The Orphanage Credits!

The Orphanage credits,
The title sequence of the film is set in its own mini narrative. it is separate from the rest of the film, however, it's imagery and theme is significant to the rest of the movie and this create enigma within the audience as they wonder as to why these images are important for the later story.
The title sequence shows deep cracks in a wall. The camera's movement appears to fly through the cracks while twisting and turning. This gives quite a fast paced and dizzying effect to the sequence and creates suspense as the viewer is hurtled over the decaying wall. The cracking of the wall may also be significant as it may suggest the decay of a relationship or life style of the children who are involved. The cracks could also suggest the foiling of a plan as perhaps there is something wrong with it. The lighting and dark colouring of this shot suggest that some thing sinister has happened to the children. The cracks may have something to do with the common phrase ‘the cracks are beginning to show’ which again suggests the truth about something will appear as perhaps a plan will fall apart.
The next shot is the shadow of two children’s hands reaching out across the decaying walls. As there are two hands, the viewer can tell that there is more than one child involved; the shadows create an eerie feeling in the viewer as the shadows may suggest that the children are forgotten and left alone in the dark for long periods of time. The hands are reaching out to each other in the shot but can never touch each other. This suggests that some thing is holding them back and keeping them in a place they do not like and also suggest that the children may suffer some type of abuse and isolation.
There are also lots of shots of children’s hands pealing back layers of wall paper to reveal the titles. This may represent the pealing back of layers to uncover hidden secrets. The style of the wall paper is also very interesting as it is a very old vintage style that it not very child friendly. This may suggest that wherever the children are they are not looked after appropriately or perhaps the person they are with does not like children or know how to care for them.
The colour of the wall paper is a black and white design on top, however, as the children’s hands rip it away it uncovers a red coloured wallpaper of the same design underneath this may suggest a change in time or perhaps an ‘old to new’ style which may suggest that the children’s life has changed dramatically. The change in colour from a dark to light could suggest that the children are ripping down the dark wall paper as it represents a dark and unhappy time in their lives and they may be ripping it down as they are trying to get back to a happier time in their lives, which is represented by the lighter colour of the wall paper underneath.
In conclusion, I think this style of opening credit is really effective. Many films use the separate form of titling in a mini narrative and this one works very effectively as it raises so many questions in the minds of the viewer. It reveals subtle information about the main themes of the film which can only be confirmed by watching the entire film. It creates suspense and enigma as the viewer is unsure what will happen to the children and what situation they are in.

I think this form of titles are really effective, I have been researching mini narrative titles and my favourite is still the opening to ‘The silence of the lambs’ (which you can watch on our blog) I like this because it is so effective at raising questions in the viewers as well as revealing snippets of information about the film. I like the fact that the mini narratives are often distorted slightly to create enigma in the viewer, like in the titles of the film ‘Old Boy’ the distorted clocks in the opening create questions as to what is happening and also conceal vital information about the film which can only be found out by watching the entire film.

I would love to be able to do something like this in our opening credits; however, I am unsure whether I would be able to recreate something as professional in the amount of time given. Our opening sequence can only be two minutes long and so we would not be able to establish the story and create a mini narrative in the amount of time we have been given. So we will have to rethink this idea!!!
Hollie
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