Opening Sequences

Opening sequences are a vital part of a film, it introduces the audience to an aspect of the film, usually giving us a feel to the genre and atmosphere. To do this, films can use a number of techniques, firstly, they alter the font to represent the feel of the film, for example; in Office Space, the opening credits use a bubbly, light blue font to portray the comedic nature of the film.

The music for this opening is quite upbeat, and reflects the comedy genre of the film, and actions that occur in the film are synchronised with music.

Also within this opening sequence, we are introduced to four main characters. Although this is not essential in opening sequences, it is usually a feature for comedy films.

While researching opening sequences, we also watched 'Trainspotting' and 'Sweeney Todd'. 

Trainspotting

'Trainspotting' had a slight comical yet serious opening sequence. The opening sequence opens with a simple black and white screen with 'Channel Four Films Presents' which doesn't present the genre of the film. 

The music then kicks in and is in some ways similar to the music in 'Office Space'. The song is upbeat and catchy, which portrays the genre of the film to perhaps be a comedy.

The introduction of characters in the opening sequence of Trainspotting is rather simple. A still picture of the character and their name in white next to them.

The genre of Trainspotting isn't revealed until the end of the opening sequence when the main character mentions drugs. It wasn't until that point, that we eventually have an incite into the genre of the film.

Sweeney Todd

Finally is the opening sequence to Sweeney Todd. Once again this opening sequence is quite unique and interesting. Throughout the whole opening sequence, we do not see or receive mention of any characters, the whole sequence is an animation.

Sweeney Todd is a horror film and the opening sequence portrays this. The animation is of a stream of blood running through the barber shop that Sweeney Todd conducts their work from. 

Although this is a well presented opening sequence, our initial ideas have been to produce a comedy film rather then a horror film so this opening sequence hasn't influenced our ideas as much as the other two may have.

Our Opinions

Together we will now discuss our opinions of these three opening sequences.

Office Space

Jake: Office Space is probably the most helpful opening sequence for us to form ideas from. It is of same genre that we wish to produce and presents typical features of comedy opening scenes.

Joe: I found the opening to Office Space very funny, the use of sound was very good in this and it gave us a very good idea as to what kind of people the characters were in a simple traffic scene.

Trainspotting

Jake: This opening scene made the genre of the film very hard to understand from early on. In my opinion, this isn't what we are looking for in the production. The introduction to the characters with the continous voice-over was very interesting through.

Joe: I felt this opening was very good, it was slick and worked very well, introducing characters and the story, creating a somewhat funny intro, despite the subject matter of heroin. 

Sweeney Todd

Jake: Sweeney Todd isn't really an opening sequence I would like ours to relate to, as it doesn't relate to any of ours themes, such as gaming and humour, and in my personal opinion it is hard to show humour through animation as it is harder to create body language and facial expressions.

Joe: I thought this was also a good film opening, it was different to the other two we looked at as no characters were scene in this but it gives us a very good idea as to what genre it is, as there is a trail of blood going around, and very dark lighting, as well as evil imagery such as fire.