Film Opening Analysis 2

Film Opening Analysis 2Vinay Bhudia

IntroductionI will be analysing 2 action genre film openings. One film being Fast & Furious 6 and the other being Escape plan. I have covering the topics the basic conventions of a film opening, the micro elements (mise-en-scene, editing, camera and sound). I will also be explaining how it creates meaning for the audience.

Fast and Furious 6All Fast and Furious movies are about racing, making money, respect and family. In Fast and Furious 6 the opening is 2 cars racing to the hospital. Later on in the movie a picture of a girl is shown. The group thought that she died in a car accident however that was not the case. The group care about family therefore they work with the police to take down the leader of a gang and while doing this they try to get the girl back. They dont care about the gang their mission is to get the girl and the polices mission is to get the gang.

Fast & Furious 6 Mise-en-sceneThe Fast and Furious end in a certain way and the next part would carry on from where it left off. Fast and Furious 6 carry's on from the ending of Fast 5. All the Fast and Furious movies are action movies. However stereotypically people think that all action movies have guns throughout the movie. This is not the case with Fast and Furious they have lots of racing and cars. The Film opens from a race that happened at the end of Fast 5. The race is between a muscle car (dodge challenger) and a modern sport car (Nissan GTR). They are racing to go the hospital because one of the characters is going to be a father. After the baby is born the credits are shown however the credits are shown in a different way. The credits are shown with clips from the past 5 Fast and Furious movies. They use car crashes and fast pace editing to make the audience really engaged with the credits. It is almost like a montage of what they have accomplished. In the scenes the actors are wearing casual clothing nothing too fancy this is so the target audience can relate to the protagonist.

Fast 5 Ending

Fast and Furious 6 Opening

Fast & Furious 6 EditingThere are lots of cuts used. Fast pace editing is used to show the speed of the race. It also makes the audience feel as they were in the scene. Cross cuts were used to show the emotion on each characters face.

The colour grading used was warm colours because there is no action in the scene the race is taking place for fun therefore warm colours are used.

Some of the shots are speeded up because in real life it would be very dangerous to got at high speeds around those bends.

Fast & Furious 6 CameraThere are lots of shot used. One of them being a wide shot this tells the audience who is winning the race and also what obstacles they ma face ahead like bends. It also tells use about the location. An close up shots are used to show gear changes and facial expressions. Mid shots are used to show the cars bumpers which shows us how fast they are going.Point of view shots are used to show the audience how fast the car is going. Helicopter shots are used to the camera can follow the cars as they race.

Fast & Furious 6 CameraAlso at the end one character is shown with a low angle to make look superior and the other with a high angle to make him look smaller than the other character.

High Anglelow Angle

Fast & Furious 6 SoundFoley sound is used for the revving of the car and the engine roaring. Also when they go through a tunnel the noise of the car changes. The engine sounds very loud and aggressive. This is the noise the audience want to hear because it creates a hype amongst car lovers.

At the end some dialogue is spoken this is example of diegetic sound. The dialogue that was spoken tells the audience what is happening when they went to the hospital.

Escape PlanEscape Plan is an action movie containing the 2 legend actors of action movies Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The main storyline is an intellegent man goes in prison and then analyses the whole prison and then escapes. Once he escapes he tells the warden how he escaped so that the warden can fix those problems. Once he is finished one prison he moves onto another prison. Then he got kidnaped and then he got sent to an illeagal prison that is on a ship. This made his mission to eascape difficult. He soon found out that his wasnt a job but was more a perminant home for him. The warden knew what he did for living and kept an eye on him more than he should.

However Sylvester Stallone is a hero he finds a way to escape and he takes a friend with him. There arent much guns used however there is a lot of physical fighting. In the end one machine gun is used and Arnold Schwarzenegger goes crazy using it this would make the audince jump in excitment.

Escape PlanMise-en-sceneThe movie takes place in a prison. They include police officers and inmates to make the situation look realistic. They wear orange clothing which is worn by prisoners in America.

Also Props such as hand cuffs, guns, barbed wire, high walls and lots of police officers patrolling the site are shown to make the audience aware that the prison is heavily guarded.

The prison cell is shown as empty all the prisoners have is a bed and a toilet. This tells the audience that American prisons are very lethal. Also if you still misbehave you get sent to a room where you have nothing.

Escape PlanEditingLong cuts are used at first because the movie starts of calmly. However when the protagonist enters the ground fast pace editing is used to show the action scene of him fighting with the other inmates.

A point of view shot of the sniper is used to show the sniper had a clear shot of the protagonist but he didnt take it because the protagonist surrendered himself.

The colours used are very dull and washed out because they are in a prison and prisons should not look colourful. Therefore dull dark colours are shown.

A shot reverse shot is used to show a conversation between the protagonist and the officer.

Escape PlanCameraHigh angles were used to show that the protagonist is weak and helpless. However when he escapes the prison low angles are used to show he is in fact superior.

Close up shots are used to show how he escapes because the smallest things helped him escape the prison.

Wide shots are used to show where he is and what is going on around him from this the audience can see that he is in trouble because there are a lot of police officers holding the protagonist as gun point.

Escape PlanSoundIn terms of sound you can hear other inmates shouting. This tells us what type of atmosphere the character is in.

He also has a fight; this is where Foley sound would be used to create the punch sound effects. The sound effect are really deep this is because the character is really bulky and strong so the audience want to hear loud, deep punches rather than low high pitched punches.

He also sticks knife into one of the inmates shoulder and the sound that is heard is liquid sounds. It make the viewer very uncomfortable as it sound gory however it is showing how much it must of hurt the person who got stabbed.

Standard dialogue is spoken too.