My Favourite Title Sequence: Spider-man (2002)

By Ja’van Kinghornhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f5ykkGJvMU

Convention ‘Spider-man’ does well to conform to those of usual title sequences by the conventions

that they use. This opening sequence gives off a lot of enigma codes, it is an abstract opening and gives off very little about the film. This title sequence does not really give off the genre of the film and very little about the theme however because of the frequent sights of spider webs, it may give off the enigma codes of what does these webs have to do with the film? Web is connoted within the sequence, this may denote that the web is linked to the character in the story and that the theme of the film is about web and possibly spiders as webs are associated with spiders

The music starts off quite mysterious and depressing however further on in the video the music become more upbeat and more dramatic/Super hero style of music, this could suggest that this film may be a super hero film due to the different range of instruments, typical violins that is use a lot within super hero films.

Genre This film is originally an Action & Superhero genre however it is very hard to gather the genre from the

title sequence as it is an abstract opening so it does not give much away. The title is easy to see and could give away something about the genre as everything is dark however when the title appears then a light shine in the background of the text. It may not have the complete conventions (Titling, Genre, Institutional, Technical) needed for a film that may be serious (Horror) but with all the dark colours and the dramatic music in the background it can not be a joyful film. Usually superheroes film have a dark story in the beginning and later on become more calmer and less depressing to watch, this could be linked to the title as everything is dark however the title comes and brighten up the atmosphere.

The mise-en-scene of the costume that is seen in this title sequence seems like somebody is in it and another costume of a scary green mask. This could fit in with the genre as the costume looks heroic and shows none of the characters’ faces which ties in with the secret identity that all superheores try to keep, also the green mask looks quite evil to suggest that it may have a link to the bad person within the film which set our theme and binary opposition of a hero and a villain, this give us the genre of Superhero.

Codes Symbolic code: We see parts of somebody’s body parts while in a red suit

(i.e.: Arms, head), a green mask, webs and buildings. This may be used to create enigma codes for the audience and helps to introduce the possible theme for this film

Technical: Duration of spider-man- by doing this it does not give off much about the character and therefore leaves them with enigmas

Quick transition- They used quite fast transition so that the audience struggle to make out what they were looking at and therefore do not ruin the mystery of the character

Target Audience The target audience for this film are for:

Primary Audience: Superhero/ Spider-man fans- This film is a Spider-man film so therefore is more likely to interest who like Spider-man. By showing bits of Spider-man, it keeps the fans happy.

Secondary Audience: Kids with adults- Although this film is a Spider-man, which children seem to like, because of all the dark colour schemes, it is possible that the film won’t be like its cartoon and be more serious and therefore may have parts that may not be suitable to children

Institution This film is distributed by Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures is quite a well known institution for its Action and Comedy film distributes. This could suggest that the film may have some action in it however may be funny or not as serious as may expected. This however is not communicated very well within the title however because of some of the convention, it helps show these suggestions are possible to be in it (The dark background which then changes red and more bright which takes the seriousness out of it, the music is not happy however is quite memorable and quite noble at times, perfect for a superhero film).

Text The text font that is used is very unusual and mysterious. The way that the text appear is as if they

are just being thrown and then caught up on the webs, this is because the positioning of the words are not symmetric which works well with the fact that it is on the web as the web are not completely symmetrical as well.

The order of the text is traditional as the producers and distributer is shown first and then the actors. The way they credit it works well, the kept trying to change the way each name looked by the use of different webbing, the quick transition and the different camera angles and movements. They also tried to make the title sequence more exciting by adding different visual (i.e.: One moment it is in a dark background with some web then the next the web and credits were on what seems to be a building with a more brighter colour than the pervious in the background. By adding animated bits of Spider-man not only does it keep the mystery of the character for the audience however keeps them more interested in trying to answer the enigma codes that is given from the animation and also breaks up the credit so that it does not bore the audience.

Why Do I Like It? The main reason why I like it is because it produces so much enigma codes, by not giving us too much of what

the film is about and giving us snippets of the character through the different parts of their body it constantly give us enigma code that we really want to find out and therefore makes us more interested to watch the film (i.e.: The symbolic codes of the hand grabbing the webs and the web sticking to the costumes, makes us wonder “who hand is that?, what connection does the costume have with the web?”), the constant enigma codes works perfect with a superhero film as many people try to work out who or what the hero is.

It does not give us the storyline of the film or much of the genre or theme just by watching the opening first time, we may get a few assumptions of what the genre or the theme may be however not a 100% confirmation of the genre or theme is just from the opening.

The opening is interesting with it odd positioning of the text, the different visual we see, the simple and quite dark colour scheme ( although red is not that dark, it works better and makes the film seem a tiny bit serious more than it would be for a colour like yellow) and animations that we keep seeing.

The title sequence has a few symbolic codes and these symbolic codes make even more enigma codes (i.e.: Red in the background, what does the colour try to denote?, is it related to the genre or anything of the movie?.