The first things you will see in the opening of a movie are the various production and distribution logos that have helped make the movie. Sometimes the logos might be changed and edited so that they relate to part of the storyline. For example in the 2010 documentary “Catfish”, which references to the internet and the social networking website ‘Facebook’ various times, the logos appear via a mouse clicking on the screen and bringing them up, so that they appear to be website pages.
The opening shot of a movie will generally be a blank screen with titles going across, or an establishing shot to set the scene. The title screens can help the audience to identify the genre, for example if the movie is a horror, the titles may be an eerie font of the colour red, with the sounds of screams etc running over them. The ways the titles are generated also help with this, for example if the titles come on in a misty fashion, it could suggest the movie is of a supernatural nature.
If the movie has big actors in it, they will be given a lot more attention and screen time as opposed to the less well known actors. Sometimes, the big stars do not actually play that big a role in the film, and do not even appear in the opening. However, they may be one of the more prominent characters shown in posters etc – this is because the producers recognise that certain stars attract a larger audience. Other movies are sold purely on stars though, and audiences go to see the film expecting to see that actor straight away. For example, if a romance features Hugh Grant or Julia Roberts, its most likely that they will be in the opening shot so as to please viewers.
Some movies, generally those aimed at teenagers, will start off by pointing out all of the different steretypes. For example, the “geek”, “busty blonde”, “virginal female”, “arrogant jock”. This helps the audience to identify the “heroes” and the “villains” straight away.
Many movies begin with voiceover, more so in contemporary movies than older ones. This is a clever device which allows the audience some insight into the protagonists mind. Voiceover is always helpful if the movie is a sequel to another film, it is an easy way of recapping the former movies, without having to include self-explanatory, unrealistic dialogue.
The same codes and conventions do not apply to ALL movies – different genre, different opening typicality’s. For example, majority of horror movies will open with a murder of some sort, obviously a romance movie will not do this. Thus, there are not really a certain set of “rules” that every opening scene of a movie must follow.
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