The opening credits to Vertigo are introduced with a close up of half a woman's face. The viewer is aware that this unknown character is a woman, due to her lipstick, but her full identity is concealed, creating an element of mystery and suspense, making the viewer eager to carry on watching. The background is completely black which connotes danger and further mystery.
The camera then moves across to reveal the woman's complete pair of lips in a close up shot. Her facial expression from what can be seen within this shot looks fairly relaxed and so, the audience is not yet concerned. By slowly revealing more features of the woman's face, the tension is built for the viewer as they become increasingly more eager to find out her full identity.
The camera then gradually moves up to reveal the woman's eyes, her eyes look slightly uneasy and fretful, this creates further tension and suspense and starts to build an eerey atmosphere. The viewer is left asking questions and becomes interested as to why she appears concerned.
The suspense begins to rise as the woman's eyes begin to move frantically from side to side; implying that she is watching something terrifying.
The camera then zooms in to show an extreme close up of the woman's eye, the close up allows the viewer to notice that she now has tears in her eyes; connoting fear and distress. Her pupil now remains completely still, suggesting that she is fixated on something. This builds the tension and suspense further and causes the viewer to feel eager to carry on watching.
Quickly after this, a red filter is added to the shot, red is known for it's ability to connote danger and violence, therefore this use of colour causes the tension to rise even further.
The title sequence begins to reach it's climax as the woman's eye widens in shock/fear, this helps to build an eerey and unrestful atmosphere. The audience are unaware of why the woman appears to be so frightened, therefore this sense of the unknown will prepare them for the main plot of the film as they will be eager to learn the woman's fate. At this moment, the non-diegetic soundtrack also increases in volume and pitch in order to build the suspense and tension for the audience.
A spiral effect is then added, this adds to the effect of suspense and mystery and leads to the idea that the unknown woman may have been hypnotised and is now under the influence of something or somebody, assumingly with negative motives. The audience now begins to ask even more questions just as the title sequence draws to a close.
The same spiral effect used for the previous method then cleverly fades out as the remaining credits begin to appear. The audience is now left both concerned for the distressed woman and compelled to find out what will happen to her throughout the main plot. Vertigos' title sequence is extremely effective as it introduces a concealed character very briefly whilst introducing an element of terror, causing the audience feelings of eagerness regarding viewing the rest of the film, whilst starting to anticipate the content of the main plot.
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