Analysing Existing Titles and Credits

Now that I have looked at a variety of rom-com/farce opening sequences, I am now going to analyse the titles from four films from my genre, to see what is included in the titles which typically accompany opening scenes, and to see what order things like the name of the film, the production companies, the cast and the crew appear in.

Knocked Up

The first title appears is for one of the production companies, with the word 'presents' after the name of the company - 'Universal Pictures presents'. This is followed by the director's name - 'A Judd Apatow film'. Next, is the film's title - 'Knocked Up', followed by the main actor's name - 'Seth Rogen' and other secondary actors including 'Katherine Heigl', 'Paul Rudd' and 'Leslie Mann'. Following this, there are titles which feature various members of the crew, such as 'Casting by Allison Jones', 'Music by Loudon Wainwright and Joe Henry', 'Music Supervisor Jonathan Karp' and 'Costume Designer Debra McGuire'.

There's Something About Mary

Like Knocked Up, the first title to come up is one of the production companies, followed by the word 'presents' - 'Twentieth Century Fox presents'. This is followed by one of the main actor's name - 'Cameron Diaz' and then other well-known stars 'Matt Dillon' and 'Ben Stiller'. At this point the titles then show the name of the film - 'There's Something About Mary', which is followed by further, secondary, cast members 'Lee Evans' and 'Chris Elliott'. Finally, the remaining titles feature members of the crew:

- Casting by

'Rick Montgomery'

- Music by

'Jonathan Richman'

- Music Supervisors

'Happy Walters & Tom Wolfe'

- Associate Producers

'Mark Charpentier & Patrick Healy'

- Co-Producers

'Marc S. Fischer & J.B. Rogers'

- Costume Designer

'Mary Zophres'

- Edited by

'Christopher Greenbury'

- Art Director

'Arlan Jay Vetter'

- Director of photography

'Mark Irwin, a.s.c., c.s.c.

- Executive Producers

'Peter Farrelly & Bobby Farrelly'

- Produced by

 'Frank Beodor & Michael Steinberg and Chalres B Wessler & Bradley Thomas'

- Story by

'Ed Decter & John J Strauss'

- Screenplay by

'Ed Decter & John J. Strauss and Peter Farrelly & Bobby Farrelly'

- Directed By

'Peter Farrelly & Bobby Farrelly'

Groundhog Day

The titles for Groundhog Day follow the pattern of the previous films. The first title to come up is one of the production companies followed by the word 'presents' - 'Columbia Pictures presents'. Next we see the name of the producer - 'A Trevor Albert production', followed by:

- The director

'A Harold Ramis film'

- Main actor's name

'Bill Murray'

- Followed by another main actor's name

'Andie MacDowell'

- Then, the title of the film

'Groundhog Day'

Meet the Parents

The first title to come up includes two of the film's production companies - 'Universal Pictures and Dreamworks Pictures present'. This is followed by the following titles:

- the producer

'A Nancy Tenenbaum Production'

- another production company

'A Tribeca Production'

- the director

'A Jay Roach Film'

- one of the main actor's names

'Robert De Niro

- another main actor's name

'Ben Stiller'

- the title of the film 

'Meet the Parents'

- other main actors' names, including

'Blythe Danner'

'Teri Polo'

- Casting by

'Ellen Chenoweth'

- Music by

'Randy Newman'

- Song played in opening titles

'A Fool In Love written and performed by Randy Newman'

The titles all include similar elements, and the order of the titles is pretty consistent, so I will follow this pattern when constructing the titles for my opening sequence.