MAIN Post 1: Conventions of an Opening Sequence

The following information is my summary of the analysis on the opening sequence of two short films with different genres that highlights the conventions of these films. I carried out this research in order to find out about typical conventions used in an opening sequence and different types of opening sequences for different genres of films. This research will help when I have to work with a group in creating an opening sequence of our own.

Casino Royale
The link below leads to the opening sequence of this film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiGy8lD4a_c 

This James Bond film is a 2006 action adventure genre with the opening sequence being compact with graphics of the highest quality and edited extremely well. The opening sequence lasts just over 3 minutes, whilst displaying the opening titles and credits, the opening sequence also shows an almost silouette of James Bond doing what he does best, thats loading guns and killing people. The graphics are highly revolved around cards and their patterns such as hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades, these are significant as throughout the film James Bond is playing poker and at several card tables aiming to get his man. This is vital to the opening sequence as it can give the audience a hint as to what they can expect to see in the film. The main conventions used in the opening sequence consist from the mise-en-scene, showing the guns and fighting as these are typical for the action adventure-thriller genre.


This shows a couple of screen grabs from the opening sequence of Casino Royale, highlighting the card graphics and violent nature.


The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The link below leads to the opening sequence of this film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY4f_83t_rw 

Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara star in this 2011 mysterious yet thrilling drama film about a man's mission to find a girl who has been missing for 40 years. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has very dark and graphic opening credits, the dark flashing of images at the beginning of the opening credits highlights the mystery and suspense that will be seen throughout the film. The panning of the camera over different objects and shots keeps the audience thinking about what the film has in store and uses a convention of creating a mysterious atmosphere. The rushing of the liquid over the objects works alongside the title to do with tattoos, this could show that the tattoo is an important aspect of the film that the audience should keep notice of. As well as the rushing of the liquid, body parts are also shown to be overuled by the ink, such as face features. Towards the end of the opening credits there is a hint of violence as the audience see a fist hit a face, this gives off a hint that the film will have some violence in it.

This shows a few screen grabs put together from the opening sequence of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, highlighting how dark and mysterious it is.