Openings have the key goal of hooking the audience from the very beginning, failing this will cause the audience to loose interest. This is evident when openings revolve around the idea of 'show don't tell', whilst making all of the necessary establishments. These establishments might be characters, genre, setting, tone and themes.
An example of this is the opening from the world-famous series One Piece...
We open on a compressed title ['One Piece'] that makes the audience feel claustrophobic, which is further enforced with the old fashioned black bars on the sides. (The black bars are from old TV set-ups, when they were much more square. This is just them modified to fit newer TV's and devices.) The sense of a tight space makes the audience anticipate a more open shot to follow.
We see a scroll which presents the audience with a man ready to be executed. Narration begins and we establish that this is the old Pirate King, Gold Roger. We open to the famous words of "Wealth, fame, power...", which immediately draws the audience's attention, as we are at the very beginning of the story and we are seeing significant character in his final moments.
The scroll moves into a close-up of the Pirate King as he takes over the narration, talking about his great treasure, telling the world that if they want it then they can go an look for it. This is an impactful moment as well as being the defining line to start the series.
A sail flails into the air, presenting the audience with the start of an adventure. At this point, the music is starting to become more exciting. (Applies for the same shot afterwards)
The narration comes to its close on an exciting finish marking a new age of pirates. The black bars on the sides of the screen expand and the screen fills with the vast ocean populated with people in search of the great One Piece treasure. The expansion of the black bars foreshadow a forever expanding world ahead of us.
The first character we see is usually the lead protagonist, so seeing this character tells us that he is significant to the story.
Luffy (The main character) is full of excitement and reflects the emotions of the audience as we now know everything we need to.
The snapshots of Luffy's crew display excitement as we establish more of the characters within the story. Every character is presented with a ready and excited face.
The snapshots of Luffy's crew display excitement as we establish more of the characters within the story. Every character is presented with a ready and excited face.
The snapshots of Luffy's crew display excitement as we establish more of the characters within the story. Every character is presented with a ready and excited face.
The snapshots of Luffy's crew display excitement as we establish more of the characters within the story. Every character is presented with a ready and excited face.
Luffy once again looks excited and ready to start his journey. At this point the audience has seen the crew, has a basic understanding of what the story might be about and much like the characters on screen, they are ready.
The association of the main characters with pirates is made evidently clear seeing that they travel the seas bearing a skull and crossbones on their sail. The audience gains a further understanding of the characters as well as the style in which the story is going to be told.
Joining his crew on the ship, Luffy is filled with excitement as he comes flying down towards the audience, incorporating them into the adventure and making them feel his excitement.
The title is colorful and takes up a lot of space on screen, making the adventure seem even grander and more impactful.
We see the ship riding waves full of monsters. Making for a simple but effective way of showing the vastness of the sea that the Strawhat pirates are sailing.
We see glimpse's of Luffy growing up from being a small child into the pirate that we have seen become. The obviously presented stages of growth that we see depicted are clear to show that Luffy has always been someone filled with energy and excitement.
Seeing Luffy's big bright grin as he is looking forwards, tells the audience that he has a lot to achieve as he keeps his head held high, telling us that he has a strong will and is set on achieving a goal.
Going through Luffy's eye represents a lot of things. Firstly it tells us that the tunnel vision we see is an implementation of Luffy and the goals and dreams he hopes of accomplishing. Secondly, it simply communicates the audience that Luffy has a goal that will be arduous and challenging to achieve.
We see a map that shows us the journey that the Strawhat crew have made across the vast broad sea.
We establish more knowledge about the world that we have begun to venture into, giving us familiarity about where we are and where we are going to go.
The second montage of the crew displays their skills and abilities - Telling the audience a little bit more about who is capable of what. Even though the montage is fast moving, the backgrounds show the history of the crew's journey as well as their own personal past.
We get to see a feat of strength from Luffy, indicating to the audience that he is a powerful character amongst the world in which he is trying to conquer. This makes the audience excited as they look forwards to seeing the kind of enemies Luffy has to face.
The shot that follows Luffy's fist shows that same blazing punch heading straight towards a dragon. Presenting to the audience that Luffy is fearless and will stand up against anyone to accomplish his goals and dreams.
The shadows and blackness as well as the characters conventions, tell us that this is a threat. He is the first character shown feeling anger. This way the audience can assume that this is a character Luffy will eventually fight, and since this is the first threat shown, we can establish that he might be the biggest enemy.
Much like the previous shot, the shadows hint to this character being a villain, and in addition to that, the evil look tells us that she is menacing. Presenting the audience with more enemies that Luffy is likely going to fight up against.
The final 'threat shot', we see a menacing and evil looking character who also follows suit with the shadows and black background, hinting towards another threat. Just like the first shot of an enemy, this shot being the last might hint towards this character being the biggest enemy that Luffy and his crew will have to face.
Luffy is shown from a low angle shot, which might be a way of presenting him as someone with immense strength, and as this is a shot that comes after shots showing us enemies to come, this might be a hint to them being beneath Luffy.
Having already been introduced to the main crew, the audience is also presented with Luffy's allies and friends. These shots are more-so for the audience to familiarize themselves with the large roster of characters to remember.
Having already been introduced to the main crew, the audience is also presented with Luffy's allies and friends. These shots are more-so for the audience to familiarize themselves with the large roster of characters to remember.
We are shown more elderly characters, and following the traditional "wise old person" mentor character, we can assume that Luffy has a relation towards them, therefore we are continuing to make the establishments that the audience needs.
This shot shows the audience two characters, one with his back turned and the other facing forwards. This tells the us that there are themes of death and succession within the story and that there is more than just fun and adventure in the story.
The Strawhat pirate flag fluttering in the wind shows the audience that there are a lot of symbolisms within the story as well as a lot of expected archetypes to pirates.
This shot shows Luffy having a moment of sentiment with his straw hat, which is where his pirate crews name comes from. This tells the audience that the straw hat is very important to him.
This silhouetted shot shows a young Luffy receiving the straw hat in what looks like a very special and symbolic moment.
The shot transitions into showing the audience Shanks, the man who gave Luffy the straw hat. The way that he and his crew wander into the light behind him communicates to the audience that he is part of the light at the end of the tunnel that Luffy sees, almost as if he is on another level in an inspiring way - Almost as if he is Luffy's idol.
As the opening starts to come to its close, we see Luffy gathering with his crew on their ship, all of them look determined, excited and ready, creating a sense of unity between the crew.
As the opening starts to come to its close, we see Luffy gathering with his crew on their ship, all of them look determined, excited and ready, creating a sense of unity between the crew.
We see the ship sail into the distance of the vast sea, much like how the ships sailed off at the beginning. This is the final shot to prepare us for the journey that both the characters and the audience are going to experience.
We finish on the same title that we started with, however it no longer feels compressed and the black bars are gone. At this point the audience should feel excited for the adventure to come as well as having a clear understanding of what is to come and what to expect.
Throughout this opening, the audience are introduced to a lot of characters, set pieces, themes, tones, etc... The opening presents key features of the story and establishes a lot of the most important bit and pieces. But most importantly, the opening hooks the audience. As well as indicating the main themes of piracy, battle, competition, succession and friendship, the opening hooks the audience by presenting a lot of moments with high emotional response. With an upbeat song that displays the emotions of the characters, which is possibly the most important factor that contributes towards a hooking opening. All of the characters have emotion, the most common emotion being excitement, and an appropriate audience reaction would be to feel excited too. Because the audience feels excited, they are going to be interested in what they are watching and therefore, the opening has done a successful job of making the audience in making the audience stick around for the fun adventure that they have seen a glimpse of.
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