The beginning of a film is often one of the most essential parts of the story, it can either introduce you to characters, or it can set the seen, the place, time, it can do all sorts of things. But a good beginning to a film must first of all grip the audience and interest them with in the first ten minutes, according to Syd Fields. .
In the first ten minutes of Reservoir Dogs we see all the members of the gang that have been brought together to rob the diamonds, they are all sat around a table in a café eating breakfast, they are all wearing suits bar two "Joe- and "Nice guy Eddie-, they are all discussing various topics, and these topics and the things that these men say are all interlinked with that particular persons personality, then after this is cuts to the credits wear we hear, "Hey this K-Billy's super sounds of the seventies keep on truckin!- which has an important role in the film, and continues to play some music from the seventies. Now this is a very good beginning to the film, as you watch it for the first time you do not realise that this particular scene has no relevance to the remained of the film. The opening scene isn't even the beginning of the story, (non-linear film), no the job of the first ten minutes is to introduce the audience to the characters, so we can see them all together. It tells the audience that this group of men are related in some way (not family), so that later in the film we may see there relationships grow and how they can change over the remainder of the film. But it does not give you a large hint as to the story line of the film.
In Psycho the first ten minutes is very different Alfred Hitchcock has taken a completely different approach to the beginning of Psycho. It is very different, we start off straight away with the opening credits, we can hear a very sharp quick music (violin) and the names in the credits fly on to the screen very fast from the side and top of the screen, the music and the quick appearance of the credits are to resemble stabbing motions of a knife.