The Nightmare Before Christmas Film Opening
The opening begins with a narration introducing the audience to the plot and main theme of holidays, focusing on Halloween. The eery mood is set with the spinning birds eye view of the woods, and the genre of fantasy becomes obvious with everything being slightly distorted and, of course, cartoon. We then enter 'Halloween Town' where the setting is established by a town sign. The setting and genre are made clear through the use of darkness and creepy characters as the camera enters the town through a graveyard, following a non existent person on a journey through the town. The graveyard is typically associated with the idea of Halloween and scary movies.
The soundtrack, 'This is Halloween', is a way of introducing the plot as well as the characters one by one. The more important characters have a more prominent role in the opening sequence, for example the mayor is shown in multiple shots in order to make him more memorable to the audience. We can tell that Jack Skellington is the protagonist as there is a long introduction and anticipation for his entry by the other characters. He enters with a low angle to show his power and importance in the film, as surrounding characters cheer at his arrival.
The main plot idea of the creation of holidays is introduced by the narrator, but little plot information is actually revealed. There is obviously a focus on Halloween with the soundtrack and also typical connotations such as the graveyard and pumpkins. We can tell there is going to be some kind of relationship between Jack and Sally because of the close ups on her face which reveal the emotion felt when she looks at Jack, compared with the simple happiness of other characters. As 'Christmas' is in the title, we assume that the story will be about Christmas. However, there have been no themes of Christmas introduced yet. This has been deliberately withheld in order to make the audience wonder where Christmas comes into the plot. In addition, we can infer that there is going to be an event probably involving the villain Oogie Boogie, due to his more prominent introduction creating a villainous profile and juxtaposing with the rest of the playful characters in the sequence.
At the start of a film, I feel the audience needs to gain a sense of setting (for example by using an establishing shot). They should also be introduced to the main characters in the film and shown some sort of relationships between characters, if multiple are introduced. This alone creates some sense of narrative for the audience to follow. Not too much plot should be given away in the opening sequence, but there should be enough to get the audience interested in the film.
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