Opening Thriller Sequence Research: Red Lights

2) Red Lights (2012) http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/red-lights/

The colours in this title sequence are mostly black and white, but some red has been included in some shots to show a contrast. It also obviously anchors to the title that connotes 'Red Lights'.

The first shot starts off with a high pitched, screeching non-diegetic soundtrack followed by an instrumental piece with a fast tempo. The initial screeching sound may be used to shock the audience and engage their attention.

The beginning of the shot also uses a letter 'flying' into the frame from the bottom left corner and assembling the name 'Cillian Murphy'. The text is accompanied by semi-transparent circles which quickly decrease in size and then fade out. These circles look like light which again refers to the title of the film.



The circles appearing and the magnification of letters repeats in the next shot, but once the letters have assembled, a silhouette of two hands appears behind the text for a fraction of a second. The image being silhouetted adds enigma, as the audience do not know whose hands are displayed in the image.

Mean while, the non-diegetic soundtrack continues, parallel to the imagery as there are 'booms/thumps' when new text is displayed to add to the atmosphere of the title sequence. 

In the shot showing the title of the film, the extra colour red is used to add contrast and significance to the shot. The red/white circles also stay in the frame for longer than the previous shots which again adds significance.
The soundtrack in this shot continues to build crescendo but at the end of the shot, a fast decrescendo is present.

The text throughout the title sequence is a sans serif font and is similar to the text in 'The Conjuring'. This font is easy the read therefore making it suitable to an audience with different abilities of eyesight.