The function of opening title sequences

Greece was one of the opening title sequences I looked at. The genre is conveyed through the upbeat soundtrack giving connotes of positivity with features of the title of the song adding to the musical element. The use of the comic style text also suggests the genre of musical or hybrid genre of romance/drama. 

 The style of animation which is bold is similar style to the text tying them together and also character drawings exaggerating the fun and uplifting tone to the film.

The use of 'as' when naming the actors and their characters suggests it is a musical as this is what is steriotypically done in musicals and in theatres.

The setting is also clearly shown through the title sequence. We are shown its set in America through the characters such as Elvis Presley and Marlyn Monroe which were famous Hollywood celebrity's in America at this time, But also the school shown is a steriotypical American school. This also tells the audience the time, which is around the 1950's as this is when these celebritys were popular but also the costumes and cars used are in the style of this era. 

When the animation of the highschoool transitions into real life it emphasises the importance and relevance of the school, maybe foreboadin g that this is where the main events of the story occur.

The sequence suggests a slight romance between sandy and danny but may go through some struggeles due to their juxtaposing bedrooms as danny's is messy and dirty where as sandy's is big and grand. Cars may be a key concept in the film as they are featured a lot in the opening. Lastly that there will be some form of rebellion as a lot of the male characters are wearing leather jackets and smoking giving connotations of bad boys. 

The characters introduced include:

• Danny a lazy, vein, cool, laid back and leader due to being not grouped with the others .

• Sandy a rich, feminine, kind, beautiful and Nieve female shown when animals dress her (snow white\Cinderella). 

American horror story was the second opening title sequence I looked at. The genre is established by the disturbing soundtrack/ effects such as creeking, the font of the text being quite gothic and the dark mysterious lighting all telling the audience that this is a horror.

The tone is very dark and mysterious caused by the lack of dialouge and characters shown causing a feeling of mystery towards the audience.
The key titles that appear include the name of the film, director and key actors. 

We know it is set in America due to the title of the movie 'American horror story' but also the setting of the basement which is something American homes steriotypically have.

The suggestion of a mystery of some sort of murder is what may occur from what we have been told by the opening sequence which is shown by the props such as baby's in jars and flash photos of children in black and white.

There are no characters introduced adding to the mystery of the scene, apart from one shot when a person walks past the camera adding suspicion to who this is maybe that they are discovering what is happening. There is also a white dress shown showing innocenece and the female steriotypical victim.

In conclusion I think that both of them do equally as well at establishsing genre but the greece sequence is more clear at showing characters, narrative, set and time.