Research Post 9 - Studying Openings

 Hello everyone! Welcome back to the blog! In my last post, We had finished up research for distribution and marketing for the opening. Now that we've finished up on that, and researched the movies in general, Lets look into more targeted examples of openings so that we can get ready to move into our planning stage!

First off, lets establish what makes a film opening good in the first place. The most simple things that every opening needs to do is to hook the audience and to establish the plot and world. These two things are incredibly important, and the success or failure of a film could very well depend on the proper execution of these two aspects of an opening. To hook an audience, a Film opening, particularly a horror film, needs to interest them with the central plot. To this end, there are a great number of stories that begin at a pivotal moment, maybe with the protagonists in a life-or-death situation that occurs near the end of the story, before winding back to the beginning, or maybe with a side character meeting with the main antagonist and, shortly after, a terrible fate. Both of these entice the audience to continue watching, and also fulfill the second purpose of a film opening - to establish the plot and set it in motion. Setting the plot in motion is a very basic aspect of any story, and they are always at the beginning. 

A horror film opening, in addition to doing both of these things, also has to establish the Main villain. Ideally, the villain should remain menacing; In order to keep their mystique or terror, the villain will often have much of their identifiable features obscured, and the method by which they execute the first sacrifice is usually also kept unclear. By doing this, Horror Openings can perform all three of their requirements - Gripping the audience, establishing the plot, and revealing the villain.

It Opening Scene (2017) | Movieclips Trailers

The "IT" opening scene takes a very different approach to the traditional horror movie. Rather than conceal the villain's face, "IT" makes it a point to show, specifically, the whites of Pennywise's eyes, which would usually be an odd decision, because the eyes being concealed are usually the most important part of keeping a villain's mystique, as the eyes are described as a "window to the soul." In simpler terms, unoscured eyes make thing appear more human, and the Whites of one's eyes are also very important to making them appear more human. But, in this case, Pennywise's big, focused eyes, as well as his unsettling bright red makeup that contrasts with his obscured, darkened face and dirty yellow teeth.|

The extreme color contrast in Pennywise's face, between bright reds and whites, as opposed to the dark yellows of his teeth and all-encompassing blacks, makes Pennywise appear unsettling and, suprisingly, inhuman, without having to obscure his eyes. His dialogue, despite being mildly friendly, mismatched with his face. You can tell, even if he doesn't pull the child down in the opening scene, or doesn't kill him on-screen, that he is not well-intentioned, and that he is not human, even if you can see into his dead, white, eyes.