Conventions Of Film Openings

Character

• The characters are very important in the opening of a movie because the audience can determine an opinion of them. As you can see from the two images one man is wearing a suit and the other is in armour showing two different opinions we can get from this. The characters set up the audiences perception of the rest of the film. Usually the characters are shown all at once, but in some cases they show one character at a time with credits so they don’t give too much away, so they keep the audience guessing.

Genre

• In the film opening the audience can often tell what type of genre the film is from the characters and Mise-en-scene. As you can tell the first image a man with a gun telling us its an action film, whilst the second image it’s a woman smiling telling the audience it’s going to be a rom-com.

Setting

• The setting is very important for the opening of a film because the image 1 give a sense of mystery, because the Mise-en-scene isn't giving away very much detail with the low lighting. Whilst image two gives a sense of danger, with the man masked with a gun. Giving two very different plots of the films and the audiences perception upon the film.

What I’ve Leant

• Upon my research I've learnt a lot about the conventions of different film openings. I've learnt that setting, character and genre are all depending of the plot of the film. So I will have to think carefully about the plot of my film.