Different film opening structures

Opening film structures are very essential when creating any kind of film , there are a wide selection to chose from depending on the type of mood you want to create . The four structures i'll be exploring today are discrete , narrative , credits over a black screen and stylised openings . What i noticed between the four opening structures are they are all very different , you can have very conplicated and really edited structures to very simple ones overall though all of them are used due to it's effectivness .

Se7en

Se7en is an example of a 'Discrete opening structure' , this type of structure is very heavily edited often including many images ,effects and black screens with titles. What makes it 'special'  is that  everything is edited so well and so often that it creates a spooky vide which is great for thrillers, also the audience can catch a glimpse of clues that might tell them what the films about which is a very great way of getting the audience engaged and thinking . However what allured me into liking this way of opening a film is that for my media task was for my group to make a two minute thriller opening and it has to be very effective because thats all we're going to show an audience and the whole point is that we leave them wanting more . This film se7en through using a discrete opening structure has made that two minute task ,possible ,in my opinion.


The next opening structure is called 'Narrative' and it's basically when the opening mainly involves the 'credits' and the 'location' , i find this structure not as appealing because the credits are very bold and out there which i believe takes away the scary vide that i would like to assume thriller openings should have . I watched the opening to the film 'The Shining' and at first i couldn't tell at all that the film was a thriller infact i was rather puzzeled that my media teacher showed it to us , the only way i got even a hint of danger was when a car was zooming past in what appeared to be a chase .

 My teacher told us that this film is an excellant thriller and that it's worth watching but i think that because we only have two minutes to show people that our film is a thriller this form of opening won't be any good to use .


 'Credits over screen' is the third opening structure i looked at , this is a very simple way in which to open a film . During the opening a black screen would appear and then the credits would be placed within the black screen. I think it can be effective because the colour 'black' is associated with danger , darkness and the unknown which i like . If i were to use it though it wouldn't run all the way through my film , only at a certain point to add or create a scary effect .

Example from : Donnie Darkco

Finally the last structure i looked at was an 'stylised' opening , this to is a very heavily edited form of film opening and just like the discrete structure it to uses many editing techniques.

The video above is from the film 'The taking of Pelham 123' due to the fast paced edits , intresting transitions and tons of images of the location of the film it both excites me and hooks me right from the word go.


Overall though i think all of these film opening structures has something great to offer however i find the opening which are heavily stylised as the most effective . When it came to deciding as a group on what we might use we all liked the discrete form .