Title Sequence Analysis: Sin City

The title sequence begins almost black at an extreme close up of a building, and as the camera zooms out, speckles of white and grey begin to appear. As the camera pans around, a long shot of a city full of tall buildings becomes visible, and as the camera continues to pan around and tilt down, it eventually stops, showing the city from a bird's eye view angle. While at this angle, there is a graphic match as the buildings create the outline of the words 'Sin City', the title of the film, and then the text illuminates through a white flash of the buildings' lights. Once the title is visible, red blood starts to pour from the top of the screen and covers the title, suggesting that the film may be violent and bloody, and the red of the title contrasts well with the black background for easy legibility but also suggests an aspect of mystery within the film. The creator's name then fades in at the top left hand corner of the screen in an italic, blocky, capital font which makes it look dynamic and so suggests there is an action element within the film. All of this takes place within seventeen seconds, meaning the introduction is very animate and interest-provoking, meaning someone is going to be intrigued, excited and will want to see more.

In contrast to the very animated opening, the titles then fade out to a black screen which stays on for around three seconds which seems like a long time to wait after how filled with action the opening shots were, meaning the audience is temporarily left on the edge of their seat, interested and waiting tensely for what's next. There is then a series of titles, which are no longer than 4 seconds in length and cut in and fade out, that consist of a black background, a black and white cartoon drawing of a character and a red title of the actor's name which is displayed in a scratchy, dynamic styled font, again suggesting an action/fighting element within the film. The cartoons used represent the fact that the film is based on graphic novels, but also keep some mystery as to how the characters will look within the film, leaving you excited to see how the characters will look. This cartoon style also fits in well with the colour scheme as they're outlined and block shaded, meaning they contrast well with the background, but because they're sketched they look scratchy and edgy, fitting in with the font that is used. Throughout these, some of the name titles pan from left to right, and some pan from right to left, suggesting that the characters displayed may be from opposing sides within the film.

After the series of character titles, there's another series of credits titles that feature the same red, black and white colour scheme and the same scratchy, distorted, 'bullet-holed' styled font to suggest action, violence and danger within the film, but this time there is a stream of red running through the names on the credits, suggesting bloodspill and violence. All of these titles fade in and fade out, and the titles begin central and slowly get bigger and proceed towards you.

There is music playing throughout the title sequence. It begins quite eerily with a bluesy bass line, suggesting jazz and a gangster genre. A saxophone then begins to play over the top of a character title of a female in a raunchy tone, suggesting manipulation through sex within the film. The saxophone fades out and the bass continues until an eerie clap sounds and a high pitched, scratching noise takes over. Among this, there are sound effects such as a also very low pitched, muffled sounds that sound like slowed down, manic laughter, suggesting some form of evil antagonist within the film, and sounds such as gunshots. All of these come together to create a sinister, tense sound that has you on the edge of your seat, and they gradually build up to the title credits where there is a symphony of violins that sound manic and overwhelming, suggesting some downfall within the film, which then quickly stop, leaving the music to start quietly again with the bluesy bass line as it did at the beginning of the title sequence.