Opening Credits

Since the days of silent cinema, opening title sequences have provided audiences with far more than just a list of names. Their designers—whether anonymous studio employees or world-renowned artists such as Saul Bass and Maurice Binder—have found countless ways to captivate and entertain us while the credits unfurl. Featuring all the creative devices at the filmmakers’ disposal, these introductions serve to whet our appetite for the films ahead while helping to shape our viewing expectations in crucial ways.

This anthology brings together 18 years of publications by Deborah Allison, who was one of the first scholars to conduct extensive research into the history of American film title sequences. Topics covered include the main functions of opening title sequences; an historical survey of key design trends in American film titling; aesthetic responses to the advent of widescreen cinema; theme songs and generic iconography in Westerns; novelty title sequences and self-reflexivity; cartoons and caricatures of cast and crew; and retro title sequences. The collection also features a new and exclusive essay about title sequence design in the twenty-first century.

Il volume affronta alcune parole chiave del dibattito contemporaneo come intermedialità, rimediazione, transmedialità. Lo fa in quattro movimenti, con molti case studies sui personaggi transmediali e sul rapporto tra intermedialità e figuralità. A un prologo sugli aspetti teorici, segue una prima parte su trasposizioni e remake  dalla letteratura al cinema e alla televisione (con il viatico della pittura), con Il deserto dei Tartari di Zurlini riletto grazie all'intertesto della pittura metafisica; i molti film tratti da Le avventure di Pinocchio; oppure Paranoid Park di Van Sant: tutte analisi incentrate sul legame tra modo figurativo e modo figurale. Infine, con le cavalcate intermediali di Don Chisciotte e gli innumerevoli adattamenti (spesso incompiuti) del romanzo, tra cui quelli con la regia di Pabst, Welles, Gilliam.
La seconda parte del volume è dedicata ai rapporti intermediali tra cinema, teatro e musical (tra adattamenti e varianti), con le analisi di Fanny e Alexander di Bergman; di Smoking – No Smoking di Resnais; e di Jesus Christ Superstar di Jewison. Si passa quindi alle strategie paratestuali di trailer, videoclip, DVD, titoli di testa, in film come Lola corre di Tyckwer; Sherlock Holmes di Ritchie; Robin Hood di Ridley Scott, impreziosito dai titoli ridipinti da Toccafondo. Nell’epilogo, grazie alla semiotica delle culture e dei media, si torna agli aspetti teorici della traduzione intersemiotica e del transmedia storytelling rispetto all’intermedialità.

The first two decades of the twenty-first century have seen significant developments in film titling trends. The most notable, with the most far-reaching implications for design strategy and audience experience alike, has been a rapid shift towards placing all or most of the credits at the end of the film-rather than at or near the start, as was the dominant practice during the twentieth century. In theatrical features, it would seem that the opening title sequence as an apparatus for easing and regulating the viewer's transition into the diegetic world is fast becoming an endangered species. Fewer and fewer films employ an opening title sequence at all and, of those that do, the majority adheres to a new norm characterised by brevity and minimalism.

This article will investigate how the creators of Buffy the Vampire Slayer used the opening title sequence. The opening montage evolves to update the narrative, note newly prominent creators, make new implicit promises, evoke different moods, and suggest new things to come. In addition, it serves as a tool to position new and returning viewers, to craft a sense of community among their fans, and to communicate the creators’ understanding of their evolving narrative. Such sequences present an unusually direct form of communication between the authors of the series and their audience. They explicitly serve to prepare particular viewing postures for the audience. The opening titles present a series of promises about what narrative forms, visual pleasures, formal approaches, and themes to expect. They indicate who the authors believe their audience is. In addition, they offer the most direct expression of the authors’ perception of what is most important about the work. Much can be deduced about the changing understanding of the audience and the series by its authors through closely investigating the evolution of the opening credits sequence.

Willow (giving a tour of the high school to Faith): “And over here, we have the cafeteria, where we were mauled by snakes.” Xander : “And this is the spot where Angel tried to kill Willow.” Willow: “Oh, and over there in the lounge is where Spike and his gang nearly massacred us all on Parent-Teacher night. Oh, and up those stairs, I was sucked into a muddy grave.” — “Faith, Hope, and Trick” (B3003)

Seminar work at the Humboldt-Universität Berlin (Institut für Kunst- und Bildgeschichte) discussing documentary and propagandistic character and content of the two works of Leni Riefenstahl 'Sieg des Glaubens' and 'Triumph des Willens'. Contains a sequence analysis and comparison in style and rhythm of the opening credits of both films.

Opening title sequences play an important role in understanding television series. They are “a film within a film” whose “very purpose is to serve a whole array of functions: copyright law, economics, certification of employment in the context of careers, movie title, entertainment, commercials, fashion, and art” (Stanitzek 45, 46). Opening title sequences are but one example of what Gérard Genette terms paratexts, which are secondary texts that influence the reading of the primary text, such as book covers, title pages, author names, interviews, ads, reviews, and public responses. Genette likened paratexts to thresholds or vestibules, in line with Jorge Luis Borges’ description of prefaces (Genette 261). In film and television, opening title and closing credit sequences often function as the equivalent to the covers of a book, marking its beginning and end. Yet those metaphors are inexact. Some films eliminate the opening titles entirely (e.g. Citizen Kane (1941), Star Wars (1977), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)). On television, title sequences are increasingly contained within the text after a cold open, yet still serve to mark its borders. Lost (2004-2010) and Heroes (2006-2010) popularized the practice of showing only the series’ title, highlighting this function (Gray 74). Yet borders do more than mark territory: they also guide travelers. Like other paratexts, opening title sequences “guide the reader’s attention, influence how a text is read, and communicate such information as to give a text its first contours, its manageable identity so to speak. And paratexts are important not only for the process of textual reception but also for text production; they function as indicators to be aimed for, as structures of literary expectations” (Stanitzek 32). They are a film within a film that is both about the narrative and an independent creation. Even Lost’s sparse title sequence tells a story about the series’ themes of mystery, displacement, trauma, and insight through the rich cult television history of the score’s glissando and its tonal destabilisation (van Elferen 254-258), the title’s swirl evoking the series’ iconic plane crash as it moves from background to fall offscreen in the foreground, and its letters that come into momentary focus before clarity is once again lost. Opening title sequences are a form of narration, a pleasure in their own right, a genre of short filmmaking, and a mark of authorship,1 but not that of the auteur—as “it is the work of specialists, title sequence designers, themselves readers foremost” creating with incomplete access to the series’ final form and contingent on network and creator approval (Stanitzek 48).

This article describes the variation in title sequences for American television series (a sequence of moving images and sound at the beginning of a television series). Using a quantitative survey of 50 contemporary fictional television series, it explores key features of the television title sequence – such as length, credits, characters, sound and style – and relates these to its functional characteristics. In so doing, the article provides a synchronic snapshot of a significant contemporary cultural product that viewers regularly engage with and enjoy. The survey not only shows the variation inherent in these cultural products, but also pinpoints areas that are worth investigating more closely and in depth.

This article argues that two modern reinterpretations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, that is the BBC's Sherlock (2010–) and CBS's Elementary (2012–), differ in their representations of the city in ways that bear significant political ramifications. In particular, Sherlock repeats many of the social structures of Conan Doyle's stories that construct an imperial cosmopolitan vision of life in London, while Elementary offers an interpretation of Holmes's life in modern New York with a critical cosmopolitan ethos. Building on the works of Craig Calhoun, Ann Stoler, Paul Gilroy, and Walter Mignolo, this article argues that imperial cosmopolitanism refers to a colonial node wherein the global circulation of goods and people leads to increases in segregation, social differentiation, and ethnocentrism, whereas critical cosmopolitanism refers to circumstances under which the arrangement of the global city creates increased contact between various kinds of people as well as decreased social differentiation, which may lead to mutual understanding, solidarity, and what Lauren Berlant calls political empathy. This article demonstrates these two divergent approaches by analysing the programmes' aesthetic choices, depictions of social contact between Holmes and the diverse inhabitants of the city, and the representations of women, particularly with regard to the casting of Watson. As a result, the article finds that Sherlock depicts London from above as a space that must be strategically traversed to maintain social distance, while Elementary depicts New York from street level as a space wherein Holmes learns to encounter diverse others as co-equal citizens and the audience is invited to experience multiple perspectives. Consequently, Sherlock reiterates an imperial cosmopolitan view of urban globalisation, while Elementary includes key preconditions for the emergence of critical cosmopolitan mentalities.

Esse artigo pretende identificar nas produções audiovisuais feitas por
Saul Bass (1920-1996) para o cinema a lógica da remixabilidade (Manovich, 2005) e entender como as tecnologias digitais podem contribuir para a hibridização de elementos de diferentes mídias na linguagem audiovisual. A partir da análise dos créditos de abertura do filme Casino (Martin Scorsese, 1995) e da relação com estudos de Lev Manovich (2005; 2007; 2008), Lucia Santaella (2007) e Arlindo Machado (1997) pretende-se apontar como o remix foi potencializado com as
tecnologias digitais de manipulação de sons e imagens.

Palavras-chave: Design audiovisual; Remixabilidade; Mídias digitais; Créditos de abertura; Saul Bass.

Unter allen Randerscheinungen der Fernsehserie ist der Abspann die am stärksten marginalisierte. In der TV-Ausstrahlung werden die End Credits einer Serienepisode meist ‚abgeschnitten‘. Diese ‚Unterschlagung‘ setzt sich auch auf neuen Distributionskanälen fort: So bricht die Streaming-Plattform Netflix den Episodenabspann stets vorzeitig ab. Wohl auch wegen seiner wenig auffälligen visuellen Ästhetik scheint er nichts zur Erzählung beizutragen und somit für Sender wie Zuschauer_innen entbehrlich. Auf der auditiven Ebene erfüllen Serienabspanne aber durchaus narrative oder diskursive Funktionen, die das Rezeptionserlebnis verlängern. Sei es die Einspielung der Titelmusik, die Verwendung eines populären Songs oder aber die stumme Darbietung der Credits: Der Beitrag untersucht, welche rezeptiven Mehrwerte der Nachspann bietet und inwiefern dies der dispositiven Handhabung des Outros durch das Fernsehen und durch fernsehverwandte Formen widerspricht.

With firm step, the hands behind his back and haughty smile, a young man
dressed in a white tunic walks by a gallery illuminated by a soft chiaroscuro. A stable traveling accompanies his firm steps. The camera’s gaze leaves behind
paintings that remind unattended by the walker. Under them, The Young
Pope’s credits appear on neon lights, as if they were giving information about
the paintings. The frieze of chronologically disordered images from different
epochs and styles is stitched by a kind of Star of Bethlehem, which becomes
progressively destructive and sets fire to the painted scenes. The guide star,
transformed in a meteorite, finally impacts with a sculpture of John Paul II and
becomes La nona hora (Maurizio Cattelan, 1999). The wink that Lenny  dedicates to the spectator breaking the fourth wall advances some key traits of the young pope’s character, by reminding previous examples of this gesture from cinema and television as well. In this article we intend to analyse The Young Pope’s opening, attending to the meaning born from the collision between the pictorial references showed along the travelling.

This essay is the first in a three-part series about ideology and space on AMC's lauded television show "Mad Men." See the attached link to "Flow"'s website, where the article was published, for embedded videos intended to be viewed alongside reading the essay.

En la actual tercera época dorada de la televisión, el consumo de masas ha demandado un abanico multidisciplinar de ficciones que abarcaran desde el romance has-ta el horror pasando por el misterio, el thriller, la violencia. Las series de mayor éxito nos han invitado a sentarnos en la mesa a la hora de la cena con una familia de la mafia, a compartir asesinatos junto a serial killers o nos ha perfumado de tabaco y alcohol desde una prestigiosa agencia de publicidad. De la misma forma que la evolución de la ficción televisiva está disfrutando de un impor-tante auge, sus aperturas también están ganando un relevante peso en el campo audiovisual. En este sentido, han dejado de ser meros objetos informativos cargados de con-tenido escrito para formar parte de una narración con su propia estructura, texto y signifi-cado, que contextualizan y definen la serie que les precede y en los cuales prima lo artís-tico y creativo frente a la información escrita. El objetivo de este trabajo es la identificación del grafismo con el tono visual y la construc-ción tipográfica que se desarrolla en las aperturas de las series. A partir del análisis de Dexter (Showtime 2006-2013) y Hannibal (NBC 2013-), esta investigación se centra en el estudio de tres aspectos. En primer lugar, conceptualiza el uso de las tipografías y sus vertientes artísticas. En segundo lugar, evalúa el concepto actual del asesino en serie uti-lizando los casos de Dexter Morgan y Hannibal Lecter. Finalmente, analiza los openings de ambas series.

El 2006, la cadena de televisio per cable Premium nord-americana HBO (Home Box Office), maxim artifex de la renovacio qualitativa experimentada en el nou mil·lenni per la ficcio serialitzada televisiva, estrenava una nova serie: Big Love (Mark V. Olsen, Will Scheffer , HBO: 2006-), una valenta aposta —constant inequivoca en el seu afront per oferir productes diferenciats amb una qualitat cinematografica— que abordava el controvertit tema de la poligamia en una familia mormona situada a l'estat de Utah. Aquest article ofereix una breu aproximacio a les claus narratives que ajuden a descodificar una posada en escena mitjancant la qual se sutura la fallida amb el convencionalisme social i es col·loca l'espectador en una posicio decisivament critica i activa en la interpretacio de la forma en que es construeix el relat al llarg dels dotze episodis que formen la seva primera temporada.

This essay explores some of the ways that analyzing opening titles can help us to understand the processes by which filmmakers forge an implicit contract with their audiences. In order to do so, it makes use of a detailed case study of title sequences in the ...

Die Vorspanne von Fernsehserien übernehmen vielfältige Funktionen: Als ein Modul des Episodenanfangs mit hohem Wiedererkennungswert kann das Serienintro narrative Substanzen wie etwa Figuren oder Handlungsorte vorstellen, Themen und Motive der Erzählung etablieren und/oder Genrekennzeichnungen vornehmen. In all diesen narrativen und diskursiven Setzungen sind auch stets emotionale Bedeutungsstrukturen angelegt, um den Zuschauer nachhaltig in die Fiktion zu verwickeln und an das Format zu binden. Gerade die bis zu 2 Minuten langen Sequenzen neuerer Fernsehserien entfalten mitunter komplexe assoziative und affektive Netzwerke, die die handlungsbezogenen Erwartungen prästrukturieren und damit emotionale Gratifikationen versprechen. Mittlerweile als eigene Kunstform betrachtet, hat der Serienvorspann unterschiedliche Emotionalisierungsstrategien ausgebildet, die mit bestimmten audiovisuellen Repräsentationsmodi verbunden sind. Diese sollen im Beitrag vorgestellt und diskutiert werden.

Vortrag auf dem Nachwuchs-Forum „Emotionsgeladen“ am Dies Academicus der Universität Bonn (17.05.2017)

... True Blood, serie prodotta dalla HBO tra 2008 e 2014, sotto la direzione creativa di Alan Ball fino alla quinta delle sue sette stagioni, ci propone un riuso spudorato dell'immaginario – anche il più stereotipo – legato ai vampiri, al contempo richiamando la nostra attenzione sulle modalità auto-consapevoli, ironiche, culturalmente engagé con cui l'operazione viene svolta ... Il risultato è una serie che offre al suo spettatore almeno due tipologie di gratificazione: quella più immediata e generalista del sesso, del sangue, del mostruoso, e quella, ulteriore, del gioco ironico e citazionistico, dell'horror come veicolo per la discussione di problematiche storiche e sociali di ampia portata.
Stiamo guardando Escape from Dragon House, quarto episodio della prima stagione.... Nel caldo umido e soffocante del profondo sud americano i personaggi fanno sesso e si trovano invischiati in torbide vicende di droga e violenza; mentre le rivendicazioni dei vampiri richiamano in modo esplicito e ammiccante le battaglie civili degli afro-americani e delle minoranze sessuali.

Dalla versatilità metaforica del tropo vampiresco, alle sue derive post-femministe; dal rapporto della serie televisiva con le opere letterarie di Harris alla agency della produzione e del marketing: testi, contesti, sottotesti di True Blood.

Auteur/réal: Alexandre Tylski
Histoire des génériques de films
ARTE (TV) / 2012-2015 / 30 x 5 min

Episode 1: Il Etait une fois Saul Bass (Diffusion: 28/11/12) 
Episode 2: Les Génériques des Sixties (Diffusion: 05/12/12)
Episode 3: Les Génériques du Cinéma Français (Diffusion: 19/12/12)
Episode 4: Le Générique selon Jean-Luc Godard (Diffusion: 09/01/13)
Episode 5: Les Génériques des Années 90/2000 (Diffusion: 16/01/13)
Episode 6: Il Etait une fois Pablo Ferro (Diffusion: 27/03/13)
Episode 7: Les Génériques chez Spike Lee (Diffusion: 03/04/13)
Episode 8: Les Génériques de Films de Guerre (Diffusion: 23/04/2013)
Episode 9: Les Génériques de Super-Héros (Diffusion: 07/05/2013)
Episode 10: Les Génériques de films à Hong-Kong (Diffusion: 05/06/2013)
Episode 11: Les Génériques de films de Woody Allen (Diffusion: 25/09/2013)
Episode 12: Les Génériques de Bollywood (Diffusion: 08/10/13)
Episode 13: Les Génériques de Films d'Horreur (Diffusion: 30/10/13)
Episode 14: Il était une fois Maurice Binder  (Diffusion: 22/11/13)
Episode 15: Les Génériques chez Martin Scorsese (Diffusion: 17/12/13)
Episode 16: Les Génériques des Teen Movies (Diffusion: 05/02/14)
Episode 17: Les Génériques chez Jim Jarmusch (Diffusion: 25/02/14)
Episode 18: Il était une fois les Génériques de Westerns (Diffusion: 12/03/14)
Episode 19: Les Génériques selon Alain Resnais (Diffusion: 26/03/14)
Episode 20: Les Génériques de Comédies musicales (Diffusion: 10/04/2014)
Episode 21: Les Génériques chez David Cronenberg (Diffusion: 19/05/ 2014)
Episode 22: Il était une fois le générique de Duel (Diffusion: 11/06/2014)
Episode 23: Il Etait une fois les logos détournés  (Diffusion: 18/06/2014)
Episode 24: Les Génériques du Cinéma Japonais (Diffusion: 10/09/2014)
Episode 25: Les Génériques de Roman Polanski (Diffusion: 30/09/2014)
Episode 26: Les Génériques  d'Alfred Hitchcock (Diffusion: 04/10/2014)
Episode 27: Il Etait une fois les génériques de parodies (Diffusion: 10/02/2015)

Das Serienintro (auch Titelsequenz) hebt als ästhetisch auffällige Schwelle eine Episode aus dem Fernsehprogramm hervor und gibt sich als Zugang zur seriellen Diegese. So ist die zeitgenössische Titelsequenz zu einer Kunstform geworden, die oftmals ikonische oder kinematografische Bilder aufgreift. Diese bis zu zwei Minuten langen Vorspanne, die vielschichtige Funktionen erfüllen, werden mittlerweile häufig besprochen. Wenig Aufmerksamkeit kommt dagegen dem minimalistischen Gegenstück zu, den nur wenige Sekunden andauernden Intros, die auf den ersten Blick ‚nur‘ den Serientitel einblenden. Diese Titelkarten sind ein Produkt der beschränkten Sendezeit im Fernsehen. Inwiefern unterscheiden sie sich von Vorspannen in der Art und Weise, wie sie auf ihren Referenztext verweisen? Der Beitrag untersucht das formale und funktionale Gefälle zwischen Vorspann und Titelkarte, und diskutiert die ästhetischen und narrativen Möglichkeiten des ‚kleinen‘ Intros.

From mythology stories emerges the future germ of the comic book and the social function of the superhero is to maintain order and good in society (mainly American society). The superhero is pure American culture and his evolution is related to the development, growth and mentality of American society.

Superman was the first hero in the context of the world of comics. Superman was created as a reference within the Great Depression and was shown as a rebellious and anti-system character. It's obvious that the evolution of the superhero was linked to the social and historical context. During the Second World War flourishes the well known Golden Age of the comics and use the icon of the superhero for propagandistic purposes, always from the North American side. The American superhero is represented as the man of the future based on noble ideas. He is the one who preserves the peace, who fights against the enemy, and the one who maintains the order. It's the victory of the good over the evil.

However, the personal development of the superhero has been matched to a greater humanization of the character with more common problems. In this way, the success of the superhero of the end of the century lies in a greater approach to the human versus the divine through a darker path in which we are faced with serious ethical and moral conflicts. The pop culture has facilitated the resurgence of the masked (and unmasked too) hero like a symbol that is part of our social imaginary. That's why there's a great identification and similarity between the post-superhero and us.

As perfect imperfection, the superhero's new model (or post-superhero) is a faithful representation of the fragile society who surrounds the pop culture's icon: erratic, violent, visceral and more human than divine with ethic and moral dilemmas. Across the study of the Marvel's Jessica Jones (Melissa Rosenberg, 2015 –) and Luke Cage (Cheo Hodari Coker, 2016 –) openings, we'll analyze the graphic transformation of the Superhero and how it changes to our days as the Superhero role does too. The subject of this work is to analyse in depth the identities of the superhero through its evolution, trying to discover its repercussion in the openings sequence.