Research: Opening Credits (Mr. S)

Opening Credits

Opening credits are the sequence of acknowledgements toward who did what in the making of a film. They are short and run simultaneously with special footage to accompany the credits as the viewer waits. Credits are there as a form of promotion as well as for legal purposes. the written information is presented to the audience, serving as a basis or foundation on how to judge the film - depending on credits such as how famous the actors/actresses are and what movies they have previously starred in. 

The opening credits are effective in thrillers when merged with sound to create tension and fear within the audience. They can create a more meaningful response when the images do not  make complete sense, stirring question and interpretation between the interaction of people watching in the cinema or together at home. 
Another important factor of opening credits is that they are essential information to connect with the audience, so they have a brief understanding of the production.

Traditionally, a set of opening credits flows in this order:

• name of the studio e.g Universal, Dreamworks, Warner Bros
• name of the production company 
• name of the product or
• name of the director e.g "a film by..."
• starring e.g main characters played by famous people
• the title (name of the film)
• name of the editor
• name of music composer 
• name of writer (storyboard)

Often, other credits are included such as casting, photography, co-producers, co-executive producers, executive producers, and costume.
So why does it appear in this order? One could argue that it goes as level of importance. The name of the studio is shown first because they are the ones who paid for the production of the film; they 'own' it. That's also an immediate alert to our brains on what type of movie this is. For example, Dreamworks release many films for a young audience. 
Other movies may take on a different route, because some people think the general order shouldn't always be the same. It could also be conventional to the genre depending on this order.

An example of this is Se7en. The sequence goes as:

company, producer, director, actors, title, actresses/actors, title, actresses/actors, casting, music, costume, editor, production, photography, co-producers, co-executive producer, executive producer, writer, title, producer, director 

I find it interesting how some credits are repeated, when in a traditional order, this doesn't happen. It's intention may be to emphasize that this film is unlike any other and you are about to embark on a unique viewing experience. Quite so, Se7en inspired many future thrillers to come. The actors and actresses' names are spaced out during the whole 2 minutes and 9 seconds. I would call this a teaser toward the audience as, naturally, after seeing a movie once we would like to find out who the characters are. The actual actor playing the character of the antagonist (Kevin Spacey) isn't mentioned at all. When noticing this, people are encouraged to look it up. So in a way, the experience doesn't end once the story does.

Conclusion
I think I would follow in the example of Se7en - spacing out the credits to look like the first moment of tension, as typically viewers always wait for them to finish. I'm not sure how well this would work with few people in a group though, so they may just have to be quick and to-the-point.