Setting
The conventions of an opening sequence are things which you have in place which gives the audience watching ideas and more knowledge of what they are watching. One of the conventions to a film is the setting. The setting is there so the audience get more information of where the film is taking place or where it might take place later on in the film. Each films use there conventions differently when introducing certain parts to the film. For example the director might not want people to know where the main setting is going to be. This is because it will surprise the audience and keep them guessing.
An example of our piece when we introduce our setting is when we have various of shot of the girl at home getting ready to go school. This shows that she is the main character and that the setting is going to be at a school. This will then give the audience a good idea of what the film is going to be like.
The establishing shot of the setting is showing a house where most of the action of the opening sequence takes place. This doesn't give to much out for the audience to take advantage of because most people spent most of there time in there house so it doesn't tell much to the audience.
Titles
Another convention of an opening sequence is the titles. At the beginning of the opening sequence it is important that the titles are put in place for the main characters and the main people that have helped make the movie. The font of the titles can help add to the film. For example if you are going to make a horror film which is very bloody you could have the title red and with a font which will suit the horror theme. Titles have a big part to play and need a lot of thought to go into them to make sure they don't look out of place to what your film is about.The titles come onto the screen at a pace which suits the film and adds to the tension. A good example of an opening sequence of a thriller is the film "The sixth sense". This opening sequence starts off with a dark black background with the titles slowly appearing in blue text this adds to the tension because the text slowly comes into the opening sequence with the music in the background. The title come one at a time normally in order of importance for example the main actor will be the first name to appear on screen.
The titles in my opening sequence are bold white font. This wont give much information for the audience to take from the titles.
Looking for clues
At the end of the opening sequence the audiences should have clues which the director has left them to try and work out what is going to happen in the rest of the film. especially in the genre of the thriller the director will leave numerous of clues because thrillers are all about giving the audience clues and trying to solve things. For example in the film "Taken 2" The main character is trying to save his family and he is looking for clues for how to save them, also the audience don't know if he is going to survive or die.
Main actor revealed
In the opening sequence of a thriller the main actor will be revealed so the audience knows who it is. This then lets the audience know what there role in the film will be. The audience will find out if the main character is a villain or good character. In the film inception when Leonardo Di Caprio is introduced from the shore at the beach he imminently can be identified as a positive character and the audience will more often like him because he is a good character.
This is the first sighting of the main character in my opening sequence. The audiences first sighting of her is with her back to them to hide her identity for a little bit longer. The fact that she is walking into the house can distract the audience from what she has done. Because the audience at this point might think that she has come home from a normal day at work or school.
Blood
Blood used in an opening sequence will be there normally to represent a death, For example they will use the blood to show to the audience what has happened in the opening sequence, then they know its rather going to go and get solved by the police or something else will happen. Normally films that have blood in are from the genre 'Thriller' or 'Horror' this is because they are higher rated movies which try to make the audience scared and on the edge of there seat and by introducing blood this can happen. In my groups opening sequence we used blood to represent a flashback of the girl killing the boy.
For example these picture are representing blood because the colour of the drink is red, and when she spills some on the table she instantly thinks back to when she killed the boy with a close up shot of her holding the drink. She thinks back to the high angled shot of the boy covered in blood laying on the floor who is helpless.
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