Anaylsis of Film Openings

What choices are open to film makers in how they begin their films – what techniques are employed, and what effects are created? You should refer to the opening minutes of several films in your answer, exploring specific techniques, sequences and effect in your answer.


The techniques used to help film makers begin their films and allow for an interesting opening are diverse. An example of this is in the beginning of Sleepy Hollow, we see how the first few minutes is full of either close ups or extreme close ups, they have chosen this for their shot composition as it creates a sense of mystery which leaves the audience wondering what will happen next. This fits into Sleep Hollow as the genre includes mystery. Sound also played a part in creating tension within the opening minutes as a lot of non-diegetic atmospheric music was included. Many of this being orchestral and high pitched.
Another technique that could be used by film makers is a lot of different editing; Bourne Ultimatum includes many different shot lengths. These consist of fast jump cuts as it allows us to see that the film is adventure based and it also speeds up the pace of the film. At the beginning it could also have been used to create tension and therefore intensifies the mood and the audience is more intrigued.

Flags of our Fathers, uses a range of narrative techniques, one of these that stood out in the opening to the films was analepsis. The analeptic scene allows us to realise that the character is having a dream and we get to experience it. The sound is distorted and muffled which leads to believe that what is taking place isn’t real. The mise-on-scene included an unidentifiable landscape which emphasised on the confusion of the man’s dream. The background is muted and almost monochrome, the lack of colour just reinforces the mystery within the flashback.

Narrative techniques prove popular in film openings; in Last Samurai there is a prolepsis in which there is a vision of a battle that contains a rare white tiger. We can see how the colours have been made dull by the saturation to allow us to see that it is only a vision from the future. The tiger is depicted as surreal and therefore could be interpreted as metaphorical. The location is split, the beautiful and tranquil landscapes of Japan contrasting with the loud hustle and bustle of San Francisco.

City of God is another film which consists of techniques such as narrative devices, the split framing and then later the merge of shots create the effect of understanding all the characters point of view. Within the opening there is a slight concept of threat and humour combined, the brutal idea of the chicken chase and the young boys carrying guns is matched with the escape of the chicken and the adrenaline rush over the capture.

As we can see, many existing films have used a variety of techniques within their film openings as they need to capture their target audience's attention striaght away otherwise they won't find the film as interesting or overall a compelling film.