Documentary "watching"

1: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”

Thomas means that the movie must evoke its audience and keep the aroused while watching to ensure that they are intrigued by the movie and aren't put off by the first 5 minutes

2:According to director jean Jacques Beineix, what are the risks of ‘instant arousal’?

The audience should understand the story slowly, and not just given to them all at once at the start so that they stay hooked throughoput the film, understanding more and more of the soryline. Whereas if they where instantly aroused, they may lose interest and leave.

3: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”.

The audience should have no clue of what they are going to watch, apart from the genre of the film they are about to watch. They should have some information about the film, but at the same time they should have questions in their head about the film. The information given to them should make them keen to find out more

4:What does critic Stanley Kauffmann describe as the classic opening? Why does this work?

A classic opening has a establishing shot followed by a close up of a building, then up to a window. the shot then moves into the room. This according to Stanley Kauffmann is the ideal way to start a film as the audience have information about the location

5:Why is Kyle Cooper’s title sequence to the film seven so effective?

It's effective because they were introduced with the genre from the title sequence. The title sequence was a little movie in itself.

6:What did Orson Welles want to achieve with his opening to the film ‘a touch of evil’? What did universal studios do to it? Why?

Orson wanted to create a sequence without any music, or credits. He wanted the audience to to prepare themselves for the film as they would do if it whee a normal title sequence- Orson wanted it to be seen without title music or credits. In the end, Universal Studios put in the credits under but the effects were lost.

7:What is meant by “a favorite trick of film noir”? What is the trick?

It means the start of the film is a type of ending. They both have the same effect on the audience, for instance the audience feel the same emotion as they did at start, rather than feel sad/happy at the ending. 

8:How does the opening to the film ‘the shining’ create suspense?

The use of the camera shot is efficient, as the shot of the car from the helicopter creates suspense in a way that the high shot makes the car look like there is something chasing it, or that it is going in the wrong direction.