Research into the codes and conventions of Opening and Title sequences: Cold Opening

One of the most common ways to open films in the last 20 years is with a Cold Opening. A cold opening is a way of including the audience into the plot of the story before the titles are shown. In most cases, the cold opening scene begins the narrative of the film but in other rare cases, the cold opening does not fully relate to the whole narrative until later on if at all.
Cold Openings aim to introduce the audience with characters of the film so that throughout the film they feel comforting. These characters the audience are introduced to are usually connected to the film's plot in one way or another. Sometimes, this connection is not made award of until much later on in the film.
Cold Openings are a type of Enigma Code because they entice the audience into wanting to watch the film.

An example i looked at of a cold opening is the film Raising Arizona (1987, dir. Ethan & Joel Coen). Though the cold opening in Raising Arizona is a long one (about 10 minutes) it is a good example to choose.

After the institution logos, there is a black screen when a narrators voice (Nicolas Cage) begins talking over the black screen. 'My name is HI McDunnough'. After a break, the black screen cuts to a prison wall with ambient sounds of prison bangs and the voice of a prison guard as the main character walks into the shot where he is having his mug shot taken.

The narrator continues to narrate over the visuals with breaks often to let the characters them self explain the story. The narrator explains how he was a convict and that he fell in love with the female prison guard who was taking his mug shot.

This is a long cold opening which explains how the main two characters of the film came to meet. The two characters get married and plan to have children but sadly, they can't.

As the cold opening progresses, the couple find a family who have had the 'Arizona Quints' and plan to take one of the babies for their own.

 The cold opening ends with the narrator saying the line 'But at the time, Ed's plan seemed like the solution to all our problems..and all our prayers' and as the car drives off into the sunset, the visuals become trapped into the titles of the film 'Raising Arizona' and as the title  moves up towards the sunset clouds, the titles remain silent for a while.

This cold opening lasts roughly 10 minutes which is very long. It represents it's genre which is comedy because of the storyline, the soundtrack which is based upon a western theme and it's long introduction.

Straight after the titles, the names of the actors appear on screen with a small theme for the film. Then after this, the film continues but this time there is no need for an introduction because of course, the characters and plot has already been introduced.

Here is a video for the cold opening in Raising Arizona.