Essential Elements of an Opening Sequence

Here is a short list of some essential elements that need to be considered when creating a good opening sequence to a film.

1: Title - The title needs to be memorable, nothing over the top, but nothing too simple and easily laughed off ("Snakes on a plane"). Something short, but clever, perhaps a play on words, something that people are likely to remember when thinking about the film. After you have the title decided, you need to think about where to put it in the sequence, do you put it right at the end? Or right at the beginning? The answer is - Neither. Most film openings that work have the title of the film about half way through the sequence. Usually introducing the Production companies that worked on the film first, title, then the actors that play in the film. When thinking about placing it in the sequence, don't just place it in anywhere, make sure that the action that is happening at the time can be paused for a few moments so that the audience can read the name of the film. But does not take too long or disrupt the flow of the sequence.

2: Audio + Sound Effects - The whole soundtrack to the sequence also needs to make sure that it sets the mood for the rest of the film. Does it have a Narrative introducing everyone & the story, or does it stick to just music? It really depends on the film that is to come, sometimes a narrative introduction fits in well, such as in Lock Stock (analysed below) and some other times a pure music soundtrack works like Terminator 2 (Also analysed below). The soundtrack in the first few minutes needs to be very careful, because if the rest of the film is made, the soundtrack from the beginning can be very thought provoking, if it is fast paced at the start, but the rest of the film is very slow, the wrong impression has been given out by the audio at the start. Also it needs to be able to relate to the action in the scene. If there is a slow dance going on in the scene, the last thing you want is some heavy/death metal playing over the top, it just doesn't fit. These are all things that I will need to consider when creating the soundtrack to my opening sequence.

3: Camera work - Camera work in this can be very important, depending on what sort of camera work is used for the opening sequence, determines the style of camera work for the rest of the film. Lots of interesting angles and clever tracks can always lead the audience to believe that the camera work is going to be like this for the whole film, and yet if the camera work then stops being interesting and just becomes a bunch of static shots, the audience is going to get very bored very easily. I think one film that has used the camera shots amazingly is "Never Back down", throughout the entire film very clever and interesting camera shots were used. Below is a clip from the film showing the camera work that I like.



I especially like the camerawork in the short clip between 5:30 and 6:30, and I think that camerawork like that if used once, needs to be used throughout the film, and this is one of the few films that I have seen that has succesfully pulled it off. I think that I might attempt at using clever and interesting camerawork, but will have to see when it gets to filming.

4: Costume -The costume that the characters are wearing is a largely important thing to consider when filming this. Make sure not to use a high class suit with trainers, unless that was the sort of look that you were going for, in which case its always a good idea to explain that in detail in the actual footage, so the audience can understand why there is a character dressed in a suit and cheap trainers. Another thing that is essential to be aware of is the fact that what a character is dressed in can give out the wrong assumptions to the audience about what sort of character he/she is. Make sure to dress them in something that is suitable to the charater that they are playing and not in the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of a certain genre. Costume can also set a scene up, if the character is at a high class meeting with the president of the united states, wearing what the actor/actress wore to an illegal rave the night before, covered in mud and with glow sticks hanging around their neck, the audience is going to think that something is up. Make sure that the costume fits in with the rest of the setting.

5: Visual Effects - Visual effects are as much a part at setting the film up for the audience awaiting the rest of the film as any of the above. But it plays a such a large part because its not only selling the genre of the film to the audience, but it is also selling the techinal expertise of the film. By showing both what is going to happen in a film to sell its genre (Explosions - possible action... Lots of Blood - Possible Horror) and the level of detail put into the visual effects, showing the audience the level of special effects that are to come in the rest of the film. Poor low budget (swede) special effects, like cardboard guns and stop motion muzzle flare, are going to give the audience a sense the film was on a low budget and mostly invested in solving the more immediate problems such as camera, acting and setting. Whereas an opening with lots of flashy high tech explosions and flashy guns:


Here in a trailer for "The Dark Knight" you can easily see that allot of time and effort has gone into the special effects. The explosion at 0:39 is a prime case of this. And this is a movie that brought millions of viewers to watch it, sometimes more than once. The Visual effects are a large part of any film these days, with technology and techniques changing every day, there is always big competition in the big special effects companies to see who can come up with the most awe-inspiring visual effects to date. They can Make a film, just like they can break a film, so I will have to pay allot of attention when thinking about special effects.



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Aslong as I try my hardest to keep everything in mind when creating my Film Opening, I am sure that I should come out with something that is good, and meets all the criteria, while also entertaining me and my peers.