Conventions Of Film Openings

In most film openings there are a few things that happen or are shown. These things are;

• The title of the film
• The sense of pace of the film
• The director, cast etc of the film
• Music (non-diegetic sound) is played, this also sets the scene of the film and often mirrors the genre of the film
• The institutional institutional ident/logo for the production and distribution companies are shown
• The main characters may be shown/met
• There may be a combination of diegetic and non-diegetic sound

We watched the opening of 'Taking of Pelham 123' as an example.

The ident of Columbia pictures is clearly shown at the start. Then followed by a panning overview of the city (setting the scene) showing the audience where the film is set. We then get all the information such as the producer, production and distribution companies before the non-diegetic music is played. The main characters are then introduced by name as well as given more camera time than the extra's then the title of the film is shown.

Classic openings

Classic openings usually start with specific features. We watched the opening of the 1960's movie 'Psycho' which had these classical features. some of these features are;

• There is was an establishing shot of a city scape (setting the scene)
• It honed in on a building
• It had a long shot of the window where the scene would be set
• Then a close up on widow into the room characters where in