Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events (Until 2:30)
This intro clearly establishes the tone of the film. In fact, the most stricking characteristic of this intro is the abrupt tone shift as the fake intro to a colorful movie about an elf in an enchanted forest. Both sound and color scheme are the main factors in this change as the music stops and is replaced with a voice over (after a recordscratch sting) and its almost as if the lights of that colorful bright world were turned off, turning the forest's colors dull and dark. The next image we see also creates a contrast to the enchanted forest, being a creepy cementary at night with the shadow of a man walking through the fog. The man in the VO addresses the audience and directly tells us that this story will be unpleasant and to go to another movie theater room if they wish to see a happy film. At the end of the intro we see the writer himself in a dark room (seemingly inside a watch tower). The writer and his desk is mostly backlit making him look more like a shadow than a person, his desk lamp is illuminating his hands as they type in a typewriter. All three shots after the elf scene are dynamic. The cementary shot zooms in as the man walks into the cementary. The second and third shot both slowly pan towards the right. All three shots are backlit and have a dark color schemes with some hints of a dull blue (or orange in both the first and third shot). All of these componets work to establish a sombre tone and a sense of mystery. It creates questions to engage the audience; Who is the man at the cementary? Who is the person at the beach? Who is the author and why is he writing this story? These questions are meant to make the audience want to keep watching to find the answers.
Hellboy
Starts with a mostly black and white image of a military group, the only color is the "hellboy" in red. The image flies away into a dark gothic hallway covered in a red light. The camera zooms and turns through the halls and fiery symbols appear and dissapear. Newspaper clippings start appearing as well as what sounds as a news report starts playing in the background. Both of the news sources relate to the existance of a "devil-boy" and the government hiding the truth from the public. The speed of the cuts and editing increases steadily throughout the intro until the title (in flaming letter) appears. The entire clip has a color scheme of black and shades of red. This intro serves to create mystery, what is that creature? What does it want? The red color scheme as well as intense music set an intense tone and the feeling of things being at stake.
Summary
I could make my film opening create the question of what that creature is, (the ghost) or maybe what it's goal is. Like in Lemony Snicket, I can make the face of the ghost be obstructed throughout the intro whether through physical objects (like the fence in the beach shot) or backlighting. Although the fast-paced editing and montage-like collage of newspaper clippings is something I'm not interested in for my intro, the almost duochromatic contrasting colorsheme is something I might attempt to implement but with blue instead of red. I believe the tone of the intro of my film should be more somber with hints of hope. The blue would represent bot the sadness of the girl and the hope that the ghost will bring her.
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