Film Opening Sequence Analysis

To help us with our planning we looked at different film openings all within the horror genre. This would provide us with inspiration and ideas for our own coursework.

First of all we looked at the classic American slasher film Scream directed by Wes Craven.


In this opening sequence we see the titles being presented straight away as opposed to the regular convention of titles being shown a few minutes in. What we like about this opening is the regular use of close ups in steady cam which adds to the realism and tension of the film. This is something that we are planning to use. The use of sound is also an element that we want to incorporate into our work as in the beginning, the sounds are all diegetic, then as the clip progresses the tension builds as the soundtrack gets louder which adds the sense of terror.
Another film we wanted to look at, which we will be taking inspiration from the most is Blair Witch Project directed by Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick.

We like the realism within this opening sequence. All characters act in a naturalistic way, which is beneficial when we look for actors, considering we will not get the opportunity to work with professionals. Hair, makeup and clothing are all incredibly natural which again is useful to us as we don't have access to makeup artists or stylists. All shooting is done on location rather than studios, and all footage is shot on a handheld camera. We like the fact this film is low budget yet still manages to be a cult classic without trying too hard. The opening titles and text on screen gave exposition for a few seconds so no time is wasted. The title is basic, medium white font on a black background. This simplicity sets the tone for the rest of the film.
Another film opening we looked at was 'scary movie' directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans. The reason we chose to analyse this was because it had comedy conventions that we wanted to encorperate in our clip.


This clip features elements from other films, in this particular one they choose to parody the opening of 'scream'. The reason this opening is so successful is that the audience can tell straight away which film they are using and from the beginning it includes comical aspects such as the constant cutaway to the popcorn and frequent use of explicit language.
For our narrative, we wanted to use the plot-line of the killer or names of those killed, shown in some way. For example in 'Broken Lizards Club Dread' the killer's names is played in the songs.We like this idea as it makes it obvious to the audience immediately what is going to happen.
Another film we wanted to base the narrative on is 'Final Destination'.
The reason we chose this one aswell is because the people die but not becasue of the cause stated. We agreed that this would also be a good idea to use as it goes against the idea of the killer being obvious, when in reality it's due to natural causes.
For the theme/setting we wanted to take inspiration from 'Urban Legends' 


The reason we chose this is because the whole film is based on what the book says. We want to include a theme like this for our opening sequence with the characters thinking that what happens is due to what is written.