"Watching" Documentary

In class we had to watch a documentary based on film openings. the documentary contain journalists, directors and title sequence makers giving their opinion on a good film opening, and ingredients on how to make a good opening.

watching the documentary Thomas Sutcliffe comments makes a comment about seducing the audience into a long term commitment, this means that form the first few minutes of the opening the audience should already feel connected with the film from those first few minutes. What i learnt from his is that you have to grab the audiences attention from the start making them wanting to watch more; making them wanting to stay. a perfect example is the film Casino.

On the other hand Jean Jacques Beiniex feels that the idea of an Instant Arousal is a risk. This is because she believes that if you start of the film with a lot of action, powerful then the audience and going to want to see the same standards throughout non stop. Where as if you start off at a steady pace you can build u the tension, suspense action as the film continues.

We learnt from the document that a good beginning must make an audience feel like they do not know anything. I like this idea because if the film is predictable then they are going t get bored. Whereas if the film is unpredictable then its going to make the audience want to know more. Therefore i learnt that the key to having a good beginning is to give enough information to the audience so they do not get bored.   "A good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn't know nearly enough yet."


Watching the document made me think about what i need to do to help my group to produce a good opening and eventually develop into a good film. I learnt that you have to geth the audience on your way of thinking in order to get them engaged and get them understanding whats happening in the film.

An example of an opening that we've looked at before is of The Shining. The opening of the film was a goodway of getting the audience engaged because the camera was a high angel shot of the car driving in an isolated road. It was as if the camera was a bird looking/chasing its prey (the car).  I feel that this i a perfect example on a good opening, because it doesnt tell us whats happening and the music adds to it making the mood dull and suspicious.