What is an opening Sequence?

A typical opening sequence follows the rigid framework of introducing characters and establishing the location. Titles are also used to show who is acting in the film, and the people involved in the production process. For example: Director, Producer, Executive Producer and Screenplay writer. The order of the titles is often determined by the nature of the film and the status of its class. For example productions directed by Quentin Tarentino will almost always feature his name first, whereas other films will feature the name of an actor. An example of this is the opening sequence of the film 'Drive', where Ryan Goslings name appears first. In an independant film there are, very generally speaking, less well established actors or actors that are looking to make the transition to film from television or theatre. This normally results in the production company being shown first.

after analysing the opening sequence of Marvel's 'Avengers Assemble' and others I noticed that the follow sequence pretty generally applied:


1) Black title shot with Director title.
2) CGI shots begin, introducing films main characters.
3) Titles to introduce the crew continue: Story By:, Screenplay By: and Executive Producer.
4) Single titles used with shots of the characters costume are used. For example: Robert Downey JR. next to a shot of Iron Man' mask and Chris Hemsworth next to Thor's Hammer
5) The final shot uses a title for the studio. 'Marvel Studios'
6) Match-on-Action shot used. Cuts from tesseract to close up shot of moon. Marks the start of the film.