‘Watching’ Documentary of Film Openings
1. Thomas Sutcliffe means when he says ‘Films need to seduce
their audience into long term commitment. While they are many types of
seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistible’.
When saying this it refers to grabbing the audience in the first five minutes
so that there complete attention will be focused on the film since often if the
film does not grab the attention the audience will drift away and be turned off
by the beginning of the film and may eventually stop watching entirely. This is
what all directors are trying to do these days so that more people would be
hooked to the film.
2. According to Director Jean Jacques Beineix, the risks of
instant arousal is that it comes too quickly people demand that excitement
straight away but in his case he wishes to nurture take time in creating his
opening sequences making the audience wait for the satisfaction. The risks of instant
arousal is that the exciting moment is put at the beginning in his opinion what
will happen next to surpass that exciting moment which is at times be
impossible to do for some films by leaving nothing as exciting in the rest of
the film.
3. good beginning of a film can show some excitement and
according to Thomas Sutcliffe the film completely transforms from the beginning
in films such as Psycho which according to him become completely different film
than the beginning as it does not give the film away making it seem very unclear.
The rest of film may have build-ups rather than going straight into dramatic
exciting moments which then makes the audience change as they may not too much
about the film by only watching the vague beginning however at the same time it
makes them curious.
4. The critic Stanley Kauffman describes the classic
opening as an establishing shot, usually
from New York City from the east which then moves onto a close up of a building
to a camera going up a building to a close up of a window. Going into the
window, past the receptionist desk to the private office revealing the person
known as Carey Grant sitting. The reason why this works is that this type of opening
tells you where the film is taking place, the occupation of the hero is/was but
you also told that everything is in place and expected.
5. Kyle Cooper’s title sequence to the film Seven was designed
to tune the viewer to the right dissonant pitch and the reason why it’s so
effective is that the title sequence feels like it’s part of the movie. His title
sequence was the first scene of the film and told the story of it but his
sequence also foreshadowed many aspects of the film of what was going to
happen.
6. Orson Welles wanted his film opening to A Touch of Evil, to
not have title sequence and plunge the audience into history without giving
them a chance to prepare themselves however there were differing views with
Universal Studios as they were very cautious and didn’t understand his title
sequence. They decided to put a score underneath it and add the titles which
caused the effect that Orson Welles was hoping for was lost. This in turn led
to Orson writing a 52 page memo to the studio to have the title sequence the way
he wanted it but unfortunately the battle he lost causing people to be misled.
7. The thing that is meant by ‘a favourite trick of Film Noir’
is referring to the beginning of a film which seems like the ending stating it’s
like reaching the destination as much as the beginning which doesn’t reveal too
much. If the audience doesn’t see it the first time around they would notice it
when seeing the film again.
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