What does Thomas Sutcliffe mean when he says "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"?
Most, if not all of Hollywood's big budget films aim to provide the audience with copious amounts of excitement right at the beginning of the film. This is in order to catch the audiences attention and engage them, therefore making sure that they are interested from the beginning, thus paying ore attention to the film itself and not their phones or others. This immediate excitement is more commonly known as instant gratification. There is also a downside to putting too much action in the first few minutes or even seconds of a film, as quite often in films, the rest of the film doesn't live up to the excitement of the opening.
According to director Jean Jacques Beineix, what are the risks of 'instant arousal'?
Building up a film slowly and then introducing action scenes allows for a better experience for the audience rather than giving them all of the action all at once. If the viewer is kept at a constant level of interest throughout the entire piece, they are far more likely to be engaged the whole way through due to them not constantly comparing the narrative with the opening. This also allows them to enjoy it more for all of the different aspects of the film, rather than just those few scenes of excitement and explosive action.
Explain why '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'.
An opening that has unanswered questions and questions that the audience may have, allows them to focus on catching up with the narrative and increase their understanding of the story. the questions also allow the audience to feel more engaged with the story as they would want to pay more attention to the plot and find out what is going on. This technique can also allow the director to create their own unique tone for the piece, as the story can be told in the manner that they want it to rather than chronologically.
What does critic Stanley Kauffman describe as the classic opening? Why does this work?
He suggests that the best opening is an extreme long shot of New York, cross-dissolving into a large skyscraper, taking the audience through the window to a receptionist, through into an office, to the film's protagonist sitting inside that office in the middle of a meeting. This is effective as it instantly establishes the setting, occupation and status of characters, sets the tone of the piece to the audience and positions them to view the rest of the film in a certain way. However, this may not be effective in engaging the audience as it does not raise any questions, therefore giving them no reason to be interested in the following narrative.
What is meant by 'a favourite trick of Film Noir'? What is the trick?
In many classic Film Noir pieces, the openings of the films often contain the narrative endings. This is often used with the titles of the film displayed over the ending scene, with this scene repeated at the end of the film. This is effective in the same way as questions in an opening are, as the audience follow the narrative hoping to find out what caused the events they know will occur, and continue watching the film to get back to that point.
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