Extension Exercise ‘Watching’ Documentary

1). When Thomas Sutcliffe says "films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment he is referring to thriller openings, stating that the first part of the film is crucial for interesting the audience by the opening being a success it is likely that the audience will be intrigued and want to continue watching the film.

2). According to Jean Jacques Beineix, he says the risks of instant arousal is what happens next in the film. The risk is that the questions that the audience ask may not be answered. By having such a strong start it is questionable whether the whole film will deliver with the same standard. He recommends that an instant arousal is not the best way to catch an audience’s attention

3). The beginning of the movie must show the narrative and characters without revealing information. It is important that too much information is not given away so that the audience are drawn into the film. After an opening of a thriller, the audience should still feel quite uncertain due to the opening being clever and vague; they must feel this way and still want to know more.

4). Stanley Kauffmann describes a classic opening as an establishing shot e.g. New York , a close up of a particular building, then a shot of a window and then the camera would go past the receptionist desk into a private office, showing the character.  He praises this type of opening because he says it is a good way of revealing basics of the film e.g. where is it? What’s the main character occupation? All questions are answered without the opening being so complex.

5). Kyle Cooper's title sequence to Seven is effective because the title sequence includes shots relating to the thriller, the title sequence introduced the main character without revealing information, thus becoming the first scene of the movie.

6). Orson Welles wanted his film's opening to be a scene without credits and title music as he wanted the audience to be immediately drawn into the story, Universal Studios removed the effect that Orson Welles wanted by adding the titles to the opening sequence.

7). A favorite trick of ’Film Noir' is when the opening of a film is actually the end of it; this means that the audience will want to watch the film so that they find out the reverse story line of it. The beginning of the film is its ending as it reveals what will happens at the end.

8). The opening of The Shining creates suspense because the car is being track by the camera from a distance which will make audiences assume that the car is being followed, the audience are made to feel as if the people in the car may be travelling to somewhere that they shouldn't be creating suspense though this is what keeps the audience on edge and wanting to watch the film.