Film Opening Sequences

Film opening sequences

 

There are many reasons to why a film has an opening sequence. Firstly, it sets the scene and briefly lets them know what is going on. They don't want to reveal too much so they just get to the point with something big that will shock the audience like an explosion, or in a psychological way where it will be in the back of the audience's mind throughout the movie but not confuse them in any way. 

 

One way of opening a film, is having a close up shot of the main character or a character who plays a key role in the film. This is leaving the audience with a sense of the unknown to where the character will be next. This close up shot reveals all of the emotion that the character is feeling which adds shock to the audience. Also, producers like to use POV shots and handheld camera shots. POV shots really present to the audience what situation the character is going through. Normally, the scene with a POV shot includes handheld camera work. By using this technique, it worries the audience and somehow makes them believe that something dangerous is going to happen and it’s going to happen to the main character or to the character who played the point of view shot.

 

Before people see the film, they can kind of guess the genre by the film cover or trailer, but some directors like to make it clear to the audience that they are watching a horror, psychological, action etc. In a film opening, lots of non-diegetic sounds are used to create fear and tension which lets the audience know that they are watching the genre of film they thought they were.

 

One example of a film with a thrilling opening scene would be Batman: The Dark Knight. In this scene, it starts with a loud noise of a window smashing which suggests the scene that is about to follow will entail lots of action. Another example of a film with an opening scene which has a big impact would be Fast and Furious 5, where the main character Vin Diesel is on a prison bus in the middle of nowhere until out of nowhere, Paul Walker and others come and try to overturn to release their friend. This sets the mood for the audience and gives them a brief insight to what this film is going to be about.

 

In the opening scene of ‘Saving Private Ryan’ by Steven Spielberg, it shows a number of soldiers on a number of boats dressed in army uniform. This immediately tells the audience that they are soldiers possibly going to fight on a beach. Throughout the opening 2 minutes of the film, the weather reflects what emotions the characters are going through. This is a good example of pathetic fallacy. Handheld camera shots are used in the opening scene when the soldiers are on the boats. The shakiness of the camera makes the audience feel nervous and puts them at unease. In the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg used sound very carefully to have a much bigger effect on the audience and make them realise that what these men went through whilst at war was something so traumatic and awful. When on the boats arriving at the beach, there is hardly any sound. There is no dialogue between troops apart from soldiers opening up their water bottles to drink. The only thing the audience can hear is the faint gun shots in the distance which tell the audience they are edging closer to their target. The next big sound that the audience can hear, is the captain on the boat telling the troops at the front to open the door and run towards the beach. The camerawork and sound link very well at this point because as soon as they open the door, you can see German troops shooting and this is where most of the sound comes from. It goes from non-diegetic sound to diegetic sound in a matter of seconds which suggests they are coming under monstrous amounts of gunfire.