My Idea for a Film Opening

I've been thinking about what would make a good opening scene/sequence to my film. I watched a few for inspiration.

• I really liked how in Iron Man, it's army vehicles driving through the desert and then suddenly AC/DC is playing. 
• I also like how in The Hangover, the shots of the wedding being preparation sets the scene a bit and then the bride gets the phone call and you get the suspense of "where is Doug?"
• In Billy Elliot, the opening is him putting a record on (which helps to demonstrate which era the film is set) and then it's just this 12 year old boy bouncing on his bed, doing all sorts of moves whilst names and titles come up.

An initial idea of mine was for something gripping and action-y but then after watching other students' work from past years, I noticed that it really seemed to be the "easy" way out. So many of the film openings were made to create tension and suspense as action came out straight away in a way that made the audience think "What's going on?... I need to know why this is all happening." Which, in reason, creates a good opening scene as it immediately gets the viewers attention (like James Bond films for example) but then I realised that I really needed to get away from what others are doing and create something more unique.

This is when I started looking more at opening sequences as opposed to scenes. By this I mean doing something that wasn't necessarily part of the film like an action scene, or a getting ready scene, but more of a way to slowly bring the audience in, especially as I am aiming at an older audience rather than 15 - 24.

Some films that inspired me with their opening sequences include:

• Naepoleon Dynamite
• Amelie
• Catch Me If You Can 

I was looking at some university websites and the media courses provided when I came across one which showed some of the final projects. One of them really caught my attention. It was all about cinematography and was just a short video of numerous things sped up or in slow motion (namely clouds, sunsets and people). It immediately caught my attention and since I saw it, I've been thinking about all sorts of things I could film in slow motion to form a sequence for my film opening. I feel this idea would pay off as a film opening as it is something that people may want to see. I thought I could film things that normally people would see so fast that when it's slowed down, then it becomes a much more interesting thing to watch.

After the sequence of certain things being filmed in slow motion, it could then, possibly, speed up to normal speed at somewhere like a train station or something else that's busy. The title of the film could possibly be something along the lines of "Slow Motion" so that the opening sequence isn't totally irrelevant to the film. The credits would be able to come up throughout the sequence and the music as well.

The audience I think I'm aiming my film opening at is for older people, perhaps 35+ as it has a more intellectual feel to it, but also has an engrossing factor about it that younger people may enjoy.

I don't necessarily think there needs to be set actors in the opening sequence, except for maybe nearer the end of the sequence where the filming comes back to normal speed and the protagonist is introduced. I'm not entirely sure what the synopsis of the film would be or even what genre, probably a drama or even something remotely comedy. I feel my title opening idea allows me to play around with what sort of film it could be the opening to.