Opening Scene research

For the research on opening scenes we decided to look at films within the same genre so we chose Casino Royale and I also looked at Killers Elite due to the fact that the film has the link with genre and the fact that someone gets kidnapped in it. This helped us to look at the standard conventions of the genre for opening scenes in films. We noticed that the film is always at an average pace to keep the audience interested and wanting to see more, also if their are any titles in the opening scene they are in the corners of the scene from left bottom to right top. This is so the titles don't take to much away from the action and so that their isn't any arguments about whose name comes first. A great example of this is in the Towering Inferno where they had two big name actors like Steve McQueen and Paul Newman.

Towering Inferno

Casino Royale

Good Points

• Good speed to the scene so that it doesn't confuse or bore the audience. This is important as for action scenes they need to be fast paced as long as it isn't too fast paced so that the audience get confused.
• The fact that the opening scene is in black and white adds mystery to the scene and keeps the audience asking questions about what is going on, who is he tracking, etc... Also it gives the scene a sense of traditionalism and looks very simple and easy on the eye.
• It is everything that you'd expect from an action thriller, as it uses all of the standard conventions while testing some of them like the use of black and white footage which doesn't really get used anymore. In fact the only film that has really been used in lately is the Artist and that is because that is a Black and White Silent Romantic Comedy and the use of Black and White Footage has been used to add a periodic sense to the film as it is set in 1927-32 Hollywood.
• Everything you'd expect from a James Bond film because it is fast paced and immediately grasps the audiences attention while not given any of the films main plot away.

Killers Elite

• Its the standard fat paced start to an action thriller film that is made like this to entice and grasp the attention of it's intended demographic of 14-35 year old males.