'You marry a guy, then he turns out to be a psychopath.'
After completeing our Opening Sequence, I decided it would make our 'film' appear more realistic if we had a tagline to sum up what our film would be in a sentence in the same way 'Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...' does for Jaws. The tagline I designed (shown above) gives an insight into what the rest of the film.
The Shining (1980)
Genres: Drama, Horror, Mystery
Certificate: 15
Directors: Stanley Kubrick
Writers: Steven King, Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd
Production Company: Warner Bros. Pictures
A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future. SOURCE - IMDb
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MY NOTES;
A man, his son and wife become the winter caretakers of an isolated hotel where Danny, the son, sees disturbing visions of the hotel's past using a telepathic gift known as "The Shining". The father, Jack Torrance, is underway in a writing project when he slowly slips into insanity as a result of cabin fever and former guests of the hotel's ghosts. After being convinced by a waiter's ghost to "correct" the family, Jack goes completely insane. The only thing that can save Danny and his mother is "The Shining".
old (1980) investigating differences from old horrors to moder,
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Opening Conventions
Narrative Function-
Characters/ Stars-
Film Lang- MES, Cinematography, ( light and colour)-
After a misunderstanding, Ernest P. Worrell unleashes an evil troll on Halloween.
SOURCE - IMDb
The film begins silently, the first credits show the production company, ‘Touchstone Pictures’. This slide and the next 3 are like this, displaying bright red font with what seems to be blood dripping from them. A shot of dark, spooky looking building is then shown, with unusual shaped clouds in the background, and then a lightning bolt comes down showing the building is in fact a castle, credits also fall down with the weather. The clip is in black and white further adding to the scary effect. This is where the sound begins, which is typically horror music, but at the same time quite funny because it is so over dramatic. The next shot is of the main character gradually moving up into the frame situated in what I presume is a woods, with a terrified expression on his face. It is immediately obvious he has a mental issue of some sort because of his body language but also his costume. He is a middle aged man in a baseball cap and has what I would perceive as a school rucksack. He then notices the lightning bolts and looks in that direction, the camera then follows his eyes to a shot of the sky with the main title showing on it in orange and white coloured font which when put on the screen splashes back. It is clear that the film was made in the 1990’s because the quality of the footage is not as clear as it is today although I think there are purposely edited clips to make it appear like old fashioned. The text does then not move for the next clip of a crowd of people gathering in a bunch and backing away from something, (men generally laughing or not showing too much emotion, woman looking scared). This is again in black and white. From this point the cuts are much faster to match the bouncier music. The clips display incidents of horror such as a man being forced to fall over, the hand of what is considered to be a monster, the primary character looking from left to right, shadows of non-human beings in attacking positions, knifes with blood squirting from them, which turn into credits and much more. The red credits continue throughout these clips, a vulnerable, trapped woman is shown chained up with skeletons in the background however this is not viewed as horrible and twisted but funny because of the contrapuntal sound generating humour. Ernest is then briefly shown in between the following clips of fictional miss-happenings acting goofy, helpless and running away. To add to the comedy, there is a clip of a man’s head poking out from a toilet (hiding) and blown up trees with arms and mouth with sharp teeth fighting what I can only describe as being a spud... As well as giant rock monsters, brains attacking people, wolfs attacking people which are puppets that they haven’t attempted to hide. Demon moon walkers, possessed princesses, cobwebs, vampires, giant spiders and anything else you can think of that is associated with horror! Whenever Ernest is shown he is in colour on a black background, the rest remains black and white and whilst all these dreadful things are occurring Ernest is acting foolish. One transition of credits I found particularly effective is when credits appear gradually from a woman’s screaming mouth.
The sequence ends with Ernest showing he has had his limit of horrifying things and falls over.
The closing shot is of the moon as the soundtrack comes to a stop. The film is a comedy on a scary subject therefore irony is a main theme. I chose to analyse this film to ensure my opening sequence didn't end up being comedic or convey slapstick comedy in a cheesy way as this opening sequence did.
'It was supposed to be the safest room in the house.'
Panic Room (2002)
Genres: Thriller, Drama
Certificate: 15
Directors: David Fincher
Writers: David Koepp
Cast: Jodie Foster, Kristen Stewart, Forest Whitaker
Production company: Columbia pictures corporation
A woman and her teenage daughter become imprisoned in the panic room of their own house by 3 criminals. SOURCE - IMDb
I chose to analyse the opening of Panic Room because it is similar in how it seeks to scare its audience (as I learnt watching the whole film), and its genre is similar to that of the film I would want to produce. Before the film begins the production company is shown, in this case Columbia. As the screen then fades to black sounds generally found in a busy street are heard along with an eerie piece of music. We then see an establishing shot of a city in the U.S.A which is evident by the shape of the buildings where Columbia is again shown. It then flicks to the next shot which is of a building closer to the distance in the previous shot as an actor’s name is present. This is continued in a cohesive manner, occasionally moving from one shot to the next in a more exciting transition. The buildings shadows are included, likely to be to make the city appear darker to set the scene. The camera movement I found interesting because the camera is always slightly edging forward it is never completely stationary. The range of different angles used are also interesting.Behind the credits showing on buildings there is traffic and pedestrians present in the background just to clarify that the film is not set in a ghost town. The music that had remained throughout all of the previous clips mentioned then changes suddenly when the title of the film is shown to highlight the name and from this point forward the music is of a different nature, louder, more dominant and fast paced with a slight ticking sound joining it. The amount of time between each new shot speeds up also. After a short time the music then returns to the soundtrack from the beginning of the sequence only with added sounds. The credits them self appear 3D and don’t stand out against the buildings because they are grey. Just over 2 minutes in, the background changes to a park in daylight with a reasonable amount of people spread out, this is when the dialogue begins but it is off-screen. The main character is then established, walking towards the camera in a street, the music is still faintly present.
Above is a copy of the story board I created over the christmas holidays. I didn't include the type of shot because I think its obvious what time of shot it is from my sketches :) nor did I specify the time of each shot because this was really just a rough copy and I wasn't sure how long each would be. Plus I knew there would be lot's of changed made to it.
To film and edit a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down opposite another character. They converse. Should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. Last a maximum of 2 minutes.
The above clip is of my groups Preliminary Sequence demonstrating some examples of successful camera work and exploration of angles, in the preparation of filming our Opening Sequence.
I would have liked to have more time to plan this exercise and include credits. Shooting and editing took 2 hours in total.
Children of Men, released in 2006 and directed by Alfonso Cuarón shows our world very differently to how we know it. In the opening sequence, it is evidential that it is a futuristic film set in ‘2027’ by the use of repeated hints such as the voice over of the current news, the visual footage of the news and in case we miss that, text on the bottom of the screen displaying the date! This information is clearly vital to the understanding of the film.
The genre of the film being mystery and drama again is immediately portrayed, this time through the use of dark colours in the general setting, and other aspects of MES such as what we as an audience learn through the voiceover but mainly through the actual content of the opening sequence; for example the selection of what are meant to be ‘normal’ people are all dressed very similarly in dull and gloomy clothing, and the way in which they react to the situation being presented by the news, (shown through the sea of shocked facial expressions, crying and devastated body language), encourages the audience to question what is going on and in fact make us want to watch more which after all is the primary purpose of an opening sequence – to keep the viewer intrigued.
It is obvious who the main character is as he straight away stands out from the crowd of faces, this is because a well known actor has been used to play him (Clive Owen) and also due to him being less stunned by the news than everyone else in the scene and appears to be ‘different’ in comparison to the sheep-like, sad people surrounding him which connects with the audience for two main reasons. One, it almost creates a sense of comforting and familiarity as we no longer feel like an outsider looking in on these strange circumstances but also because we feel we can follow this character through his chaotic journey that will answer the questions we originally conceived.
As he carries out a task we presume is part of his everyday routine of getting coffee, the camera follows him exiting in a hand held manor. During this we see many things that represent what the time period and the location of the film is like, such as the use of motorised passenger bikes on the street, moving images as advertisements on the sides on buses, both suggesting big changes in terms of technology, the business of the location which is central London, almost relating to the audience as a current Japan or China ambience, but also the dirtiness of the streets and not a wink of sunlight as if the equilibrium of the world had been broken. The camera moves in a way to allow us to see these factors as again they are significant. The camera is then positioned for a few seconds facing Owen from the side so it is in full view of the explosion that shortly takes place, still remaining hand held and then directly after the explosion quickly goes towards the action to capture the not at all disturbing image of a woman waddling out the cafe Owen were just in missing an arm.
Use of sound in this extract is essential for the effect of the loud explosion and following screaming enabling it to seem more realistic and hectic, as well as the voiceover being off scene for a while and then on screen diagetic sound when the television is displayed. The narrative functions are quite simple the film starts at the present day of the story and proceeds onwards from there revealing more horrid truths about how the director perceives the future!
To conclude I believe the opening sequence Children of Men effectively used the forms and conventions of a film opening as I have demonstrated in my essay. Personally, I as a viewer enjoyed the extract as it was different and interesting, and definitely made me want to watch on. So much so that I am investing in a copy of my own so I can watch the rest of the film and find out how it ends!
'When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.'
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Genres: Action, Drama, Horror, Thriller
Certificate: 18
Directors: Zack Snyder
Writers: George A. Romero, James Gunn
Cast: Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Mekhi Phifer
Production company: Strike entertainment
A nurse, a policeman, a young married couple, a salesman, and other survivors of a worldwide plague that is producing aggressive, flesh-eating zombies, take refuge in a mega Midwestern shopping mall. SOURCE - IMDb
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MY NOTES;
Ana, a young beautiful nurse finishes her day-shift at the hospital to return home to her beloved husband, they make love and sleep together. The next day, after her husband is killed by her neighbor next door, he suddenly comes back to life. She discovers the chaos happening in her neighborhood and escapes from her home. Soon after coming to her senses in the woods, she encounters a cop and other survivors, they decide to find safety in a mall. Soon more survivors come, and they learn that if they want to stay alive, they should stick together as the world is overrun by an army of undead. Can they survive the horror in this horrific global chaos? When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth
again gory, although our opening sequence does not portray any of this as far as the eye can see but if the film was to continue i imagine ther would be
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Opening Conventions
Narrative Function-
Characters/ Stars-
hook audience/enigma/action codes-
Film Lang- MES, Cinematography, ( light and colour)-
