Film Opening Ideas

I have thought about which title sequence to study and I have decided to do Sweeney Todd. I like this opening sequence more than the others that I have watched, due to the fact that it sets the scene and uses techniques such as music and sound extremly well.

It starts off with a solo organ introduction, and then you see a pan of chimneys and then a close up through a window of a barber’s chair. From there it cuts to a painted silhouette of a young man and woman with blood running down from it. After that a drop of blood runs down the chair, through the chairs’ cogs and down a trapdoor to form the title. It then cuts to meat being pushed through a mince maker, which then turns into blood. Next you see flames and as the camera pulls back there are pies cooking in an oven, the camera pulls back more and then moves forward to follow a drop of blood down a sewer, which is full of bloody water.

I found that this fit into the rest of the movie well due to things such as the overall symbol of blood which is used consistently through the opening sequence, is carried through the rest of the movie. Another point is the way the colour is very dull and dark through the whole movie as well as the opening.

I found that this opening sequence was more interesting to study due to the fact that the music and sound techniques play a major part of the introduction which I find interesting. Another was the fact that its is also my favourite movie and I saw it live on stage, which I thought could provide a different view point since this was originally written for stage.