Codes And Conventions Of Film Openings

In my opinion there are several common characteristics of an opening sequence. An opening sequence tends to create a mini narrative, these narratives on average seem to be faced paced to draw in an audience and keep them enticed for the rest of the film (using rapid camera work and high tempo soundtrack)
.This mini narrative leads into the main narrative which is opposite of the the mini. Also the opening scene needs to allow the audience to establish several factors starting with the genre(lighting can be used to set the mood or genre), it needs to create a preferred reading in the case of a horror scaring the audience or building up tension to create a scare. Secondly the scene needs to establish the setting of where the film is taking place and along side this goes the time period which can be anchored with the use of editing styles such as the font of the titles also the props which are used throughout the scene and the type of music, for example if the sequence is a comedy there will be light bubbly music to create and eased mood where as in a horror long drawn strings would be used to create a sense of tension or a false scare.
Also in the opening sequence the audience needs to establish quickly who is the central protagonist for the narrative to continue, and link into the main story which tends to be different to the opening sequence.
In most of the high budget films they tend to always use titles before and opening sequence which show the production companies (which can be set into a style to suit the film for example 300) etc. Also its common for this information to be presented upon a black screen to show the text up easier.In most cases exposition is presented in a similar way which is also used to set the scene and anchor the time period.
Certain films such a Layer Cake have the opening sequence as the end sequence so the remainder of the film builds up to the opening narrative however this is not commonly used.
During the title sequence the editing style tends to represent the genre of the film which is common in films for example in Psycho the way the bars come into and out of the screen give the impression that the film will be a slasher.