G321 Openings Scenes Of Films

We haved watched and analysed the following film openings as reasearch before we think about our idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDU5Fs0Ef9k

Saving Private Ryan

- The scene opens with an establishing shot and titles with the location of where the film is set. There is a long shot of a boat ploughing through the water, the camera movement is continuous but shaky and seems to dip up and down, along with the tide. Close up on hand shaking, to convey the message that this is a frightening experience and then a close up on his face, to show emotions and facial detail as he is a main character, and famous actor, Tom Hanks. Slowly zooms out to a group shot of the rest of the men in boat, close enough that we can still see facial emotion, all look sad, some are throwing up. The camera uses medium shots and close ups to flick between the conversation between the two main characters, the men in charge giving orders. A low angle shot when the first bullet is fired of the man being hit and falling down, medium shot of the group from behind as many more bullets are fired and men are killed. Point of view shot from the opposition, see the tip of the gun and long shot of the men in the water they are shooting at. Switches back to bodies plunging into the water, filmed from underwater, medium shot is used to show a few dead bodies, no facial detail, just dark blurry shapes, bubbles and blood. The camera dips between underwater and over water, as if person filming is trying to stay afloat, this draws the audience into the story and makes them feel as if they are actually there. Under the water is silent, apart from when two bullets come below the surface of the water, in stark contrast to the constant gunfire above water.
In our film, we want to include some action in the opening scene, but maybe not as much or as constant as this as we want to give a clue as to why it is happening and flick between the present and the past. We will use some shaky camera movements in a chase to draw the audience in and create suspense.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd93_2MWkpI

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

The scene opens with a close up overhead shot of him in bed, then cheery music starts playing as he looks out of his window. A medium shot is used as he wakes up and sighs, rubbing his forehead and kicks the covers off. There is a long shot of his room and then a continuous shot where the camera follows him as he discovers his car has been dented. A medium shot of the note he leaves saying 'Thanks!' is shown to portray to the audience what his character is like. A tracking shot of all the people standing on the platform waiting for the train and a voice-over begins, telling the audience his private thoughts while happy background music is still quietly playing. An overhead shot is used when he starts to runaway and jumps on another train, just as it is leaving. A medium shot shows him sitting on the train, warily looking out the window and around him, which tells the audience that he doesn't want to be seen by anyone who knows him as he is skipping work. His voice-over continues as a long shot is shown of him walking along the beach, with the waves rolling up to him. An over the shoulder shot is used to show him writing in his diary.
In our opening scene, we are probably going to go straight into some of the action and show both of the characters. We are considering using a voice-over for our main character as the story is focused around her, but we may just use soundtrack music throughout and lower the volume when the two characters are having a fight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNEX5C3YGYQ

Terminator 2: Judgement Day

The scene opens with an establishing shot of the motorway, with hundreds of cars driving towards the camera. Tense music beings to play and a slow motion shot of children on swings is then shown, with their laughter echoing and then the music builds up and the swinging is slowed down even more until it fades to white. The music then suddenly stops and a shot of skeletons in a car is shown, the lighting is very dark and the camera slowly moves up to show the rest of the background where there are many more abandoned cars. A title comes up saying 'Los Angeles, 2029 AD' which informs the audience that this film is set in the future. There is a very faint background sound, which is not really music but sounds like wind, which makes the film seem more realistic and draws the audience in. The camera then pans around the location allowing us to see the destruction that has been left, a voice-over then begins with a woman stating '3 billion human lives ended on August 29, 1997'. This provides the audience with a clue as to what the film is going to be about and also builds suspense as they will then want to watch the film to find out what happened. The voice-over continues as the camera pans to show more skeletons and skulls. A robotic foot then suddenly crushes one of the skulls and the camera slowly tilts upwards to show the robot and explosions and shooting begins. Other robots are then shown in medium shots and the camera then pans to follows a group of men as they try to shoot the robots. Medium shots of the robots weapons are shown and long shots are used when the men get killed by the robots. The gunfire is constant as they carry on the battle and then high pitched tense music is played to create further atmosphere. Long shot's of explosions are shown as cars are rolled over and crushed, medium shot's are used to flick between showing the robots and the humans. One of the robots is defeated and it smashes to the ground, creating another big explosion and the camera is mostly filled with fire. The gunfire stops and an over the shoulder shot is used as soldiers are walking down a narrow corridor, armed with guns and saluting one another as they pass. The woman's voice over begins again to further explain what is happening and the introduces the main character 'My son, John Connor'. A slow zoom into a close-up is used to show his facial detail as he has scars, while the voice over explains how this happened. The shot then fades into a shot filling the whole screen with smoke and fire from an explosion.
In our film, we will definitely use some elements used in this opening scene as they have included dark lighting throughout and used a voice over to provide the audience with an insight into what is happening in the film. The music also flowed well with what was being shown on the screen, so we will think about what kind of music we want to include in our opening scene to reflect the action genre we have chosen to do.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_saCHD4Wzqk

Love Actually

The opening scenes of love actually are of loved ones being reunited at heathrow airport, this instantley gives us the idea it is going to to be a romantic film, even before the voice over starts talking. The voice over is Hugh Grant, who known for being in romcom type films. As we are doing an action film, we could try and establish straight away that this is the type of film we are doing like they have done with the romcom. Emotional, quite tense music is played in the background as high angle shots, long shots and close ups of people being reunited are shown. The speed of the clips are quite slow, which is effective because combined with the music makes the reunions seem even more emotional. This is another thing we could thing about, we could speed up or slow down soem of our scenes. The voiceover speaks about love and says sentences such as "General opinion states that we live in a world of hatred and greed,but i don't see that, seems to me that love is everywhere." and "When the planes hit the twin towers, as far as i know none of the phonecalls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge, they were all messages of love", He finishes by saying love actually is all around, and these words appear on the screen over the emotional scenes, the words "is all a round" then fade out to show the title of the film Love Actually as it fades to black. The music speeds up slighty as it cuts to a scene of one of the characters singing. We could think about whether we would like there to be a voiceover at the start of our film and whether we want to use titles to break up the different scenes like they have done. These reunion type scenes are documentary style, which we could think about whether we would like to do this too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDmBntfQBgU&feature=related

Lethal Weapon 4

The film starts with an explosion of flames which become the shape of a 4 to show the title of the film is Lethal Weapon 4. Another bout of flames appear and the title disappears and there are sounds of a police radio. We then see the main characters who are police officers driving trying to find where they are being sent to. We hear one of them say "we must be getting warmer" before they pull up to see a man in a silver suit with guns and flamethrowers. Like the love actually opening which has a them of the word love, this seems to have a them of fire. As we are doing an action type film, we could immediately get into the action like this film has done, instead of having a voiceover build it up like love actually. We also see that the film is going to be a comedy aswell as after they see the danegrous man, they quarrell about what do. They try to run him over but when he sees them they have to hid behind the car as they is firing at them. They talk about whos going to try and stop him and one says to the other that he has nothing to loose whereas the other has a wife and kids, The other guy replies that his girlfriend is going to have a baby so he will be a father too, The first guy then tells him he has a secret too, that the other guy is going to be a grandfather. While they are talking about this other police cars are being burnt. Aswell as the bullets there is a sound of heavy rain and as it is nighttime the darkness adds to the drama of the scene. This is something we could think about when deciding when to film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J8GRDWRE_E

Hancock

Like lethal weapon, Hancock starts with a police radio sound over the titles, then it jumps into a chase scene and people firing guns. Then usually it cuts to a shot of a man asleep on a public bench with the sound of peaceful jazzy music, him snoring and the bottle of alcohol that he drunk rolling around on the floor. We then cut back to the hectic chase scene. This is quite effective because it makes the audience want to find out who the man is and the contrast of him being peacefully asleep and the choatic chase scene is effective. It cuts back to the man who is being woken up by a little boy who calls him Hancock. Hancock says "What Boy?" to which he replies "bad guys." Hancock looks up at the tv in the shop window nearby to see the car chase and says "what do you want, a cookie?, Get out of my face." The boy calls him a name and walks off. A woman then also calls him this name and he picks up another bottle of alcohol and flies up into the air, exploding the bench. We then see him flying through the air, this is effective because we can see now that he is a superhero, but we dont know why he is not very nice. He smashes through lots of buildings and signs, which is typical of the action genre for this to happen as the film opens. They shoot at him and we see that he cant die or be hurt. He tells them he doesnt care what they did but because they are being loud light up there car and puts it on a massive spike on a building. The opening scenes end with shots of a television with a news station reporting on the damage Hancock has caused.

G321 Generic Conventions Of Action Films

Bourne Ultimatum:The opening scene contains shaky camera movements to give the impression that someone is following the main character. Long-shot’s and close-up’s are used frequently, long-shots are used to set the scene and show us what is going on in the background, whereas close-up’s are there to show the audience details and emphasises the facial expression of the character. There are also many over the shoulder-shots, used to place the audience into the story and is intended to show the action from the point of view of a particular character. Another shot used is the 180 degree rule, which is used to show the point of view from two characters.

Pirates of the Caribbean 3:The scene open’s with many close-up shot’s, firstly of a noose, then of the flag and then of prisoner’s feet in chains. This draw’s the audience in to those particular details and shows us that they are important in the scene. This is followed by a panning shot of the line of prisoners about to be hanged. There are many medium-long shot’s to show the large group of people, this doesn’t reveal much facial expression, but body language and relation to other characters and setting is clear. Close-up shots of various characters are used throughout to show facial expression. The scene then slowly zooms in to a mid-close up of a young boy, about to be hanged. There are mostly long shot’s and mid-close-up’s used in this opening scene.

The Dark Knight:The scene starts with a long shot, zooming in to a window of a building, where there is a small explosion of glass. Then switches to a mid close up and a high angle shot of one of the characters.There is then a medium shot showing a man from behind holding a mask. An extreme long shot is used to show distance and the vastness of buildings. It is effective at creating the image that people are insignificant when compared to the background.Over the shoulder shot is used to draw the audience into the story and make it seem like you are behind the character, watching them.

Sin City:Starts with a long shot of a woman walking to the edge of her balcony, and looking over the city. Long shot’s are commonly used as an establishing shot at the beginning of a scene; this creates a sense of time, place and atmosphere. Then we see a 2-person shot, with a man walking towards her from behind. When she turns around, there is an over the shoulder shot which has the effect of placing the audience in the film. There is a Close-up shot of cigarettes as she takes one from him and then we have an example of the 180 degree rule. The film shows over-the shoulder shots of both characters, often used in dialogue sequences. We see another Close-up shot of the woman, which shows the audience facial detail and reactions. There is then a very slow zoom in of a 2-shot, which creates suspense. After he shoots her, there is a very high angle shot, which emphasizes distance from the ground and makes her seem vulnerable.

Hancock:Shaky camera shots of a car chase and helicopters, gives the impression that the audience are also in the story. There is a long panning shot of the main character sleeping. Then the film switches to an over the shoulder shot of the characters involved in the car chase, which is intended to show the action from the perspective of a particular character. Varieties of medium shots and mid close-ups are mainly used to focus on the main character. They used a high angle shot to show the main character lifting off the ground and flying upwards towards the camera, this emphasises distance from the ground. Then many panning shots are used to show the character flying from behind and in front, the camera is also shaky which gives the feeling that the audience is flying behind him.

The generic conventions of action film openings all show something significant happening within the first five minutes of the film. For example, Pirates of the Caribbean contains hangings of many people and Sin City shows a woman being shot. One of the main shot’s used on all five of these films is over the shoulder shots, this is used to draw the audience into the situation and create more suspense in the scene. Mainly, the shot’s cut very quickly from one to another; this helps to create the feeling of danger and fast-paced action. All action films contain fights, shootouts, stunts, car chases or explosions, which are traditionally aimed more at males than females. In all of the action film openings I looked at, men are the ones involved in the violence and carrying the weapons. Computer graphics are often used to make stunts less dangerous and allow swifter movement by actors, as well as more realistic looking fighting. Action films always contain many people dying or being injured and usually have a main character that is featured as the hero.

G321 New Project

Now we have done a practice film, our task is to come up with an idea for the opening scenes of a film and film them.