Conventions Of a Film Opening

The purpose of a film opening is to hook the audience into wishing to continue watching the film and also to state the genre in which the film will be, each opening of a film executes this in multiple different ways, for example, some films like to introduce the antagonist first instead of the protagonist.

 Another way in which a film can be opened by the use of a flashback instead, this is used in films that wish to make the flashback a main part of the plot, the flashback method usually makes it incomplete as it may have some importance later on in the film, for example, Memento uses flashbacks as a key part of their story due to the protagonist losing all memory of everything he has done the previous day but uses pictures as a way to keep track.

In some films they include an establishing shot of where the scene or film will be taking place in, if the film includes an iconic location it may include that as well to help the to understand which city/country the film is set in.

Some films include narrations in their openings as a way to give the audience background information on what the situation is and what each character is like, this is useful as it can help the audience to gain some insight early on so that the film will make sense later on instead of possibly confusing the audience, for example, in the film Fight Club the film includes voice-overs in the first part of the film as a way of familiarising the audience with the Narrator's inner thoughts and immersing them in the materialistic lifestyle that he expresses a discontent towards.

Another method is to start off the film with an action sequence, this is used to get the audience immediately hooked on the film and make them want continue watching to figure what is going on in the scene, this method is chosen only if the films genre requires them to include such a scene, for example, The Dark Knight starts off the film with the joker and his men robbing a mob bank of its money, this is effective as it immediately gets a hold on the audiences interest.

It is important that the film opening gives the audience some idea of the story, however, genres such as mysteries give more questions than answers, although, due to my chosen genres being a crime/thriller the same rules apply however it doesn't require to hide as much at the start as crime thrillers usually introduce the antagonists and protagonists at the same time to show the characters reasons for being important to the story, however, it is also important to leave certain details out to be discovered later on by a character that will help the films plot develop further. All film openings also include the all important title sequence that is used to show the cast and production team, sometimes depending on the way the director wishes to present the opening may include the titles in their own sequence separate from the opening scene or may be included during the opening scene as a way of building up suspense. However, there are some directors that may wish to go against these conventions and create a unconventional and unique style opening to make their opening different and more artistic than most other films.