Film Noir Opening Credits

Film Noir Opening Credits - Crime Wave

Film

This is the clip I have deconstructed - the opening credits of 1954 film noir Crime Wave.

Visual

The titles appear in quite quick succession, with their duration being about 3 seconds before it crossfades into the next one. The credits begin with a film of a road from the front window of the car, and the title 'Crime Wave' appearing in a blocky, all caps serif font. The font used is significant of the drama and action of the genre.

Names of prominent cast members then fade in one after the other, all over the top of the continuous shot from the inside of the car. A different font, less dramatic is used for 'starring' which draws more attention to the name.

The image in the background then fades into a different image, this time of cars driving up and down a highway. This title contains some more minor actors, and are arranged diagonally to fill the whole screen. A smaller font is used to show how the actors are less important.

The background then fades back into the original image, and some members of the the production team are shown. Something used here, and something I've noticed in a lot of other film noir opening credits, is that the name of the person and their role are linked by a series of full stops. This could be to make it clear who each role belongs to as it's easier to see with the full stops rather than just a space. It could also be just to fill up more of the screen.

The images in the background of the titles are used to establish the setting of the film as the shot from inside the car allows the viewer to see a variety of inner city areas, and the long shot of the cars on the street shows the business and crowdedness of the city. 

Sound

The non diegetic soundtrack used in this opening is composed mainly of brass instruments which play a fast-paced, upbeat tune representative of bustling city life. The titles told me that the composer for all the original music in the film was David Buttolph who I found through research was a composer for over 300 films. 

The music starts off low during the production company sequence and as the credits begin the main, busy melody of the song starts. I'm not sure what genre I would describe the music as, however I thought it was interesting as I found it strongly reminiscent of city life and thought we could incorporate some elements of this into our film opening. The main point I found interesting was that there was a 'main' tune with another underlying tune, which created a busy and crowded effect reflecting the setting.