The opening sequence of Gone Girl starts with production company logos for ‘Twentieth Century Fox and Regency Enterprises’ which provides the pedigree for the film. The names of the director, the cast and other creatives also appear, which may support the audience’s choice of seeing the film.
Font choices are an important elements of the visual appeal and contribute to the graphical cohesion. In this film opening the font is simple but clear; the text is white and is against the dark background of the videos, this is effective as it makes the text obvious and stand out to the viewer.
The film opening of Gone Girl signals the film genre which seems to be a drama thriller. It does this in a number of ways, such as through the establishing shot which shows the protagonist, a close up shot of the back of a woman’s head which leaves the audience in suspense until we see her face a few moments later. The genre is also signalled through the soundtrack, such as music, which is soothing but yet mysterious. The use of the voice-over at the begging sets up the scene and genre of the film, the man’s voice is calm and smoothing to the viewer, however the words he is saying, such as “cracking her lovely skull” are dark, frightful and gruesome in comparison to his voice and the music.
Setting, lighting, colour, costumes and props can also be key factors in engaging the audience. For example the lighting and colour is dark and dreary which gives the audience a sense of what kind of movie it is going to be. The setting shows a town that is empty which portrays the loneliness and the genre of the film. In the film a low angled camera angle is used to emphasise the run down building and sign, following this a variety of establishing shots are used to focus on multiple old and worn out signs and shop fronts around the town.
Most film openings introduce the main narrative elements to launch the film but do not give away too much in order to retain the enigma. The start of Gone Girl does not go straight into the narrative, it starts by showing multiple places within the town to build up suspense. Finally, towards the end of the opening sequence we see the main character, he first appears in the centre of a wide shot which establishes that he is a significant character.
What really impressed me about this film opening was the use of multiple key elements, such as the soundtrack and opening scenes of the town, to portray the genre and theme of the film.
