Order of film openings

The structure of film very similar in most movies. Usually we see the production companies first, followed by the director then the protagonist. There are three types of film openings.Narrative opening, discrete title sequence and blank screen with title sequence.

Narrative opening: Narrative opening is when we see the titles while movie is running. An example of this is in The shining. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw23KM3-Ry8

A blank screen with title sequence is exactly how it sounds like. The titles appear over the a black screen starting the most important ones. In this blog I will be using Buried as an Example.

Main production company

Another production company

Another production company

The director is usually at the beginning especially if they are very well known.

 This is followed by the protagonist of the movie. In this case Ryan Reynolds. Also stars in Green Lantern.

 After we see the title of the movie.

Crew members who are lower on the ladder. These would include costume designers, script writer, make up

and so on.

 Lastly in this movie the opening sequence ended with the name of the director.

Most opening sequence have a structure. One way to look at it is by using the a hierarchy ladder. The most important ones are at the top which means they show up first.