Codes and Conventions in opening sequences

From looking at a number of opening sequences, from different genres, I've been able to gather what is expected in a conventional opening sequence. All of the openings have prominent sounds throughout. Most establish a main character or setting which tends to become more obvious as the opening progresses. Narration or a voice over is common in the openings as it establishes the story, setting and character.

Here is a collection film opening analysis which helped to work out the codes and conventions of a typical opening sequence:

The love actually sequence includes a voice over which establishes the character in question. However there isn't much action which I think is due to the films genre as 
Trainspotting (comedy drama) and Halloween (horror) include a lot more action and tension.

The opening sequence to the first Twilight film establishes it's genre well by the use of colour, characters, music and font. From the sequence we can tell the film is going to be a fantasy drama, the dark colours pointing toward a more gothic narrative.

The Hot Fuzz opening sequence ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RAkY4R691E ) is also a very good example of genre establishment as it is obvious from the music that the film is going to be a comedy when paired with the action.

Preliminary Task

For our preliminary task we had to create a piece of continuity editing which had to include the following:

• a match on action 
• use of the 180 degree rule 
• a shot reverse shot 

Our Preliminary task was successful in the respect that we hit all the points in the criteria and learnt what needed to be improved on for later filming:

• When editing we need to make sure that all sound is at the same volume in order to create a natural, fluent piece of work, unless we are trying to create a particular effect.
•  Dialogue needs to be said slower to make it easier to create a successful match on action when editing.
•  In order to improve the shot-reverse-shot I would make the actors stand further away from the camera to avoid them looking intimidating.
• To film a while before and after the action to ensure that the film looks natural and realistic. 

Here is our storyboard for the task:

The storyboard was very helpful in making sure we got the correct footage and hit the necessary points. However we decided to change the beginning due to time limitations, meaning to improve we should give ourselves a larger filming window.