Documentary on film openings- Questions and answers.

As a class we all had to watch a documentary on film openings. It gave us a insight of what it takes to have a good opening from experts/professionals such as the directors that were shown. We then were given a set of questions to answer about the documentary.

1) What does Thomas Sutcliffe mean when he says "Films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment? While there are many types of seduction , the temptation to go for an instant arousal is almost irresistible".

What Thomas Sutliffe means is that you have to interest the audience in the beginning without having to give much away or to get their hopes up and disappoint them during the film. One could say as a teaser to grab the audiences attention without them skipping or already assuming the film is bad.


2) According to director Jean Jacques Beineix , what are the risks of 'instant arousal'?

He believes that the suspense must be built up gradually making the audience more interested in the film. As the film progresses and also not to start too strong and the leave the audience feel really disappointed as the film will start to die out as it progresses.

3) Explain why "a good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn't know nearly enough yet, and at the same time make sure that it doesn't know too little.

This is important because because if the audience knows to much they would feel there is no need to carry on watching however if they know to little it they would make them feel as if they want to find out a lot more. So there should be a balance where they know the information they need for that moment but not to much to ruin the film for them.

4)What does critic Stanley Kauffmann describe as the classic opening? 

Stanley Kauffmann describes the classic opening mentioning that the film began with an establish shot , then a close up of a building camera going up the building to a window, the in the window taking us through the characters and their occupations. Showing us things like what are the characters like such as personality wise. The journey of the camera is telling us all we need to know in the opening in which he calls a classic opening.

5)Why is Kyle Cooper's title sequence to the film Seven so effective? 


I think it was designed to get the audience in their seats and keep them tuned in and liven up. The title sequence introduces the audience to the character and gives the psychotic feeling to the movie as it is becoming the first scene of the movie. In fact it was so effective that it was influential than the whole movie and other movies we today.
 
6)What did Orson Welles want to achieve with his opening to the film A Touch Of Evil? What did Universal Studios do to it? Why?

Orson Welles wanted to achieve a evil side to his opening to the film to create tension, without the use of credits to lure him straight into the story. Universal Studios put the credits and title music losing the effect Welles wanted to achieve in his opening.

7)What is meant by "a favorite trick of Film Noir"? What is the trick? 

The trick is that the film starts with the ending, then throughout the rest of the film we are shown how a character got to that particular event how he got to the place we were shown at the beginning.

8)How does the opening to the film The Shining create suspense? 
 
The opening of The Shining creates suspense by the view of the helicopter shot of the camera fixed on that object pursuing the car like a predator suggesting that evil has something to do with the car.