How the magic begins

How it begins

So you go and visit the cinema

2 or so hours of your life, gone. Or you could hate the movie and walk out. We have a standard expectation to be captivated by anything in cinema so it is no wonder that the first moment of a film are  extremely important.

The many ways of beginning movies are: 

setting and location

 There are many ways of establishing a setting such as sound, jump cut sequence and establishing shots(see below). But anything about the setting or location can be used to help establish a place, time and sometimes a plot such as particular sights or sounds.

establishing shots



You probably already know I live in London from the image above. Establishing shots are  often extreme wide-shots of the area.  The shot will only be about a second and prevent an unnecessary, long and dreary introduction that may cause a bored and rather annoyed audience storming out of a cinema.

plot/storyline

This sad moment is a  very effective way of starting a movie is to use the beginning sequence as a key plot point. This will grab the audience's attention through suspense and the drama.  preventing snapped DVD's by disappointed teenagers.

Titles

Superman Returns intro

as shown here, you do not have to only put the credits at the end of  a movie. This is often done to make the audience feel in suspense as to what is going to happen, however in the modern film industry, the audience often find this frustrating as they want to snap to the action quickly. Overall it is very rarely done because of this.

music/sound

Music can be used quite effectively to define a film into a genre.The example above is the first ten inutes of Perks of Being a Walflower, it uses sad guitar music to set the draa of the film. Similarly sounds can be used as well, like crying. Both sound and music may also set the setting as well e.g a space laser with synths in the background will never be a Elizabethan drama will it? I

main characters

Main characters who are already popular, such as superman can easily be used to keep the audience captivated in those precious, introm moments because they are well known. However characters just being on screen is often enough to introduce a movie well, as long as they are interesting.

narrator


Some films may use interesting narration or sometimes flash-back at the beginning of the film as it may garb the attention of the audience if the narration is interesting or effective and also the flashback can make the audience curious to see how the story is pulled together.