Conventions of Opening Sequences

There are many common conventions scene in opening sequences.

Another convention in Opening sequences are titles. These show the name of the film, as well as the cast and crew who were involved with producing the productions. 

 

Before the film begins, opening sequences also always contain logos of their distribution and production company, in that order. 21st Century Fox's logo sequence is an example of this:

Films generally follow Todorov's theory of narrative structure; this is the idea that all stories have a beginning, middle and end. The cycle of Equilibrium demonstrates this well. This is the process within film structure where the beginning starts with equilibrium; everything is normal and how it should be. This normality is then broken, known as the disequilibrium. Finally, a solution is met and equilibrium is then restored, however now it is known as the new equilibrium. Opening sequences should generally convey this beginning equilibrium.
 
One last convention of opening sequences is that they commonly establish the tone/mood of the film to prepare the audience for the genre they are about to watch. This can sometimes be used to mislead the audience to later on surprise them about the mood of the film for added effect.