RESEARCH: ART OF THE TITLE: DEADPOOL

THE TITLE SEQUENCE OPENS HERE

The opening to Deadpool opens with a close up freeze frame which gradually fades out, revealing the utter state of carnage that the anti-heroic protagonist has left upon the (presumably) hired goons that are featured in the extract. This is very effective as it immediately immerses the audience in the comedic and (often violent) style of the Deadpool comics, thus keeping the film faithful to the source material even from square one.








In an unusually inventive and refreshing style, the opening credits to the film are depicted in the freeze frame with comedic twists to them, as rather than stating the names of the people involved in the film, the titles are replaced with tongue-in-cheek jabs at Hollywood stereotypes for example another 'British villain' and an 'overpaid director', bluntly telling the audience 'what they really believe' about the people who worked on the film, as well as describing archetypal characters in the film rather than by name. Soundtrack is also used to great effect in the opening as all diegetic sound is faded out, and the music used is the song 'Angel of the morning', which completely contrasts the carnage in the scene as the choice of song is very calm and classical, which evokes comedy when it is played over the scenes of destruction and violence.


In an interview with Tim Miller featured on Art of the Title, he states that in order to get around the requirements of a named cast and crew, if they didn't name a single person in the opening they wouldn't get into legal trouble whereas they would if they named one person but no one else, then legal action could be taken. Tim stated that "It was an issue that was discussed, but it ended up not being a problem because no one had real credits. So they weren’t treated like real credits. If we had “Ryan Reynolds” up there then we would have created a problem." Tim also went on to further discuss the challenges and joys of working on the sequence, for example the creative freedom they had due to its use of complete CGI was extremely useful in keeping the creative team motivated and pleased with the result as they had such a fixed idea of what they wanted to include, and this certainty ultimately shows in the end result as its seamless execution and the clean flow of shots into one another creates perfect comedic timing as well as perfect exposition, which makes the Deadpool opening one of the best I've seen due to how it differs from your typical AA Superhero film opening like Captain America: Civil War, which is much bleaker and simpler with a darker palette in contrast to Deadpool's humour and ability not to take itself too seriously