Relevant opening sequences

Opening sequences are scenes that are the start of a film and they open up the rest of the film in terms of plot and setting. Most opening sequences contain titles which basically gives the audience information into important people to the making of the film. These usually show main actors and actresses’ names, writer of the film, director and other key production cast such as chief editor. These titles also contain such as companies that helped to produce the film and alongside these are the “Idents” or logos for these companies so that they obtain recognition. Finally, in most films the actual title name of the film is revealed by the end of the sequence.

These titles are very often, especially when it comes to Thrillers, over black titles which means that they are just put on top of a black background. However, just as often these titles are shown over shots from the world of the film. When this occurs in a film the audiences concentration does tend to be focused on what is happening in the film but the titles are still recognised. The parts of the opening scenes that aren’t titles is what opens the plot climax to the film and from here the story is developed. Main characters within the film tend to be revealed and often so is the location and the start to the plot.

Thrillers often start with a mysterious opening when it comes to both titles and the shots of the actual films world. The characters may not be very obvious at first and a lot of the time the plot isn’t clear either as enigmas are produced leaving the audience wonder what is happening. This builds suspense and tension throughout the films as these enigmas are answered and mysteries are discovered.

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An example of a good opening sequence is the one above taken from the film “London to Brighton”. This opening contains many titles which includes the production company- “Vertigo films” which is made clear by the effect used to make it beat, the company used to help fund the film- “The national lottery” and the ident of the “The UK film council” which ‘produced’ the film. All of these titles are over black titles which makes them stand out and give tension building start to the film. There is also a title that sets the scene before the shots of the actual film are introduced; “London 3:07am”. There is a restricted narrative in this scene where enigmas are created where the audience questions different things such as who is this “Derrick” character the women are escaping and what happened to the older woman’s eye. These questions are likely to be answered later on in the film and therefore build suspense as the audience waits for these answers. At the end of this opening sequence, the title name of the film is revealed- once again over black; “London to Brighton”. 

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The sequence above taken from the Thriller “Drive” is also a good example for an opening sequence.  However, it is different to that of the opening sequence to “London to Brighton” in many ways. Firstly, the titles contain different information; this extract contains main actors and actresses in the film such as Ryan Gosling, important musicians and the director whereas the other sequence contained more production and funding information in opposed to those help make the actual film. Also, the titles are over shots from inside the film and not over black titles. Finally, a score is also played alongside the sequence to keep it more interesting where “London to Brighton” was silent for a dramatic start. However, the name of both films were shown in each sequence and gives the audience a general idea of what the plot will contain and at least one main character within the film.

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A final example of a good thriller opening sequence is the one above from “The Dark Knight”. This one contains the least titles out of all three extracts and only consists of them with idents alongside them. The only information given are the names and logos of the funding and production companies that are “Warner Bros. pictures”, “Legendary pictures” and “DC comics”. Although this opening sequence doesn’t contain much information about the production of the film, it keeps the audience interested as the plot climate is created and enigmas are made-some which are even answered in the same scene.