ABSTRACT
Informational structures tend to dominate the analysis of title sequences- the design and aesthetics of the title cards/montage presenting the individual credits- or their function as an introduction to the drama that follows. For film theorists and practitioners, how to employ synchronization in motion pictures has been a point of theoretical concern guided by the commercial shift to "Talkies" in the 1920s. Heuristic theories of use modeled on 'lip-sync' act to hide other theoretical concerns in the decades since its introduction. Elizabeth Weis and John Bolton's authoritative anthology on the role of audio, Film Sound: Theory and Practice, provides a range of approaches to film sound. Title sequence designers do not consistently engage with the aesthetics of audio-visual synchronization until their design becomes a source of prestige and critical attention. The centrality of visual music to existing theories of audio-visual synchronization provides a historically complex and well-established set of theories that overlap with approaches apparent in commercial title sequences.
