Film Opening Possible Genres

Of the film openings we watched in class from previous students, there's one that called my attention and gave me some ideas about what I can do for my opening and one of them is the genre. The two possible genres I would like to do the most for the opening are suspense and horror since you can create a lot of mystery, not show any charachters's entire body, record the opening somewhere with poor lighting, and more.

Suspense Characteristics:

JAWS(1975)

1. Slow-Building Tension: building tension is the best way to make the public unease by slow-pacing the scene, using slow and eerie music, making sudden noises and hiding information of the setting or characters. Like in JAWS where the film builds tension by not immediately showing the shark. Instead, the audience sees the impact of its attacks or the slow-revealing of the shark, combined with false alarms keeps the audience anxiously waiting for the encounter.

GRAVITY(2013)

2. High stakes and Danger: High stakes and Danger are situations where the protagonist faces extreme consequences, like death. These stakes create urgency and tension, making the audience very focused in the outcome. These scenes maintain suspense by putting characters in very hard situations where every decision matters. A good example is the movie from 2013, GRAVITY, where Dr. Ryan Stone is stranded in space with no rescue, limited oxygen, and debris threatening her survival. Every action she takes could mean life or death.

Horror Characteristics:

The Blair Witch Project(1999)

1. Fear of the unknown: It creates fear by hiding information like who, why, what, where and when, leaving the audience to imagine the worst. It relies on the idea that what we don’t see or understand is scarier than what is shown. In the film The Blair Witch Project from 1999, it's never clearly shown the entity haunting the characters. Instead, eerie sounds, unsettling symbols, and the characters’ growing paranoia build the fear.

The Conjuring(2013)

2. Jump Scares: This technique is used in almost every horror movie because it builds tension in the public and then a sudden shot scares you only for a moment but it grows tension within the audience for the next jumpscare. A movie with very good Jumpscares is The Conjuring from 2013, because it carefully builds suspense before delivering sudden moments. Unlike cheap jump scares that rely on loud noises only.