TITLE SEQUENCE

A title sequence is the technique that displays the title and the main cast/production members at the beginning of a film or TV programme. They are different to opening credits because they incorporate a scene of the film into them.

I analysed the title sequence for the 2003 Disney/Pixar blockbuster, Finding Nemo.

As there were no videos available of the title sequence by itself, I instead had to use a video which started with the opening scene before the title sequence began. It fades in at 2:10 when the camera tracks up to the top of the ocean from underneath after the main character, Marlin, discovers that only one of his many babies has survived the shark massacre which also killed his wife. He vows to protect his unborn son, and names him Nemo. Behind the text the water is slightly wavy, then as the text (Walt Disney Pictures present) is about to fade away it also begins to become wavy. This is a good technique as it fits into the background and also fits in with the film's context as it is a story set in the ocean. This method is repeated when another piece of text appears (a Pixar Animations Studio film). The background changes, also in a wavy motion, as the footage of the ocean habitat almost comes towards us. The film's title/logo then appears, again in the same fading wavy motion. The sequence then fades to black as the film begins. All this happens with a very emotional piece of background music, which sounds like a violin, which suits the scene to a tee.

Obviously the film was made using CGI but as animation has progressed over the years, and Finding Nemo is still a relatively new-ish film, it looks quite spectacular. Although aware that the film is animated, and also predominantly aimed at children, during the title sequence the animation is that good that it almost looks real. The lighting of the scene is also used very well. With most of the fades and transitions, a big bright light appears and is very eye catching. The colours are perhaps the best use of a technique in the title sequence. As the film is set in the ocean the animators would have had their work cut out in trying to recreate the vast amount of colours that appear under the roof of the ocean water, but they do it very well and it looks amazing. There is barely any movement other than the tracks and the wavy fades. I think this is because the scene before the title sequence was very frantic, panicky and quite scary (especially for an 8 year old – which is how old I was when the film came out) so the very little movement of the title sequence suggests that the film is trying to calm the audience and itself down a little bit. The use of the blur with the fading away motions is an example of this.

The background with the top of the ocean is also blurred. It looks like the ‘camera’ is quite far down in the ocean, pointing up. Also mentioned before was the quality of the animation, which the sharpen technique proves. We could go from a blurred image to a really crisp one and it still looks visually pleasing.

The video is played through YouTube;

Screen ratio: 16:9 (standard for widescreen)

Video format: 360p

Codec: H.264