RESEARCH - what is the purpose of a film opening?

1) This means that a film needs to catch an audience to draw them in to want to carry on watching.
 
2) The risks of 'instant arousal' is that if you start a film opening too strong, the audience may have questions which leads to the problem of all of those questions having to be answered in the film.

3) This is so that the audience can adjust to the nature of the movie, without knowing the whole story.

4) A classic film opening would always tell us the location of the film, the occupation of the main character, the nature of the film and it generally leads the audience into the story smoothly.

5) The title sequence of 'Seven' is so effective because straight away it gets you ready for the atmosphere of the film as it allows the audience to become almost part of the movie. It foreshadows the happenings of the film and introduces the audience to the main character.

6) Orson Welles wanted to have no credits in his opening sequence so he was able to plunge the audience straight into the film story line. However Universal studios changed his idea and added in the credits so that the film was not the way he intended.

7) The trick of 'Film Noir' is that the beginning of a film is more like the ending of the film.