During the first key 10-15 minutes of any movie, the audience takes a fundamental decision: they make their minds about going with the film or just disengaging.
10-15 minutes is the amount of time that filmmakers, in general, have to set the very basics of the drama which is to unfold.
As well, it’s the amount of time to convey the essential exposition which will make it possible for the audience to follow the film. The main difficulty of delivering the needed information is that it requires to be done without the public noticing.
A very tricky stretch of time to seduce and to inform. Kind of a minefield.
Let’s see how the masters do it:
The following video-analysis is about The First 10 Minutes of a modern classic: The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991). Hopefully, you’ll notice things in it that you never noticed before.
More First Ten Minutes videos? Check Video-Analysis: The First Ten Minutes of SEVEN (David Fincher, 1995).
More about Making Movies? Check How Billy Wilder’s SOME LIKE IT HOT Was Written, Film Blocking, What is it?, The 5 Best Books on Making Movies, by Darren Aronofsky, First Assistant Directors: Who Are They?, The World of Movie Posters and Foley Artists: Who Are They?, amongst many others!