving images that are in this text are extreme close ups. There’s so zoomed in there made unclear as to what the image actually is. I think this is a good effect because it makes the images seem mysterious and we don’t know whether they have anything to do with the film yet to come. For example there’s a super extreme close up of a spider’s leg, it took me a while to work out what this was. I think this is a good effect and keep the audience watching this interesting and wanting them to watch the rest of the film, which is what the opening sequence is for. This is a Hermeneutic code, as it sets up mystery (Roland Bathes). Every so often behind the music there’s a non diegetic “clanging” sound a few echoes, this adds a good creepy effect which matches the films genre. This is also a proairetic code to show the audience something bad is about to happen.
In this text there’s lots of picture of picture this is good because it shows two images which could both have an important role in the film at the same time, whether its two actions or two images that could create one meaning. There’s lots of focus pulls to change from once picture to another, this is a good effect because it shows all content of the frame but in a more interesting an eye pleasing way.