Analysis of the Opening Title Sequence of The Others

By Olivia Delaney

How is the genre (supernatural) constructed?

• The genre, supernatural, is a film that involves interventions of spirits, ghosts, witchcraft, the devil and other entities into the real world. The film The Others includes ghosts and spirits, therefore would be apart of the supernatural genre.

• The opening credits of The Others, tells the audience that the film is a supernatural genre. For example, the images used include no dialogue and therefore leave the storyline up to the audience. The images give the audience the impression that the house is haunted by something out of the ordinary.

This image shows an outline of a body and the audience cant see any facial expressions or detail. This gives the impression that this figure could be a ghost.

What do the opening titles show? How is narrative enigma created?

• The opening titles show a storyboard of what is to be expected in the film. There is also a flickering light which could add to the audiences adrenaline.

For example, in this image the audience see a girl with a scared expression on her face. She is also pointing to tell her mother what she has seen or heard.

Narrative enigma is created in the opening credits by use of images but no dialogue, the audience want to find out what is happening.

What is the effect of the music?

• The music is like a children’s lullaby at the beginning and has a childlike theme throughout the opening credits. This could show the audience the importance of the child characters. The usual connotations of a lullaby are a soothing, calming tune, however, it is a little juxtaposed next to some not so calming images.

• Also, as we go further in the opening credits more instruments join in the music which could represent how more unexplained things are happening in the house.

How has typography been used?

• The typography is very simple. Its in white and fades in and out. This could be because the directors want the audience to concentrate more on the images rather than the typography.

How is mise-en-scene conveyed?

• The images are all very childlike, for example, at the beginning you have animals at the time their mother is telling them a story. Their childlike minds could represent how story’s can be exaggerated and therefore they are seen as not very reliable characters.

There are also images of child’s toys.

The opening is represented as handwritten drawings because it makes the sketches look like there is a lot of thought and detail behind them. They could have a meaning.

How has the sequence been edited?

• The images fade in and out of the screen at a very slow pace. They also zoom out so the audience can see more of the image. This effect gives the images a dynamic and it leaves the audience guessing what could be in the image.