We have looked at many title opening sequences of news packages that feature in London. Here are some of the main things that are needed to make a professional opening sequence.
There needs to be a theme. By this, it means that the colour scheme of the website; logo; title sequence; headings; blog etc, all need to have the same colours so that the news company can be distinguished. For example, ITN London have chosen blue and white as their theme, so anything that they publish has the same colours used. As a team, we have chosen to use white, red and black - something simple yet has that established look for a news package.
In addition to this, the title sequence needs to be short - approximately 30 seconds to capture the audiences' attention so that they want to carry on watching. It should have footage of London in it, because that way the viewer has established the location of where the news is held. There may also be some footage of the topics we are going to talk about, so that the audience have an idea of the topics that will be shared. Remember that the colour theme needs to stay the same throughout, otherwise the news package will not connect and will look unprofessional.
In the news packages we watched and the research we carried out, we found out the conventions of a news package includes:
1) Striking music at the start to open up the news package.
2) Types of shots used to portray a story.
3) Facts and figures that are displayed on the screen using the colour scheme.
4) Interviews from the public and professionals so a balanced argument is formed.
5) Vox pops
6) Footage of whats going on, so that people can visualise it rather than a topic being talked about.
We have posted a blog about how to form a news package.
Here is some inspiration from title opening sequences:
#ZT
Diversity in the streets of London