Film Openings

The opening few minutes of feature films try to create a lot suspense to immerse the audience immediately into the film, good examples of this are horror/thriller films, usually using really dramatic sequences which have a link to the main plot and perhaps show us something similar that will happen later on in the film. A good example of a film like this could be Jaws with the opening of the film having a young attractive woman swimming in the sea and being attacked by a Shark. The use of the attractive woman appeals to the male audience, male gaze idea, and the fact we never see the shark and just have to assume or make our own mind up adds to the suspense and keeps the viewer fully immersed in what they see on screen!
Sometimes they may use big stars in the opening of films so that viewers can immediately be attracted to  favourite actor and famous name, like in the opening scene of Love Actually where Hugh Grant does a narration over the top of the images on screen and his voice is immediately recognizable.

The type of opening a film has goes hand in hand with the type of genre the film is, like I said Jaws is a horror/thriller and has an exciting opening full of suspense, a comedy film like The Addam's Family has an opening which tricks the audience at first into thinking one thing and then shows you reality, as it starts with a bunch of carol singers singing outside we then see the gothic mansion behind and this seems surreal, as though they have been put in the juxtaposition and then as the scene moves on we see the Addams family pouring scolding liquid onto them.

Some films have teaser openings to them and their directors have tried to add some narrative enigma to them in some cases the opening scene has little relevance to the main plot of the film a good example being the James Bond film Goldfinger as this starts with an action packed scene so it signifies the genre of the film but it has no connection with the rest of the film other than it introduces the central protagonist.

I am Legend, directed by Francis Lawrence, 2007.

• Non-diegetic sound plays over production logos, setting exposition sounds like radio or televsion. Then shows a television screen, and interview on the television this again sets up the exposition and gives some narrative to the beginning.
• Then screen goes black, thud sound.
• Establishing shot of a city, subtitle says "Three Years Later", we can hear birds chirping helps to emphasise the silence and signify no one around, plant life has grown on tall buildings, abandoned cars, all signifiers that it has been deserted.
• Shows aerial shots/helicopter shots of the city. Hear a car in the distance and a black man driving it, signifies he is the central protagonist. 

Van Helsing, directed by Stephen Sommers, 2004.

• Production logo for Universal turns black and white half way through, trying to signify it is meant to look old fashion. Globe of Universal turns into a ball of fire which then becomes a torch.
• Dramatic music playing thudding with a beat, first shot we see is of an angry mob, we then have an establishing shot of a huge gothic castle, with thunder and lighting adding to the effect horror effect, real sense of the genre and theme signified here.
• Cuts to a laboratory setting inside the castle, we see a creature screaming and signifies terror or fear made doctor stereotype character makes reference to the Frankenstein franchise. Man looking out the window from a high angle shows him to look vunerable even though so high up, he is refered to as doctor.
• Another character appears all in black, signifying he is the antagonist, a flash of light for a split second shows him to have fangs. Threatens the doctor and attacks him as he does so giant fangs appear and he bites his neck a good signifier of the vampire genre.