Looking at opening sequences

So, what makes a good opening sequence? There are many different things that a title sequence must have to ensure it's quality, and since I'm creating my own sequence, this research would be very useful to me. Below I have come up with a list of 7 key points to consider:

• Cinematography: A mixture of interesting shots must be used to capture the audience's attention.
• Narrative: The opening must have an enigma(s) or a mystery attached to ensure the audience will want to watch on.
• Sound: Dialogue, music and sound effects can all be used to set a certain atmosphere and interest the audience.
• Characters: The main character(s) in the film must be interesting and well set-up in the opening. The audience must be able to relate to them and establish a relationship with them.
• Mise-en-scene: This includes the location, props, costumes, performance ad lighting. They must all be carefully thought out to create the right impression and atmosphere.
• Editing: The pace, rhythm, transitions, titles and special effects must also be carefully planned to introduce the film well and keep the audience's attention.
• Genre: The opening must include the correct characteristics that meet its genre e.g. a noir opening would include shadows, darkness, dodgy characters etc. to ensure the audience know what they're watching.

Below I have analysed 2 film openings that have inspired and are related to my film noir opening. As well as watching each film opening myself, I found the IMDB website very useful - http://www.imdb.com/

'Resurrection Man' - Marc Evans - 1998

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-iKzpGR0Uo

* Click on the link above to watch the first 9 minutes of the film on YouTube*

'Resurrection Man' is a neo-noir film and this is clearly demonstrated in the title sequence. The titles enter on-screen in time with the music, which is deep with loud drum beats that make it almost sound military. The main character is first seen walking in slow motion down his garden path. The way he carries himself confidently, his gold jewellery and his black costume shows he is wealthy but a bad guy in the film. The desaturated colour and the dated cars parked along the street set the time period, and the low angle shots on the main character reinforce his importance. The screen then switches to an image of an elderly lady who the audience are led to believe is the man's mother. Her costumes and surroundings suggest she is just normal, but since the whole screen is filled with the image of her, it suggests she is quite an important character in this film and may re-appear again. The scene where the little boy (who we are led to think is the man when he was younger) is lit with a piercingly-bright blue light that flashes on the boy's face. The other 2 men are poorly lit to show their insignificance, and the close-up shots of the boy reinforce who we should be focusing on. Then there are the bright lights of the 'Cinema' that is displayed in a disorientating trombone shot with unsuitably happy music. As the atmosphere has been set very cynically so far, this confuses the audience into the genre of the film, and the significance of the 'Cinema'.

Every way the character is portrayed in this opening, says something about him and who he is. This is why I chose to analyse this opening as it is all about establishing who the main character is, and introducing him to the audience. In our film noir opening, we want the focus to be on introducing our main character, so it was useful to watch this as it cleverly shows how the whole mise-en-scene (costume and props particularly), music and cinematography shots can present someone in a certain way.
'Seven' - David Fincher - 1995
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEZK7mJoPLY&feature=related

*Click on the link above to watch the opening title sequence on YouTube*

This film is also a neo-noir film as it was made fairly recently, but the style and plot pull it more into the thriller/horror genre. The film opening is renown for setting the example to many other films and tv programmes that follow with a similar idea. The way the character is shown fiddling with photographs, words on paper and various other things that leave an image of murder and cruelty in our minds. The character's identity isn't shown as all the audience sees is his/her's bandaged fingers messing around with things on a desk. This opening sequence inspired me as it sets up so many enigmas that make you want to watch to answer the many questions you have. What are they doing? Who are they? Why are they doing this? Where are they? What's going to happen? ...and many more. I hope to gain this sort of reaction from my film noir audience as our main character reveals the contents of the 'mysterious package'.

The cinematography mainly consists of close-ups and extreme close-ups so that the audience don't see anything but what the main character is doing, and they can't pull away to focus on anything else in the scene. The location isn't established and there are so many things going on that the audience are unclear on what they're doing. Also, the screen doesn't hold one shot long enough for the audience to look carefully at what's happening, as the shots quickly follow after each other with a fading transition. The majority of shots are coloured with a yellow-orange effect, which I think is a strange choice as they are usually used to give a warming homely effect to a scene. However in this case, the colours look univiting and spooky. The titles that appear break up the action. The handwritten font style and the flickering about of the words matches the action as the character is hand-making something. The background changes between black and brown as the the text appears in white. In our film we hope to do something similar with the background as it makes the titles part of the sequence, rather than putting them over the action. It also makes sure the audience reads them as each name appears by themselves.

The music choice for the sequence is simple yet strange and mysterious. This matches the action shown and adds to the atmosphere of the scene. There are no diegetic sounds, which makes the audience concerned about the location even more and also creates a sense of loneliness and secrecy. I thnk the music is well chosen and I hope that our music choice will reflect the action as it did in this film opening. The titles also appear in time with the music, which is something our group want to consider as it shows that the music was carefully selected to match.

I enjoyed watching this film opening as it looks very simple yet is very effective. The mise-en-scene involves many props but no costume as the character isn't shown. The tinting of the colour and the creepy music all contribute to the atmosphere, and although the location isn't revealed with an establishing shot, it adds to the enigma.