Audience feelings Vs. Directors Aims

In class we have been studying further what makes a good opening to a film and the effect that it has on its audience. We have now progressed even more to analyse what the director had in mind to make the audience feel. I have looked at a few case studies independently, one of them being a favourite of mine. The Notebook. The opening of this film in my opinion is very calm and relaxing but the music has an essence of sadness to it and it seems that the director wanted to communicate this for a reason because even though the location is beautiful, the actual story may not be as tranquil. Additionally, the clip i have selected shows a distant relationship between the two characters that are introduced and as the audience i felt interest as to how these characters are connected; and i think that's exactly what the director wanted the audience to feel.



Instead of going on to focus only on films that i favour, i decided to analyse a film that was very successful in the film industry but more one that wouldn't immediately spring to mind when considering the opening sequence. That's when i thought of TITANIC. (coincidentally this is still one of my favourites!) Unfortunately i couldn't get an embedded clip to show however the opening is very effective at getting the audience to think and question it. It includes numerous long shots, mid shots and pans of the individuals on board the famous TITANIC, and it is all shot in an off black and white effect. (sepia i think the actual effect is called) This shows that the footage is representing the past and whilst the images show happy passengers waving to the observers on land, there is music in the background. The signature theme song that everyone will associate with the film, however it contrasts to the images on screen. This made me question the outcome of the film and also made me want to keep watching. As the clip played, the shots from the ship faded into the surface of dark water and the name TITANIC was displayed. This made me feel as if something bad had happened and the director's purpose was to illustrate that the ship, once so happy and exciting, did in fact sink. The only negative point i can pull from this is that the storyline was exposed so early on? Why would the director show us this? Surely we already know what happens in the end now? On the contrary, this made me want to keep watching to see what the main focus was because clearly, it was not so much the event of the ship sinking, but more the love story that was ripped at the seams due to the ship going under. Obviously, i cannot tell this from the beginning; and so the urge to keep watching gave me that information. Therefore, proving this opening was successful in questioning directors' aims.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-UORiMTOJk

This task made me think a lot about the importance of the opening of different films and how the director would want the audience to feel in contrast to how they actually respond. I have learned that even though the beginning of a film can be over within the first two minutes, this is the most vital two minutes to set the theme, atmosphere, character relations etc.