Extension Exercise

'Watching' Documentary on Film Openings

1. What does Thomas Sutcliffe mean when he says "Films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment. While there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistible"?.  He means that film openings have to rope the audience in from the very start and 'wow' the audience, they are intrigued in watching the rest of the opening.
2. According to the director Jean Jacques Beineix , what are the risks of 'instant arousal'?. When arousing the audience , it  to raises the question , 'what to do next?' therefore you have to answer the question , sometimes not being able to answer the question tends to be one of the risks of instant arousal.
3. Explain why "a good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn't know nearly enough yet, and at the same time make sure that it doesn't know too little". If the relationship is to last , some kind of deal must be struck , the beginning of the film is the point which the film comes to terms with its viewers drawing up the rules of engagement.
4. What does critic Stanley Kauffmann describe as the classic opening? Why does this work? Classic opening starts of with an establishing shot e.g New York City and then a close up of a building , the camera went up the building to a window and through the window ,went past the reception to the private office and there sat Kerry Grant. You have been told about this simple classic opening so called "process". 
5. Why is Kyle Cooper's title sequence to the film Seven so effective?.The sequence tuned the viewers to the genre right from the beginning. It started off as a thriller , it waked everyone up and feels like the same movie. It is very frequent. It foreshadowed a lot of things that were going to happen and represented the obsessive nature of the main character.
6. What did Orson Welles want to achieve with his opening to the film A Touch of Evil?What did Universal Studios do to it? Why?. He confirmed it to be seen without the music title or any credits.He wanted to plunge his audience into his story without giving them time to prepare themselves but once Universal Studios edited it the effect was lost immediately.
7. What is meant by ' a favourite trick of Film Noir'? What is the trick?.The beginning of the film is a type of ending ,  not a beginning at all.That is the famous trick. They look ahead to what has to come and if the audience doesn't see it first time round , it will be clear when the watch the film again.
8. How does the opening to the film The Shining create suspense?. The lift of the overhead camera creates suspense as the camera pursues the car like a predator , high and from behind. Everything tells the audience that the people in the car are travelling in the wrong direction. This builds up suspense as not much is revealed.