Different Types of Opening/Title Sequences

COMMON FEATURES OF AN OPENING SEQUENCE
In an opening sequence, you could expect the mood, tone and genre to be set in some way to help the audience identify what kind of film they are watching. You may also expect there to be some indication of who the main characters, however, this isn't always the case. The sequence may give some indication of the setting of the film, whether it is on some desert island or in a big city. Of course, the audience would expect to see the title of the film as well as other credits such as director, producer and the actors names.

DISCRETE
These opening sequences are like a mini film before the main film itself begins. It helps to set the mood of the film without giving away what happens in it, yet still identifying the tone and genre of the film. This type of sequence is discrete because it doesn't give much away. An example of this is 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo', which show the title of the film and some related images, without giving away any of the plot.

TRADITIONAL
This type of title sequence gives the title of the film and the other credits, however, it doesn't show any of what will happen in the film. An example of this is '21 Jump Street'.

STRAIGHT INTO FILM 
Opening sequences like this jump right into the film without anything else happening before hand, like another sequence. 'Scream' is an example of this. Not only does what happen have little relevance to the rest of the film, but, there is non title sequence, the film begins with a girl in her house, straight in to a piece of action.

STYLISED
This is a mixture of discrete and straight into film. One example of this is Mersine.