Watching Documentary Analysis

WATCHING
This documentary is about the impulses and urges that unite all film. It focuses on the opening titles of films, and shows how they are filled with most of the action of the film. Thomas Sutcliffe said 'films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment. While there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistible' by this he means that if the first few minutes of a film (the opening titles) don't grab you, then do not bother watching the film. But there are dangers of this 'instant arousal' effect, because you make the expectations for the rest of the film very high raising the question of whats to come...
          'A good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn't know nearly enough yet, and at the same time make sure that it doesn't know too little' so ultimately you must establish the nature, character and tone of the film without giving the story away. The directors want the audience on their wavelength.
           Critic, Stanley Kauffmann describes the classic opening of a film as a wide shot of east New York then the camera zooms in on a building and threw a window into an office doing a close up of a receptionist then it moves onto the focus of a important business man. This works well because it gives off the impression that the world functioning normally, but something is about to come in and disrupt everything. The best kind of title sequence has no dialogue, just a collection of shots grouped together that tell a story in themselves, for an example in 'The Last Picture Show' the start is a slow shot of a detailed landscape, this gives the impression the film is going to be long and complicated, yet interesting also in 'Citizen Kane' the mixture of the camera and mes en scene gives so much information without using dialogue. Everything that happens in the title sequence is part of a long movement a designed to grip the audience.
           The opening titles of the film 'Se7en' by Kyle Cooper is a very effective title sequence because it effectively portrays the psychotic energy of the film. Orsen Wells wanted to plunge the audience into the movie with just the use of camera, no sound at all in his movie 'A Touch of Evil' but he was not allowed to do this. A favourite trick of Film Noir is to use the end of the film as the beginning. The last film I am going to mention is 'The Shining', in the opening titles to this there is a huge wide-shot of a dried landscape with a tiny car in the middle giving the idea that it is vulnerable, also the camera is being shot at a high angle and it pursues the car like a predator targeting the car, all these things give the idea the car is headed for danger.
            I found this documentary very helpful as it gave me a good idea as to what elements should be included in my thriller, such as not using dialogue. It taught me that the opening moments of a film are of the purest speculation.