Most people have had the experience of losing themselves in a film but probably haven't given much thought to the transition we go through mentally and emotionally as we move from reality to fantasy. Film titles help to create this transition. The attention narrows, the “self” slips away, and the film washes over the senses. Film titles set the dramatic stage; they tune our emotions to the proper pitch so that we enter into the humor, mystery, or pathos of a film with hardly a blink.

Rich Greenberg is a traditionally schooled designer who now works entirely in film. His recent Dracula titles are a classic teaser. He begins with the question: What is this film about? Vampires. What signals vampires for most of us? Blood. Greenberg believes that a direct approach using the simplest idea is usually the best. “What I do in film is the opposite of what is done with the print image. Dracula is a very good example of the process. There is very little information on the screen at any time, and you let the effect unfold slowly so the audience doesn't know what they're looking at until the very end. In print, everything has to be up front because you have so little time to get attention. In film you hold back; otherwise it would be boring. The audience is captive at a film-I can play with their minds.”

Special effects are also of interest to Greenberg. In Predator, the designer asked, How can I create a feeling of fear? He began by exploring the particular possibilities for horror that depend on a monster's ability to camouflage himself so he seems to disappear into the environment. The designer's visual problem was to find a way for the object to be there and not be there. It was like looking into the repeating, diminishing image in a barber's mirror. To complicate matters, the effect needed to work just as well when the monster was in motion.

Whether designing opening title or special effects that will appear throughout a film, designers have to keep their purpose in mind. According to Greenberg, “Nobody goes to a film for the effects; they go for the story. Effects must support the narrative.”