The opening scene begins with the 'paramount logo', there is no sound at this point until the 'paramount' logo fades to black, to then reveal the blue sky and a feather. This feather acts as a McGuffin* for the narrative as it can be seen to have connotations of hope and freedom, which becomes apparent with the continuation of the plot. The music begins at 0:12 minutes which already gives us a sense that the film may be quite uplifting since it has a happy tone; and a white typeface appears over the shot with 'paramount pictures presents'. This then changes to 'a Steve Tisch/ Wendy Finerman production', at this point the camera beings to track the feather as it fall through the sky. It is perhaps a clever way of revealing the setting, as we being to see the types of building, therefore helping us to the conclusion that is, firstly, set in America. 'a Robert Zemickis Film' is then shown which then goes to the main actor 'Tom Hanks in', at 0:27, then the title of the film is displayed 'Forrest Gump'.
All at this time the camera is tracking the feather, what makes this impressive is the fact that this is all one shot! From 0:38 to around 0:53 minutes the rest of the main actors are displayed. At this time, the camera follows the feather back up to the sky after it reveals the first park of the main opening scene in the park. At 0:57 it has 'Casting by Ellen Lewis' and later ' Co-Producer Charles Newirth', thus far the opening scene follows our 'normal' conventions of a film opening. At 1:05 the camera tracks the feather back down to the buildings and then shows 'Executive Producer Joel Sill', ' Visual Effects Supervisor Ken Ralston', the camera carries on tracking down to the park. 'Costume Designed by Joanna Johnston' and 'Music by Alan Silvestri' is shown and at 1:24, Forrest is revealved as the camera follows the feather as it gets nearer to the ground - we do not know that Forrest is the protagonist yet.
At 1:27 'Edited by Arthur Schmidt' is displayed while the feather goes down to the road where we can see a woman crossing the road, and we can see people talking by a car; 'Production Designer Rick Carter' is shown as the feather falls onto a mans shoulder, who is centre in shot, however we know this is not the protagonist since it only touches his sholder and moves on. Then, at 1:38 'Director of Photography Don Burgess' and after this 'Based on the Novel by Winston Groom'; 'Screenplay by Eric Roth', 'Produced by Wendy Finerman Steve Tisch Steve Starkey', are displayed consequtively up to 1:54 minutes.
There is a close-up shot of Forrest's feet at this point, which creates an enigma since he appears to be wearing a suit, from the neatness of his trousers but he is wearing muddy, old nike shoes on his feet - How did they get so muddy? We are still following the feather, which sits touching his foot, until Forrest picks up the feather and we track up his body. 'Directed by Robert Zemeckis' appears on screen as this happens, the second appearance of this name, empahsising his importance in creating the film. At 2:06 we have a medium close-up of Forrest as he admires his newly found feather, meanwhile the music fades, reducing it to just piano keys. At 2:14 Forrest opens his suitcase to store this feather, before doing so he moves a box of chocolates with a neatly ties ribbon on top, this creates a certain enigma behind why he has got them? and perhaps who are they for? As he opens his suitcase we get a little insight into his character, he picks up a 'Curious George' book, which in turn perhaps signifies Forrest's child-like nature, and places the feather into the back page, and closes the suitcase. The significance of this feather is not yet explicitly shown, however it does help us to come up with connotations of peace, freedom and hope, which already gives us someting to look forward to in the rest of the film. At 2:34 we have a close-up of Forrest which cuts to a wide-shot and the music comes to an end, leaving us with the sounds of the approaching bus. As the bus shows up it have '1981' written on the side, so we now know the time period.
In this way the opening scene to 'Forrest Gump' follow the conventions of what we would expect from a film opeing as we get to be intorduced into the protagonist, we learn the time period and setting, and we also are given a sense of enigma through the muddy trainers and significance of the feather.
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