Conventions of a Film Opening

Most commonly, the predominant aim of a film opening is to immediately captivate and hook the audience in. The opening will give the audience a sense of the narrative and will present the characters and a basics of the story plot. The audience will usually be able to instantly identify and recognise the genre of the film - based on location, lighting, music etc.

Most film openings are around 2 minutes long and introduce the pre-plot/ beginning narrative - Giving the audience a sense of what the film will be like. 

At the start of the film, the key credits will appear, such as the film director, the main actors and the name of the film. Again, this is done to hook the audience as often one will decide whether to watch a film based on the actors in it/the production company, or director.

In most film openings the key character's are introduced along side a theme song or parallel non-diegetic music, indicating the genre of the film.

Often, the key credits are presented on top of a series of establishing shots, which set the scene and give the audience a sense of the locations - again indicating the genre of the film.

The opening sequence usual ends with the start of the narrative, commonly the pace will change from calm to a spark of action, hooking the audience, however this depends on the genre.

One common convention of a film opening is the use of a non-diegetic voice over, this can give the audience background knowledge to a story line, it can help the audience to identify and connect with the character and it adds to the narrative. Additionally, it is a common technique for the film opening to start at the end of the story, and then for it to take the audience back in time to the beginning, supposedly before everything changed and went wrong. Throughout the rest of the film it will usually be frequent foreshadow of the upcoming events, that the audience knows to be coming. This will usually hook the audience as they will want to find out what happened for the character to end up in that situation.

Another common start, is to begin with a flashback to when the protagonist was a child. Usually, this is the most pivotal point in their life, where it has shaped them and creates the story that the film will tell. For example, when Harry Potter's parents have just been killed by Voldemort in 'The Order of the Phoenix', when Matt Murdock, from 'Daredevil', is blinded, or when Clark Kent is born in 'Man of Steel'.