Paying particular reference to the genre and narrative, discuss how the audience attention is captivated in the opening sequence of 'The Fast and the Furious'.

        In addition to the title graphics appealing to the audience so is the music. The music is aggressive rap. The music appeals to the audience as the music is like an introduction to the movie as robberies and fighting are aggressive. The audience would be on edge, as the audience wouldn’t know what was coming next. This is appealing because the audience doesn’t know what’s happening next which means suspense. The music gradually gets quieter and this is the turning point into which we begin to find out about the actual movie.

        Further more the beginning of the movie starts with a wide camera angled into the van with ‘Rodgers’ on the side. This is shown because the audience can see a wider view of the van in which there is a wide variety of electrical goods including brand names such as Sony and Panasonic. When the audience has had enough time to totally look at everything in the van the audience hears part of a conversation. As there are machines, cars and vans running all at the same time the audience only hears part of the conversation, which include “don’t forget my share of the deal” and “look out for ‘Rodgers’ on the side of the van”. These are the two main points of the conversation as the ‘Rodgers’ van is a main point in the opening sequence. This is all appealing to the audience because nobody knows what his ‘share of the deal’ is meaning that the audience is going to find out later in the movie. Whilst the conversations taking place we can see a reverse angle shot taken of the man. When we see his face all we can see are his cheeks as he is wearing glasses and a cap. This adds to the suspension, as the audience doesn’t know who he is and when they will see him next in the movie. Questions can be asked here like will he play a major part in ‘The Fast and the Furious’? Or will we see him again?

        When the van with ‘Rodgers’ on the side is in the parking bay the sky and weather is light and then the audience see a close up of the wheel. This is metaphorically describing a clock as the van is moving so is the clock and then the camera pans out and we get a wide shot of the van on a dark, lamp lit motorway. This involves the audience has it has been seconds to the audience whereas it has been hours in the movie. This makes the audience feel danger and suspense, as there is very little light. On the van there is bright red lights, this signifies danger, slowness and stop. When the van emerges around a corner there is a panning shot and the audience gets a wide shot of the van and then three cars ‘zoom’ into the shot. The cars are black and have bright green lights at the bottom of the cars; the cars don’t display number plates, this is an example of crime. The green lights signify go and speed. The cars are smaller then the van but they seem larger by the noise that the engines make and also the camera shots that are used. The camera shots that are used project the car to be larger than what they really are. The people inside the cars are all dressed in black and have balaclavas on. This adds in to the suspense and crime in the movie. The people in the cars have weapons in which they use in the hijacking of the van. As the audience found out before the van contains electrical goods of which are famous makes (e.g. Sony, Panasonic) and as the cars are surround the van the audience automatically puts ‘two and two together’ and come to the conclusion that a robbery is going to take place. When the people in the car are hijacking the lorry they use several weapons in which are all of a high standard. All of the people are trained to use the equipment and have practiced as they know when to do it, how to do it and what to do which makes the audience feel like this is planned and the people have been practicing for the big day. When the weapons are used the sound effects are tremendously loud and believable. The sound effects have a big parting keeping the suspense in the opening sequence as it brings the viewer into the movie. The audience begins to feel the realism of the movie and how it is not just another movie its different it has speed and power and can ‘overtake’ any other movie because of the sound effects. Examples of the sound effects are, when one of the people catapults the glass this is because the viewers can hear the glass smashing and cracking and finally they can hear the man hitting the driver of the ‘Rodgers’ van with a baseball bat. The sounds are so intense that when the music is paying the music cannot be heard over the sound effects. After the people have hijacked the van they have to do several stunts so they don’t get killed or even kill someone else. There are three cars and a van. The car on the right goes in front of the van, the car behind stays behind and the car to the left goes underneath the van so they are in a straight line. Here the audience feels in a way to be relieved as they have succeed without dying yet the driver of the ‘Rodgers’’ van is nearly dead. The camera then pans the van into the horizon and you see the colors go from cold blue to warm orange. The audience wants to know what happened to the goods after that? What happened to the driver of the van? What happened to the men in masks? What was the deal? Did the man at the loading bay get his share of the deal? All these questions enforce the audience to carry on watching and to carry on being the audience.

        In addition to this everything in the opening sequence of the fast and the furious captivates the audience’s attention. This is usually done by suspension. All the way through the sequence the audience is in suspense to what’s going happen next. Nobody knows until they watch it but totally everything adds to keeping the audiences attention captivated in the opening sequence of the fast and the furious.