Extension - What is the purpose of a film opening?

The purpose of a film opening is to reveal the cast members as well as the crew that were involved in the making of the film. This is used to promote the actors or even the roles of the production team. Furthermore the institutions is also broadcasted/advertised which suggests to the audience if the film is a big budget company or a less budget company. (Paramount & Warp Films) respectively. This is also to set the tone of the film.


Thomas Sutcliffe says "Films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment"  meaning that, the title sequence is to fully engage the audience for them to be constantly watching the film. Also it's to allow the audience to stop what they're doing and to revert to watching the rest of the film. Thomas also means that the title opening should always be 'irresistible' interesting so it can entice the viewers so well they have a high 'arousal' watching the film

The director Jean Jacqueline Beineix says 'there are risks of instant arousal' implies that having a high intensity of interesting and very entertaining scenes at the start of the film could lead the audience to expect the rest of the film to be a lot better than the start. In addition it suggests that it will be difficult to maintain the same standards throughout the movie. Failing to do so could leave the audience becoming less intrigued at the end of the film.

"A good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn't know nearly enough yet and at the same time make sure it doesn't know too little." This quote means that the people who create the title sequence have to strike a balance between how much you reveal to the audience and how much you omit to leave the audience wanting more thoughout the movie.

Stanley Kauffman (Critic) says "the classic opening as the film began with an establishing shot of New York City usually from the East side, then a close up of a building with a camera shot hitting up the building to a window." The classic opening works because the audience will know where the film is taking and where the character lives. Also we get a brief information of the society the people are currently in.

Kyle Cooper's title sequence in the film Se7en (Seven) was effective because the first scene we're shown describes/creates an insight of the persona of the protagonist. Another reason why it's effective because we (the audience) have an incline of what the movie could be about.


Orson Welles creates a title sequence that didn't consist of any soundtrack or even titles. Welles wanted the audience to be straight into the film 'A Touch of Evil." This wasn't approved by Universal Studios, they strongly disagreed his idea, who added a soundtrack and also titles creating the cast and the name of the film.

"A favourite trick of film Noir" is the quality beginning which the ending being shown at the beginning. This trick is to make the audience gave the desire for whats going to lead up to the beginning of the scene. Majority of the time it's clear for the audience the second time they watch it because they'll have w clearer grasp of what to look out for.

'The Shining's' opening film creates tension and also suspense by shooting in a birds eye view. The camera pursues the car like a predator because the camera is high up behind the vehicle. This makea it look vulnerable and will makes the audience instantly know that something bad is might happen.