Opening sequences

The opening sequence of a film introduces main themes as well as the basic storyline. It is the foundation of knowledge for the audience, so they can have an understanding of what is happening. The opening sequence can introduce characters and establish the mood on the scene, and where indeed the film is set. In mystery thrillers especially it can include flashbacks or scenes from the future, it doesn't necessarily have to be chronological to the rest of the film. These can often create enigmas which the audience will try to solve for the duration of the film. Opening sequences usually include titles and idents, this is just to give recognition to the main production team, director, editor and the main actors. Thrillers sometimes use stand alone opening sequences and title sequences which are separated from the rest of the film. This means later in the film characters can link back to the opening sequence, or it can just be a little background information before the film starts.

The opening sequence for the thriller Se7en (1995) does not introduce any characters, and consists of white titles on a black background, in a sharp font that flashes and looks like scribbly, sketchy handwriting. This indicates the genre of the film and sets the mood. The titles appear in between a montage of shots which use a fading, flashing transition to disorientate the audience. The production team and cast are presented in the same font, and no idents are used because that would dilute the sequence and take away the tense mood created by the titles and sound. As it is the beginning of the film and the audience do not know what happens the images presented appear random and the audience struggles to make sense of what is happening. The score that is playing during the opening sequence develops and gets louder through the sequence, creating suspense as the tension builds. It includes sound effects, some diegetic and some non-diegetic, which make the audience wonder what is happening during this sequence. Some of the sound effects sound like machinery being operated and the score is screechy and sharp. This creates a mood of eeriness and is very edgy, making the audience feel uncomfortable.

Skyfall (2012), the latest 007 James Bond film, has its own song as a score, written by the British singer Adele. The opening sequence incorporates some of the James Bond traditions as well as including images relevant to the film. It begins with a shot of the protagonist sinking in water, so immediately the audience thinks he is in danger. He is wearing his signature suit so he is easily identified as Bond and the shot fades to black, which could symbolise that he is dead. The score is a calm, peaceful piano which contrasts to the severity of the situation. The contrapuntal score makes the audience tense because it creates a mood of hopelessness, as though the protagonist's death is inevitable so it has been accepted and the slow, mellow score is reflecting his fate. The audience do not know how or why he drowned so it is an enigma and possibly foreshadowing for later on in the film. The titles are presented in a neat white font, over the moving images and the first title to appear is the production company followed by the leading actor's name. This gives them recognition as the most important titles in the sequence. There are many images associated with death that appear in the opening sequence such as a cut out of the protagonist as a target which is bleeding, guns, daggers, blood and tomb stones which are all foreshadowing and setting the mood as sorrowful and tragic. The audience will be expecting danger and death in the film later on as it is clearly a key theme. Another character is introduced in the opening sequence, an attractive young woman  who appears quite seductive so she is probably the femme fatale. The flames and fire also suggest destruction as another theme in the film, but the sequence doesn't give away much about the actual storyline.

Psychological thriller Black Swan (2010) uses a piano score of the ballet swan lake during the opening sequence which is a main part of the storyline as it is all based around the protagonist's desire to be in the swan lake. Therefore it is an introduction to the storyline as it suggests to the audience what is the foundation of the plot. It begins with white titles on a black background, giving credit to the production company. This is the only title on a black background and then a fade transition is used to show a close up of a black pastel on plain paper which slowly begins to draw lines. The rest of the titles are in black and they all appear on the shots of the pastel. This makes the first title different and therefore it stands out as more important than the others. The shots continue to fade into each other, showing the same pastel drawing lines on paper which doesn't give anything away from the storyline. As the score gets louder and more fast paced the lines start to be drawn quicker and harder until they appear quite aggressive. This creates tension because it turns from a peaceful, innocent action to a violent, dark activity which accompanied by the harsher score turns the mood quite ominous.

From this research we will probably include a main title that appears first and is slightly different to the other titles which follow. This will be the production company (which we will make up ourselves) and will possibly appear in a different colour to the other titles to emphasise the superiority of it compared to the rest. Also the score we have in our opening sequence should develop during the sequence to become more upbeat and fast paced. This will build tension and suspense as the audience will anticipate the climax. It is unlikely that our opening sequence will include dialogue as that often makes the mood less tense, but if we do include dialogue it will be brief. We will attempt to include foreshadowing or hints of the key themes in the story so the audience will have some sort of expectation of what is likely to happen in the film.