Research into Film Openings

filmsIn this part of the research I will be looking at films on a general scale. Not looking in particular to the certain genre I am using for my main task. This will allow me to gain a wider knowledge on all opening sequences

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Lord of war

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHn1zogeyO4

This intro was extremely interesting, it started off with a shot of the ground (which contained many gold tinted bullets) pans up slowly with a continuous gradual zoom to see a mysterious figure with his back turned to the camera his in a black suit holding a briefcase. This is using enigma coding by not showing the identity of the character, this adds instant mystery to the film while this is going on you hear Foley's which contain sounds of bullets being fired, birds chirping and what appears to be the smoke of the fir in front of the mysterious man. When the camera fully pans up to the man he quickly turns and starts saying a fact about bullets. This could suggest he has something to do with arm dealership. This short patch of dialogue is quickly cut with a plain into a factory scene where the music changes completely to an upbeat song from just sound effects. The camera starts off looking at the ceiling steadily zooming out, it then quickly pans to looking at the floor. We then start to see our first sign of opening credits. They used a very capitalized san serif font, it was white and had both bold and regular typefaces as to show names in bold and their titles in regular, this was very appealing and fitted well with the slightly darker lighted atmosphere. The camera then pans to a conveyor belt where you are face on with it, the camera then seems to get pushed through a hole in the conveyor belt we then are faced with the creation of bullets, this is where we see the title for the movie. We see the camera looking up at the bullet as it is some ominous figure which is contrasted with the music. The bullet is finished being made and is pushed on to a manual conveyor belt. After a few seconds the bullet is picked up and the camera moves as if it is the bullet, this added a very peculiar effect to the shot, it almost made me feel a little nauseous. The camera then showed a man looking at the bullet very close up, this made me feel quite small and powerless. The fact that I felt was small as well as being chucked around it made the characters look very powerful. These type of shots continued throughout the opening. We then get to where the bullet is getting put into a gun a few shots are fired and the bullet is in the firing hole, you see into the distance and then the bullet gets fired. The shot gets put in slow motion and the camera pulls back slightly to show you the whole of the bullet, a ramped slow motion effect is used to slow down time even more to get a good close up of an black child's face before the pullet goes into the head of the child and the screen is filled with blood and cuts to black. This opening sequence is very original and peculiar it has gained the name life of a bullet. It does not develop much on characters at all giving a sense of enigma coding but develops an interesting way to introduce the audience to the genre of the film, this being action/war .

Watchmen

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xaj41e_watchmen-intro_shortfilms?start=157

The opening of this film is done in slow motion, it creates a sense of time flowing very slowly, but in fact the scenes tell a story of a long time as it shows almost 60 years of pop cultural events, it shows the genre of the film quite well, as it starts by giving the audience mise en scene, the costume was the main give away. The colours give off a very early 1900’s ident. Pop art and comic style was very clearly used in this as it was originally a comic book.

Super Bad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlX_O4s67Dk

This intro is an animated opening, thus is harder to give cues on what the film is about. The style of the opening could show that it is during the early 90’s, but as have watching the film that is falsely portrayed as the film is set in 2006. The awkward dance moves of the outlines of the characters could suggest that this movie is a comedy, as well as the song.

American Psycho

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBqh6ErXKc8#t=196

The intro to this is very monologue based, it doesn’t not contain any instantaneous noticeable give a ways to the genre or the plot, however it does show the audience who the main character is and give some idea of the personality through the monologue. This intro contains no opening credits. The intro contains a lot of close-ups of the character, this almost gives some enigma coding as there is no premise to these shots and you have no idea where the story is set you just know that this man is the main character.

InceptionThe scene starts off with waves crashing against the shore, this is enigma coding as there is no place which is obviously seen where the film is set, as you see a man waking up on the shore you are unsure of what is going on, although you have an idea that this man is probably the main character. A few moments pass and you see close ups of a gun and a spinning top this is enigma coding as it questions what significance it has in the film. The mise en scene also suggests that this is an action film as guns can be seen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VXkUzf1et4

Eagle eyeThe First thing you see is two children playing in the sand, this suggests a theme of war as you generally see people of that culture in war films.You quickly are able to see a scope which gives even more of a direct connotation with war. Most of the shots are quite jumpy and not still this creates a fast pace to the film and makes the audience feel as if the film is rushing into something. Also fast edited shots show this as well. Mise en scene of generals and people in uniform show people to do with war.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7AKaRZzjNU

LooperShow the production companies instantly then quickly cuts to an extreme close up of a pocket watch, this could give some sort of idea to the plot but has use of enigma coding. Pans up to a close up of what is though to be the main character, mise en scene suggests he would be from the 1950’s but is falsely portrayed as this movie is set in the future as you see a man appears right in front of him, the title shows instantly after he shoots him, the gun could suggest an action based film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8pApMdCTyE