Film Opening Research

Billy Madison (comedy)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFuU8b_6xnQ
To watch this opening click the link above.

The idea of a film opening is to give the audience an idea of whats to come in the film. It should give hints to things like the genre, characters, historical context, the narrative, setting and themes of the film. These can be shown through the music, the credits and the small amount of narrative shown. It should not give away the story line or too much about the characters otherwise there will be no intrigue or incentive for the audience to keep watching.

The music at the start of the film is in a major key and is light and fast, this connetes that the film is going to be a comedy and the characters are going to be portrayed as light hearted and fun. the black out screen with the inital titles don't give anything away, the font is rounded and large which connotes immaturity and the black background means we dont know anything about the setting or the characters yet. As soon as the first scene is shown the audience can tell its set in a hot place due to the swimming pool and the weather, it also suggests wealth as the water features look like they are made of an expensive stone.

The font of the titles is curly and child like. This connotes the genre will be comedy as they usually appeal to a younger audience. It also gives an idea of the narrative, it's suggested that the narrative will be about an immature or child like character. We are introduced to the main character in the opening, we see the main title character, Billy Madison, as Adam Sandlers name comes up on the credits. Sandler is a well known comedy actor so this further confirms the genre and confirms who the main character is.