Research: The 4 different types of film openings

Titles on a blank screen 

The simplest titles are the ones that are on a blank screen. These
kinds of titles utilize different typefaces, usually in white, over a black background. Since
early films had no color, black and white titles were the only option. Even though an
extensive color palette is available now, this simple color scheme is still widely used.
Movies like Dressed to Kill (1980) have this type of opening credit sequence. While
some filmmakers take the easy way out by using simple black and white titles due to their
low cost and lack of complexity that minimizes effort, there are also filmmakers who
choose this type of credit sequence very intentionally.


Titles accompanied by still images 

Some of the earlier title cards incorporated hand drawn borders and other images.
This was the beginning of adding more than text to the title sequence to make it more
visually appealing. The development of titles accompanied by still images coincides with
credits getting longer to incorporate more than the name of the filmmaker. In this sense,
the studio system supported the development of more elaborate title sequences.
The next stage was to use still images as the background. This kind of title
sequence is somewhat more elaborate than the white text black background combination,
as the plain background is replaced with various images. Since this effect cannot be
achieved in camera, it required combining different media.



Titles accompanied with a series of moving images 

Titles over a series of moving images can range from a simple view of clouds
moving in the sky, like we see in the opening sequence of The Wizard of Oz, to a more
intricate sequence of images that incorporate camera movement.  most title sequences that are accompanied by moving images have music in the background. However, there is usually no dialogue and the meaning of the images remains somewhat ambiguous until later in the film

The title sequences of Forest Gump (1994), where titles appear as the camera follows a feather 

floating in the air, and The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001), where the text appears with a 

virtual shadow over the image of a rotating barber’s pole, have soundtracks accompanying these symbolic imageries. There are also various credit sequences that appear along with the narrative Thread. This is especially common in action movies. In most of these cases, the story begins with the title sequence and the meaning of the images is immediately recognizable. There might even be dialogue as part of the sequence. 

Titles built around animation and motion graphics 
In the late 1990s animating text started to become more and more popular.  However, animation has been used since the earlier days of cinema. My favourite type of film opening would have to be animation and motion graphics as it is so creative and looks really fun Catch me If You Can would be a good example as this is one of my favourite movies The ‘main character’ moves very smoothly throughout the whole thing, which makes him look slightly ‘shifty’ in the sense he seems to keep calm, even when it seems like he is in danger. When he is put into a new situation, he seems to stand around for a short amount of time and looks like he is watching the people around him, and then changes his outfit and therefore blends in with the surroundings. This puts across the idea of disguises, which could then lead to the idea of him trying to fool people, which could suggest the film is based around a con artist of some sort, which it is and at the time when i watched this movie i didn't know anything about this movie and i feel like subtly but effectively gives you hints about what the movie is about which is why i like it.