There are several codes and conventions that film producers follow when making openings for crime films. For example, Martin Scorsese's films often feature voiceovers, freeze frames, and settings in New York City. Crime films generally take place in large cities with alleys, as that is where crime occurs. The characters typically originate from Italy but live in America and join the mafia. Their pride often leads to their downfall by the end of the film, with few happy endings. Iconic credit sequences open many crime films, and Saul Bass designed famous openings like Goodfellas. The editing in openings is usually slow at first and gets more exciting as an enticing incident occurs near the end.

1. Codes and conventions
There are quite a few codes and conventions that producers follow when making an
opening to a crime film, especially in iconic director’s films such as Martin Scorsese.
For example in Scorsese movies there is quite a few trademarks that can be spotted that will
signify it is his film, such as voiceovers, freeze frames and the setting being New York or the
character being from there. But in general Crime films are quite regularly set in large
bustling cities with small back alleys such as New York because of crime that happens there.
For characters it is convention of classic crime films that the characters originate from Italy,
but are now in America and end up being a part of the Mafia. A story convention for these
characters is that their downfall in the end after they have earnt their riches and their ego
has grown their pride becomes their downfall and there are hardly any happy endings.
Another convention of the genre would be the credit sequence featured at the beginning of
the film and the most famous person for making iconic openings is Saul Bass who did a fair
few crime film openings such as ‘Goodfellas’.
The editing in the beginning of the opening always seems to be slow paced but then gets
exciting near the end of the opening as the enticing incident happens. When editing my
opening I will take this into consideration.