What does the Audience learn in the opening of a film?

The opening of a film often gives us a feel of what the rest of the movie will be about. It raises our expectations and creates enigmas.

Firstly, an audience can determine the genre of the film by watching the opening. The opening to James Bond: Casino Royale is a prime example. The film has a parkour chase scene at the start and we can already predict that it will be an action movie.

On the other hand, sometimes engimas can be created. In RED for example, the movie begins with an older man (Bruce Willis - who is known for action movies) waking up with a routine. We can not detemine the genre at the start of this movie, but the star appeal does help us to consider the genre of the film. If we see a school in the background or a young teenage character (Orange County) we can pressume that it will be a teen film, if we see guns and blood, we can see it will be a thriller or action movie.

Bruce Willis, known for his preformance
in Die Hard.

The location of the movie can also be determined in the opening of a film. Establishing shots are often use so that the audience can get a clear view of where the movie is set, as well as the time period. Cemetary Junction has an establishing shot of a countryside at the start. We can see it's set on an island and can guess that it is in England. As the shot cuts, we can see a a street. The mise-en-scene shows the time period is several years back as the buses and car models are pretty old. From this, I can see that an audience can learn the time set, and the location of the movie just by seeing the first 3minutes of it.

Occasionally, the audience can also see who the protagonist is. From the start of the movie we can see who most shots are centered around. Yet again, this can be related to RED, The protagonist is in almost every shot and the camera concentrates on his actions. Finally, the audience learns a part of the narrative. Films sometimes have flashbacks or start from the ending (Old Boy) and not only does this create an enigma but it also introduces the films narrative.

To summarise, I think that the opening of a film is very important. The audience learn things such as: the narrative, who the protagonist is, the location, time set and the genre of the film.