4) How can a film opening attract the audience? (Watching documentary)

What does Thomas Sutcliffe mean when he says “Films need to seduce their audience into a long term commitment. While there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistible” Sutcliffe believes that ‘an instant arousal’ is a massive temptation because films need to grab the attention of their audience for a long time (about 1.5-2 hours); so doing something spectacular and dramatic is really tempting in the opening scene, first 10 minutes because after this time the audience would have made their judgement about the film, and would have decided if the movie is worth their full attention. However,

       

      According to Director Jean Jacques Beineix, what are the risks of ‘instant arousal’? Jean Jacques Beineix believes that there are major risks when producing an ‘instant arousal’  because after something major spectacular occurs within the title sequence, the bar is set too high as the movie cannot stay at such a high standard for the duration of the movie.

Both views (Sutcliffe and Beineix) are equally important and significant as they both want the audience to continue watching the movie as they don’t want to let the audience down and aim to give the audience the best viewing experience·        

   
     Explain why “a good beginning must make the audience feel it doesn’t know nearly enough yet, and at the same time make sure that it doesn’t know too little”?
     The purpose of an opening sequence is to establish tone. The title sequence should help the audience come to terms and have some idea of the storyline and main characters. So the scene needs to tell the audience a little but not too much.

        

     What does critic Stanley Kauffmann describe as the classic opening? Why does this work? 
     The classic opening consists of the location and surroundings and the camera would eventually catch a glimpse of the main character. This was successful as a key information was given such as the setting, charaters occupation (status in the world) or home/ lifestyle. This type of shot is called an establishing shot which would typically include:

·         A shot of the City

·         A big building shot which would lead to the window

·         Through the door

·         Then finally the camera and audience would enter the room, where they would meet the character

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      What did Orson Wells want to achieve with his opening to the film A Touch of Evil? What did Universal Studios do to it? Why? 
      The purpose of title sequence is to include the contractual legal information at the beginning      of the film, which includes studio, main actors, Production Company.

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       What is meant by the ‘favourite trick of Film Noir’? What is the trick? 
       The favourite trick of film noir is to start the opening scene with the end of the film.