Art of the title acticity - The list

For this class activity, our group were asked to plan and create a 9 grid filled with snapshots of a fictional movie's title sequence. We decided that our film, "The List", was going to be of the horror genre and would be the story of a psychotic murder who has the names of his victims on a list, and after he kills them, crosses their name off of this list. The opening sequence for 'The List' is of a body being dragged into the unknown killer's operating room, where he proceeds to change into more practical clothing, and dismember the victim before crossing their name of of his list.

I think that the shots all work well together to build narrative flow, however some shots are more important to the in the construction of the opening sequence than others. For instance i believe that the third shot is the most successful in explaining to the viewer just what is going on, as they see a more distinctive part of the victim's body, compared to the previous two which show vague shapes. The 7th shot in the sequence is also a very significant shot, as it answers the audience's questions as to what genre the film is and also ties up what exactly is going on in the sequence nicely. The last shot however, is the most important, for me, as it unifies the shot and the title, and together with the last eight shots builds the foundations of the viewers expectations for the rest of the film.

With all the shots together, i think that this opening has a strong significance to the rest of the film, as not only does it give the viewer a sense of genre but shows them who the killer is and also what the rest of the film is going to be like story wise. Shots like the 4th and 5th connote the horror genre when shown after shots 1, 2 and 3, and the audience start to imagine what is going on and worry, and it is not until the 6th and 7th shots that we actually get an idea that the man with the mask is using the saw on the body. For this reason though, i think that the opening for 'The List' is quite clear in stating its genre but also has a sense of mystery and surprise linked with it.

Overall, this film opening is effective, as it manages to give the viewer enough information and narrative to stay interested but at the same time doesn't give too much away.