How to begin a movie

I am no expert in the film industry, I've never produced a movie in my entire life, but wow!!!!! The opening of any film is probably the one part that is the most well thought out (at least in a good film).

To almost anyone, you could tell them to picture a film opening, and what will instantly come to mind is a montage of the city it takes place in, while random names pop up on the screen and a mediocre sounding tune plays in the background. This is the kind of film opening that everyone would fast forward through to get to the actual beginning. We don't want to stick to an intolerable title sequence.

This video changed my way of seeing film openings. 

Here's what I learned from the video:

1. The best openings imply the kind of plot we will proceed to see, what the characters are like, what the overall tone of the movie is, rather than explicitly stating the entire story 
2. Creating some kind of mystery/hook is key!! The audience needs to be intrigued
3. If it's "as compelling a reading a Wikipedia article" you're doing everything wrong
4. An opening can introduce a character in a film: what kind of role it has, what kind of person he is...
5. Myth: "You have to get right into your story straight away, you can't waste any time and your have to start your main story immediately". 'Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark' has iconic opening scene where he's in the jungle and takes the Gold Eye, and is afterwards chased by the locals. But this isn't the start of the story. This scene establishes the character, but is completely irrelevant to the story. The film would still make perfect sense with no presence of the scene. 
6. In relation to the previous point, there are various films that are introduced with a short story right before the beginning of the actual film, which is a concept used in film: The Matrix, Star Wars, Game of Thrones and many others
7. First impressions are everything!! The whole short story concept may seem redundant, but it's all about the effect one wants to create in the audience
8. Any audio is important to set the tone

A ~perfect~ film opening:

1. tells the audience about the tone
2. delivers exposition in a potent way
3. is compelling
4. creates a strong feeling in the audience (strong meaning literally any feeling but in a powerful way)
5. introduces characters without saying too much
6. is compelling!!!

I also watched this video about opening shots that was interesting to see. An opening shot can also have a lot of meaning behind it through the use of symbols. Symbols can be colors, places, they can related to lighting, sound... It's an ongoing list. Anything could be a symbol. These put a lot more depth in whats to come in a film, which is also what I aim to do for my opening. 

I just now have to start coming up with my film opening. I have a few concepts in mind that I still have to think about and develop. I previously did genre research on both Coming of Age and Sci-Fi, but I think I might've changed my mind about the genre of my opening. At first I was 100% convinced I was doing coming of age, but I feel like I'd like to do something different. I will be discussing this in my next post!!