Cinematography: A mixture of interesting shots must be used to capture the audience's attention.
Narrative: The opening must have an enigma(s) or a mystery attached to ensure the audience will want to watch on.
Sound: Dialogue, music and sound effects can all be used to set a certain atmosphere and interest the audience.
Characters: The main character(s) in the film must be interesting and well set-up in the opening. The audience must be able to relate to them and establish a relationship with them.
Mise-en-scene: This includes the location, props, costumes, performance ad lighting. They must all be carefully thought out to create the right impression and atmosphere
Editing: The pace, rhythm, transitions, titles and special effects must also be carefully planned to introduce the film well and keep the audience's attention.
Genre: The opening must include the correct characteristics that meet its genre e.g. a noir opening would include shadows, darkness, dodgy characters etc. to ensure the audience know what they're watching.
MICHAEL CLAYTON
The opening sequence of this film is simple yet effective. It contains no dialogue and builds all of its tension through action and music. The music builds in crescendo and that along with the increased sound of heavy breathing allows the scene to build to a climax which entices the viewer to continue watching.
The scene consists of the main character (George Clooney) apparently fleeing from a situation which the audience does not yet know about. Immediately the audince is intrigued and wanting to know why the character is in this predicament hence maintaining their attention and hopefully making them want to watch the rest of the film. The camera shows us a mixture of close ups, which give clues as to the character's state of mind, and long and mid shots which help establish the location and passing on the information that he seems to be alone. In other shots he is mostly viewed from a high angle suggesting he may not be in control of what is happening to him.
The main character is also beginning to run through a forest which served as an influence to me when writing the script as I felt the visual of the trees and plants served to give a feeling of doom given their potentially looming presence. The location maintains fairly natural lighting which creates a more realistic atmosphere along Clooney's downplayed but still frightened performance and allows the audience to believe in the character.
Also on another visual note the sequence is shot with a very dark pallette, almost black and white, to give it a very film noir feel and this is something I believe we could replicate in our own film opening. In order to further build tension it also employs fairly rapid editing and only uses the dissolve style at the end of the scene as it reveals the main title which is written in simple white font with the contrast of black and white possibly being a metaphor for the theme of light against dark that runs through the film.
The scene consists of the main character (George Clooney) apparently fleeing from a situation which the audience does not yet know about. Immediately the audince is intrigued and wanting to know why the character is in this predicament hence maintaining their attention and hopefully making them want to watch the rest of the film. The camera shows us a mixture of close ups, which give clues as to the character's state of mind, and long and mid shots which help establish the location and passing on the information that he seems to be alone. In other shots he is mostly viewed from a high angle suggesting he may not be in control of what is happening to him.
The main character is also beginning to run through a forest which served as an influence to me when writing the script as I felt the visual of the trees and plants served to give a feeling of doom given their potentially looming presence. The location maintains fairly natural lighting which creates a more realistic atmosphere along Clooney's downplayed but still frightened performance and allows the audience to believe in the character.
Also on another visual note the sequence is shot with a very dark pallette, almost black and white, to give it a very film noir feel and this is something I believe we could replicate in our own film opening. In order to further build tension it also employs fairly rapid editing and only uses the dissolve style at the end of the scene as it reveals the main title which is written in simple white font with the contrast of black and white possibly being a metaphor for the theme of light against dark that runs through the film.
SE7EN
In this opening there is once again no dialogue and it instead relies on sound and action to grab the audience's attention. The music is very scattered and sounds almost broken which creates a feeling of unease with the audience. There is very little diegetic sound so as to not give clues as to the killer's identity.
Visually the sequence seems almost black and white with the setting apparently being a darkened study of some kind. Just about every shot is close up and shows little bits of what the man but without revealing the whole picture or location which is a good way of enticing the viewer to keep watching as it serves as an enigma.
In this opening there is once again no dialogue and it instead relies on sound and action to grab the audience's attention. The music is very scattered and sounds almost broken which creates a feeling of unease with the audience. There is very little diegetic sound so as to not give clues as to the killer's identity.
Visually the sequence seems almost black and white with the setting apparently being a darkened study of some kind. Just about every shot is close up and shows little bits of what the man but without revealing the whole picture or location which is a good way of enticing the viewer to keep watching as it serves as an enigma.
The lighting uses a hard key light in order to create lots of shadow which is typical of film noir. We do not see the whole room but we are aware of a table which seems to fairly realistic and adds to the verisillimillitude. All we see of the performer are his hands and these do not give any clues as to his identity thus maintaining the enigma.
The editing employs a lot of jump cuts which add to the uneasy feeling and confirm that the performer is doing something of a sinister nature. No shot lingers for more than a second or two and doesn't give the viewer's eye time to settle. The main titles are white and against a black backdrop which is typical of noir however their appearance is jerky almost as if the viewer is seeing what's really there which goes on to be a theme in the film.
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