Analysing Opening Shots

Analysing Opening Shots 

Momento (2000)

Director: Christopher Nolan 

The photograph of the man, dead on the floor, has many different meanings behind it and establishes important points about the film. The photograph is the picture fades instead of develops, establishing the narrative of the film. The film begins at the end of the story and makes its way backwards to the beginning of the story, the fading of the photograph represents this, as well as this, the developing photo infers that the character is mentally unstable. Like the photograph, Leonard's memory fades. He has short term memory loss, caused by previous events in his life. Leonard tries to keep track of people and places he will forget is to take photographs of them, writing captions underneath the picture, the opening shots makes the audience assume that Leonard murdered this man that we are yet to know anything about.

As the shot fades in, the title 'Momento' is shown on screen, the title is shown over a hand holding a polaroid photo. Placing the title over the image of the photograph links the word and the image, this infers to the audience that the photograph has significant meaning behind it.

Trainspotting (1996)

Director: Danny Boyle

The opening shot of Transporting is a key part of the film as it sets the mood and atmosphere whilst informing the audience what type of film it is. Glum skies, dirty streets and unflattering clothing sets an unglamorous scene instantly.

The use of the tracking shot during the opening scene creates a sense of urgency and tension. This particular use of camera makes the scene seem fast paced and unclear. As a viewer, this made me want to watch more and find out what the commotion was about. As well as this, the low shot disables the audience from initially seeing the characters identity, going against the typical opening of introducing the main character by showing their identity or past experiences-creating a sense of mystery.

8 1/2 (1963)

Director: Fedirico Fellini 

The opening shot of 8 1/2 is a long shot, showing the locale of the films setting. This allows the audience to gather a greater understanding of the film's storyline. Long shots are often used to impact the audience in some a certain way or to emphasis something in the shot, in this situation, the emphasis is on how crowded the shot is and how claustrophobic it could make the audience feel.

The vast amount of vehicles in the shot creates tension and discomfort within the audience. This opening scene delves into our subconscious due to its symbolism through objects that would usually have no, or little, effect to the average person.

Initial Idea No.2

Romantic Comedy

Storyline idea: The opening will consist of an attractive, strong man who works at a night club and a slim, tidy businesswoman. For the first minute, the audience will get to know the two characters by following their morning routine, half the screen will show the man's morning routine whilst the other half of the screen shows the woman's routine - creating a contrast between the two. The man has had many partners but can't seem to maintain a stable relationship, whereas, the woman had a long-term fiancee who recently left her for someone else, she is now scarred from men and doesn't believe that she will ever love again.

The man will wear very casual clothing, jeans and a plain white top, whereas the woman will be dressed in a pant-suit. She has tied back dark brown hair whilst he has messy curly hair.


The setting which the woman is shown in will be minimalistic and will mostly contain white surfaces, white floor one small colour pop (perhaps a plant). She will be shown waking up straight away in the centre of a large, pristine bed. The man will have a messy background, containing mostly browns and black. The shelves will be cluttered with a range of different objects. He will be shown completely spread across a small double bed, laying on his front and will struggle to get out of bed.

Initial Idea No.1

Horror Opening

The groups initial idea was a horror film opening, inspired by the extremely popular Netflix series American Horror Story. We particularly took inspiration from the directors use of quick, constantly changing cinematography of each small scene. The American Horror Story opening for the Murder House and Asylum series both begin with the credits accompanied with eerie mis en scene, cinematography,                                

sound and editing - combined this creates an extremely scary theme

for the audience.

 Features of mis en scene, such as clothing/make-up and background are vital within a horror film or series as it is one of the first things that an audience will be exposed to. For our opening, we plan to film in a dark, dingy set, as well as this, make up will be minimalistic and very washed out, hopefully this will create a horror film atmosphere and will make the audience feel scared and intrigued.

Cinematography during American Horror Story is sharp and well thought out. There are a range of different camera angles but the most effective for the audience were the tracking, POV and pan shots. After analysing the opening of American horror story, my group and I decided to specifically attempt the tracking, POV and pan shots, as well as our other shot plans. By using the correct camera angles the film opening will look professional and will have the correct effect on the audience.

AHS POV shot

AHS Tracking shot

AHS Mid-shot

The American Horror Story opening credits has non-diegetic music playing over the top of all imagery, it also had diegetic sound which could be considered as parallel sound. The non-diegetic sound was music, the music was very layered at some points but at other times it was just a simple knocking sound. This created tension for me and made me feel like something interesting was going to happen. Diegetic sound was also used, for example when lightning and thunder struck. This informed me that sound is a huge factor of setting the atmosphere within the first couple of minutes of an opening. For our opening I think we should incorporate diegetic and non-diegetic sound to complete the eerie atmosphere.

The editing in the opening of American Horror Story (S1-Murder house and S3-Asylum) is extremely sharp. It has no real storyline at this point in the episode. The use of quick transitions from scene-to-scene infers that the genre is an action-horror, as well as this, the scenes are very dimly lit but their is a varying white object in most of the scenes which the audience's eyes are drawn to. I am inspired by the range of transitions from each scene and I am going to incorporate this into my own work as I believe it is a very effective use of editing.

Examining codes and conventions of film openings

Lesson-12.10.16

Sound and Tension tracker

During the last lesson we analysed the openings of the films: Amelie, Halloween and Trainspotting. Amelie (released in 2001) is a romantic comedy, Halloween (1978) is a horror and Trainspotting (1996) is a black comedy drama film. Therefore we analysed a small range of genres. To further myself I independently watched two more openings of films, the film openings I chose are: The Shining (1980) a psychological horror film, and A Clockwork Orange (1971) a dystopian crime film. 

Findings

Amelie (2001)

Amelie, a romantic comedy, had a very calm opening with little climax (sound or tension wise), however it was still entertaining. Features of Mis En Scene, such as clothing and background, make it very clear to the audience that the film is a romantic comedy. As well as this, features of cinematography also ensured that the genre was exposed to the audience. For example, the lighting was bright-this is common in a comedy. Also, there was a common red theme, inferring passion, therefore romance.

Halloween (1978)

Immediately,  it is obvious to the audience that Halloween is a horror film. The use of  eery music (non-diegetic  sound)  informs the audience that  some sort of key event is upcoming, this maintains the audiences attention. The lighting also makes it blatant that the film is a horror film, dim lighting is common within horror films as it represents vulnerability and the unknowing. The tension in Halloween was inconsistent, it was very high when key scenes were shown (e.g. the knife grab), but other times the tension was relatively average (e.g. long shot of house)

Trainspotting(1996)                                                    Trainspotting, a black comedy drama film

, started off with much higher tension than the other film openings. The initial scene is the main character frantically running down a road, this catches the audiences attention because the non-diegetic sound also starts off very loud and up beat. Also, it makes the audience enquire as to why the man is running, meaning that the audience want to watch more and find out.

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

The  opening of a Clockwork Orange may be deceived as strange in comparison to the regular film opening. It all seems mysterious and the storyline is not conveyed within the opening.  Tension levels were maintained throughout, as well as sound levels. This approach to a film opening is good, because it keeps the audience interested and intrigued, therefor wanting to watch on. Tension is created through the oddity of the opening, it makes the audience feel out of their comfort zone, and not knowing what to expect. 

The Shining 

The opening of the  Shining is a universal way to open a horror film. It begins with a crane tracking shot that is following a car through different locations. Whilst the car is being followed, the audience  does not see any other sign of human interaction , this is immediately eery as it infers that the character is alone and vulnerable. This creates tension because the audience feels uncomfortable for the character in the car. During the opening, showing the different locations allows the audience to understand to what extent the character is alone. 

Final Storyboard

As a team we created the final storyboard

Ami King drew the images

Gaia Brook-Nissen coloured the images 

Anisha Sperryn annotated the images

The original storyboard bellow looked very basic; black and white, little depth, no colour scheme. We felt this didn't fully represent our initial ideas. I scanned through the original storyboard and added full colour and black marker pen to define the drawings, and changed any alternations. This enabled our work to be presented in the highest standard, and more professionally.

ORIGINAL STORYBOARD

The Preliminary - Final

Our preliminary task was the first practical task set for our group. Although it was extremely useful to work out the cameras, lighting and importance of good acting we found the task hard at some points. Whilst creating the preliminary, one of our team members was off due to medical issues. This impacted our work as there was only two of us whilst other groups had four members present. As well as this, there was a time limit on this task. This was useful as it proved the importance of time management and team work. However, it meant we were limited for props, actors, and location. As a result of this we used limited props, our school as the location and an inexperienced actor (me).