Alien - film opening

Deconstruction:

The film starts out with a black screen, into which stars fade in. This immediately establishes the film as being from the sci-fi genre. Onto this star-filled background fades the white writing, naming the film company ("a Brandywine-Ronald Shusett production"). The audience is forced to see this, but is probably keen for the film to start.

This fades out and is followed by the director's name (Ridley Scott) and then the more famous members of the cast. The white writing-on-black continues during this episode, though the details of the background do subtly change to allow the audience to engage and speculate about what may appear.

As the actors' names fade in and out, graphics gradually appear at the top of the screen and eventually the name of the film is formed. The fonts used throughout this sequence are formal and sans ms - they are obviously meant to look scientific and computer generated.

The sound used is non-diegetic, atmospheric music - an original soundtrack has been used, rather than a known song, as the aim is to create atmosphere and mood, not to have the audience singing along.

Various other names involved in the production follow the actors' names and the shadows in the background continue to engage the audience by inviting them so speculate regarding what is there. Audience members who are familiar with the genre may well be anticipating something jumping out or some sudden occurrence at this stage.