The first opening that i am going to analyse is Jaws directed by Steven Spielberg.
The opening starts by panning through the dark ocean, this automatically gives a mysterious and eerie tone to the movie. The music played is tense and builds up slowly as the camera continues to pan the dark ocean, the way the camera is flowing makes you feel as though you are the shark. The shot then abruptly changes to a party on the beach where people are laughing and celebrating, this makes the audience anxious about the welfare of the characters as they all seem oblivious to danger that is lurking in the waters. The music is still building up when the shot cuts to the top of the ocean and displays a silhouette of a human floating innocently on the surface of the water. You are aware of how vulnerable the human is. As the music climaxes you know something is about to happen, a series of loud screams are made. The shot then begins to change again quickly and it looks like a struggle is happening. All through the opening the mystery is kept up by not revealing what creature is luring under the waters.
The second opening I am going to analyse is Casino Royale directed by Martin Campbell.
The opening scene of Casino Royale is intense and audience grabbing. The opening sequence is filmed in black and white, emphasizing the black tones, the scene is very stylised. James Bond (the main character) is casually sitting in an office with another mysterious character, the scene is very tense, no noise is made, there is the occasional sound of dialogue from one of the characters. The scene then suddenly cuts to a violent, action packed sequence of James Bond fighting, background music is played and used to build suspense, this scene dramatically contrasts with the other scene as now it is filmed emphasizing white tones. The scenes keep switching between one another which creates suspense. After James Bond has finally drowned his victim the scene drips into a plain red background which the title sequence is then played onto, red symbolises death and murder. The scene sets up the main character, James Bond, to be a edgy, cold-blooded killer.
