Analysing Opening Sequences

In class on Thursday 22nd and 29th November we analysed opening sequences from a variety of films for some of our product research. We focused on the key features of opening sequences, which are:

• Genre
• Narrative/ enigma
• Character
• Atmosphere
• Setting

One of the opening sequences we watched was 'Cape Fear' an American psychological thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese. I focused of character in this, here are the notes I made:
I thought the main character was a middle aged man who I believe was a murderer from the waves which gradually turned red making them look like blood after we see him. I also felt the way in which he emerged from the waves made him look almost immortal. My other thought was that the waves, which started of fairly calm and got gradually faster depict the man's dysfunctional mind, this idea was also extended by titles which seem distorted.
The other character in the opening sequence was a young American girl who I believe was one of the man victims. She gives us an insight of the setting, it's in the summer, Cape Fear is a river and it's in America. She describes it as a magical place where people fear 'real life crashing in' her calm voice and description of Cape Fear is juxtaposed to the rest of the opening sequence.

Another opening sequence we watched was 'Hellboy II: The Golden Army' a 2008 American-German film directed by Guillermo del Toro. In this opening sequence I focused on genre. I guessed that it was an action adventure fantasy, this was from the war like music playing throughout and the clashing of metal which I thought sounded like swords clashing and an army. The red and fire I also thought foreshadowed hell and death and the Da Vinci code notes showed that they were on an adventure, searching for something. The fantasy came from the young boy at the start who had horns and looked like the devil.

 
'Se7en' was another opening sequence we watched in class. 'Se7en' is an American psychological thriller directed by David Fincher. Instead of focusing on one key feature in this I looked at them all, here are my notes...
Genre: Psychological thriller
Atmosphere: Dysfunctional and layering of distorted pictures with quick snaps in-between camera shots which I felt reflected the main characters head
Narrative/enigma: What's this man doing and why?
Setting: America (you can tell from dollar)
Character: Psychopath (dysfunctional mind), dirty fingers with plasters on (doesn't care about appearance), I thought the main character was a middle aged man from the fingers.