Opening sequences

At the start of any film the key credits including directors, actors and production companies are shown to create interest for the audience. The purpose of an opening scene in a film is to show action and begin the viewers interest so they get immediately hooked to the film. The opening scene will also clearly state the genre of the film through the use of things such as colour and sound. The opening sequence finishes as the beginning of the narrative starts. It is also likely that the antagonist or protagonist will be established in this sequence with the use of medium shots to introduce us to the characters as the key credits are on screen. Most opening scenes last for around 2 minutes although major blockbuster movies can be up to 5 minutes.

Genre is the main feature that gets established during the opening scene of a film. For example in this opening sequence of Peter Pan the fantasy genre is show through the use of typography. 

Comparing this genre to a horror we can see the contrast of how the different genres are represented in the opening sequence.

Just by looking at the film titles that are used in the opening sequences we can tell what genres they are due to their conventional features of their genre.

The purpose:

Hook; This is what is used to draw an audience into a film. It raises questions in the audiences head that will later get answered whilst watching the film. This is used in multiple types of media such as film openings, books and newspaper headlines.

Establishing time and place; This is commonly done by using mise-en-scene and road signs at the beginning of a film. It gives the audience a sense of place and timing. This is done subtly by using the mise-en-scene as they don't wanted the audience to be distracted from the action on screen that is setting up the rest of the film.

Credits; This also creates interest for the audience as if they see a film company or actor that they like in the opening film titles then they are likely to watch the rest of the film as it instantly grabs their attention.

Characters; The opening of a film will usually introduce a main character, the antagonist/protagonist, as it then follows them throughout the film and gets you gripped from beginning to end with the same consistent characters.