BLOG ASSIGNMENT: Opening Sequences

What is the purpose of opening credits?
Opening credits aim to inform the audience of the main of the members of the production, it usually includes the key creative roles such as the name of the studio, production company, main members of the cast, music scoring, etc. The opening credits usually have a similar order of mentioning across different films.


What is the difference between opening credits and a title sequence?
Opening credits are usually nothing more than informational text superimposed in post production, where as the title sequence is how the film chooses to present their title. The title sequence is stereotypically what separates the main action from the opening credits. The two included examples are some famous and iconic title sequences.

Vertigo (1985)

Anatomy of Murder (1959)

What techniques can be in an opening scene?
Opening scenes employ a variety of different techniques and methods. In terms of camera shots often there will be establishing shots that allow the viewer to draw their conclusion of the setting and time/era. Media with opening scenes such as these will often include camera shots like extreme long/wide shots, shots of the scenery or landscape and can include other techniques like time-lapse, birds eye view shots, PoV and many more.  But the convention of starting with an establishing shot is not the only way of starting a film. They may start the with the opposite of a establishing shot, an extreme close up, this also sets the scene but in a very different way, it uses mis en scene to imply to the viewer what the setting is. A good example of this is To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), where the close ups of a toy box, crayons and pencils show the viewer that the film is set in a some sort of children's area, the reason this technique is usually used is to leave the viewer with a sense of mystery. Other film starlings include stating with intense action to draw in the viewer, and allows them to get a grip of the setting slightly later in the opening scene, such as the film The Hurt Locker (2008). These more abstract beginnings to films don't give much idea of setting because it is not their main purpose they usually have the purpose of intriguing the viewer and giving a sense of genre, mood and tone of the film.

In terms of sound there is usually a variety of diegetic sounds (e.g. voices, moving cars, animal sound, etc) depending of the setting but in more abstract opening there can be silence, muffling, heavy breathing and all sorts of different sound effects that evoke certain felling amongst the viewers like fear of suspense. The non-diegetic sound in opening scenes is usually typical of the genre of the movie. Editing in opening scenes will vary from movie to movie, some will start with very fast cuts, but other movies feature very long cuts for example the movie Gravity (2013) has a first cut that last 17 minutes. There can be harsh cuts, fades to white, black or simply to the next image and all these different cut types and length are used to particular purpose within the film.

In terms of Plot, a opening scene is usually at the beginning of the storyline, but it doesn't have to be, an opening scene may start in media res, where the movie starts in the middle of the plot such as Iron Man (2008). This technique is used to get the reader on the edge of their seat. Also a movie can show the end of the plot in the opening scenes and then reveal how they got to that point such as the movie John Wick (2014).