What do we expect to see in the opening two minutes of a feature film

Opening two minutes of a feature film 

Woman in black

In the opening two minutes of woman in black you see three children playing with dolls and having a tea party. You don't hear any audio from the characters and only the sound of quiet creepy music can be heard. You see the three girls having lots of fun just playing around and smiling when the music suddenly gets louder and all three girls look towards the corner with blank expressions. They then look towards the window before they all stand up together and walk towards it, crushing their dolls and tea sets as they go. You then see all three girls open the windows and jump out at the same time before you hear a woman's scream at the end. The camera then shows a wide shot of the whole room where by the corner you see the back of the head of a woman who was in the room.

From this opening you don't really get a sense of what the plot is, you don't know why the girls jumped or who the woman in the background was but it gives you enough to make you want to continue watching to find out. You also aren't introduced to any key characters, you get a glimpse of the woman in black but you don't actually find out who she is until later on in the film. There isn't much dialogue in the film either except for at the end after the girls have jumped and you hear a woman shout 'my babies' who you presume is their mother but you never find out. This is okay though as the creepy music in the background gives the opening a more mysterious and sinister feel to it that would probably be destroyed by any other dialogue. In the opening you see no titles or credits on the screen as they come on after this scene; you also don't see any other location in it apart from the attic that the children were playing in.

Bridge to Terabithia

In the opening to bridge to Terabithia you see a man come out of a house and enters the car parked out on the front. It then zooms into the window of one of the top floors where you see a young boy looking through the window, watching the car leave before getting out of bed. You see him running out the front door and across some fields. You see him drawing on a sketch pad and these mix in with footage of him from later on in the film along with the credits rolling over the top.

From this opening you don't really get a sense of what the plot is as you are only introduced to two characters and not much else. You are introduced to a key character which is the young boy and also the man who must be his father but there are other important characters introduced later on in the film that you don't see in the opening scene. There is no dialogue in the opening as only soft music plays over the top of the action going on. There are also titles in the opening which come along at the beginning and also during the whole two minuet sequence. You also see many locations in the opening compared to the other films. At the beginning of the film you see the boys home and the area around it, you then also see various fields and farm land that the boy runs across during the opening.

Harry Potter and the philosophers stone

In the opening to Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone you see first a shot of a road sign with an owl perched on top of it. You then see an old man walk out of the woods towards the street and brings a small device out of his pocket and holds it up before taking the light from all the street lamps. After this you then see him looking at a cat before talking to it and seeing it actually turn into a woman. They begin to converse in conversation talking about a boy and a tragic event before bringing up the name of someone who is bringing the boy to them. Out in the sky you then see a light which turns out to be a flying motorbike with a man riding it down to the older man and woman. You then see this guy give the others a child which he had tied to his chest and they place him on the door step from one of the houses with a letter before turning away.

From the opening you do get a sense of what's going on, but you understand more about the child and his potential later on in the film. In the beginning you understand that a tragic event has occurred where a man has had to take a young baby from its home and place it on the door steps of the only family they have left. You understand that according to the people this is safer for the child but you also see concern from the woman when she talks about how these people are horrible and how they shouldn't keep him here. From the two minuets you see a few of the major characters from the film. You are introduced to the main character which is the little boy, though you do not realise this until later on and also three other equally important characters as well. Compared to the other two film openings this contains a lot of dialogue with characters having conversations and not just single lines like in the opening to the woman in black. There is only one location shown in this film opening though which is the street in which the child gets left at and the titles only occur at the end of the scene when you see the title of the film come up on the screen.

Opening two minutes of an as media film

Hemlock

In the opening to Hemlock you see a shot of moving water with the title of the film coming up over the top of it. You then see the shot of someone's feet moving and pushing a wheel barrow where you also can see someone else's feet resting over the edge with the rest of their body covered by a thin blanket. As the wheel barrow moves you see the shoes of the person occasionally getting caught on the ground and getting dragged across it. You see a wide shot of the man pushing the wheel barrow which is when you discover that the person inside it is probably dead and that there is a shovel on top which implies he is finding a place to bury them. Towards the end of the clip you see the guy holt the wheel barrow and lift the blanket off the girl before lifting her up and placing her in a hole before beginning to bury her.

In the film opening you are not introduced to too much of the plot but you are given enough to kind of understand what is going on in it. You understand that a girl has been probably been killed and is going to be buried by this random guy but you don't know who they are or why she was killed. You hear no dialogue as only the soft music plays over the top with a few of the sounds from the filming like the noise of the wheel barrow and the sound of him burying her in the ground. At the beginning you are introduced to two main characters, the boy who is burying the girls who may or may not have killed her and the girl who had been killed and is being buried by the boy. You only see two locations in this opening, the path by the woods that you see him pushing the wheel barrow by and then the field in which he buries the girl in. You also see a lot of credits and the title in the opening. The title appears right at the beginning of the clip with various credits popping up during the opening scene.

Captive

In the opening to Captive you see a guy tied to a chair with blood all over him and on the floor as well. You see that he is tied in a deserted house/area which has been vandalised with graffiti and is covered in dirt and leaves. You then see a clip of the security cameras in the place which show all the rooms in this abandoned building including where the guy is being held hostage. It then cuts back to the guy where you see all the injury's he has sustained by possibly being tortured. You then see him start to wake up and take in his surroundings and realise that he is being held captive and can't escape. The image then cuts back to the security cameras where you see a girl dressed all in white with long white hair covering her face come up on the screen before the camera goes static. You then again see the creepy girl walk past the window where the guy is being held hostage and he starts to scream for help. As he does this you get a sort of flash back where you see him when he was free taking photos at this abandoned place of a doll in some water. This is when you see the creepy girl with another doll and she is walking up towards the guy and you see her take him through the reflection in the water. It then goes back to him tied up and you see him scream for help one last time before it cuts to the title of the film.

In the film opening you get a good sense of what the plot is as you see in the flash back that the guy has gone to the place just to take some photos when he got kidnapped by a crazy girl and was obviously tortured by the state that you see him in. You are also introduced to two of the main characters which are the guy who is the one being held captive and tortured and the crazy girl who is doing all of this to him. In the scene you see two locations, you see the room/building that the guy is being held captive in and also in the flash back you see this area outside the building where he was taking photos before he got taken. Throughout the beginning of the scene you hear no dialogue as only the sound of the characters movements and the creepy sinister music can be heard, then towards the end of the clip you hear and see the guy screaming out "help me" multiple times. At the beginning of the opening you see quite a few credits and they continue through the first few seconds of the scene, then right at the end the screen goes black and you see the title appear on the screen.

Redemption

In the film opening you see the city with some of the credits come up. It then zooms out and you see that there is a young guy looking out towards the city. You see he gets a text from an unknown number that tells him a location and a time before you see him walking away from the building he was on before heading to the destination that he had been told to go to which is a parking lot. In here you see a black car arrive followed by a whit car and three people get out with it, two dressed completely in black with black shades on and one in a business suit. You see that the guy in the suit then go to the back of the car where he reaches in a grabs the briefcase and a gun. The clip then jumps to outside the parking lot where you see the guy from earlier arrive and head towards the three other people. The guy in the suit checks his watch before stating to walk towards the door with the briefcase with the two security guys following either side of him. Both men meet in the middle with a fair distance between them. They exchange little dialogue before one of the security guards goes and checks that the other man doesn't have any weapons on him. They exchange a little more dialogue before the man with the briefcase aims his gun at the other man getting ready to kill him. The other guy looks at the briefcase for a split second before taking the gun from the man and holding him hostage while pointing the gun at the security guards. He then hurriedly backs away to the door with the briefcase and gun in hand before pushing the hostage away and making a run for it. You see the two security guards chase after him trying to retrieve the briefcase but they both end up getting shot. The guy then walks out of the building with the briefcase when a black car pulls up behind him and the guy in the suit from earlier gets out and gets the guy to get in the car.   

In the film opening you get a sense of what the plot is. You see that there is something in the briefcase that a guy wants but the man with the briefcase won’t give it over without the money so the other guy try's to take it by force. You are also introduced to two of the main characters who are the guy who tries to steal briefcase and the guy who had it at the beginning of the scene. In the opening you see quite a few different settings, the first is the building where there is a guy looking out at the city, then the parking lot where you see the other character arrive and then finally the area around the parking lot outside where you see the characters leaving. Throughout the opening of the scene you only hear a little dialogue which is when the characters meet and they exchange small talk. Finally you see titles and credits throughout the beginning of the opening with the title appearing quite big on the screen not long into the opening.