Analysis Of The Game Title Sequence

The title sequence of The Game (David Fincher, 1997), a mystery thriller which conveys the genre through its STINCS, is a compliation of a home video with a piano piece soundtrack. The production logos are included in the title sequence as they turn into puzzle pieces with flowing water sounds, one of the elements featured in the title sequence, water, is present from the begining. 

The sequence shows rich family life as they prepare and host a childs birthday party in what looks like a 1950's setting, a older man who the audience can assume is the childs father looks uninterested by the goings on around him as the happy looking adults engage in conversation. There is also a shot of his silhouette smoking inside by a window. In a title sequence shots of the young boy and his father in the same position by a hedge appear four times, once at the beginning then dotted throughout. On the third time the father gives the boy a model boat and on the fourth he walks into the darkness behind them. This could connote that the father will leave this life he shares with his family and leaves the boy with darkness in his place. These elements help create the thriller mystery genre as there are no identitys given to the many characters shown and the audience can't be sure of who else will be a main character.

There are two pools in the garden setting, one by the tables and tents and the other further back. They are explicitly shown twice throughout the sequence and are in the background of other shots, this makes water constantly present. The first time water is explicitly shown is a shot of the model boats on the closest pool, one of the boats is the one the boys father gives him. The other time is when a boy gets pushed in the other pool by a group of boys who get told off by a woman, the audience can assume that the boy pushed in is the main boy. Without seeing the film the audience can already infer some of the themes of the film such as family conflict and a fear of clowns which in the film will be part of the actual game where the thriller parts of the film are. The final two shorts are of the boy smiling and a womans hands fussing over his hair with a warm sepia effect over it which cuts to the boy as a wrinkled middle aged man splashing water over his face. The man has no emotion and the room around him seems metal like and cold, which is a stark contrast to the shot before.

There is no typography and very minimalistic sound during the title sequence, this could be because the director and designer wanted the audience to focus and take notice of the significant deatails on screen. This helps create the mystery thriller genre in the sequence as the piano music paired with the grainy footage is quite eerie.