Previous Year 12 Film Opening Analysis

Analysis of film opening: The Brief 

film opening begins with a blurred in shot for the title scene of cars passing by on a road, these titles inform us who the film opening was produced, directed and edited by. It then switches to a shot of a boy walking into the gym in the bottom right hand corner there are the time and place being typed up in a typewriter font and and a typewriter noise. This could relate to a spy film as it is something that is commonly seen in these sort of movies as the boy walks along the corridor and up the stairs there are a range of different shots used such as a tracking shot. There is also a steady beat of music building up as he walks towards the gym door. 

When he walks through the doors of the gym there is a blurred in low angle shot showing just his body and not his face using a range of different shots gives the film opening a better effect and makes it more interesting. once he is in the gym the beat of the music gets louder and faster. The camera shows a close up of the boy putting his shoes on as it shows the viewer what he is here to do. it then shows an extreme close up of the back of the boys head just before he starts running this shot has a central composition because he runs in a straight line.

While the subjects is running around the gym the camera follows him at this point the camera is hand held making the viewer seem more involved in the film. This film opening uses central composition a lot this draws your eyes towards the subjects and works very well in which the way they have used it. The message shown by the close up of the phone informs the reader what is going on it also uses a shallow depth of field meaning your eyes just focus on the text.

The scene the switches to a tracking shot of the subject walking along a path the typewriter text is used again to give the viewer an idea of where he is. We see a full body shot of the boy and another boy is seen behind him it looks like he is following him because he is looking at him. When he sees the boy he starts running and music picks up, the music is tense and really fast. The camera is hand held this resembles to them running and makes you feel like you are part of the action.

The camera shows a point of view shot showing the boys point of view when he is running the also makes the viewer feel like they are in the action. It also shows flashbacks of when he was in the gym and how the things in the gym helped him in real life for example when he jumps over the wall it shows him doing pull-ups in the gym.

When the boy who is chasing the other boy get passed his bag it shows you a close up shot of his face as if you are inside the bag looking at him when the boy gets away we see an over the shoulder shot of him walking slowly across a bridge. If i was to grade this work i would give it an A as a wide range of shots have been used and loads of different filming techniques have been used the opening is also easy to understand and invites the viewer in making then want to watch on.

The Revenant Film Opening Analysis

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Film Opening Analysis

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Director: Tim Burton
Year: 2005
Production Co: Warner Bros. Village    Roadshow Pictures    Plan B Entertainment
Distributor: Warner Bros    FilmFlex
Budget: $150 million
Box Office: $475 million

This imaginative and comedic 2005 film is based on the popular Roald Dahl tale of a young boy named Charlie Bucket. His fortunes change when he wins a ticket for a tour around the most magnificent chocolate factory in the world, and during, meets the most unusual chocolate maker. I will now analyse the films opening and the impression it gives onto the rest of the film.

Film Productions

Warner Bros. Ident : 6 seconds

Village Roadshow Pictures : 6 seconds

Unlike many films, where the company idents are put in before the opening of the film starts, these idents are integrated within the start of the film, followed by the titles (which I will analyse later). I chose to mention this and I think that putting the idents, fading in and out between the snow and sky at the beginning of the opening, brings the audience immediately into the mysterious setting in which the director wishes to portray.

Opening shots

The first shot that the viewers see contain, what we guess is, the chimneys of the chocolate factory. It is a long shot that travels through the snow and the clouds, until it discovers the chimneys; this is effective as it continues with the same environment and establishing shot that the company idents appear in. The tall chimneys, that climb into the air from what we assume is a large, industrialised factory contrast marginally with the birds eye shot that we see right at the end of the film opening which shows that this extravagant factory is surrounded by small terrace houses, showing connotations of the poverty that surrounds the factory.

The camera then, in the same continuous shot, zooms closer into the central chimney before climbing to the top where it enters. This shot is effective as it makes the reader feel like they are part of the journey, and they are about to enter the factory and witness what the characters will witness later in the film.

Titles

This film, like many others, uses its opening title sequence to reel the audience in at the beginning of the film. This style of titles is called 'hook'. As well as the words being in a simple, clear font - supporting the target audience of younger people watching the film, the titles compliment the film very well. The colour choice of the text, is golden, giving representations of the golden ticket and the exciting, rare opportunity that will be given in the film to witness the inside of the factory, just as the viewers are witnessing first.

The titles in the opening follow the journey of the chocolate being made in the factory, being packaged up and finally but in vans to be distributed to shops. This is an effective way of incorporating the titles, as instead of titles on a blank, uninteresting screen, failing to grab the viewers attention, the viewers experience an insight into the factory, the making of the chocolate, and the golden tickets, before anyone else. They even have a glimpse of a mysterious, unknown hand, that we guess is the usual character 'Willy Wonka'. This is a use of narrative enigma to reel the audience in and start to tell a story.

Submarine Film Opening Analysis

Submarine

Richard Ayoade

Year: 2010

Production Co: Warp Films

Distributror: Optimum

Budget: $1.5m

Box Office: $3.8m

This film is a Coming-of-age comedy-drama, based and adapted from the book 'Submarine' by Joe Dunthorne. It was written and directed by Richard Ayoade, which was his directional debut. Its main character 'Oliver Tate' is played by Craig Roberts. The films budget was $1.5 million. I will be analysing the 1 minute 52 second Film opening, under 4 main technical areas; Cinematography, Editing, Sound and Mise-en-scence. I will also start by looking at the film companies involved in this film's production and their idents which appear at the beginning of the opening.

Film Productions

Film 4 - 9 seconds

UK Film Council - 8 seconds

Cinematography

Opening Shots

             

The first shot that we see, as an audience, is a pan of a bedroom, to which we suspect belongs to the main character, a young boy named Oliver. This is a very effective way of opening the movie because, as an audience, we are immediately making our first impressions of the character from the mise-en-scène of the bedroom, with many props being representations of characteristics. In these few screenshots from the pan, a specific few objects stand out to me. 

The first is the skeleton that can be seen in the 2nd screenshot, which gives the assumption that this character is interested in subjects that would usually not be the norm for a young boy, which leads me to the object next to it, a telescope. Giving a clever representation of the boy being an outsider, looking in whilst he seems to like to spend much of his time in his room with his many possessions.

As the pan comes to an end, we spot in the bottom right corner, a character sat on the floor. The high angle shot, looking down onto the character, shows that the boy is not wanting to be seen, 
and enjoys his own company without being disturbed. There are then two short shots that, in each, come closer to the boys face, which seem to 'disturb' him as his head turns and he looks into the camera giving direct mode of address. Braking the separation  between actor and character, continuing with the idea of a different and quirky character.

 

After this shot, a sense of mystery is given, as the boy and the bedroom shots finish and establishing shots of the Welsh landscape and coastline replace them...

Titles

There are 5 different titles that appear in the same font and colours, with varied gaps, filled with the shots of the bedroom. They have a blue background, with white letters, noting the different companies involved with the film. The titles seem to match the impression of the character that we get from the bedroom shots; the font is bold and the words are disjointed, just as 'Oliver' seems to be from everyone else. Because both the bedroom and the tittles bring across the same thing, they work well intertwining with one another. The blue colour also supports this representation with it having cold connotations.

The uniformity of the titles then changes on the last title shot where the name of the film is shown. Although the disjointed, quirky font is continued onto this title with the 3 way separation of the work 'Submarine' the royal blue background that was on the previous 5 title shots, has been replaced with one of the establishing shots, shown for the past 20 seconds of the opening. 

Sounds

At the beginning of this film opening, 36 seconds in, we hear sound effects of the sea and the birds quietly coming through. This sound had connotations with relaxation, blocking out any distractions from other people; it is plainly just nature. This adds weight to the idea of the boys characteristics being independent and enjoying his own company. At 52 seconds, when we catch a glimpse of the boy for the first time the audience experiences narrative enigma from dialect which we assume is the voice of the protagonist, the boy that we can see. At 1.06 minutes, the establishing shots start, and with them play a song that has a melencoly feel, that matches the colours and the scenes that continue to the end of the opening.

Brief

THE BRIEF

Preliminary exercise:

Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Main task:

The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes. All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source.

BASIC MARKS BREAKDOWN:

RESEARCH & PLANNING 20%

PRODUCTION                                  60%

EVALUATION                                 20%

MARKSCHEME

All three aspects are assessed as one of:

Mark out of:    60        20

MINIMAL      0-23     0-7

BASIC                        24-35   8-11

PROFICIENT 36-47   12-15

EXCELLENT 48-60   16-20

To hit ‘excellent’(16-20 marks) for RESEARCH AND PLANNING requires the following:

•Planning and research evidence will be complete and detailed;

•There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience;

•There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props;

•There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding;

•There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning;

•Time management is excellent.

To hit ‘excellent’(48-60 marks) for PRODUCTION requires meeting the following:

There is evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:

•material appropriate for the target audience and task;

•using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions;

•using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;

•shooting material appropriate to the task set;, including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scène;

•using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects.

To hit ‘excellent’(16-20 marks) for EVALUATION requires meeting the following:

•Excellent skill in the use of appropriate digital technology or ICT in the evaluation.

•Excellent understanding of issues around audience, institution, technology, representation, forms and conventions in relation to production.

•Excellent ability to refer to the choices made and outcomes.

•Excellent understanding of their development from preliminary to full task.

•Excellent ability to communicate.