Response To the 'Watching' Documentary

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 irresistable''?

- Films should try and capture the audience slowly instead of beginning with a ''punch'' and they should make the audience want to watch the whole film. He says 'films need to ''seduce'' their audience...' and I think he means that it should start of slow and not rush into it as you wouldn't ''seduce'' a person by rushing into a relationship.

2) According to Director Jean Jacques Beineix, what are the risks of ''instant arousal''

- He thinks that is is bringing too much at the beginning and if the beginning has such high standards, the rest of the film would be hard to live up too.

3) Explain why ''a good beginning must make the audience feel that is doesn't know nearly enough yet, and at the same time make sure that it doesn't know too little''

- So that the audience remain interested throughout the whole of the film, if too much is given away right at the start, the audience will have too much to take in and eventually give up with watching the film. The balance of what the audience knows should balance what they don't know.

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

- The classic opening according to Stanley Kauffman is something that starts with an established shot - of the city/area,followed by a tilt shot - showing a building from top to bottom and then a close up - of a window from the building.

5) Why is Kyle Cooper's title sequence to the film Se7en so effective?

- It goes with the style of the film and it foreshadows the things that are going to happen. 

6) What did Orson Welles want to achieve with his opening to the flim A Touch of Evil? What did Universal Studios do to it? Why?

- Welles did not want to have any music in his opening scene but Universal Studios did and in the end the studio won. He did not want any music in the beginning because he thought it would have more of an effect without it.

7) What is meant by ''a favourite trick of Flim Noir" ? What is the trick?

-The trick is where the ending of the film is actually the beginning. Telling the story backwards.

8) How does the opening to the flim The Shining create suspense?

- The type of music used and the fact that it was shot from a helicopter makes the car look so small it ''follows them like a predator''.