Codes and Conventions For Film Openings

We were asked to look at 4 film openings by noting down tension, sound and whether the genre was obvious.
We watched:
- Resident Evil

This opening was very interesting as the genre was not obvious from the start, and toward the end the sudden death was the first indicator of it being a horror movie. 

- The Hurt Locker

This opening was fairly long, but built tension well. There was a silence before the bomb hit which was unexpected. 

- Amelie

This opening's genre was unclear, but very artistic so it was intriguing as a viewer. 

- Jurassic Park

This opening built tension well as the viewer is unaware of what the animal is, and is only aware of its danger towards the end of the clip when the man is attacked.

We tracked everything on 4 graphs:

The T represents tension, the S is for sound and the G for genre.

From recording these elements we found many typical conventions for film openings. 

This included:

- the element of surpise/reveal

- parallel music

- flashbacks

- narration