The Game Title Analysis

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/the-game/

The genre of this film is a drama mystery thriller and this is portrayed in the title sequence. The basic narrative of the title sequence is home videos of a young boy’s birthday from the past. Adding the miss en scene and soundtrack creates a nostalgic/eerie atmosphere, thus connoting the genre and hinting the narrative of the whole film. The enigma of the narrative is who the boy is and why is he so important? This intrigues the audiences to watch the rest of the film as they want to know who he is and his purpose. This is one of the reasons which Richard Baily has chosen to use long shots in this sequence so the audience can see the full setting and situation of the clip. For example, the audience could see a grand house which shows the family is wealthy and upper class.

The music for the sequence is by Howard Shore who is renounced for being a conductor/orchestor in films, including the hobbit. The track for this scene is a piano playing softly, representing the elegance of the family and their wealth. I think Shore choose this track as it creates a nostalgic/ eerie atmosphere. The soundtrack with the mise en scene together creates uneasiness for the audience as it feels something is missing, which makes them feel on edge. The films soundtrack at the beginning is quite dark with the sounds of puzzle pieces and low toned orchestral music as well. This contrasts the main soundtrack of the title sequence which put the audience on edge.

The typography that has been used in this sequence is a white elegant font which is all in bold. The typography is very minimal and only at the start of the sequence; probably to put more emphasis on the home videos. The font is in bold showing the importance of the text. The font colour is white which contrast the black background. This could connote binary oppositions of good vs. evil, light vs. dark.

The mise en scene is of organic footage of a wealthy boys birthday party you can see mid-long shots of the boy with his dad, showing that family is possibly a theme of the movie. This tells the audiences that the dad and son have a very close relationship. However, near the end of the sequence, the dad walks into the darkness, which could connote his disappearance in his son life; either accidental (death) or on purpose (walking out on him). This makes the audience feel unsure about the father as they don’t know whether to trust him or not. There are multiple water related objects in the sequence which could represent the theme of water. I think this as they are multiple shots with the boy holding a yacht, a remote controlled boat moving in water and a boy getting pushed into a pool. At the end of the sequence you see a man washing his face with water, hinting he is the boy from the home videos and that it is his birthday today. You can see the contrast of their face as the boy is smiling whereas the man is sad. You can tell this by their facial expression. There are shots of the staff preparing the food for the party in the home videos, which shows how wealthy they are.

The information provided in the sequence is to show how happy the man was as a child and now how unhappy he is as an adult. These contrasts each clip and are binary opposition of happy vs. sad. It also provides hints for the film narrative, as it about a strange present the child gets as an adult.

The sequence has been edited through a vary of different cuts, fades creating a nostalgic setting through cellophane jumps. Fincher wanted to sequence to be minimal but have a great impact on the audience. At the beginning where typography is used, Baily uses a puzzle transitions to move onto the next text. Fincher said ‘the Polygram thing at the beginning with the puzzle pieces. It was just an elegant introduction to who the character is’. This is probably to show that he is a complicated man who has a piece of his life missing. This could be seen as happiness as when he is an adult, he has a sad facial expression.


Overall The Game title sequence shows its genre of a mystery drama thriller through the micro features of sound, cinematography, mise en scene and editing to create a nostalgic and ominous atmosphere and to give hint to the audience of what the narrative of the film is, combining its themes and genre.