Film Opening sequences and their conventions

We looked at a number of film opening's in the hidden footage genre and came across a few examples, and how most of the films relating to the genre seem rather stereotyped.

Firstly, looking at the way the film,REC is organised, it starts with a newsreport next to a fire station.This may seem bland, or possibly boring, but helps to cause a sense of false security before quickly building up to the real tension of the film when they enter the building.
  The newsreport also helps to develop the storyline, setting and characters withing the script, and as it is a hidden footage film, it does not need credits in order to make the film realistic and actually looking like it has been discovered.

Next, looking at the Blair Witch project which starts with the writing stylized and describing the events that you are about to see.Using this technique at the start puts the audience in the scene, like looking at personal footage.This helps the audience to connect with the hidden footage and not pass it off as something boring. The use of plain footage helps the development of the storyline and focuses the imagery for a bigger shock when things starts to go wrong.