textual analysis of film openings 3

transporter opening scene

genre: This movie starts off like any other action movie, with action to catch the attention of the viewer. Starts off with some bad guys trying to hijack his car but eventually turns into a fight.

location: The scene is located in a empty car park which might suggest that the movie will be set in a city and since its in a car park its in a remote place with nothing much going on around them so it focuses on the fight which attracts the viewer.

character: The guy in the car is indicated as a kind of a spy/ assassin by the way he dresses, dressed in nice posh clothes and is wearing gloves which is the stereotypical outfit for a spy/ assassin. The people who try to hijack his car seem like just common thief's probably homeless trying to steal stuff to make living. This can be shown by their clothing its plain, simple and a bit over worn, not using any heavy weapons, only using crowbars and knifes, anything they can find.

pacing: The pace starts off normal, just a person who is looking for help with fixing their car but then when she pulls out the gun thinks start to speed up and when the rest of the thief's come thats when the pace increases rapidly(when they start to fight). Possibly catching the audience off guard because they weren't expecting the helpless woman to be part of the robbery.

editing and post production: During the fight scene there is a lot of fast cuts to amplify the intensity of the fight and to give a real life feeling of how fast things happen, to impress the viewer and suggest that this will be a good action film due to the high speed and intensity. There is no special effects used.

textual analysis of film openings 2

the dark knight rises opening scene

genre: The way this movie starts is different to other action movies because in the start of this film the bad guy starts off captured. This is unusual because they are normally caught in the end, making this a rare opening action scene.

location: This movie starts off in a nice calm place which is unusual in action movies because action movies are normally filmed in intense war zones whereas this is set in mountains a remote place.

characters: In this scene the CIA agent doesn't really play the role of a CIA agent because he is the one doing the threatening which is uncommon from somebody working for the law. Then later on in the scene we see the plane hijacked, when watching it you can see that bane is calling the shots clearly marking him as the leader of the villains.

pacing: The pace of the movie starts out a bit slow but as soon as the agents discover they have caught bane the pace increases rapidly with another plane hijacking their plane increasing the intensity and in some ways catching out the audience because they are not expecting them to have caught the main villain.

editing and post production: They use a lot of cut scenes in this opening to give a good idea of whats going on and creates a fast tempo to build up the intensity. The use of the soundtrack only kicks in when the action starts this is used like this to capture the audiences attention.

textual analysis of film openings 1

The expendables 2 opening scene

Genre: The opening to this film is unique in a way that it starts off already in the action unlike other action films which normally start off with planning and the build up to the action. This implies intensity not only throughout this extract but throughout the whole movie.

location: This movie starts out in a fairly poor village, also showing a sort of base which they have captured somebody. Hinting that they have travel to the foreign country to rescue someone.

characters: The characters in this opening are in army gear which is common in this genre because when you think of the army you associate them with action.

pacing: The beginning to this film has a fast opening throughout the whole opening scene. This will imply that the movie is very intense and is full of action. This will attract people into watching on by really capturing their attention.

editing and post production: During this scene there are a lot of fast cuts used to increase the pace, therefore increase the tempo, which furthermore relates to action. There is also the use of CGI to create dynamic effects.

music and other sound effects: At the very beginning the music is increasingly picking up the pace to build up the tension before any of the action actually begins. There is also the use of gun shots to make the viewer feel as if they are actually there.

camerawork: There is a lot of close up shots used to show intensity of the situation, shows the concentration on their faces to show that it is a serious occasion. There is lots on panning to make it feel more realistic, make the viewer feel like they are there and allows them to get a full perspective of the action going on.

preliminary task

evaluation:

During our preliminary task we were focusing on getting in the 3 main shots that we needed to incorporate into our film, these consist on the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot. 

During our film we succeeded in not breaking the 180 rule so that we didn't lose a sense of direction and confuse the viewer. We also included match on action shots in order to give the film a flow a form of continuity editing so that it would appeal to the viewer and make them not focus on the cuts. Lastly we used shot reverse shot so that we can give the conversation feeling to the film. There was also other shots we added to it to give the film more of a lively effect and gives a sense of realism. Some examples that we used are a pan shot, mid shot and a close up. 

A way in which we could improve is the lighting. The lighting changes to a more yellow tint half way through. Then there is also the placing of the shots so that we don't capture anything unnecessary such as the pillar when she is walking into the office. finally we could work on the dialogue and actually have a script for the actors, but since it was only a preliminary task we weren't focusing on that that much. All these things will be worked on and changed for our main task in order to get better marks.

Overall i believe that our preliminary task was done efficiently as it is only a starting task, but all the little technicalities need to be fixed so that we can achieve the highest mark possible.

Preliminary task: Shot Reverse Shot

the last shot that was required in our preliminary task was the shot reverse shot. this shot consist of shots that are over the shoulder of the 2 actors to give a sense of continuity to the scene. this shot is mostly used during conversations. we used this shot effectively during our preliminary task.

Preliminary task: Match on Action

this was another shot we had to use for our preliminary task called match on action. this is basically where it is just cut after cut, so continuous action shots to give a sense of realism and a sort of flow. we obeyed this rule well during our preliminary task.

Preliminary task: 180 degree rule

This is one of the shots that we used for our preliminary task. The shot is where there is an imaginary line drawn between the 2 actors, where the shots will only be shot from one side of the line. The reason for this is not to give a sense of confusion to the audience because if you break the 180 degree rule it will look as if the actors have switched sides.

preliminary task storyboard