4 - How can a film opening attract an audience?

This blog post is based on a documentary called "Watching".

When Thomas Sutcliffe says "Films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment. While there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistible" he means that the opening of a film should hook the audience straight away and make them want to continue watching.

According to Director Jean Jacques Beineix, the risk of "instant arousal" is that if you start strong then you have to raise questions like "what do I do next?." You've aroused the audience then you have to answer the questions. You take the risk that you will never answer the questions.

"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" because you want to make sure that the audience wants to know more but doesn't want the audience to know everything about the film in the first 5 minutes.

Critic Stanley Kauffmann describes the classic opening as first, an establishing shot of a city, then a close up of a building, then the camera going up the building to a window, then the camera going in the window past the receptionist desk, then the main office. This shows where the film is taking place and what the occupation of the hero is/was. Everything is set in place.

Kyle Cooper's title sequence to the film "Seven" is so effective because its like the first scene of the film. It told the story and we were introduced to the obsessive nature of the main character. It also foreshadowed a lot of things that were going to happen. In ways the title sequence is more influential  then the film.

In the film "A Touch of Evil" Orson Welles intended his opening to be seen without credits and title music. He wanted to plunge his audience into his story without giving them time to prepare themselves. But Universal Studios put credits and music over the sequence so that the effect was lost.

"A favourite trick of Film Noir" means that the beginning is kind of the ending. It feels like a destination rather then a departure. Its looking ahead on what's to come. If you cant see it the first time then the second time you will definitely see it.

The opening to the film "The Shining" creates suspense with the camera work. The camera pursues the car like a predator. It remains fixed on this tiny object. Everything tells us that they are going the wrong way