Research: What makes an effective opening to a film?

There are two ways in which to produce an effective horror opening; this is by using Micro and Macro features which are mainly focused around narrative and genre. Macro Features consist of genre features like iconography (knifes, masks, blood etc), characters (protagonists/antagonists), setting, themes and narrative features; whereas Micro Features are the technical aspects of the film, such as, sound, lighting,editing etc. These aspects must be eye catching and effective to make it memorable to the audience. The camera angles, sounds and lighting can be used to set the mood of the genre and give a sense of danger from the antagonist's character.
At the begining of a film it is important for the audience to establish what the storyline is and who the characters are. Filmmakers can achieve this by making it clear what is happening in the film and involving the main characters in the storyline first so they are easily estabilished.  The characters you would expect to find in a horror film are:

• The Antagonist- this is the villain or bad character in the film.
• The Protagonist- the victim/good character this often a female character, also known as the ‘final girl’.
• The Helper- often the character that advices the protagonist.
• Monster Fodder- these are the victims of the antagonist, they are killed off to build tension in the film and build a sense of terror. These are often called the stock characters who do not have much character development.

In order to attract an audience, a hook can be used, this will create a mysterious yet excitable attention from audiences and audiences will want to carry on viewing the film. The opening must also use icongraphy and features that will make it clear to audiences what the genre of the film is, this will establish who the target audience would be. For example horror films attract teenage and adult audiences, to compliment the audiences the film makers would use teenage based storylines and teenage characters to appeal to their target audience. Good effects or dramatic scenes would also appeal to audiences as they would be more likely to continue watching as they would be interested in what is happening. For example in a horror film if a person is killed brutally and bloody effects were shown, audiences would be intrigued to watch more to discover why the character is being killed.
My chosen genre is horror; I have chosen this genre as I believe it is easy to incorparate micro and macro features, such as mise en scene, into this genre of film. To the audiences the features I will use will be easily identifiable which will consquently make it easy for audiences to recognise my genre. This genre uses a vass amount of imagination and creative aspects which I can develop to make my film successful.

Main Task Brief

For the main task we were given a brief to produce a two minute opening of a film. My partner and I have chosen to produce a horror film as we think this genre is an imaginate one to produce and will generate various ideas. I work easily with my partner, Melissa, as we both have vivid imaginations, and can co-operate with one another which ideas are best suited to genre as there a specific features of which we need to consider. Both my partner and I will aquire different roles, such as, camera controller, director and actors. To prepare for the task I have researched into the conventions of a horror film and have observed effective horror openings in order to create the best opening possible.

Preliminary Task Video