Wednesday 17 April 2013

A detailed analysis of ‘Grease’ credits/titles


The film opening credits I have chosen to analyse is Grease.  Grease’s title credits are very unique credits. These title credits of the opening help setup expectations in the audience for the rest of the film.

The title credits first appear after some of the main footage which is very important to the storyline after the titles it then goes back to footage again.  The opening title credit are all cartoon animated, this is what makes the Grease titles unique as the rest of the film is set back in real life. It also then makes the titles fun and the audience will become entertained which would be the main purpose of Grease as it takes the genre of a musical.

The piece of important information that the audience gets is the name of the film ‘Grease’, the name grease is integrated into the titles, this is when the guy squeezes his hair product the name grease comes out then a blue car fades behind it and the production names come in. The car then gives clues to audience that cars may be significant in the film.

The next piece of important that the audience gets is the important cast members in the film. This are simply but affectively put into the titles as once a character enters the scene the  screen always fades to white and there cartoon animated picture fades in along with the name of the actor fading in and the character’s name fading in to. The Names of the cast members all come all in bright colours this then catches the eye of the audience and shows that the film will happy and will possibly have a happy ending.

The non-diegetic music in the background mirrors the name of the film ‘grease is the word’ and makes the movie more remember for all the audience. The music has a happy tone this also hints to the audience that  the film will be a happy film and there won’t be any serious issues in the film and makes the introduction to the film light hearted and easy for the audience to follow.

The next piece of important information the audience get is when the film is set. The date ‘1950’ is integrated into the back of the number plate, this is effective as the audience can start to build ideas about what the characters costume, the  setting of the film and the type of music that may be played throughout the film.

By showing each of the main characters in different situations it shows some of the characteristics each of the main characters hold. For example the character Rizzo keeps changes her outfit this shows that her character is into her looks and is very indecisive.  It also helps the audience to decide which characters they will like in the film and which ones they perhaps may take a disliking to.

The rest of the important information are all integrated onto billboards as the characters drive by them, this is like the extra character like the ‘pink ladies’ and the ‘T-birds’, the director and the producer of the film all things that are important to the audience, these are important as they can make the audience create judgments of the film this is because if they have watched a film by the same producer then they might think that it will be a similar film to the one they have watched.

As the titles end they fade back into the real life footage. This is an establishing shoot of the school this then hint to the audience where the film will be set and it also then helps the audience establish the target audience to teenagers as they would easily be able to relate to it as it is set in high school. The lighting is very bright this then reinforces the light hearted tone to the film and also makes the introduction have a happy mood. The happy mood then hints to the genre that it is a comedy/romance.

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