Opening sequence Analysis

 

As the scene opens, you are immediately made aware where scene is taking place by the opening shot being of the logo. In each shot of it, the camera switches focus to different places further away from the camera, in the process the lens has zoomed in. This is very effective as it bring movement into the scene. If the lens doesn't switch focus then the scene would become a bit dull with still images. 

The camera angles are very effective, especially at 1:34 where the camera is behind the 'driver' but you can see his face in the mirror. In general all the camera angles are very effective and bring in pace to the sequence. 

The music makes the scene more mysterious, especially when introduced to the first character. The fact that you can hear the quiet noises of him moving makes all the attention draw to him. There is a rhythm heartbeat taking place when he takes out his gun, bringing in more fear. 

When you are greeted with the man leaving the building, the camera is wide and you can see the building behind him, this is very effective as it tells us he is alone.

The font used i feel is very effective as it looks professional and fits the genre of the film. 

Most importantly the use of the 2.2:1 aspect ratio is very effective in making the film more professional. 

Opening Sequence 1

I feel like the best work i've seen so far includes some sought of action in it. The most effective opening sequence i feel is when you get introduced to a character and you either find out what that character does and that will make you want to carry on watching, or its when you get introduced to a character but you don't find everything about them. This also makes you want to continue watching to find out who they.

It also works well when you get get establishing shots of the scene/ set before hand. Or a collage of shots of objects that best defines your film. Mostly all of the sequences i've seen are shot on location and i feel this is the most effective way. Shooting on location helps makes the scene more real and makes the viewer relate to the scene more if its based somewhere relatable. 

Developing Ideas

Harry Potter

James Bond

Iron Man

Kingsmen 

Star Wars

Matrix 

Spiderman

Venom

Prison Break

Stranger Things 

Kyle Cooper Research

 Kyle Cooper is an American designer who has produced and directed over 350 VFX and main title sequences. On top of this he has also designed many adverts for well known brands and Games.  He got a Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design at the Yale School of Art. He goes on to co-found the creative Agency Imaginary Forces. He moves on in 2003 to found Prologue films where he still is to this day. In total he has received seven Emmy Awards. The Los Angeles Magazine has called him the "Da Vinci of main titles".

Kyle Cooper has designed many opening title sequences with no real theme between them. This means that they are all different. His title sequences are all works of art and could in fact be short films themselves. From the video above, which is a compilation of shortened down versions of a lot of his work, most of his work is fast pacing and makes the viewer more excited for the film. 

I think the opening sequence for X-MEN Apocalypse is a very powerful opening title for the following reasons. The music is very dramatic and has a factor of excitement in it. There are also sound effects every few seconds which helps make the viewer stay concentrated as theirs loads of sounds happening at once. The sequence is just the camera following a long tube with lots of different themes along the way. The fact that theirs different themes and ideas every couple of seconds makes the viewer still engage as if they didn't they would miss some very crucial elements that are linked to the film. 

Horror Film: It

The opening scene is of a boy running through the road on a grey rainy day. This immediately sets the tone that this is going to be a dark film. The symbol of a clown in the opening scene backs this up as clowns are seen as scary. 

The target audience is probably for anyone above the age of 16. People who are into horror films are the main target audience. 

The use of rain and a dark sky helps set the genre, and the fact that there is a clown present in a sewer that eats a boy alive. 

In the opening sequence, we are presented to three characters, two children and a clown. We learn that both of the boys are brothers and one of them is ill at home. 

The camera work is a slow smooth shots probably filmed on a tripod or a crane. 

We can hear the diegetic sound of the rain, on top of this there is a scary classical music being played. 

This is a successful opening title scene in my opinion as it straight away gives the horror the audience had wanted. It also introduces the clown within the first 5 minutes. 

War Film: Greyhound

 

From the narrative, you can hear the crackly radio of men speaking. They are talking about war and the footage being played is boats traveling across the sea and planes. 

The target audience is probably war and action fans. We know this by the opening scene as all you are presented with is footage of war boats and planes. 

The genre of the film is war, and this has been set up by the overlay of the old radio being played and the footage of boats and planes made for war.

We don't get introduced to too many characters. We hear people talking on the radio, but we don't know their identities.

The sound being heard is primarily the radio with a mysterious music being played along side it. This has the effect that something big is happening. The drums go from not being heard to slowly creeping up and becoming the primary sound being heard. 

The ending technique is a simple fade that takes you to the first scene with a character speaking. 

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-59301237

Opening scene: It's dark, theres blaring lights from police vehicles. You can hear the washed out sound of police sirens and people shouting. Everything is slowed down. You then can see the people jumping out the back of the camper van, one of them is clutching their stomach in pain with blood drooping down. Three people come out and into the helicopter. The helicopter flies off and a police officer walks into the camper van. He shines his light around, his light lands upon a body, he calls to another officer that they need to see this. 

This opening scene stops there and it goes back 2 weeks prier. 

Belstone Pictures

Belstone Pictures is a independent development and production company based in the UK. Belstone Pictures was founded by Finn Bruce who started his carer working on the set of shows like X Factor and Top Gear. With the previous knowledge of being on these sets and creating links with high up people in the film industry he set up Belstone Pictures. So far they have released 4 films with 6 either in post production or being announced. 

Belstone Pictures have struck deals with distribution services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. A film released by them includes Tank 432, it was written and directed by Nick Gillespie. It was released in 2015 with a "realistic" budget of $1 million, it got $22,000 in the box Office. 

Tucked another film released in May 2019 got in the box office $23,080. It had some well known cast members in there including April Pearson, Jordan Stephens and Derren Nesbitt. You can also find this movie on Amazon, Google Play and Vudu. It was both directed and written by Jamie Patterson. 

Although Tank 432 didn't get the best comments from critics, with the New York Times saying "This British thriller is a high-concept tease that slogs its way through a morass of barely differentiated characters and visuals before reaching an unsatisfying conclusion." The film Tucked got a lot more positive comments with one critic saying "Just a lovely, quietly pulls-at-your-heart-strings-and-tear-ducts watch." 

James Bond No Time To Die Compared To Black Widow

 Both of these films where expected to release during the Pandemic. But they where both delayed a few months (Bond being 18 months). Due to this the Marketing cost to keep the interest of the films with the potential audience where nearly as much as the whole budget for the movie itself. No Time To Die cost $100 million to promote and Black Widow cost $150 million to promote. They both organically promoted the movie by releasing various trailers that gained millions of views. The premier was a publicity event that helped promote the movie. Daniel Craigs controversial pink jacket helped spread the word out there more on social media. There are 19 official posters that have been released for the No Time To Die film. 

No Time To Die was released in the UK on the 30th of September 2021. And currently since the 14th of October as stacked up $330.6 million in the box office. On the opening weekend it reached a Box Office total of $55.225 million. The film hasn't gone onto a streaming platform yet, so the box office figure is all from cinemas. Whereas on the other hand Black Widow has reached $379.2 million in the box office. But it was also released on Disney Plus. This made the film more wildly seen across the world. Black Widow made $215 million on its first opening premier weekend, this includes both box office and from streaming services. This equates to $60 million from Disney Plus alone. And since then $125 million.

Both films are part of massive Franchises with pre existing fan bases. James Bond's No Time To Die is the 25th film in the Franchise and has an active fan base of both the newer generation (14-24) to the older generations (25-60+). Black Widow is part of the MCU, with a much bigger fan base than James Bond. Marvel also has a fan base with ages as young as 8 to 40+. The films also all are part of a series of films where the story is linked to previous films. They are also both pre sold elements. Black Widow is a comic book character and an MCU character that has been present for a lot of the MCU films. James Bond is a character from the book in the 1960s +, with James Bond having an older active audience. They both have very exciting action sequences that can be seen in the trailers, which will cause the viewers to want to watch more. 

Both Films have very known actors and actresses. James Bond has Daniel Craig who is a very established A class actor. Black Widow's lead is Scarlett Johansson who is another very known A Class actress known for being Black Widow in all the films. Daniel Craig was paid $25 million for his role as James Bond and Scarlett Johansson was paid $15 million. 

Both films are action films with the budgets reaching $200 million for Black Widow and $250 million in No Time To Die.Both Films have similarities in the plot. Black Widow has a special relationship between two sisters that is followed throughout the whole movie. In James Bond, for the first time in a Bond Film there is a relationship shown between a mother and the daughter. 

Dead Man's Shoe's Analyst

 Two sets of footage, one from when the two men where babies and the other is both of the boys grown up walking down this road. 

Camera - Scenic, wide, establishing shots. (Journey) 

Editing - Cross cutting between the original looking home video footage and the shot images of the brothers walking. 

Sound  - Non diegetic song + nostalgic reminiscent 

Mise en scent - Countryside, 

 IMAX is a series of high resolution cameras, film projectors and theatres that show a film in the best quality possible. The difference between IMAX and normal cinemas is the viewing experience,  IMAX screens are much bigger and are multiple stories high and offer a clear image. The resolution is at 12k. IMAX cinemas has a 12.1 channel 15,000 watt digital speaker 

It destroy's its competition in terms of resolution as they where filming on 70 mm film compared to 35 mm other companies are filming at. This is 10 times larger than the 35 mm film. 

Opening title sequences

 Focus particularly on how camera, editing, sound and mise en scene are used to establish Genre and mood/tone. 

During the opening sequence of Guardians of the Galaxy, there is a single shot of Groot throughout the whole sequence. The Camera goes from close ups to just Groot to Wide shots where you can see Groot in the centre and other characters and action either side of him. 

The music playing is contrapuntal, the music Mr. Blue Sky, a happy song is relevant to Groot only as he is dancing and enjoying himself, but in the background the other characters are attacking this creature. You can hear the diegetic sound of the guns and roaring of the creature behind him, but you can also hear the non diegetic sound of the music. 

The main character throughout this scene is very clearly Groot, the camera always keeps him in the centre of the screen. The viewer can see the action of the creature being attacked throughout the whole scene. But the use of the colours of the rainbow creates the idea of positivity and joy when it is quite the opposite. 

During the opening scene of Stranger than Fiction, there are lots of shots taken on the opening four minutes. 

NOT FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sound

Non-diegetic sound is sound which has been added to support the mood and atmosphere that the filmmaker is trying to convey. 

• Soundtrack
• Voiceover

Diegetic Sound

• Ambient
• Dialogue 
• Sound effect

Pleonastic Sound : Exaggerated sound

Parallel sound: When the sound we hear should usually go in hand with the image on screen. 

Contrapuntal sound: Sounds that don't easily match the image they are accompanying. 

Synchronous - that is, caused by some event on screen, so that sound matches the action. 

Asynchronous - this is separate from the visuals, such as a voiceover or dialogue from another scene. 

 The Shining 

The scene is introduced with a birds eye view shot of a car driving along a road. This journey is very ordinary but the music playing sets the genre of the film into a dark/ mysterious sequence. You are greeted with this very scenic view but the immediate sound of the low bass music makes the tone of the movie immediately dark. 

The movement of the titles adds a sense of pace to the scene as they are at a constant speed. 

The music becomes more and more jarring as the scene goes on. Strange sounds play that are unfamiliar to the viewer which makes the scene even more mysterious. This makes the viewer question what is going to happen and why the car is driving up this mountain.

The genre of the film which is horror and mystery is set up mostly in the music. The music is slow but has a dark tone to it. 

This scene makes me feel curious, because I have no idea where the car is going. Right at the end you are shown that it is heading towards this house/ hotel. This creates the question why is it heading there?

In the opening sequences we are not introduced to any characters. which develops on the idea of mystery. 

Se7en 

The opening sequence is a collection of many videos and images together. The viewer is exposed to a lot of information already in the first two minutes. 

Se7en is screaming at you that it's a mystery, crime film all other the first two minutes. You as the viewer are greeted by a lot of imagery. There is a person writing in their book, the fact that they are writing their words so close to each other tells us that they have a lot to write. 

The opening sequence in a way makes me scared and curious what this is all for. I am presented with lots of new information. There are a few images of people that unsettles me. 

The titles in this film are done very well. The titles themselves constantly move and are only shown on a black screen, which makes the viewer have to read them. This adds a lot to the scene as it follows with the idea of the mysteriousness of the sequence. 

Although you are exposed with so many pieces of information, there our no characters you are introduced to apart for a few pictures of 'patients'. 

The music played in the sequence is a mess of various sounds that are unknown to the viewer. There is a very obvious sound track playing but you can hear on top of this loads of sound effects that make a dark effect on it. The music is very mysterious and gives off a very clear message that this is a very dark and possible scary movie. 

The opening sequence shows a bunch of transitions. 

Who am I?

Hey, my name is Bert. I have chosen Media for A-Levels because I enjoy pretty much everything to do with media. Ive always been passionate about making videos/ films. I enjoy watching literally any type of movie apart from boring ones. I hope one day that I can implement what I have learnt in the 2 years here at Hurtwood to my future job.