Film Openings..

In today’s lesson we watched a documentary about film openings we were given the task of answering eight questions based on what was being said for the duration of the documentary. It consisted of different men such as Thomas Sutcliffe, the critic Stanley Kauffmann, Orson Welles and many more talking about their views and visions about how successful films should truly be. One thing that I specifically remember is the mentioning of all films needing to be entertaining from the first point in which it and the audience meet, which is in fact the trailers. I found it useful because it became tips to remember when creating our task of a two minute opening sequence. Soon after the highly educational documentary was finished we learnt about the four classic film openings, firstly the classic instant arousal which is an obvious impact that will ensure the audience watches the remainder of the film by satisfying them straight away. Secondly, the classic slow approach which is a small taster of what the film will have in store which lures the audience into watching the length of the film. It gradually builds up to a peek. Third, a title sequence which sets the tone through the credits, sometimes without having to introduce the main characters and last, the flash back approach, in which the opening of the film is also the way the film ends, this also has to have a large impact to make the audience want to find out how the character got into that predicament in the first place. Overall, all the styles of openings have the purpose of setting up questions that the audience expects to get answered later in the film and that is what makes it successful. My most favourable style of openings would be the title sequence approach because it allows a lot more space for creativity. My least preferable would be the instant arousal approach because I learnt that the risk of it is not being able to fulfil the audiences desire for more impact later on in the film and I would personally like to challenge myself into being able to sustain the audience up until the end of the film and not disappoint them.