Research into title sequences

Opening titles 

Opening title sequences are often short to allow more time in the short film for the plot. Some filmmakers have a specific style of title sequence that can be seen throughout their shorts. On sites such as YouTube opening titles are often left out as the title can be seen throughout the film just underneath the video player. Opening titles can consist of just the film’s title or can also include information about the cast and possibly crew

Types of opening titles

The artsy montage - The artsy montage is a montage of shots of items that give hints about the films tone or plot. These are accompanied by overlapping text

Stray Dog by Bertie Gilbert

The 56 Year Old Boy by Bertie Gilbert

The lead in - The lead in can consist of a montage but the main difference is that the final shot leads straight into the film

The Fleeting Little Life of Peter Wright By Tim H and Sammy Paul

The plain text on blank background - The plain text on a blank background is exactly that. Text on a plain coloured background

7.2 by Nida Manzoor

The plain text overlay - The plain text overlay is similar to the plain text on blank background but instead of being over a coloured background it is overlaid onto the film 

Growth by Elliot Gough

The art card - The art card is a still image that is usually a drawing of the title that is relevant to the film, this can be then followed by a plain text on blank background to list the actors

The Forever Train by PJ Liguori

Closing titles

Closing title lengths can vary from seconds long to a minute, depending on how many people are involved in the project and the style the sequence is in. Just as some filmmakers have a specific style of opening titles they can also have styles of closing tiles. Some short films do not have closing titles and just end. Closing titles contain information about the cast and crew and can sometimes include the title of the film.

Types of closing titles

The plain text - Plain text on a coloured background. The words fade in and fade back out again to change who is on the screen

Office Space by PJ Liguori

The scrolling text - Like the plain text but instead of fading in and out it scrolls along the screen

7.2 by Nida Manzoor

The montage - Made up of clips either from or linked to the film, The text is usually overlaid over the footage but can be followed by a plain text  to get more information across quickly 

Don't Do It by Elliot Gough

The using clips/stills to identify actors - This is made up of clips and screenshots of the characters in a memorable moment and when they appear on screen so does the name of the actor. These are often surrounded by plain text titles and/or scrolling text titles 

7.2 by Nida Manzoor

The inspired by the film - These will often link into the theme of the film, for example the film bellow is about a man who is allergic to technology so the title sequence is on a cork-board

Technophobe by Cyprien

Closing title sequences can also be followed by small after credit scenes such as the example above that can add a small joke or round of a small side plot.

Title sequences on films hosted on websites such as YouTube can differ to traditional short film title sequences. Often they have either an opening title sequence or a closing title sequence. If they have both, one of the sequences usually lasts only seconds to make sure that the film isn't too long. Also closing title sequences often include annotations which make parts of the video clickable, these can take viewers to other videos they have made, behind the scenes footage, or other content creators that were featured in the short. They can also act as text boxes to rely small parts of information that aren't in the credits or that describe where the clickable link takes you. Another difference between traditional shorts and YouTube shorts is that some content creators already have set branding that they put on all of their videos such as an end screen (such as the example from Office Space) so these will often appear at the end of short films.

Music is also an important part of title sequences. The music has to fit the tone of the film or it'll not fit. For example if the film is a comedy, the music can be fast paced and happy but if it is a sad drama the music should be slow and maybe on a piano.