RESEARCH- BBC Documentary on Film Openings

During my research, I watched a BBC documentary on title sequences on films ; 'Watching'.  It has inspired me and gave me ideas on my own thriller opening. Below , are the notes and responses to the questions ;

1. Thomas Sutcliffe says " Films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment. While there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistable'

By using this quote, Sutcliffe has explained the importance of film openings. Even though merchandise, publicity and promotion gives us the taster of a film long before we get inside the cinema and watch it, it is the beginning of the movie that is the main point on what we judge the movie by. He has given an example of a famous thriller 'Psycho' , and he has noticed that 'it's the beginning of the film that has made the shower scene so shocking' , it'd be fundamentally different if we don't see the beginning. 

This has influenced me a lot on how the opening of my thriller should be ; Full of excitement , very engaging and intriguing towards the audiences in the first few 20 minutes.  A film opening that follows this criteria is 'Taking of Pelham 123' , the paces constantly changes during the opening, depending on whats's on show. I think the excitement and suspense is kept throughout etc.

2.Jean Jacques Beinex ; 'Instant arousal ' . According to him, the risk of 'instant arousal' is that they don't wait or rear your anticipation to wait for the point of the film . He also has said that nurturing your desire is not only in reality, but  is in movies too.

3. The reason  " A good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn't know nearly enough yet, and at the same time make sure that it doesn't know too little" is so that there is a balance of what the audience know just from the beginning of the film. If they know too little, this could lose their attention as the audience would feel as if there's no 'connection' there, as well as would lose engagement.  However, if they know too much, there will be nothing to look forward to.  Therefore by watching the beginning of the film, the audience needs to adjust and establish many things before making the decision to watch it further.

4.Stanley Kauffman is a critic, who described the classic opening as ' establishing shot of NY City  ( usually from the east), then a close up of a building, the camera then moving up the window to the window. Then the camera goes inside the window, past the receptionist desk into a private office, where Carrie Grant is sitting''

Classic openings usually tells the audience Where the setting of the film is ? What the occupation of the hero is ? and an introduction to at least of the main characters of the film.  An example of a 'classic opening ' is a thriller 'Psycho'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xji5kKR8pIw 

5.Kyle Cooper's title sequence to the film ' Seven' is effective because it wakes up the audience, tells the story, introduces us to the obsessive nature of the films main character, and foreshadows a lot of aspects of the film. 'The psychotic energy of the titles were more influential than the film itself.

6. Orson has intended to exclude the the credits or title music from the film ' A touch of evil'. He wanted to plunge the audience into the story without giving them time to prepare for themselves.  He also wanted to make the audiences forget that they're watching a film , and watch it as if it's happening as reality. However Universal Studios were far more cautious about it , and added in the credits underneath the opening in the final cut. 

Orson's idea of this type of opening has influenced many film makers For example the movie 'Casino' ; The 'BANG' opening . 

7. 'A favourite trick of Film Noir' can be defined as the beginning of the film being more like an ending, not a beginning. It is not clear the first time that the audiences watch it , but it get clearer and clearer the more they watch it, if it's a good opening.  'Casino' is a good example of this.

8. The opening of the film ''The shinning' creates suspense by using an easy uplift of a helicopter shot, and then the helicopter pursuing the care like a predator; we know that something is about to happen because of the music; 'games gaming themselves' , and hidden connections ; 'the more we see good beginnings the more the power grows'