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.