The Opening Credits

Today I overheard as my teacher mentioned to another student that for the opening credits we need to research what credits are conventionally included within our genre. I was so caught up with what I believed was the general structure for credits for all films (studio company, production company, director, actors, and title) that I completely forgot the very obvious fact that not all films follow this pattern. As I processed my mistake I started to think about the adventure movies I've seen and trying to recall their opening credits. I couldn't distinctly remember seeing the main actors names in the opening credits. I tried to find some openings online of films of the genre but I didn't have much luck.

When I got home I rummaged through my DVD cabinet and I luckily had a small but varied collection of adventure films. I watched the first ten minutes of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, The Hunger Games, The Lord of the Rings:The Fellowship of the Ring, Sherlock Holmes (although action they are slightly similar genres so I thought I'd take a look a it too) and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

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Out of the 5 adventure films and Sherlock Holmes Narnia was the only one that included their actors names into the opening credits. All of them featured the title with the exception of The Hunger Games which I though was really strange given that it was already an established brand and a film with a wide expectant audience. I wish I had a film that wasn't a famous brand before release to see if anything was different; the only thing I got close to was Star Wars since it was the first film released out of the entire franchise. All of them included the studio/distribution company montage and 4 out of the 5 included their production company; wether it was a montage or A _ Production written in the begging of the film. Sherlock Holmes and Harry Potter where the only two that did not include the production company. They are both Warner Brothers which lead me to believe that Warner Brother might not only be its own studio company but also its own production company but taking a quick glance at the back of the Sherlock Holmes DVD I see that it was produced by Wigram Productions. 

In conclusion, I can establish that actor names in the credits is not a typical choice for adventure movies so I will revise my storyboard to omit these. The name of the director is also not commonly shown so I will omit it as well. 

I chose to adapt the Lord of the Rings as a template for my opening credits: Studio company montage (Orinoco Pictures), studio company (Orinoco Pictures Presents), production company (A Streit Production), and the tittle (Prodigy) to best fit with the conventions of my genre and allow me to avoid altering to much my already-established opening.  

P.s: The studio company for Lord of the Rings is New Line Cinema, I forgot to include it in the chart.

Sources:

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Dir. Andrew Adamson. Perf. Tilda Swinton, Georgie Henley, William Moseley. Walt Disney Pictures, Walden Media, 2005. DVD.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. Dir. David Yates. Perf. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint. Warner Home Video, 2011. DVD.

The 

The Hunger Games. Dir. Gary Ross. Perf. Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks. Lions Gate Entertainment, 2012. DVD.

The Lord of the Rings the Fellowship of the Ring. Dir. Peter Jackson. Perf. Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom |. New Line Home Entertainment, 2001. DVD.

Bohush, Peter. "Opening Credits: Who, What, Where, When and Why." New England Film. N.p., 31 July 2012. Web. 02 Apr. 2016. <http://newenglandfilm.com/magazine/2012/08/credits>.

Sherlock Holmes. Dir. Guy Ritchie. Perf. Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams. Warner Home Video, 2009. DVD.

Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. Dir. George Lucas. Perf. Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness, Peter Cushing. LucasFilm Ltd, 20th Century Fox, 2004.