In order to get a real feel for what our title sequence should feel like, I thought I should analyze a few other title sequences to get the feel of what a mystery movie should be like. I chose to do both version of Murder On the Orient Express, one from 2017 and the other from 1974. Not only will it show a comparison between the two movies, but also the change over time of mystery movie sequences.
1974 Version
Since the first two minutes are literally just titles, I chose to look at the following scene of the sequence. The crime is introduced through newspapers with various superimpositions and graphic match cuts of said newspapers. The lighting of the broken into house is dark with some color correction to make it look blue and most likely evoke more sadness. The editing isn’t too fast paced as the crime is taking place and the villain would need to be quiet when committing said crime. The use of a newspaper superimposition shows that the story is newsworthy and a big deal if it made the front page, so someone would need to investigate the crime that took place. The dark lighting concealed the criminal’s identity, so we wouldn’t know who did it. The sound is mostly non-diegetic as it’s just a soundtrack over the events taking place. The fonts and letters appear black and red at the reveal of a murder of the kidnapped little girl. The first scene just reveals what the detective is meant to investigate rather than the detective starting an investigation immediately. Different cinematographic elements such as tracking shots of the killer, long shots of the car driving away, and deep composition demonstrates the evasion of the killer and how easily they can hide their identity. The few props used (teddy bear, newspaper, crushed toys, etc.) showed that a little girl was the one taken and the destroyed things could also represent a destroyed childhood.
2017 Version
As seen in this title sequence, they don’t introduce a mystery at all, but more introduce a detective and that he has some crime to solve, but it is unknown to the audience at the moment. The sequence shows a tracking shot of a child running in the beginning, the audience doesn’t know what for. The child is dressed in the attire appropriate for the region they’re in, Jerusalem. Little ellipses are used to show the child running up to a house and the small time passage within it. The child then delivers what is now seen to the audience as eggs, the props used, to a chef, as seen by his white costuming and the decor of everything in the kitchen. A close up is then seen of an hourglass to show the eggs cooking, but could also show the time crunch of the detective in the future of the movie. A midshot is seen of a man with a French accent, but the back of his head as the eggs are delivered to him. The non-diegetic sound in this scene is high pitched and fast paced to demonstrate the child’s rush in collecting the eggs. The next few shots are short fast shots of the child getting eggs and cuts to a long shot of the man about to eat the eggs. He then measures the egg very precisely. The significance of the measuring shows how precise he is and hints at him being a detective. The guard even says how he needs to “perform a miracle” to solve a mystery. The dialogue hints to him having to solve a mystery quickly, or something significant if it’s a miracle.
The differences between the two of these shows how mystery has evolved over the last 5 decades, as there’s more symbolism in modern mystery movies instead of just having the titles and the crime revealed to the audience as in 1974.
Into The Truth 