Target Audience Video

Crime Genre - Codes and Conventions

Film Research - Conclusions

I have looked at five movie openings for my research, Gone Girl, Amelie, Zombieland, Unfriended & Now You See Me. I used the first two films because I thought they both exhibited interesting ideas. With Gone Girl, I like the empty shots of the streets and the blue tinted lighting. It created a sense of mystery and despair. I thought it was a smooth and simple way to start a movie.
Amelie interested me because of the montage style. I liked how it introduces the character without saying a word and shows the creativity and imagination of a child. I'm not opposed to the idea of using a montage for  my opening as I think it would be interesting to see how we could incorporate mystery and a montage together.


Zombieland was a cool opening sequence as it was both comedic and had the generic conventions of a horror film (zombies, blood, death). I like the use of a narrator in this because he lists a set of rules you have to do to survive the zombie apocalypse, which I thought was good at grasping my attention and keeping me interested as it could actually benefit me if it were to happen in real life (of course it's unlikely to happen but the opening makes me feel like it could happen by the fact that it's set in America and that there was mass hysteria and panic, which would happen if a zombie attack happened). I feel like an narration could be good because it does set up films well and is a convention of an opening sequence.


I like the opening of Unfriended as it sparked a lot of mystery (for instance; why was Laura hated ? Who were the people that were involved? Who is the person watching the video? etc).  This is the exact thing we want to include in our opening, the idea of creating questions that the audience would sit and watch an entire film just to find out the answer. I also like the lack of dialogue in the opening as creates tension along with mystery. I believe that not using dialogue is more effective than using it, which is why i thought it was interesting here and would like to incorporate it in my opening.

Now You See Me was intriguing because it ranged from exiting and dramatic (the woman and the first man) to simple and amusing (the second and third man). Taking the audience those sort of emotions engages them substantially as they do not know what will happen next. They get excited by big and spectacular moments, but they laugh and feel at ease with the simple ones. It would be cool to include this create those certain emotions in the viewer, however, since we are only as students,  are limited by our resources and budget.

All of these opening titles have something in common, they overlay the names of the actors on the footage and have the production and distribution companies before we are shown an of the film. As this is a common occurrence in my research, I think its necessary to include this idea/convention in my opening. I will do this by having my made up companies name come on screen before anything else.

Overall, I think the mystery included in the first, and last two films is what I would like to do with our opening sequence as if it were a real opening sequence, then it would keep the audience interested and make them want to watch on. It's not to say that we still couldn't include a narrator or montage though. Personally, montages would be fun to make and would create question for the audience (such as; why was that take in there? what are they doing in that shot? etc).

Mystery Box Theory

Here, JJ Abrams explains his theory on his 'mystery box' idea. It is something I hope to include in my opening sequence due to the way it will engage the audience and make them want to watch on further.

Developed Ideas - Continued

One of our group members had the idea of making a dramatic comedy for our opening sequence. On the one hand, this could be a good idea because I think we could take it in a lot of different ways and really experiment with the style of the camera shots, music and editing. It also would be a lot of fun to make too, which would bring the best out of all of our group. On the other hand, we realise that making something funny for the audience is difficult, especially without making it look cheesy and tacky. We also know that all of our group members know a lot more about dramatic films than comedy films. Personally, I think we should stick with what we know best in terms of genre.

Developed Ideas

Here, we looked at the conventions of an opening sequence we found online. This was really helpful as we gained a better idea of what directors use in their opening sequences. We thought that the idea of an enigma could be really effective as it would leave the reader wanting to know more.

Initial Ideas

These are our initial ideas. We looked over a few different ones, such as what genre we wanted. We thought that a thriller or something associated with teenagers was a good plan. We also added a few film that fit that particular genre/idea, this is so we can research the opening to gain an idea on how to film our opening.

Preliminary Task: Feed The Fish

Overall, I thought our preliminary task wasn't that great. At times, the dialogue was too quiet. We will improve this for our final film by having either the camera or external microphone closer to the subject. Also, I noticed that the camera was out of focus quite often. This can be easily improved by taking extra attention to whether it is focused or not, perhaps even getting a second or third opinion.
However, I think that some of the camera shots used were quite effective, for instance the last shot when the camera rises with the actor. We will use similar shots like this for our final film.

Se7en - Opening Sequence Analysis

Considering the fact we are changing our opening idea to more of a montage style, I don't think there's a better example of what can be used as inspiration for our opening sequence. It incorporates double exposure shots that can create a mysterious feeling in the audience; it has creepy shots of children and scribbles that relate to people in the real word (can be twisted to be about a specific girl); gritty, dull colours that can can evoke an uneasiness and judgement in the audience.

I think this works as I can include the idea of 'the mystery box' where the audience will be asking questions about the shots they see that can be revealed later on in the film. This is what I think a good  movie opening should do and I reckon we can achieve that mystery feel using Se7en as inspiration.

Film Opening Sequence Research

GONE GIRL (2014)

The sequence creates interest for the viewer through the dialogue. We hear this when the male narrator says 'When I think of my wife, I picture cracking her lovely skull'. This creates immediate interest as we think that the husband perhaps ahs some sinister plan to kill his wife, and she doesn't know it. This also shows the characteristics of the husband, that he is perhaps violent and aggressive in his nature. This would interests the viewer because they want to see some action and excitement in the film. 

The opening sequence establishes the setting by having shots of the beach (which tells us that they are in rural and secluded setting) and the town that the couple live in. This shows where the film is mainly going to take place (at least that is what the viewer would expect when you see a dozen shots of a town in the opening sequence). The characters are introduced through the shot of the wife looking up at her husband. This shows her as perhaps dependant on her husband, shown through her clinging to him. Also, her staring at him might show how she idolises him and is deeply in love with him. The husband is introduced through the shots of him at the end of his drive way, seemingly looking for something/someone. This shows him as quite curious and eccentric.

The opening sequence establishes tone through the use of lighting. We see this throughout where the lighting is very dim with a cold, blue tint. This implies that the film will be quite cold and dark.

Not much of the opening sequence tells a story. It merely establishes the setting and characters. I thought this was quite effective because it leaves you wondering what the film is about and makes you want to watch on to see why everything is the way it is.

It starts off with the 20th Century Fox and Regency animations, then followed by titles of the two companies and the directors name. Then we see the first shot where the wife is lying on her husband. This tells me that in my opening to consider putting the institutions before the first shot of the opening.



AMELIE (2001)

The opening sequence of Amelie creates interest for the viewer by having a montage of various, quirky things that kids do (such as eating strawberries off fingers and peeling glue off her finger). Through the use of this montage, we see what the character is like and what she will be like throughout the film. This sets the film up in a light-hearted and innocent way.
There isn't a narrative going on in this sequence, it's simply a young girl going about her day like any kid would. For the audience, this makes them feel somewhat relaxed as it eases them into the film before the main story actually starts.
The background in this scene is quite dim and dull. This suggest that the film may have a dark tone to it, which is in contrast to the innocent girl having fun. Also, in every shot, it looks as though the shadow is circling her. This may suggest she is trapped or has something she wants to escape from.

ZOMBIELAND (2009)

The opening sequence of Zombieland creates interest for the viewer by having the narrator list a set of steps to survive a zombie apocalypse. This engages the viewer as they are being taught something that they know is possible, but don't know how to handle. Perhaps some might watch it wanting work on these survival tips to become better prepared for an apocalypse, which increases the immersion and interest value of the opening.
We don't particularly see much of a narrative. The narrator sets the scene by describing the America we all know as 'the United States of Zombieland'. This gives the audience context as to what has happened before and now they know what threat the healthy minority (not infected citizens) have to fight against to survive.
We see a montage of clips of people running away from zombies. Even though the scenario would be terrifying for anyone in the audience in that situation, but the contrapuntal music and the facial expressions of the people are quite amusing.
In a sense, the opening sequence has a dark humour to it (shown with a zombie burping after eating a human), this tells the audience that the film they are watching will be in the same light, joking about in a dangerous situation.

UNFRIENDED (2014)

The opening sequence to this film shows a person on the website 'Live Leak', watching a video on the suicide of 'Laura Barns' (in which Laura shoots herself in a courtyard). The title of the video has a link to a video that 'forced her to kill herself'. The video shows Laura blindly drunk being harassed and filmed by a group of teenagers at a party. The video is then interrupted by a skype call from 'Mitch'.
Interest is created in the viewers because after seeing the two videos, we want to see why Laura was disliked so much and we want to find out more about why the person on the computer is watching something this distressing (perhaps the person is linked to Laura in some way). It also creates interest as we are seeing the film from a very different perspective, as the pc screen. The audience can now place themselves in the shoes of the character in front of the computer and as a result feel more immersed in the scene. Presumably, most of the audience has watched a video on the internet before,  so this further engages the viewer.
Similar to the other opening sequences I've studied, not a lot of the narrative happens in the initial scene, this makes the audience want to find out the who, what, when, where, why and how's of Laura's suicide.
The distribution company Universal Pictures (owned by NBCUniversal) title animation comes on before the first scene. However, it was edited to suggest that someone or something was hacking into it (the screen starts to glitch and appear pixelated). This not only sets the tone for the film as mysterious and enigmatic, but also show the audience that not even the big companies can escape from the 'hacker'. This makes the characters in the film chances of stopping them almost impossible.

NOW YOU SEE ME (2014)

In this opening sequence, we are introduced to four magicians. The first who performs a card trick, the second performs hypnosis, the third slight-of-hand and the fourth escapology. This establishes the main characters for the movie and we get to see each of the characters specialties. This could create interest in the viewer because they can see how manipulative they are and how they can misdirect someone to into believing on thing but not focusing on the main thing (this is similar with the third characters scene where the man doesn't realise his wallet is gone until it's too late). Also, the audience might consider magic to be an impressive spectacle, this opening scene shows tricks that could potentially get better as the film goes on, which would excite the viewer.
The opening sequence sets the tone and atmosphere for the film as comedic and mysterious. This is done through lines like 'Every time you see, or even think of Janet, you're going to picture me naked' and 'The closer you look, the less you see'. These lines tell the audience that not only the film, but the characters will be funny and enigmatic. I like the idea presented here and will look to put it into my opening sequence.