Introduction

Hi, my name is George Patient and I am a sixth form student at The FitzWimarc School. I am undertaking a task where I have to create the opening title sequence of a film genre of my choice (2 minutes). The majority of film openings follow the same conventions;

• Name of director
• Main featured actors 
• Film title
• Production company logos i.e. Universal/Warner Bros
• Soundtrack (Non-diegetic)
• Introduction to main characters
• Narrative that sets the scene for the film

In contrast to this, some directors decide to make the opening of their films quite unconventional so that it stands out; Christopher Nolan decided to abandon an opening sequence at the beginning of The Dark Knight as it allowed the audience to fully immerse themselves into to the opening action sequence which subsequently builds tension and verisimilitude.

The genre I have chosen is a thriller, I have chosen this because I like films in this genre as I watch them in my own time. I feel that they are effective films because the audience is emerged into the cinematic universe the director has created; they are also have good atmospheres as you are tense and on the edge of your seat waiting to find out what is going to happen next. However thriller films are often hybrids with other genres;  action and horror generally pair with a thriller. I like films such as Seven and Fight club because I found that when watching them, I could never predict what was going to happen next which I feel is important in a film because it makes it more enjoyable rather than being able to predict all the events in the film before they have happened. The endings of both films were both very unconventional as they did not follow Todorov's narrative theory because the protagonist(s) did not overcome a problem/event; therefore there was not a restored equilibrium.

I have already had a similar experience to this at GCSE when I was presented with the task of creating a film trailer. From this experience I hope to understand and learn how certain camera angles and movements are achieved and use them in my opening sequence to make it look more professional. Furthermore I wish to use my own cinematic experiences to influence this production piece.