Conventions of Film Openings

All opening sequences show the logo of the production company that produced the film to show who was involved in the making of the film and to give them some recognition. If the institution is well known ,and the audience are enjoy other films also produced by them, then expectations will automatically be high. The audience will be engaged from this moment onwards as they would be looking forward to, what they expect to be, a good film.

Narrative enigma is frequently an element in opening sequences. It is included to engage the audience and stop them from being passive. They will constantly want to know the answers to these enigma codes, therefore ensuring that they will watch the whole film. According to Barthes the enigma codes will be followed by action codes in the rest of the film, which will allow them to figure out what is going to happen next and possibly figure out the enigma codes for themselves. The audience will feel happy if they crack the codes themselves as it will make them feel intelligent because they figured out what is going on and why.

Vladimir Propp suggested that the main character in films is the protagonist. Usually it is the protagonist that is first to be introduced to the audience. If they are familiar with the character instantly then they are more likely to empathise with everything that happens to the protagonist. There for creating instant dislike for the antagonist maybe even before they are introduced to them. Rick Altman suggested that these emotional elements are called syntactic elements. Not only will it make it easier for the audience to identify the genre of the film but it will also make all events that take place more dramatic. Simply because they will feel much stronger emotions if they feel connected with the protagonist.

Credits sometimes are featured in the opening sequence, showing all the names of the actors that are in the film. If the actors are well known then the audience will recognise their name and start to build up their own expectations, depending on how they feel about the actors. For example in 'Se7en' Brad Pitt is the first name to appear in the credits, women aged 25-40 will instantly be attracted to the film purely because he is in it and they find him unbelievably attractive. It widens up the target audience, as it gives people that may not be the main target audience of a film a reason to want to watch it. The typeface and colour of the typeface that the composer uses for the credits contribute to the establishing of the genre. If soft, fluent and neat font that is pink or white is used the audience will associate it with happiness and will feel easygoing, which will be associated with genres such as romance or romantic comedies. However if the font is scraggly, messy and red, then it  makes the audience feel on edge. Red connotes danger and blood, things often associated with the genre horror or thrillers.

Some directors choose not to include any of these common conventions in the opening sequence to their film. There may not be any credits, it might not introduce any characters or there may not be any clear narrative taking place. According to Steve Neale's Genre theory, audiences either enjoy repetition of elements or they enjoy films because it goes completely against the repertoire of elements. This could be applied to opening sequences as well. The audience could enjoy opening sequences that do not feature any of the elements because it completely overthrows them and they have no idea what to expect, leaving a sense of mystery. It is quite common for directors of thrillers to miss out all the common conventions because it slightly distorts the audience, and leaves the sense of mystery and makes the audience feel on edge. 'The Bone Collector' and 'Se7en' are both examples of thrillers that do not include the introduction to characters or give away too much of what is going on.