Title Sequence Analysis

I have chosen to analyse 'The Sixth Sense' because of the similarities it shares with our short film (plot and character commonalities rather than title sequence).

The lead character in both 'The Sixth Sense' and our short film are children, suffering with issues revolving around the dead; Ivy, our lead character, is tormented by someone, something, in her nightmares. The nightmares are recurring and affect her day to day life. Cole, the lead character of 'The Sixth Sense' is able to see and speak with the dead leaving him troubled and isolated. - both film has a similar structure, in the sense that the endings have revealing twists which help us further understand the plot.

There is in fact very little to say about TSS's (The Sixth Sense) title sequence; it doesn't use any of the discussed methods to keep the audiences interest, consisting of only bland text and James Newton Howard's accompanying orchestral score.

In fact, the only factor of the title sequence that portrays the subject of the film is the score itself. Its violins reach crescendos when the films title appears through the sequence, and the composition is constantly haunting and slow.

Each frame of text utilizes both tracking and size to try and make for a more interesting title sequence, but the affect quickly wears thin. Below is my own attempt to recreate this 'growing text' effect.

I key-framed both size and tracking to create the 'expanding' effect,
I also changed the font colour to that of The Sixth Sense's.

The only interesting aspect of the title sequence is the reveal of the title itself, which as said, builds to a crescendo, but also appears to be coated in moving shadows referring to theme of the film.

The title sequence lasts for around two and a half minutes; as the music begins to fade and the final title screen begins to dim, the shot very slowly fades in to a lightbulb - the start of the film.

Although these are the style of titles we wish to use (simply because we don't have the time or skill to do otherwise), we will use them alongside the film, rather than seperately. This way the audience don't feel they're watching 2 minutes of text!