The document discusses various film opening conventions and codes that establish genre expectations for audiences. It explains that opening sequences aim to grab attention and indicate what genre to expect. For example, the opening of The Wolverine clearly uses action/adventure codes like explosions and fights to set up the hero vs villain plot. It also notes the purpose of studio and production logos in openings is to draw in fans of those brands and actors. Sound codes help convey genre through diegetic sounds that immerse audiences, versus non-diegetic music. Overall, openings aim to engage audiences and provide context to set expectations through visual and audio cues.

1. Film Opening Codes

2. The Main Conventions
The idea of the
opening sequences is
to grab an audiences
attention and give
them a reason to
watch the rest of the
film. Audiences would
know what genre to
expect going into the
film therefore the job
of the filmmaker
would be to clearly
present the genre
codes in the opening
in order to keep
audiences satisfied
In The Woverine
(2013) the opening
sequence very clearly
presents all the
action and adventure
genre codes, with
their being a high
production value, big
budget explosion and
paced action the
opening clearly set
an obvious villain
and hero that the
audiences root for

3. Studio and Production Company
Logo’s
Title sequences provide information to audiences in a consumable way. This information may
include names of the actors playing various leading roles. This is in attempt to drag in audience
members who may be fans of the actor playing in the movie and is a fan of their work.
Titles in the movies are also used to state the production company, this solves many purposes as
for one it gives credit to the hard working filmmakers who worked on the movie while also allowing
fans who enjoyed films they’ve done previously to think to see this movie as well. For example,
Disney has a very attractive production company logo that many people know and love
These logos often provide audiences with insight to the
film, contributing to the expectations. Often these well
known names like Disney would have larger budgets and
therefore audiences would expect a large budget big
blockbuster film

4. Enigma
The genre codes of an
action film feature
events that unfold,
triggering further
actions to be taken
place, these actions
mainly consisting of
high paced fight scenes
and explosions which
are very engaging for
fans of the action genre
Action
Enigma is another way
of saying mystery, it’s a
way of engaging
audiences and creating
questions that force
audiences to watch on
if they want those
questions answered,
codes of enigma are
most common in crime
tv shows or movies
Narrative Codes

5. Sound Codes
In Opening sequences of the film the soundtrack is very important in
conveying genre, in this opening sequence sound can either be diegetic or non-
diegetic, either way it must signal the genre to make the sequence convincing
for example the high paced beats that would go into action wouldn’t make
sense in a romance film
Diegetic Sound is common in the horror genre as its goal is to immerse the
audience in the surroundings therefore the audience would want to hear all
the noises that are happening and with non-diegetic sound, it may remove
some of the fear factor.
Hans Zimmer is a widely renowned for his work in the music industry with
his soundtrack for Pirates of the Caribbean being famous.

6. Art of
The Title
This is an organisation
that is dedicated to
good quality film
openings.