Analysis of Film Openings

‘The Tortured’ is one of my favorite films around the type of genre we will be looking at and filming, it has a goodimpact on the viewer at the opening of the film. First off the film is about an upper – middle class family andhow their life was destroyed when their only chill was kidnapped and killed; the grieving parents obsessed with revenge take the opportunity to kidnap the killer.

The opening of the film is be quite emotional for some people, it starts off with a phone call nobody knows to who is calling or who will be picking up, then a police woman answers and the picture goes from a black screen to a man on the highway. He explains to her that his child is missing and a brief statement of what the kidnappers van looks like. In between all of this the credits are passing they almost act as if they were changing the scene as the scene went from the highway to a establishing shot of the house where they live showing police cars etc. You then see the ‘mother’ driving up to her house in slow motion, this helps give the affect that something has happened, the slow motion might even represent her, not knowing what is going on, confusion, last one to know or distressed. You can see by her action that she is upset and distressed. She gets up and walks out while people are trying to stop her she says ‘I am going to look for my son, we not going to find him here’ now this hits the audience as they can feel her pain and can sympathies for her. Then you see title of the film ‘The Tortured’ appearing on a black screen again this cuts into a new scene. You then see a poster saying ‘missing child’ with a picture while you can hear the mother voice over the scene, then it cuts to them appearing ontelevision pleading for their son to come back to them.

The music in the backgroundisquiet but you can hear it, the choice of music is very important as it can separate a good film from a bad film. Sometimes you may not notice it playing but it is very important and without it the film can be quite dull and boring. It gives the film pace it almost acts as a heart beat without it the film is not that good. The scene after the television appearance is a dark, cluttered and dingy room with a strange man standing there while in the backgroundyou can hear a child (assuming it’s the kidnapped one) in the background calling ‘mommy’. The man then play a lullaby song while putting on makeup and a princess crown. Looking athim the audience can automatically tell that he is a psychopath and is most likely to be lonely hence the kidnapping. You see him unlocking the door after shouting at the child, then he is acting like he is the mother and or sister of the child after more shouting he gets his cloth and we assume kills the child. The scene then cuts and police are outside his house.

That was the first five minutes of the film, withinthose five minutes a lot of things have happened that we don’t know why. I think thatthis opening is very good as it goes straight into the action and drama; it really grabs the attention of the audience as well. I would like to maybe incorporate some of the drama, music, characters into our opening of the film as I think they would suite our needs.

Ashley Groom

'Shaun of the dead' is a comedy movietaken from the movie 'Dawn of the dead'. The movie is based on an infection that has been spread around and the dead come back to life and try to take over the world by killing everyone else. Two main actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost immediately tells the audience that the movie is a comedy and this is know because these two actors work with each other a lot of the time inmany comedy's.

The opening sequence to 'Shaun of the dead' introduces the main characters. This is done because as the movie goes on the main characters play very important roles and it is important for the audience to know who they are and what they are about.

The first shot the audience sees is a close up of Shaun and it gradually zooms out. The first scene is set in a pub and the setting in scene is done really well. This is done by making the scene sound busy and loud. Also you can hear the sound of the fruit machine which Shaun's best friend Ed is playing who we learn is not the best well mannered person in the world with the use of foul language and throwing crisps at Shaun.

As the scene in the pub comes to an end it then goes into uptempo music with the sounds of horror and thriller to go with it. Thiscould represent that the horror concept has been taken out of the movie and this is more exciting and more enjoyable for the viewers to watch.

All the actors at this point are being scene as zombies. This is shown by the way being are walking and the appearance on their face. This know makes the audience realise what the movie will be about.

The opening sequence overall i think is very good in terms of setting the scene and introducing the characters. I think that it is effective with the language used and the music in the background. I also think that the opening sequence to the movie will make viewers want to watch on and see the outcome of the movie.

Michael Kealy.

Open Sequence of – Jaws

Jaws begins with something swimming through the sea whilst the opening credits come on screen, indicating that Jaws is obviouslyto do with a shark or marine predator.

We are then presented with the scene of a group of young adults sitting around a fire being very noisy with drinks at hand. This clearly indicatesthat a party is going on and the characters may not be completely with themselves. There is one character, Chrissie, who is sat away from the group who is being watched by a young male who is drinking.

The man then approaches the girl whostands up and runs away, followed by the drunken male. Chrissie announces that she is going swimming, which as an audience we know something is in the water due to the credit role being filmed underwater. The male peruses her stumbling over, showing that he is drunk until he reaches the beach where he faints. By this time Chrissie is out in the water alone. As music buildsup tension is created and a shot from underwater looking up from Chrissie clearly shows what is about to happen. As she paddles around the camera gets closer, then we are giving a close up of her from above water where she is tugged down slightly. She then continuously getspulled underwater and begins to scream. This clearly demonstrates that she is in fear and is being attacked by Jaws, this creates a lot of tension with the audience. The camera cuts back to the man to show he is unable to help as he lay on the beach,unconscious. When the camera finally cuts back to Chrissie she as at the brink of death and as she gets pulled under for the last time, we know as the audience that this film is all about the killer, Jaws.

I think that this opening sequence is very strong as it clearly indicates the storyline and a few characters, namely the careless drunk and Jaws. This filmalso features the standard damsel in distress, Chrissie.

Marcus Murdoch

Opening Sequence of Remember Me

Remember Me has a very powerful opening sequenceand one of the things that stand out the most for me is how the movie titlecomes onto the screen. It starts off with a train going past and the word "Remember" coming on screen which then fades into the word "Me", with the way that the words come onto the screen separately is very clever. This is because the word "Remember" fades it makes it seem as though there is going to be a lot of forgetting of things within this film, whether it could be forgetting people or issues that had risen.

The next scene then goes to a mother standing with her young daughter waiting for the train to approach the platform in order to reach their destination. They both look very vulnerable against the yobs which the mother then looks at as we see that her happy smile turns to a straight face of worry. There is then a point of view shot from the mother as shes looks at the stereotyped teenage boys standing at the other end of the platform looking mysterious and up to no good in their hoodies.

As the droning of the train begins to approach one of the two boys then begins jogging towards the woman but a sense of relief is then put across as the boy runs down the stairs rather than approaching the woman.

The tension begins to build up once again as the train had now approached both the boys begin to run towards the woman and tellher to give them everything she has. You begin to sympathise for the mother as her main concern is her daughter who she pushes behind in order to keep her safe. A lot of quick shots are taking place as there is a lot of fast talking going on which emphasises how much of a big problem this is.

The two boys then rush onto the train through the opening doors which the close. The mother is then staring at the lead boy in fury and shock of what it is that he had just done. And with him giving back an evil glare the doors open and a gun shot goes off.

We really begin to feel sympathy for the young girl as she is just standing there screaming and crying at her mum but there is nobody around. The feeling of loneliness is emphasised because of the camera angle, it is a long shot from the other end, where the boys were standing and this really shows that there is nobody there to help her. And if the boys hadn't had been there in the first place, the mother and daughter would still be enjoying the rest of their night.

Another train then goes past but we then start seeing flashing lights which are obviously from the police and an ambulance.A low angle shot follows a police man up the stairs which shows he has a lot of power and he bends down to pick up what seems to be a wedding ring which makes you wonder who this woman was to him. We then realise it was his wife as the young girl who is shown through a short depth of field runs towards him shouting "Daddy". As we had the low angle shot of him as he was introduced, we know that he will hold a lot of power for this girl later on through the film. I chose this as my favourite because it has such a powerful opening with the way the film title is shown, the mother getting killed and the relationship the father and daughter share.

Louise Ashena