Analysis of 2 Title Sequences

ANALYSIS OF 2 TITLE SEQUENCES  

Die Hard (1988) - 

0:00- 'A Gordon Company/Sliver Pictures Production' 

0:15- 'A John McTiernan Film'

0:22- 'Bruce Willis' 

1:37- 'Die Hard' (words fly in from opposite directions)

2:00- 'Alan Rickman' 

2:08- 'Alexander Godunov' 

2:14- 'Bonnie Bedelia'

2:20- 'Reginald Veljohnson' 

2:48- 'William Atherton' 

3:00- 'Paul Gleason' 

3:09- 'Hart Bochner'

3:21- 'James Shigeta, Bruno Doyon, Andreas Wiseniewski, Clarence Gilyard JR., De'Voreaux White' 

3:40- 'Music by Micheal Kamen' 

4:51- 'Casting by Jackie Burch' 

4:57- 'Costume Designer, Marilyn Vance-Straker' 

5:11- Visual Effects Produced by Richard Edlund'

6:08- 'Film Editors FRank J. Urioste and John F. Link' 

6:14- 'Production Designer Jackson DeGovia'

7:11- 'Director of Photography Jan De Bont' 

7:16- 'Executive Producer Charles Gordon'

7:31- 'Based on the novel by Roderick Thorp' 

7:42- 'Screenplay by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. De Souza' 

7:49- 'Produced by Lawerence Gordon and Joel Silver'

7:56- 'Directed by John McTierman' 

In Die Hard, a narrative title sequence is used. This means the producers, directors, actors,etc. are shown over the film playing. There is no separate storyline for the title sequence. We establish the location in the 8 minutes that it is playing, we are not quite sure what the film will be about but we know the background information about the characters to draw us into the film. The first text is telling us about the production company used. We can see this is a high budget film as it only has two production companies. The main characters name appears first before the title. All the font is the same; white, sans and bold. However, unlike the title of the film which has a special effect added to it, this allows us the pay attention to the name of it. After this, the names of actors are shown in order of importance. It is only then after this, that the names of the production team are shown. The most important names go at the very end; the producers and director. I like it as it shows us who is the most important in the movie. 

American Horror Story (2011)

0:23- 'Dylan McDermott'

0:30- 'Connie Britton' 

0:37- 'Evan Peters' 

0:40- 'Taissa Farmiga' 

0:45- 'with Denis O'Hare' 

0:48- 'and Jessica Lange' 

0:53- 'Created  by Ryan Murphy & Brad Falchuk' 

0:59- 'American Horror Story'

Unlike Die Hard, the title sequence for American Horror Story was much shorter (lasting only one minute). Here they used a discrete title sequence which features a range of creepy objects in tins and 'old-fashioned' pictures. This reflects on what we expect to see in the TV Show. There was also no mention of a production company as the text went in straight to the actors, and also only showed the names of the creators. This kept it quick and snappy. The fast pace allowed us to become more and more eager to watch the show. The frames of actors names changed rapidly. It finally ended with the title of the show. When any type of text came on, there was a plain black background. The show also used their own font to become recognizable if seen (or advertised) anywhere else.