The Birds
The sound of hundreds of birds squawking and flapping can be heard as images of birds flying appear behind the credits. Gradually, the text appears to be pecked and eaten away, as if the birds are attacking it. The font is simple and is a bright blue colour, almost the colour of the sky, as if that is where the birds should be. Aside from the frantic flapping in the background, they are very simple titles, yet the sounds the birds are making would make you feel trapped and claustrophobic if you were viewing this in a dark cinema with speakers all around you.
A Clockwork Orange
A blood-red background fills the screen as an orchestral score fills the air. Initially, it sounds quite electronic and tense, but soon it builds into much more. This music is intended to make the audience feel quite uncomfortable and on-edge, giving the constant illusion that it is building up to a big event. 'Warner Bros. Presents' appears on the screen in a simple font, yet stands out due to being such a bright white on a vivid background. When Stanley Kubrick's name appears the background changes to blue, this is to grab the attention of the audience and to reinforce who exactly produced this film; the reason for them watching it. It then flashes back to red as the title appears. Shortly after a medium close-up of a man in white with a bowler hat is shown. He has overly-exentuated eyelashes on his right eye and is looking up at the camera with a menacing grin. Once again, the larger-than-life image of this on a cinema screen would be terrifying, as if he is looking down a judging the audience. The music continues to build-up as the camera pans out, showing three more men dressed in similar attire and continues it's path showing more men and naked female mannequins throughout a corridor-like room. Because of the position of the men, it makes the viewer feel very trapped and enclosed.
Reservoir Dogs
Orange text on a black background. The sound of a busy restaurant environment as a man starts talking. The shot then switches to a group of very well dressed men in suits around a table. The nature of what they are discussing is in sharp contrast to their attire, giving the impression that they may be involved in organised crime, possibly even the Mafia. There are many over-the-shoulder shots and it is rare that you see the face of anyone who is talking. There is no music or any particular action, just conversation and discussion. The nature of the camerawork, however, makes the audience feel as if they are part of the conversation, like they are sitting at the table with the group of men and are being included. I feel that the music and silence of the characters are conventions used, since they build tension and intrigue. You want to hear the characters talking in order to associate with them better, yet the foreboding tone of the music twists this and stops you wanting to approach them, as do the characters staring eyes.
Monsters Inc.
A very upbeat, jazzy song is played whilst cartoon doors and monsters are shown on screen, along with the titles and credits. The entire sequence is animated, as is the film, but it simply is a large variety of doors opening and closing revealing parts of different monsters behind them and the catchy tune continues to play. I feel this is used to keep the attention of the younger audience that will be watching the film since there's something new behind each door and it's a surprise for them all the time. This is a convention in children's films, the credits have to be very entertaining and surprising in order to keep the younger audiences attention. They will also really enjoy the music since it is so upbeat and catchy, yet simple at the same time.
Wild Wild West
A traditional Western-style soundtrack is played as the screen is broken up into several sections with a different image in each. Characters from the film are shown, along with credits. The characters start doing various gun-tricks and shooting people. This is most likely showing good guys shooting bad guys. Following this are explosions and more high-action shots. We then see characters being shown with the actors name displayed as a credit underneath. The music suddenly changes to a more modern sound when Will Smith walks towards the camera. This shows that it isn't just an ordinary Western, but rather is a modern twist on a classic formula. Various characters, weapons and credits continue to be shown until the end. I feel that they decided to include such a lengthy title sequence at the start of the film since this is part pf the classic Western formula; they always had the credits and characters right at the start of the film with 'Western' style music playing. It is a homage to the genre they are trying to bring back to life.
Love Actually
Here we have what appears to be home-video style footage of people being re-united at Heathrow Airport arrivals. We know it is Heathrow due to the narrator telling us this. He is talking about love being everywhere in a world that has recently been described as full of hate. He talks about different people being reunited at the airport, boyfriends and girlfriends, fathers and sons, the list goes on. He then talks about people making phone calls from the planes that hit the Twin Towers and how they were messages of love. The final message is that 'Love actually is all around'. This is basically to get you thinking about the film, about what it's all about and what it stands for. You can tell it's going to be a feel-good rom-com from this moment, although it doesn't really use any conventions apart from talking about love and using home-move style footage.
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