Opening sequence

Opening Sequences

What's the purpose of opening Sequences? 

The purpose of an opening sequence is for it to establish the mood and visual character of a film. It is also used to introduce the viewer to all or some of the elements such as Characters, locations, plot, themes and narrative.

What's the difference between opening credits and a title sequence? 

In some films, the title sequence is preceded by a cold open. The opening credits help establish the setting and the tone of the program.

What Techniques be employed in an opening sequence? 

• Quick cuts -  portray lots of information to the audience as well as create suspense to the thriller genre.
• Opening sequence to show setting. This clearly gives information to the audience and can create more suspense clearly based on what genre the film has been set in.
• No music playing during an opening sequence can give the audience a sense that there is some sort of suspense that is showing within the film, because music can usually be reassuring to the viewer. Although if there is no music and only natural sounds then that can also create suspense during an opening. 
• Pan shots in an opening sequence portrays a lot of about the setting and could create a certain type of mood for the film. 
• Most opening sequences will portray the main character from a broader view then by using the pan shot it will portray all of the other subsidiary characters, then pan back to the main character. 

Demonstrate how both films achieve the purpose of the opening Sequence, and contrast their techniques.


Modern Thriller;

(Title) Happy death day 2U
(Release date) 13th February 2019
https://youtu.be/l5GXYOMgUTI

• Uses of Diegetic sounds to create suspense for the opening sequence e.g sharp sound effects.

• sleeping in the car shows that the character has no room/house to go to,  This can be portrayed as the character is 'homeless' The rubbish on the floor clearly portrays that he is homeless. 

• Panning shots - shows the front of the car from the inside then showing the character using the driver's seat as a bed.

• Wide shots have been used to show the audience more about where the scene has been set and whom the character is around, in this case, he is around students at a university. 

Hitchcock film;

(Title) Vertigo
(Release date) 13th March 1997
https://youtu.be/S4K8oIxzgns

• Non-diegetic music to start the title sequence can cause suspense for later on in the first scene.
• Close-ups on the lips, this here gets the audience curious as to what the close up of the lips have to do with the movie and as to who that character is and what they have to do with the film.

• The colours were changed from black and white to red - this could be a symbol of how there could be some sort of death that could happen further in film. 

• The spirals that have been shown could also be another symbol for someone falling (either into a hole or just falling in general)