A Filmmaker's Guide to: Openings

In this chapter of ‘the filmmaker’s guide’ we’re actually going to be learning about literature and film together. I understand that many of you are sitting in university during difficult times and finding it increasingly hard to study and I understand that many of you who are not at university or not planning on it are possibly stuck of what to do, need a break or even need to catch up on learning film before you get to the next level. This guide will be brief but will also contain: new vocabulary, concepts and theories, films to watch and we will be exploring something taboo until now in the ‘filmmaker’s guide’ - academia (abyss opens). Each article will explore a different concept of film, philosophy, literature or bibliography/filmography etc. in order to give you something new to learn each time we see each other. You can use some of the words amongst family and friends to sound clever or you can get back to me (email in bio) and tell me how you’re doing. So, strap in and prepare for the filmmaker’s guide to film studies because it is going to be one wild ride.

Openings

What are they?

Openings are the very first sequence of shots, the very first scene or even the very few few sentences a viewer sees in a work of film/literature/theatre.

These openings are normally stated as the thing that the audience will:

• most likely remember from the whole work
• decide upon as to whether they want to partake in the work
• give the most judgement on when viewing the narrative and plot

In literature, the opening sentence or paragraph/passage has normally been speculation to memory as many are considered to be some of the 'greatest opening lines in literary history.' Even if you have not read the book, you can possibly guess where 'it was the best of times, it was the worst of times...' comes from [A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens].

Let's have a look at some opening lines from literature that are considered the best, very memorable and include the three aspects of an opening that are in our list above:

1. Brighton Rock by Graham Greene: “Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him.”
2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger: “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."
3. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.”
6. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath: “It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York.”
7. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka: “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."
8. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R Tolkien: “When Mr Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventyifirst birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.”
9. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson: "We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold."
10. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: "You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings."

What about in film?

In film, opening scenes and lines are often regarded as one of the most important aspects of dramatisation. If a film is attempting to make some sort of psychological, theoretical, philosophical, political or social statement, they need it to put an aspect of it into the opening shot and/or opening line. This will ensure that the viewer keeps it in their minds for the remainder of the film because of the three aspects of openings we discussed earlier on. These probable few seconds or so are up for high criticism because of the way they basically create the affirmation that the film is or is not a larger part of a movement/genre. It is the few seconds where the viewer decides yes, they will watch and try to understand it. Or they will decide no, they are not interested and will search for something more meaningful.

ScreenRant actually states that it is the opening moments of a film that were very meticulously planned:

"By putting their pens to paper, they crafted that perfect moment that put a smile or your face or left you at a loss for words..."

And it could not be truer. Let's have a look at some films which have these incredible opening scenes:

1. There Will Be Blood
2. The Godfather
3. Fight Club
4. Goodfellas
5. Patton
6. Touch of Evil
7. Lord of War
8. Jackie Brown
9. The Social Network
10. Apocalypse Now
11. Citizen Kane
12. Watchmen
13. Vertigo
14. Trainspotting
15. Rear Window
16. Inglorious Basterds
17. A Clockwork Orange
18. Reservoir Dogs
19. Pulp Fiction
20. The Lion King
21. Aladdin
22. The Dark Knight
23. 2001: A Space Odyssey
24. Star Wars: A New Hope
25. Memento

Further Reading: