Initial Ideas For My Own Opening Sequence

Through talking with Leah and my teacher, we have come up with a few ideas that we could build on.  Firstly, we thought of the opening of Romeo and Juliet with the news story and decided we could use and adapt something like that to show the ending of the film and therefore spark interest within the audience of the story of how this happened. The news story could be either sad or happy but we feel that we might engage our audience more with an upsetting, hard-hitting story. Then, we thought we could contrast this with a happy scene of the main character walking (like Juno) and we would use the camera technique of 'stop motioning' to make this scene more interesting and we could show a lot happening in a short amount of time.

Title Research

Title Research (task 7) from 10blukat

Learning Comment
Check list for my own opening sequence:

• Production Company 
• Director
• Actors and minor actors
• Casting directors
• People in charge of music
• Producers, co-producers, executive producers
• Costume Designer
• Editors
• Screenplay
• Writers

Director Case Study

Learning comment:
This task made me realise that directors tend to specialise in a specific genre of film and these tend to be their most successful films. They also like to reuse characters due to the genre similarity as they know that they work well with this genre. Moreover, the repetition of actors in certain genres make the audience associate the actor with this so audiences interested in the genre are more likely to watch it without prior research into the genre and plot of the film. I think that I will make it very obvious in my opening sequence who the main character is and what their personality is like so it will give clues to the narrative of the movie.

Producers and Distributors

 Learning Comment:
 I was very surprised about the difference of profit that the companies made - I did not expect Disney to make billions of dollars! Moreover, I thought that vertigo did very well to produce the films they have with such a low budget. I really opens your eyes to the amount of money you have to spend in the first place to make a successful film. Personally, I prefer Disney as their genre of films appeal more to me, I like bright films which are not heavy to watch and this is showcased in the majority of Disney's animated films. However, Disney do produce films targeted at a slightly older audience (like Pirates of The Caribbean) which still incorporate their appealing themes and conventions. I felt like Vertigo Films lacked vibrant plots and the fact that they are an independent company with a low budget does not help them at all because the graphics and overall presentation of the film does not compensate for the less elaborate plot.
              The age rating of these two companies differ in the sense that Disney produce films which are viewable for all audiences which is shown by the fact that most of their films have a U certificate. However, they still put in humour that only adults will understand as they recognise the fact that a lot of their audience will be parents watching a film with their children. This ensures that adults will enjoy the film and will be more likely to buy their movies.

Conventions of an Opening Sequence

Learning Comment:
Overall, this task has given me more awareness of the camera angles that are used a lot in films and what they give away to the audience. This will aid me in making my own opening sequence as I will be able to reveal parts of the narrative by using camera angles that represent the characters themselves. The use of sound also gives a great impression of the setting- may that be tribal music represent foreign countries or even just sounds of traffic to represent the hustle and bustle of the city.

History Of Coming Of Age Films

Learning Comment:
Through doing this task, I have made it more clear for myself what features make me enjoy films so when I come to making my own opening sequence, I can pick themes that I think other people would enjoy on the basis that I found it very compelling. Moreover, I have picked out features of the mise en scene that make the film seem realistic which will help me choose what props to use.

Famous Opening Sequences

The opening sequence to Spiderman 2 


The opening sequence to Divergent



The opening to 21 Jump Street



The opening sequence to The Purge

Casino Royale Opening Sequence

The Shining Opening Sequence


Grown Ups opening sequence

Learning Comment:

By doing this task I  have learnt what makes an opening sequence effective and how it appeals to the demograhpic. Moreover, I have found that the use of text is usually symbolic in the sense that it can connote what the film may be about and the main themes which run through it. For example, in 21 Jump Street, the text is blue, red and white and it is flashing like a siren which suggest that this film will feature police in it. This task taught me that the use of sound and text is important in establishing the genre of the film.