Title Analysis Sequence Harry Potter And the Prisoner of Azkaban

A good title sequence that I like: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

 The opening shot of the movie is an establishing shot in order to show the location of the house. The camera then transitions into a long shot which bring the camera closer to the main character bringing them into view. The camera floats through the glass of the window which distorts the camera for a moment and then continues in the protagonist room. The camera then frames the room and stays still allowing the viewer to see the main character and the secondary character in the same room. This opening sequence is extremely effective as the first few shots indicate magic as the theme of the film as the camera travels thought the glass without breaking it and hints at what is come later in the film. The main protagonist Harry Potter is practising a spell in his room and they use a mid shot to show this because they are able to have the secondary character react to the random flashes of light, This is made comical as the audience can see Harry do an action e.g. lighting his wand and then hiding it as Uncle Vernon bursts in to the room with a confused look on his face. This a good start to the movie as it gets the audience to think the movie is same as the last two but it is quite different from the last two.

(This a great video that analyses the whole of The Prisoner of Azkaban.)


A Bad Title sequence that I dislike: Twilight

This opening sequence does quite a poor job at introducing the main character as it starts with a quote and a camera shot of a deer being tackled by an unseen character and then moves the audience to a different location with the main protagonist. While this works at setting up a mystery of what or who killed the deer, the main character just turns up out of nowhere and starts talking about her leaving her mother which just takes the audience out of the moment of mystery and leaves them very confused about the overall plot of the movie. It could therefore have been improved by interspersing the main characters conversation with the shots of the deer being attacked. This would have kept some intrigue about what was happening but also would have been less confusing for the audience. The sound used in this opening scene does not work well with the idea that they have created.