Watching 'Watching.'

To enhance the pressure and to understand a little more about the importance of movie openings, as a class, we watched the 'watching documentary. It contained lots of information about the different opinions on what needed to be included in a successful opening and gave us plenty of tips on what we needed to make just that (a successful opening I mean).
During the film, openings (and films in general) were reffered as seduction. For example Thomas Sutcliffe stated that "films need to seduce their audience into a long term commitment. While there are other types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistible."
A translation: To people like us, this may not make much sense in the whole 'film opening' concept. Please, allow me to explain...
"seducing the audience" is basically getting the attention of the audience that is watching the movie, therefore, the "long term commitment," is  the duration of the movie.. yes.. simple now you know right?
The " temptation to go for instant arousal" comment is talking about the opening of the film, he states that the obvious and most tempting way to get and keep an audience's attention is through a brilliant, action packed opening. However, doing this can cause the rest of the film look boring in comparison, as a result film makers need to plan their opening carefully. Giving the audience enough information to grab their attention, but not enough drama to make them loose interest in the rest of the movie.


According to director Jean-Jacques Beineix (shown right), there are quite a few risks involved with 'instant arousal.'  He believes producers and directors should learn to wait, he states that both the audience and  film makers would gain more satisfaction if the film reaches a gradual climax than if it peaks at the beginning and carries on trying to match the drama shown at the first scene. He also says that 'Instant arousal' can cause too much expectation of the film, which then results in the film not being as well liked as it should be! 
...he has a point.