The document discusses several conventions and techniques used in film openings to engage audiences. Main conventions include signaling the genre, themes, and characters to keep audiences interested. Introducing main characters allows audiences to form relationships and want to see how they develop. Title sequences introduce actors and creatives to attract different audiences. Sound is used to set the mood and atmosphere. Narrative codes like action and enigma are employed to create suspense, tension, and mystery through unanswered questions to anticipate answers and keep audiences guessing.

1. FILM OPENING
CODES AND
CONVENTIONS

2. MAIN CONVENTIONS
One of the main conventions is to keep the audiences
interested to keep on watching.
The opening needs to signal:
- The genre and theme of the film
- the main themes and characters
By showing the main characters at the opening, it allows
the audience to create a relationship with that actor. A lot
of the main characters are shown at the very beginning so
that the audience can notice the star actors and want to
continue watching to see how, both the character and
story develops.
• Principle actors feature in title sequences usually
playing the protagonist and/or antagonist

3. ART OF THE TITLE
Art of the title is an online publication dedicated to title sequence design, spanning the
film, television, conference and video game industries. The publication is both an
educational and historical resource and a contemporary publication, focusing on the
creative process behind the design of title sequences. Recently we have taken inspiration
from this website due to the fact we can take into consideration different techniques a well-
known movie uses and we can implement those techniques when we come around to
making our own title sequences.

4. Title sequences tend to include text, whether it be the names of the
author, or if it’s a true story, then it would show small backstory so
that the audience know what the story will be based on. In this case
with star wars, it is one of the very few films that include the text
scroll. This technique is notoriously known for the intros of all the
star wars movies. By adding this at the beginning it gives the
audience an understanding of the story that it about to unfold.
The audiences first impressions of the movie is exceptionally important, therefore by adding the famous text
scroll at the very beginning, it sets the scene for the audience and they are understanding of the plot straight
away.

5. ENIGMA CODE
The enigma code refers to the different uses of camera shots used in
production which holds information and gives that to the audience and
excludes detail and context behind the scene that is being shown.
The enigma code is important that it is used because it creates a sense of
interest from the audience. It creates the audience to start questioning or
gets them to try and find out more.
The technique is used to hook the audience and keep them interested
throughout the duration.

6. SOUND CODES
Sound is used to emphasize the genre or the atmosphere in the scene. If the
scene was meant to be building up to something big or important you would
expect to hear fast paced beats that eventually stops when the big thing
happens. If the mood was meant to be relaxed and peaceful you would expect
to hear music with a quick tempo, rather you would expect to hear slow paced
music that complements the mood and atmosphere.

7. TITLES
Title sequences inform the audience about cast members, creatives and organizations
involved in making the film. The title sequence is an important part because it can easily
attract different audiences if they see a well-known actor that they like. By adding the title
sequences it can attract different ages, genders and genres. If there are well-known actors in
certain movies it can help boost a movies performance in the market. Movies also need to
create recognition meaning many distributors use the same fonts on social media feeds,
convergent links, title sequences and websites. Although people may think this is not a huge
deal, if a member of the audience notices a certain font or something linked with a movie it
brings that person back to the movie.

8. NARRATIVE CODES
ACTION:
To keep the audience interested in
throughout the opening there needs to be
suspense and tension in the
narrative by unanswered questions
followed by anticipation. Gives the
audience needed information through key
moments
ENIGMA:
Refers to any element of the story that
is not fully explained and hence
becomes a mystery to the reader. The
purpose of the author in this is typically
to keep the audience guessing. This is
achieved through controlling how much
and what information is given to the
audience.