Conventions of an Opening

Sequence

The first thing we see in the Summit Entertainment

logo, which is the production company. This is the

only logo we see and there are no credits in the

opening sequence so this is the only thing we really

read other than the title that’s shown afterwards.

This image is a clear convention of an opening sequence. It’s the immediate shot after the production company logo and it is the name of the film, ‘New Moon’. Weirdly, unlike other opening sequences there aren’t credits at the beginning. This makes the feel seem a bit intense and makes the audience realise that there may be a lot to concentrate on and having no credits allows us to do that. The film is the second film in the Twilight Saga and the font used for the title is the same as the first film, so we can see the same people have worked on the film and this is distinctive. People, who have watched Twilight, will be glad to see it’s the same and will be expecting the same entertainment as what they got before. This shot starts off with a new moon and with editing fades into the title which is a good effect. The film is a cross between a fantasy and action film, and the colours used make us see this as they’re yellows and browns.

Towards the end of the title, there is a voice over of the protagonist in the film, and this goes into the next shot of her running through people in Rome. This is a clip from the previous film and new audience members will be unaware of this and be slightly confused, which is what Summit Entertainment are out to achieve. The audience members who have seen this will be glad to see that it’s immediately carrying on what happened previously. She is saying things to do with life and how she feels at the moment. This gives the audience some understanding of the type of person she is and makes people think about what the actual aim of the film is as a lot of the words are quite confusing and you have to think about them to understand them. Again the colours used match the action genre as there are reds, browns and oranges. The voice over is very effective as without it it would just be her running and the audience would be a bit lost.

Here is where we see the first close up off the first main character. Her face looks worried and upset, as if she doesn’t know what to do or is out of time of doing something she was meant to do. The film company get the reaction the want which is to be confused and want to know what she’s look at. We don’t quite know exactly why she is running, as we see that even though she is in the same place as in the previous film, she isn’t doing what she done there before so even people who know the film will be questioning what is happening.

The next part there is graphic match, from Rome to a field in a forest. This is really effective and the genre goes from more action to more fantasy at this point, as it seems slightly more magical, especially with the music playing. Now there are greens which makes it seems more natural and relaxing. After this we see what she’s looking at and she calms down and this is her Grandma. We immediately see from this that there is something unusual happening as she is in the far distance and it looks quite strange. The institution has now confused us completely and there aim is to get people to think again. This could give off many different types of impressions and no one really knows the answer as there are too many interpretations.

This is where we see the second main character. We can see immediately that there is a connection between him and the other main character, but we don’t really know what type of character he is, as his clothing doesn’t really give much away as his wearing black. This character is a famous actor, Robert Pattinson, and he is known as a teenage heart throb. As this is the first time we see him, all of the female audience will be happy to see him and will get excited about the film.

Here we see both the main characters together and we can see that they are in a relationship and have a close bond. Here we see the Robert’s skin sparkle in the sunlight, which proves that there is some mystery involved. This is where the fantasy genre sticks out the most. The institutions aim is to get the audience knowing who is who and to get an idea of the themes in the film. They are wearing the same colours, showing they are both equal and like the same person. This makes the audience think that they’re going to be stuck together throughout the film no matter what they go through.

At this part we see the two main characters walk towards her ‘Grandma’. As they get

closer the female character realises that the grandma she is seeing is in fact her. As the

audience we are quite confused and realise the fantasy theme feels strongly shown

here. I think that the institutions aim in to confuse everyone. People who don’t know

about the film will be watching it thinking why is she seeing herself as young at first

and then old moments later. People who already know what Twilight was about will

actually understand what is going on. It is a powerful moment and I think that the

editing and camera shots used make it look very good.

This is the immediate shot after the opening sequence and we see that everything we just saw was a dream. However, we still know that it’s a clue to the rest of the film, otherwise it would be completely pointless. In this shot, we see Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet, which is a love story that end in disaster. This could mean that from what we already know, (it’s a love story), it could also end in disaster. I think that this shot is affective, and the book isn’t just something in the background, the film company want you to see it and take note of it.