Film Opening - Codes and Conventions

Codes and conventions of a film opening



The Purpose

Toy Story starts with what could be described as an action sequence. There are symbolic codes like a gun and a wild west setting and written code such as the wanted poster. However, the presence of the toys, the voice of the child and an arm and hand makes it very obvious it's a child playing. This is a good introduction to the genre of the movie as it is clearly a kids film. Codes used that help us see this is the symbolic code of all the bright colours and toys plus the written code of the titles which are quite bright and cheerful. The hook for the opening so that people keep watching comes from the excitement of toys that a child would have seeing it and the nostalgia of the adults watching as they might remember doing similar things with their toys as a kid.

Timing conventions

It has a length of 2 and a half minutes which is just a bit longer than the normal 2 minutes however shorter than a lot of more modern blockbusters. It uses the two minutes well to fit in all of the normal movie opening conventions.

Set the Scene

The movie sets the scene well without using an establishing shot which is a technical code that most movies use. The movie uses the symbolic code of a child playing with toys and parts of the interior of the house to give the audience the idea that this is a typical family home. The setting of a family home gives us an idea of the time but also the movie uses certain iconic toys such as Mr potato head and a troll doll to symbolize the time the movie is set, in this case present day (well the 90s  when the movie came out).

Introduce main characters

Toy Story introduces multiple characters in it's opening sequence. However, other than Andy, we aren't shown or told that they are actual characters. We are given clues that the toys are characters with things such as woody's entrance, where there is a musical cue that the audience would associate with a triumphant hero, also giving us a clue that he is the main protagonist. Also, during the sequence where Andy is playing with woody downstairs, point of view camera shots are used from woody's perspective. These are all technical codes used to introduce the characters.

Introduce pre-plot or beginning of the narrative

The intro is more of a pre-plot to the movie as the main story-line of the movie (i.e toys being able to talk and the arrival of Buzz) does not start in it. However the them of the narrative (the friendship between toy and owner) is present in the song "you got a friend in me". Also there are clues to the narrative such as the toys talking (see "Introduce main characters").

Key credits

At the beginning there is the iconic Disney castle logo to show it is a Disney. There is also the title of the movie which, while being text, has symbolic colours and design that tells the audience a lot about the film. The rest of the credits are done in written code in a typical credits style saying who worked on the movie. There is a difference between these opening credits and the typical credits you would see though. There is no cast written in the credits. This could be to keep the fact of the toys speaking a mystery till it is actually revealed.

Usually starts with equilibrium

The equilibrium that the movie starts with is Andy playing with all the toys in a action style way and then the mood changes when there is a full shot of the baby and the mood lightens and the theme starts to play.