Opening sequences

Before I started work on our preliminary task I conducted some research into open sequences of films.

Firstly i watched the opening two minutes of 'Dirty Harry' and wrote a textual analysis, explaining my opinions on the effectiveness of the camera shots/angles, editing techniques and mise-en-scene.

From there onwards i have been watching the openings to many different films trying to analyse how the opening is portrayed and trying to guess the ideology of the film by just watching the opening to see the effectiveness it has on the audience.

Another film i looked at for opening sequences was the usual suspects, below is a essay i wrote on it

Analyse the effectiveness of the opening sequence of “The Usual Suspects” (1995)

The Opening sequence of the usual suspects creates an air of mystery with a lot of doors being opened in the reader’s fragile mind whilst leaving nothing for the mind to adjust to.

As we enter the scene we are shown a dark and gloomy inside of a ship with a man who is on the floor. As we are shown the close up of him lighting a single match then re-lighting the whole packet of matches to light up his cigarette, he then throws the matches to the ground where they spark up a long line of oil which would consequently destroy the ship. In other words our so called hero is attempting to commit suicide. What have we missed!?!

When we are shown the trail of liquid, which is putting out our hero’s feeble attempt at death, we follow it all the way back up to a mans mid section, obviously this liquid was urine. The establishing shot of this mysterious man shows us his entire person up to his shoulder line, advertently stopping the audience seeing his face, adding to his sense of mystery.
As he strolls down the steps to our hero we are shown the look of disappointment on his face as he realizes his last chance at taking his own life has disappeared right before his eyes. The mystery man casually and calmly walks up to our hero before lighting a cigarette of his own. Our hero then asks what the time is, just past midnight. As we are shown the close up of the man of mystery pulling out a gun we are shown he is clearly not trying to save our hero but quite the opposite.

2 bullets popped straight into the head show we have clearly missed the storyline creating a very effective sense of mystery. The ship is then sent into flames as the mystery killer departs the scene leaving us with a strangely confusing close up of a rope pan towards it as the boat slowly explodes.

The music we are shown throughout the opening sequence adds to our sense of mystery as it remains upbeat and uses dark and gloomy tones.

In all, the usual suspects show a technical level of pure brilliance and sets up the audience to have their questions answered in due course.