Analysis of The Hobbit opening sequence

The sequence starts off by introducing the production companies involved in producing the film. Due to the fact that these are the first things shown, it makes the viewer remember who made the film therefore remember them and the types of films that they are involved in producing. The opening titles then go onto showing the production companies again, but now in the typography that represents the genre and time period of the film. Not only does this advertise the production companies even more within the first few seconds of the film, but also sets the audience up for the rest of the film with a symbolic code of the font.

After the production sequence, there is short line of narration before it continues with the visual part of the film itself. This grasps the audience’s attention, as the screen is black when the narration begins, so they automatically know that they need to follow more of what he is saying than the visual parts of the film. This is because the narrator is putting the story into context and helping the viewer understand what is happening along with the correlating scenes in the film itself. Also, in this opening, it denotes that the character shown is the narrator, and it is simply his current or deep thoughts are being spoken aloud. Also, it puts into perspective the viewpoint in which the film will be coming from, as the narrator is the character who is first introduced, this connotes that he will be the main character in this story.

It then goes on to narrate the following images of what the main character had started writing. It starts with a very old looking map (this connotes that he was talking about the past, and this correlated with what had been said in the narration "in a land far away to the east, like of which, you will not find in the world today"). This then presents the time period for the rest of the film.

The following scene denotes a crowd of people in what looks like the local shops - the buildings are made of stone, with small windows and covered in patterns, and the people are dressed in long robes, skirts (even the men) and pointed shoes. This connotes that the time period was very long ago (it is something you would not expect to see in the modern day, and the buildings look like the old ruins of lost/old towns we know of today, and the kind you see in old story books and even present fantasy/fairy tales) and this is also supported by the very soft haze on these scenes as this typically symbolises a memory (memories can be hazy) - the memories of the narrator accounting back to previous events. We then see an establishing shot of the town - there is a mix of small and tall buildings all made of stone, and the view of a large mountain (almost like a giant wall) with a waterfall or two tickling down the side of it. It is a very beautiful setting and looks very mythical due to the fact that it seems so unreal and unattainable – it’s traditional and stereotypical of the fairy-tale settings. 

Conclusion:
From analysing this opening sequence I have realised that in order to grasp the attention of the audience at specific times in my opening sequence I will need to isolate that specific thing from the rest of the footage e.g. if I wanted to enhance what a narrator or voice over is saying, I need to make what is on the screen visually of less importance. I can do this by making the screen blank when a narrator or voice over is talking or just by adding a 'filler' piece of footage - something that isn't too relevant to the plot that it distracts the viewer from the sound, but still has relevance to the story and fills in some screen time.