Film Opening Sequences

In this task I had to look at a variety of opening sequences from different films. I looked at eight different openings and analysed them so I could get an initial sense of opening scenes. 

Skyfall

Fifty Shades of Grey

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Taken 3

Fast and Furious

Forest Gump

Pitch Perfect

Godzilla

Learning Comments

From watching all of the famous opening sequences I have noticed a majority of similarities. They all have a lot in common as they are all great opening scenes. However the content they include in the opening scene are all different which apply to specific films. Firstly the opening scenes always relate to the film whether that be by the use of sound, theme, colour or graphics to symbolise the film. For example The hunger Games was really good at encorperating the theme of death by using hearts and the colour red. Furthermore they all seem to be very powerful openings- when you watched it you really got interested into it. This is obviously so the audience can engage quickly as possible to get them into the film. The use of space was also cleverly used. They did this by the use of sound which was loud. Also by the scenes, there was always something happening- even suspense in some of them to keep watching. Fast and Furious seem to have the most action which would catch the audiences attention. The introduction text was placed so that it was visible but not get in the way of the scenes behind, so the audience would not get irritated and could continue to watch the beginning. The way the they were different was by the use of content, e.g. Godzilla use a fair old background to fit in with the film. A film like pitch perfect did not use the same as it would look distort and out of place. Also they all seemed to be rememberable which is why they are famous, they are all completely different opening scenes that just use the same conventions. Lastly I feel that the openings really did captivate the audience, which is what an opening scene should achieve.