What is an Opening Sequence?

A opening  sequence is the first 2 minutes of a film, including the production company title, and usually the title of the film and credits of the main cast. There are many different methods of opening a film, these can vary depending on its genre and message to the audience.

In class we looked at 3 opening sequences, including Sweeney Todd, Trainspotting, and  Office Space. They were all very unique in different ways.

In the opening sequence of Sweeney Todd, there were no characters shown, this is called a Title Sequence. It was partially animated, although the film isn't, and had special effects. It included dark, eerie music and dark lighting to establish the genre and create the atmosphere. The font used for credits were white in a basic font, however the title of the film was in red to represent blood. This indicates the genre of the film.

The next opening sequence we saw was TrainSpotting. This was a quick, edgy and energetic opening. It did not have any opening credits just start into the opening. It started with two men running away from police. This automatically makes the audience drawn into what is happening as it goes straight into the action. It had fast past up beat music to draw in the audience. It also had a voice over which was used to introduced the main characters.

The final film opening we watched was Office Space. This was very different to the other two openings we watched. It had very upbeat and comedic music and immediately sets the genre of the film. The font of the title also indicates to the audience what type of genre it is as it was in purple bubble writing. The opening was set in a traffic jam and all the main characters were in each individual car. This gives the viewer a brief insight to all the characters. The film appeared to have a high key lighting so this automatically tells the viewer it is a light-hearted comedy.

We feel Trainspotting will be our inspiration out of these three films as it looks fun and loads of bold and different ideas can go into it. We feel it looks great as at the start the characters are running. Running away from something or someone? It leaves the viewer thinking and immediately draws the viewer in to find out more about the film. That’s why we are using this as our inspiration as it is very fun, exciting and upbeat.