Opening Scenes - Conclusion: Similarities and differences between opening scenes

Opening scenes

The main purpose of an opening scene is to attract the audience into watching the whole film. A film opening should also establish character/s and the genre. Some of the main conventions I have found are: 


PICTURES BELOW

• production company logos
• establishing shots to introduce setting
• a fast paced opening 
• sound
• introduction to main character/s. 
• establish genre 
• include titles
• establish style 
• introduce the plot/storyline

Even though most opening scenes include these, there are exceptions, this is usually due to the genre or the way in which the film evolves.

Similarities

There were notable similarities in the openings of each film. Firstly each film opened with a company logo, and music was consistently used to create mood, whether to create excitement or drama in the case of Baby Driver, Star Wars: The Last Jedi or You Don't Mess with the Zohan, or the use of contrapuntal music to create an unsettling cognitive dissonance, in the case of The Purge. The contrast between the classical music and sinister visuals helped even further to startle the audience.

After researching many different opening scenes, I have found that often horror and thriller films use atmospheric sounds to portray the victims isolation and to heighten the mood. The specific sounds provide us with information of the scene and also assist to advance the plot. The film 'Get out' is an example of this, the constant sound of wind along with the sound of a dog barking contribute to the eerie setting.

In nearly all of the opening scenes I watched the scene began with an establishing shot in order to set the scene and inform the audience where the film is taking place. The films that didn't have these were often horrors and thrillers. The directors purposely took the audience out of their comfort zone by taking away their sense of safety (not knowing where they are), and putting them in the same position as the victim.

Finally, though most of the scenes worked to introduce characters and settings, what struck me most was that the primary job of these opening scenes was to establish tone. The scenes were there to teach the audience how to watch the film.

DIFFERENCES

Different genres required different things from their openings, and the key determining factor in this seemed to be the amount of exposition required. In films set in worlds other than our own, a lot of time must be dedicated to establishing that world for the audience. Oscar winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin once famously said "confusion is the enemy of drama. Mystery is great, but confusion will kill you". In order to introduce a mystery, the audience must first feel at home, like they know where they are, and because of this many films use the opening scene to deliver all the information the audience needs to know. However, even in backstory-heavy openings, care is always taken to ensure that other things are established at the same time. An opening never just does one thing.

In films that take place in our world, such as Baby Driver and You Don't Mess with the Zohan, exposition was much less important (the audience presumably being familiar with life on Earth), and this gave more room to establish character instead.

CONCLUSION

Different genres require different things from the opening, some putting an emphasis on exposition and setting, others putting an emphasis on character. What all the openings had in common though was that they established tone, using the tools of music, sound, shot composition and mis-en-scene to create a mood that let the audience know exactly what kind of film they were watching and how they were supposed to be reacting to it.