Research Task 1 - Film Conventions

"What are the conventions of film openings?"

There are a set of conventions that are followed by the majority of films, regardless of their budget or genre, most of these film openings are between 2 and 3 minutes long, however some of the bigger Blockbuster films often go into 5 minutes, some of these techniques are:

• The logo/name of the Production company.
• Music.
• Actors and Directors names.
• Variety of camera shots.
• A brief idea of where the setting is. 
• They also tend to give an insight to the pre-story prior to the film.

The logo/name of production company.

The logo and/or name of the production company is one of the most popular film conventions, the production company's logo often comes up before the beginning of the film, below are some of the most common and memorable production companies

Columbia, Universal, Paramount, 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers 

Music

Music is also an important technique. There are two typical conventions film either follow, the first being, music fading in after the production companies logo has been shown, a song playing through to give the viewers a feel to the movie whilst exploring the scene location. Or on the other hand, fade in with music and then have either the main protagonist or antagonist speaking, identifying main characters to the viewers. 

Actors and Directors names.

As many people still decide whether they want to continue watching a film within the opening sequence, and by placing the names of actors on the screen they may be incited by who is staring in it. The names are usually placed in two ways, either with an animation bringing it onto the screen, or plain eyecatching text

Two different styles, Plain and effect.

Variety of camera shots.

A common camera shot used for the beginnings of films can be eyecatching, a common shot used is the Hollywood, or reverse Hollywood, this is when the camera starts far out, and cuts closer and closer from LS to MS, CU, to ECU, with the reverse starting from ECU and going backwards, this helps the viewers identify a scene/location and then being introduced to a character. 

An example of a Reverse Hollywood Shot can be seen in the opening to Unknown