Focus: Openings

For our opening we need to decide what is going to happen and how everything will turn out. Previously we have looked at an instant death and films where they start with the end. These films were 'Scream' and 'Stay' and our analysis can be seen here: 

I will be looking at the pros and cons of each opening method and coming to a conclusion of what we can use for our film opening. 

Instant death opening:
Pros:

• The viewer is immediately ingorssed into the film.
• The viewer will want to know why the victim has been targetted.
• The viewer will want to know how they were killed, (sometimes, even thought the death is shown in the opening, it is not clear how it happens or why, it is left to be figured out by other characters in the rest of the film)
• The viewer is made to feel very uneasy from the beginning.
• By having action straight away keeps the viewer interested in the film.
• The immediate death scene can be made to look original by combining the idea with a great location and good casting of actors.

Cons

• If the viewer doesn't think the death is very original, they may be put of the rest of the film and stop watching.
• They may not find it very interesting, in an opening they might prefer background information to the overall story, instead of a death which they have no reasoning for.
• They may feel that it is predictable.

There are lots of film openings which use the instant death idea, such as 'Scream', 'The Ring', 'Jaws', 'Sinister' and 'The Last House on the Left' showing that there is a demand for instant death horror films. (See example above).
Starts with the end opening:
Pros: 

• We immediately see the conclusion, and it allows the viewer to work out what happens as the rest of the film continues.
• It may confuse viewers.
• The viewer can watch the story and it will explain the ending to them (sometimes endings do not make it clear what happens to all the characters)

Cons:

• Sometimes many people are often disappointed with the ending of horror films, so by putting this at the beginning may decrease the viewing satisfaction.
• You need to come up with a really good story line to have the ending, and make sure it will work and enough details can be shown in the ending.
• There is less suspense as the viewer already knows the outcome and there is less mystery.
• The film may not be as interesting.
• You can immediately put people off the film if they do not like the outcome of the ending. They will stop watching.
• The film may not be as scary as the viewer already knows what the potential threat is to them.

Conclusion:
In our group we have decided we will produce a film opening which features an instant death. This is because we feel it is the most interesting and we can portray it well. It will also mean the viewers are drawn into our opening and would want to find out what happens to all the characters, and the victims. It makes the viewer much more interested, and the opening will be scarier because of the threat, which is likely to be unknown in the opening, or, its intentions will be unknown.