Opening Research Conclusion

I have concluded, from my research on the codes and conventions of film openings, that a good opening film sequence will reflect the genre of the film to give the audience an idea of whats to follow in the rest of the film; participate in the enigma code, to gain the audience's interest, and also, typically, the opening will be either a flashback, narration, establishing shot, or a fight scene as these are the best ways to either tell the backlog of events leading to the current situation, begin the story as it is, or enticing the audience to keep their interest.

It can be also be a title sequence or a cold open, both of which i think are as good as each other. But a cold open is better for the more action full film, like Dramas, Thrillers, Horrors and Action/Adventure as these allow to get straight into the action and add cliffhanger between the cold open and title sequence. 'Softer' films, like Romance and comedy, would suit having a title sequence over a cold open as the majority of the film is from the narrative, opposed to mise-en-scene, so it suits the style of the film better to begin with the title sequence and then have the narrative uninterrupted. The films opening also typically showing normality of the film, as films often participate in Todorov's theory of Equilibrium, Disruption and Restoration. This Equilibrium would be slightly interupted if there was a a flashback involving some of the distruption, yet leads the audience into what to expect next.

Propp's character types would also be shown, as they would throughout the film. Mostly, films would begin with the main character, to establish that they are the main character. But some other films may break this convention and start with obsure characters, like in Pulp Fiction (1994, dir. Quentin Tarantino).