Motifs in opening sequences

Because opening sequences are conventionally used to set the tone and feel of a movie, it's common that film makers use a great deal of motifs to do so. A motif is a recurring structure that helps to communicate the main themes of a film, and it could have great symbolic significance. It could be anything - from a coin spinning in the air, to a car crash.

Example I hope to use for our opening: Two of the characters will comment on how it is about to rain, or how it isn't about to get any brighter, which denotes sadness. This is followed by the death of one of the characters in the scene. Rain and weather was used as a motif to communicate the theme of sadness. 

Another one of my ideas/ examples: If you are doing a film which involves a main character destructively addicted to alcohol, you could have the opening shot of your film to be a close up of a glass of gin and tonic (with ice), with a sharp knife being used to stir the drink. This connotes that the character is fond of alcohol whilst denoting that it could have destructive consequences due to the sharp violent knife being used to stir the ice. 

Famous examples of motifs used in opening sequences

James Bond: The gun barrel sequence:

The gun barrel sequence has always been a prominent sequence in the James Bond series, more often than not appearing at the start of the film. James Chapman, a British media historian, has claimed that the sequence features "the trademark motif of the series",  commenting that he believes that it "foregrounds the motif of looking, which is central to the spy genre."

Shot from the barrel of a gun we presume to be held by an assassin or foe, the sequence connotes that the character (Bond) is quick and dangerous, and will always be the fastest shot in a gunfight, even if the antagonist thought he had him in his sights. The blood denotes that the rest of the film will be violent, with deaths and injuries. 

A Clockwork Orange: Sexual desire:

Indeed, when the opening close-up shot of A Clockwork Orange begins to zoom out, it is hardly a message of love and compassion that is communicated to the audience. The dystopian Britain seems to be based around the themes of dominant sex, 'ultra violence' and crime throughout the film, and the opening sequence does a great job of revealing this through the early motif of sexually repressed woman with the many mannequins posing provocatively in the nude, showing us that men are in charge and that woman are akin to tools of sexual pleasure in the new society - or that woman are viewed at in a way similar to the 'Whore' in Sigmund Freud's Madonna/Whore complex (which I believe to be nonsense, regardless)