Comparing Media

Duel and Speed - Title Sequences

Duel - Steven Spielberg

Camera -

Strapped to the front of the car, as if from the engine's view. Pans following car in an extreme long shot. Views in mirror of driver, as if from passenger's point of view.

Editing -

The shots dissolve to indicate the passing of time as the journey goes on. It cuts from the car's view to see the car from far away. In the car it pans up from the windscreen to see the mirror.

Sound -

Diegetic: Sound of the engine and traffic outside.

Non-diegetic: Sound of the radio being tuned and random snatches of talking, which continue through the dissolves, suggesting it isn't diegetic.

Mise-en-scene -

The city is busy and colourful. The desert is barren and beige, there is no traffic apart from the red car which stands out.

The mountains in the background emphasise the isolation.

The man has cracking sideburns and aviator style sunglasses, placing him firmly in the 1970's. He has a shifty way of slicking back his hair which could indicate a macho-cool character.

Titles -

Come up on screen in white initially, to stand out against the dark tunnel, then yellow over the rest of the film.

They do not detract from the focus of the sequence, they are at the side.

As usual, Spielberg's credit comes up last.

The arresting aspects of this sequence are the way it is as if we are seeing it from the car's perspective, which indicates the film will focus on the car, and the way we do not know where the man is driving to, so when he reaches the desert it is as if he has abandoned the safety of the city.

Speed - Jan de Bont

Camera -

The Camera simply moves down an elevator shaft as if on top of the elevator.

In the first scene it moves following the character.

Editing -

None until the very end where it cuts without us realising, during a shot of a girder, to move forwards in the shaft.

It cuts straight to a scene in the basement.

Sound -

Non-diegetic: Thrilling music, big reverbial drums at the beginning. It then starts to sound quite like typical action movie music, and builds to a crescendo at the word Speed, after which it changes to quite fast tempo drumming, but still maintains its original instrumentation.

Mise-en-scene -

Very dark, we see some security lights in the shaft. The building is evidently very large, and everything is made from iron and concrete.

Titles -

Are in a really awful font, Big blue illegible words appearing at the right of the screen. The word Speed appears in a different font in the centre.

The actors names come up first, and the director's last.

This title sequence relates only really to the first scene and doesn't explain anything relevant to the movie, it is just a sequence over which to write the titles.

Comparison

Duel is probably the better title sequence, because it relates well to the rest of the film, and give us a sense of what to expect. It sets up the story and captures our interest from the beginning, whereas speed's beginning made me want to kill myself. The one thing which was better about Speed was the inclusion of music to capture the attention and create a mood of tension and adrenaline, however the imagery of a descending elevator was somewhat uninspired.