Let’s say a movie takes place in London, 1890.
The opening scene is a foggy urban setting, where horses and carriages clop about. But just so the audience is aware, words on the bottom of the screen say “London, 1980.”
Is there a more specific term in the movie industry than “words on the screen”?
Titles, typically.
Did we really have horses and carriages clopping about as recently as 25 years ago?
Oops, I meant 1890.
I’m just a lowly sometime indie filmmaker, but this is how I term them: At the beginning of the film, ‘Titles’; at the end of the film, ‘Credits’; within the film, ‘Captions’.
Let’s call it the “Establishing Title.”
There’s not a tourist trap at one of the large parks in London or anything like that with the whole Hansom cab thing these days?
I can see it the original way. It’s a foggy night. As a hansom cab trudles by, a caption appears: LONDON 1890. A shadowy figure slinks into an alley. The prostitute there greets him. It’s been a good night. She might make enough for her opium and rent. She doesn’t see the knife until it’s far, far too late.
A montage of the killer, the prostitute and the knife… We hear the clop-clop clop of a horse’s hooves on the cobblestones. The killer looks in the direction of the sound.
A closeup of the horse-drawn vehicle, similar to the first shot. As we track it, it passes a row of parked cars. The caption reads LONDON 1980.