OPENING TITLE SEQUENCE CONVENTIONS IN DEXTER

BY LIAM HOWSE

IDENTIFYING OTS CONVENTIONS IN DEXTER

In the opening title sequence of the TV show, Dexter, many conventions are shown throughout. Some examples are;

• Introducing Actors/Actresses(Crediting main cast/Top billing)

• A title is shown

• It establishes the genre of the show(Thriller/Crime)

• A main character is introduced. (In this case Dexter, which means the show follows his life)

• The opening is made to be enigmatic as it's purpose is to make the audience want to know more about the show, in which they have to watch it in order to find out

• Memorable theme music

CONNOTATIONS OF CONVENTIONS

In the opening sequence the conventions connote a variety of things.

The theme music sets a sub-genre of crime and mystery as it has a ‘detective’ feel to it. (Similar to Sherlock Holmes music).www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XPlA6-dMGQ

In the opening there are many scenes like this in which displays murder in an innocent manner. The knife slicing the orange is perhaps symbolising someone being killed as well as the clip where he is slicing up the meat. It

makes it enigmatic.

Establishes/Introduces the main character, Dexter. We know he's the main character as the whole

sequence focuses around this one guy.

From the title, we can also establish a genre from the color and the font.In Dexter we can tell this is a thriller as even though you may associate blood with horror, the font tells us that it's not because horrors tend to have a more sinister look, whilst this is more mild.

As well as setting the main genre, many sub-genres are indicated throughout.

HOW DOES ‘DEXTER’ COMPARE TO THE STARTER (‘HACKERS’ AND ‘GO’)?‘Dexter’ is different from ‘Hackers’ and ‘Go’ as all three of these slightly vary in terms of sub-genre. There are many differences between ‘Dexter’ and the two films as ‘Dexter’ is a TV Show meaning that some of the conventions differ. When you compare TV Show openings and film openings, you tend to see a big difference as with a film you only view it once where as with a TV Show the opening is used on every episode meaning you view it many times. A convention that is often seen between these two is theme music as in a film, opening music isn’t always required where as on a TV show it’s needed because that’s what makes the show memorable, the theme music. This has been the case for many TV shows like Dexter, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Stranger Things, American Horror Story etc. Also the intro for a TV show doesn’t really reveal anything of the story whilst for a film it’s compulsory. TV shows are perhaps displayed as more enigmatic than films because with a TV show it’s trying to make you wonder what it’s all about before you actually watch it.

WHY DOES THIS OTS HAVE THE CONVENTIONS YOU NAMED?

It has the conventions I named as they are extremely common in TV shows. Every single OTS you watch, will credit the primary cast, shows a title, establishes the genre, either establishes the setting or the main characters and is enigmatic in order to keep you interested into watching it.

WHAT CONVENTIONS ARE NOT APPLICABLE AND WHY?Sometimes not all conventions are applicable to a certain TV show or film, whether it’s down to the genre or the overall story, they aren’t always necessary. Here are a list of conventions that appear in other OTS examples that don’t feature in ‘Dexter’

• Distribution companies (No distribution company is required as it’s obvious who distributed it as it features on CBS)

• Establishing the setting (The setting isn’t always established in TV show opening title sequence as it sometimes focuses more on the main character as shown in ‘Dexter’)

• Diegetic sound (In the opening title sequence of a TV show you don’t have diegetic sound as the character(s) don’t see the opening)

ARE THE CONVENTIONS IN YOUR OTS TYPICAL IN FILMS IN THE SAME GENRE?

EVALUATE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE OTS?