Film Opening Conventions Vodcast

Films mentioned:

Be Kind Rewind (Michel Gondry, 2008)
Hidden Agenda (Ken Loach, 1990)
Star Wars (George Lucas, 1999)
Atonement (Joe Wright, 2007)
Heathers (Michael Lehmann, 1988)
Up the Junction (Peter Collinson, 1968)
Four Weddings and a Funeral (Mike Newell, 1994)
About a Boy (Chris and Paul Weitz, 2002)

In this vodcast we discuss conventions such as directors titles, other titles, sound and audio, mise-en-scene, transitions and editing and shot types.

Comparing 2 past AS film openings

The two AS openings I have chosen are both from 2009. I have chosen Deception and The Cellar.

Deception:

The Cellar:

deception ident

the cellar ident

Idents

Deceptions one and only ident at the start of their opening is very simple yet gets the message of the company across. It shows a plain black background with white writing. On the other hand The Cellar has a much more noticeable ident and an image behind it which helps to bring your attention to the centre of the screen where the company name is written. Both openings have quite dramatic non-diegetic music from the start of the idents which instantly creates tension and makes the film genre a lot more obvious without even seeing the first shot. 

the cellar opening shot

deception opening shot

Opening Shots

In Deception every title and credit goes back to the black screen with the white writing in the same place. In the Cellar they put white bold writing over the shots so it is still visible but isn't as noticable as the Cellar. The opening shot in The Cellar is a dutch angle of a door with some light coming through it. This is a very good way of starting the opening as the dutch angle shows there is something not quite right and the lack of light is creating narrative enigma as the audience are unsure of the setting or anything the plot is about. The opening shot in deception is a tracking shot of a girl walking down a woodland path. The camera is set up behind a tree and the branches make it unclear to see who the character is walking along, this also creates narrative enigma. The camera being behind the tree might also be a point of view shot to make it seem like someone is watching her. 

the cellar

deception good frame

Good Qualities

Both openings include a lot of good shot variety and the plot is easy to follow because of this, and it makes the genre and theme more effective. A good example of this in Deception is at 1.16 where they use the tree to frame the shot and make it look balanced. In deception they also include a good example of a point of view shot when the boy is running you see his point of view of surroundings and reactions, this makes the audience connect with the character a lot more. A good example of shot variety in The cellar is towards the beginning when it cuts from the girl being tied up in the cellar and the house she must be in. These quick cuts make it very dramatic and will keep the audience on edge and it builds tension for something to happen.

Bad Qualities

decption cut off head

A criticism I have of Deception is that at times and in particular at 1.23 they do not frame the character quite right in shot and the top of his head is cut off. You can see that here they are aiming for a close up to show the emotions on his face and make the audience connect but by cutting off the top of his head it slightly ruins that. I found it hard to find criticisms in The Cellar as it is such a good opening. The only thing I can think of to mention is in the cellar they only used candle light which was very effective but some of the footage was so dark it was a little unclear to see what was happening. But this might be down to them creating narrative enigma or the quality of youtube when i was watching it. 

the cellar dark

In conclusion...

Both are very good examples of film openings but I would say the Cellar was the better out of the two as it has practically no flaws to it.

OpeningEG5: Hidden Agenda

Hidden Agenda (Ken Loach, 1990)

box office:
budget: unknown
Gross: $1m (USA)

trailer:


Length of opening sequence: 4.19

The idents shown at the beginning of the film were 'Metro Goldwyn Mayer' and 'Hemdale film corporation'. 

00.38 opening/establishing shot

The opening shot (00.38) is an establishing shot of the location which we can presume the film is set in. It is a rural countryside view and the camera is slowly panning across the vast landscape. 

00.45 northern Ireland quote

A quote then comes on screen (00.45), it is talking about northern Ireland, this is now known to be the setting or at least presumed by the audience. The shot is still the same panning across the countryside. There is non diegetic music playing, very traditional music giving quite a relaxed setting.

1.11 first titles

Titles then start to appear on screen, the initial one being 'John Daley and Derek Gibson present for' All the writing in the opening sequence is in capital letters and a very traditional serif font. The names are in slightly bigger font to the words that accompany them, for example 'and' and 'present for'. This is at 01.11.


Other titles then start to be shown such as 'Hemdale film corporation' and 'An Initial Production'. 

1.30 city view

At 0.1.30 the shot suddenly switches to a city view. Completely opposite to the original shot we just saw. 






The film title is then shown 'Hidden Agenda' again in capitals and centred in the middle of the screen. All the font used as titles in this opening sequence are in white. I think this is so they stand out against the darker colours in the background as it isn't very bright and they need a contrasting colour so the writing is visible.

1.44 marching band

At 1.44 diegetic music starts and there is a shot of what seems to be a marching band a crowd. The music and setting is creating quite a happy and lighthearted atmosphere.

1.50 another quote

Another quote then comes on screen talking about Northern Ireland and the UK which definitely suggests that it is set in Northern Ireland and sets the scene that these quotes will be somewhat relevant to the plot of the film.

2.04 close up

2.04 a close up of people in a band.

2.07 protesting

2.07 there is a picture of what seems to be a member of the marching band holding a sign. The sign says ' NO SURRENDER BELFAST' this is an example of mise-en-scene and this suggests that the marching band are protesting something to do with Ireland and the UK referring back to the quote at 1.50.

2.10

Actors names then begin to be shown on screen starting with the more important on there own and centred in the middle of the shot. After the main characters have been shown they then show the less important ones in groups of three and alternate what side of the screen they are shown at. They are also in a slightly smaller font.

2.29

More titles are then shown such as:
'screenplay...'
'photography...'
'Editor...'
'Designer...' 
'Costume...' 

2.56

'Casting...' 
'Sound recordist...'
'Original music...' 
'Executive producers...'
'Co-producer...'
'Producer...'
'Directer...' 

4.02 changed setting

 The setting then suddenly changes with no transition and the directors name is shown then the caption, 'Belfast: A few years ago'. This finally sets the scene and the audience then know for definite where the film is set. This is where I think the opening sequence ends as the film then goes into the main plot and dialogue and no more titles or transitions are clearly shown into the main plot. 

4.09 end of opening

Stuart Hall's theory of preferred reading is very relevant in this film. As I have very little knowledge about Northern Ireland I don't follow the preferred reading and I am more likely to be oppositional reading as I will not understand any of the intertextuality.







Useful links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Agenda_(1990_film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_McDormand

Assessment Criteria

Final Cut Pro X - First Impressions

I was introduced to final cut pro after already trying an editing a video on final cut express. My initial reaction was that they are very similar but after being shown by an A2 student how everything worked it became clear that final cut pro seemed easier to work out and had more options when it came to transitions and effects. Again it did take me a while to get used to this software especially after just working out final cut express. Final cut pro seems a bit more professional than final cut express and I think that will come in useful especially when we are editing bigger projects and are wanting our work to look more and more professional.

Even though at the moment it isn't very easy to understand there is a lot of online help and information to help people how to learn the best ways to use it. After editing our swede video on this I had become a lot more used to this software and i found it a lot easier to get my head around then final cut express. I found the editing quite simple to do and even though it could of been improved that was down to our lack of experience and not the sofware. Overall i prefer final cut pro X to final cut express.

Shaun of the Dead Swede

This is the final edited version of our Shaun of the Dead swede..

Our task was in groups of 6 we had to plan and shoot a swede based on a film we had all chosen from the pitches we each gave in class. We chose to do Shaun of the Dead. After filming as a group we then split the group in half and edited the footage in groups of three. This was much easier way as we all got more input into the editing and we could then evaluate how the two groups edited differently and how they could have been improved. 

At the beginning of our swede we did opening credits using a piece of paper as we thought it was more comical then putting them on screen. Someone in our group also sings the theme tune to Shaun of the Dead over this as an introduction to the film. 

opening credits

The first scene we have put into our swede is from the part of the film where the two lead characters are singing and there is a zombie in the back ground. We made this scene more comical by using girls to replace the lead male characters and making the zombie and the way he acts more comical than scary. It is still obvious to anyone who has watched Shaun of the Dead to realise which scene it is from. If we had the chance to remake this swede I would have taken more shot variety as we were very limited for choice  when editing. 

zombie humming scene

The second scene we put in our swede is from the part of the film where they are throwing random house hold objects at the two zombies, for example records. Again we used to girls as the male leads an we tried to replicate the two shots that were shown in the film. A medium close up of the main characters picking up the objects then cutting to an over the shoulder shot behind them and seeing the reaction of the zombies being hit by the items. Instead of using items that they did in the film we thought it would be funny to throw paper instead as it clearly wouldn't kill or even effect a zombie in any way. We thought this would make our swede more comical. 

paper throwing scene

The third scene we chose from Shaun of the Dead was the one where the main character tries to jump over a fence but the fence breaks as he jumps and he falls over. To put our own comical twist on this we used a barrier we could find and again using a girl for lead she didn't break it but pushed it over in advance and stepped over it. If we were to redo the swede I would of filmed it differently as it was very hard to edit. After every shot we couldn't make it look smooth when editing it into the next shot and we should have taken this into considerations when filming. 

In conclusions for a first swede I think it was relatively successful but needs more content and more shot variety. If we were to reshoot I think more planning in necessary before hand to get a better outcome and to make editing a lot easier. 

Assessing a Past Coursework Opening

The Second Personality



This is a past piece of coursework from 2009. 

0.07

The strongest feature in the opening is the varying in shot types. One we like in particular is a shot at 0.07 where the shot changes to a radio and then the music starts playing. We thought this was a clever way of bringing music into the opening.

0.28

The weakest feature of the opening is the unclear transitions making the plot hard to follow and understand. The girl in the opening only makes a very brief appearance making it unclear whether she is a main part of the film. After watching the opening a few times only then did we truly realise the relevance of this shot.

1.30

We don't see any of the criteria being excellent but we would say the variety of shots was fairly good and we would put in the proficient section. We think that the editing for meaning to viewer might fall into the minimal category as it did take so long for us to understand the plot. A shot we liked in particular was the point of view shot of the main characters feet. This was good and the point of view shot was very believable and you can tell the camera was being hand held at this point. 

Be Kind Rewind - Film Opening

Be Kind Rewind (Michel Gondry, 2008)
Budget: $20m
Gross: $11.2m  £3.5m






trailer:



Length of opening sequence: 4:14

The idents shown before the film were Pathe, focus features international and partizan films, but on the trailer they also include new line cinema. The titles get gradually shown throughout the opening sequence. The first one to be shown is the directors which says 'A film by Michel Gondry'. The main actors and actresses names then start to follow but they do not have an introductory title before their names. Other titles mentioned include music supervisor (then name), music by (then name), editor, production designer, director of photography, co producer, executive producer, produced by and director again. They are stated in that order gradually. 



opening shot of map

The first shot in the film is of a black and white map. 

The start of the film shows what seems to be very old footage as it is black and white and not very good quality. The shot of the map is also helping establish where the film might be shot or that the place being shown is of some significance to the film. The next shot (0.50) is still in this old fashioned style and is a medium shot of a man in old fashioned clothes, as this footage seems to be old the audience would presume that this isn't the main character. There is a voice over throughout this first section. 



0.50 old footage



0.58 3 shot

1.12 cardboard cars

The next shot (0.58) is a 3 shot. It is a medium close up of all three of the characters but in this shot they do not seem to look as old fashioned as the previous even though the style of editing and filming has not changed. This is when the voice over ends and you hear the characters in the film talking. This is also linking the characters.



At 1.12 you notice that the cars in the scene are made out of cardboard, this makes the audience think whether the footage is actually old or whether it is just being made to look like this as every shot seems to look less authentic



1.35

At 1.35 it is clear that they are focusing the opening section of the film on this individual character, possibly the main character. He seems to be acting out his own comedy sketch or something else along those lines. This is a medium shot as he is sat at the piano. 



2.22 'modern day'

This comedy sketch continues until 2.22 where the filming changes from black and white to colour and what we are led to believe as the modern day. It is an establishing shot of a city slowly zooming in to a certain area. A bit like the map at the very beginning but this time it is a contrast as it is filmed literally. There is gradual humming in the background that as it zooms in further it starts to get louder.





3.03 establishing shot

The next significant shot is at 3.03. This is an establishing shot of graffiti which two men are painting, we have already seen these to men in the older looking footage looking the same age which you can presume they shot in modern day and just wanted to look old. This is an extreme long shot of them and this is where the main dialogue begins and you get a proper indication that the film is likely to be based on these two characters. 



4.13 transition into main film, film title

At 4.13 the screen fades to black and the title of the film is in the middle. This signifies well the end of the film opening and after this is when the film gets into real detail and the plot begins.

other links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_Kind_Rewind

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Black

http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/02/22/movies/22rewi.html?_r=0