Purpose of an opening sequences

Purpose of an opening sequence

The purpose of an opening sequence is to establish the mood, visual character of the film and setting the atmosphere, plus introduces:

Ø Characters

Ø Plot/narrative

Ø Location

Ø Theme

Ø Identify the subgenre

During the opening sequence of thriller films it is important to bring about enigmas and tension this will help to reveal what type of subgenre it is. Plus the use of opening sequences means that it can be linear, therefore it does not need to be attached to the rest if the film, and can therefore be shown independently and does not necessary need a direct link. For example, the Bond film ‘From Russia with Love’ (1963) shows the opening sequence independently and not actually part of the film. 

In this clip below an enigma is can be shown as a Bond mask is removed from another persona face therefore this shows that it was not actually Bond, the real reason of what they are doing can be revealed towards the end where this happens. This therefore shows that it exists separately from the main film.

The next shot below shows suspense and tension in the sequence as you can only see the antagonist's feet walking slowly, this here is when the tension raises.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHlc-EX_Jhk 

Despite all of this that is being shown, the titles of the film, production team, director and sometimes the key actors name will also appear on screen. These titles can appear at different stages of the opening sequence and in term of thriller they usually appear on a black screen.