Opening Sequences

Conventions of Opening Sequences

• Introduce the audience to the setting, showing us where and when the film was set, so that we can begin to build up an idea of what might take place in the film.
• Introduce the audience to a main character so that it is clear that the story will centre around this character.
• Provide information about the production company, director, and leading actors, which may give us an idea of genre. For example, a Jim Carey film is likely to be funny, and an Arnold Schwarzenegger film is likely to be violent.
• Offer hints as to the what the narrative of the film may be. This may be a spy recieving their assignment, or someone being captured, or the hero told about events in the past that must be put right, etc.
  

Narrative functions

• There is always some form of equilibrium at the very start
  
• The protagonist is always introduced
• There is an obstruction which the protagonist must resolve
• It never has any closure as it is just to set the scene, leading on to the main part of the film.
  

Benefits for audiences

• They are immediately informed of character, setting, and narrative
• They can get an immediate idea as to whether or not they will like the film
• If they dont already know, they can get an idea of the genre of the film almost immediately.
• A film has to start somehow; the audience will not understand the film without an opening sequence.
  

Benefits for institutions

• The film makers need to appeal to the audience in order to make money, so they included for the reasons above.
• The film makers must make the opening sequence reveal some basic information to the audience, but not reveal too much so to keep the audience's interest, so they want to watch on.
• The titles allow the film-makers to show the audience who made the film, which in a  way advertises the film

Levi Strauss Theory: 'Pale Rider' & 'Die Hard'

Levi Strauss Theory states that the narrative of a story can be explained in a series binary opposites. Many of these are clear from just wastching the opening sequence, such as in 'Pale Rider' and 'Die Hard'.

'Pale Rider'

Safety/Danger: The start of the opening sequence show a happy, calm mining village, but the calm is interupted by a group villainous horsemen who come and destroy the town.

Horsemen/Village People: The village people are quietly going about their daily lives but the horsemen are violently galloping with malice and purpose.

Quiet/Noisy: The tranquility of the town is partially depicted by very quiet, mellow sounds, while the horses are galloping very loudly towards the town.

White Horse/Dark Horses: The horsemen all ride dark brown or black horses, while Clint Eastwood, the 'Pale Rider', riders a white horse.

Group/Lone Man: The bad guys always appear in a group, while the 'Pale Rider' always appears on his own.

Faith/Doubt: The girl is praying over her dogs grave, but asks questions of the existence of god, as she cannot understand why the people are suffering so much.

'Die Hard'

California/New York: He has just flown over to California from New York, and upon arrival complains about the noticable difference, for example he laughs to himself when he sees a young, scantily clad young blonde woman run pat him to embrace her boyfriend at the airport.

Intruders/Partygoers: The people are at a party on the top floor of the building, and the intruders come into the building from the very bottom, trapping everybody on the top floor.

Life/Death: The intruders kill the security guards on the ground floor, letting the audience know that the partygoers' lives are now in danger.

Safety/Danger: Everyone is upstairs in the safety of the party, but the intruders come in, putting everyone in danger.

Together/Apart: Bruce Willis and his wife have been driven apart by her desire to move to California and his desire to stay in New York, but now he has come over to California for Cristmas, they are together again.

Prepared/Non-Prepared: The people at the party are completely unprepared for the attack, while the intruders have planned the attack and are very prepared

Todorov's Narrative Theory: Shaft Opening

1. Who are the agents: the protogonist and antagonist.

• The protagonist is Shaft, a detective. From the opening scene we get sense that he is very good at his job, as he spots the waitress and reads her body language to finds the suspect. He also spots the blood on his finger and on her face. We also get the sense that he is ruthless, by the way he punches Walter when he makes a racist remark about the victim. He also seems to be unpopular, as another detective detective says "Please tell me he's not running this case".



• Walter is the antagonist, the son of a rich property developer. He murders the victim in a racist attack, and then continues to mock him racially as he is dying, suggesting that he is a racist. He seems very cocky because of the wealth and power of his father, as if he knows for sure that he will not be caught for his crime.

2. Describe the Equilibrium. How is it represented? What kind of camera shots can you identify?

• The film begins in equilibrium, with Shaft attending to another case as he would every day.



• The scene begins with a large pan of the city and his car coming into shot, which cuts into an MS of the car pulling up and Shaft getting out, immediately introducing him as the main character. A forwards track behind him shows him almost swaggering to the crime scene, and his long black leather coat and the music in the background emphasises that he is a very smooth character.
  

3. Is the Disruption or Disequilibrium introduced or hinted at?

• The equilibrium is disrupted when Walter murders the victim. The murder would just be like any other case, but as this is a racial attack, and Walter appears so smug, Shaft takes this case personally.


• The one witness to the crime disappears, so Shaft needs to find her.
  

4. Are there any visual/verbal/aural clues that hint at what the hero's journey might be? (e.g having to solve the murders within a time-limit of seven days in "Seven")

• You can tell by the wealth and arrogance of Walter that he is not going to be easy to convict, and also the witness has gone missing. This implies that Shaft will spend the rest of the film trying to convict Walter of the murder, and he will need to find the witness in order to do this.

5. From your knowledge of the film, how will the equilibrium be restored and what will be the new equilibrium?

• The new equilibrium comes at the end of the film when, after two failed court hearings, Walter is convicted. The witness is found and she testifies against him.
• The new equilibrium is the same as at the beginning; Shaft will still have more cases to solve. Walter is now dead, having been shot outside the courtroom.
  

Opening Sequence Comparison: 'Legally Blond' & 'Seven'

Legally Blond

Shots

• CU of nails, hair etc, in slow motion, which shows how much time she spends on her appearance.
• CUs at the start make it clear that this is the main character, but withholds information so we don’t find out too much about her.
• Long track through corridors gives audience a sense of setting and allows them to get a sense of the people on the campus; all female, rich, obsessed with personal image.
• At the end of sequence there is an MCU of the girl, finally showing us her whole appearance.

Character Information

• All very stereotypical: Girls spend all their time working on their appearance and the boys spend their time play fighting topless and only stop to cheer as a girl rides past on her bike.
• You don’t see anyone working on campus which indicates that everybody is there just to have a good time.
• Everybody is signing her card and you see a large homecoming banner on the wall, showing that she is very popular.

Narrative Expectation

• Everything is in different shades of pink, suggesting that this is going to be a very girly film.
• She has a picture of a boy by her bed, and she blows a kiss at the picture, which shows the audience that he is going to be central to the narrative.
• Everything is very bright; this is going to be a happy film.
• The card says ‘good luck for tonight’, suggesting that something major is going to happen that night.

Seven

Shots

• Establishing shots of Morgan Freeman at the start show that he lives alone and that he is very organised and is used to routine; the way he picks his equipment is very methodical.
• LA of Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt shows that their meeting is quite important.
• LS of Morgan Freeman sitting in bed shows that he isn’t necessarily happy, and creates a sense of loneliness.

Character Information

• Contrast between characters: Freeman is old and methodical; Brad Pitt is young and energetic.
• Freeman is not very popular: he wants to take his time to solve the case, while his colleague just wants to finish up and leave.
• Freeman is retiring in a week.

Narrative Expectations

• ‘Monday’ signifies that something is starting, and also makes it clear that the film takes place over a week.
• The ticking just before the opening titles shows that something is about to happen.
• During title sequence, you see a killer cutting out newspaper stories, cutting out photographs etc, which shows that there is an organised killer on the loose.