On the 19th
November I went to the BFI Southbank for a student task day on making film
openings. The day included speakers’ Tom Woodcock, a teacher of film and media
and Corin Hardy a filmmaker. Throughout the day I was given various tasks to do
to help with the AS Media Studies coursework.
Image is mine
Task A was the 'Macro
Conventions Task' and involved watching 3 different opening sequences; Napoleon Dynamite, Casino Royale and The Wedding Singer.
Images from the Internet
We were given a table
listing 5 aspects of a sequence; genre, narrative, characters, themes and
atmosphere. With the 5 aspects, we had to give a percentage out of 100 on the
amount of time they each had in the sequence to show how important each aspect
is and the amount of time each is needed in the opening titles and credits. Here are the opening sequences;
The
task showed that the opening sequence should introduce the main theme, create
the atmosphere for the movie, establish the genre and set up the main character’s
personality.
Task
B was to create a pitch for the opening sequence idea we had planned; the boxes
were labelled; film title, genre and influences, idea in one sentence, visual
themes, motives or references and sound design. The purpose of the task was to
get feedback from a teacher and actual film-makers perspective and to get
student feedback. It also highlighted if production of the opening sequence was
possible or not.
Task C was to watch 2 opening sequences and see where the credits were being
placed and who was being credited. The
movies were Donnie Brasco and Gattaca;
The
purpose of the task was to establish who was credited which was – The production
company, lead actors, supporting cast, credits for those who casted, produced
the music, designed costumes and set, producer, director and the film title.
The film
maker also went through his process for creating his movie etc what
equipment he used, what lighting he used, the camera angles and his opening scenes’
importance.
As a group we conducted a
survey to find out what genre and elements teenagers, who are our target audience
enjoyed, to help with our opening sequence and movie ideas. Here are the results;
The opening sequence I will be doing fits
into the Mystery Thriller genre so as a group we decided to each watch a movie
from the same genre and analyse main themes, ideas and cinematography that appear
in the movie which are either typical of the genre or that we could use in our
opening sequence.
The movie focused on a lot of objects
or facial expressions/emotions which linked to the narrative or characters so
close ups were used many times.
When following the main character around following shots were used
to show the action as one big continuous sequence.
There was a lot of dialogue in the movie not just a few words
spoken before the murders like a villain typically does but very long and
detailed conversations and even small talk.
The movie has scenes in which the main character is seen waking up
or thinking about something so voice over monologue’s are used to show the
character’s opinion and thoughts.
When something is being hugely emphasised multiple angled shots
are shown.
To add humour to the movie many pop culture jokes are made to link
in with the outside world. The humour when told from the main character is
always awkward to show their serious nature/tone it creates a weird atmosphere
to emphasis this isn’t the normal behaviour of the character.
The main character is meant to be the “good guy” but isn’t
completely good and their actions aren’t innocent.
The main character seems to be conducting his own investigation
over a plot-line from his backstory and a typical convention is that the police
enforcement don’t seem to backing him up meaning he has to do it on his
own.
The main character is dressed smartly in a suit especially
compared to his job of killing people and finding out information
When conversations are occurring an over the shoulder shot or two
shot is used to show the meeting of the characters and to make the audience
feel as if they’re part of the meeting.
When no action is happening or to build up to the action scenes
the pace of the movie is very slow to add to the suspense and tension
atmosphere.
The movie has an aggressive nature so the characters are quite
angry and so most of the conversations are just the characters arguing.
The movie has a unique narrative structure concept in which the
movie is split into two different types of scene. Black and white scenes start
from the past and is when the movie’s story starts whilst the coloured scenes
start from the end and move backwards. Eventually the two different scenes meet
at the end. The concept of having 2 plot structures that are distinctly
different shows that the movie in general is unique.
As it’s a mystery thriller there is a lot of blood and gore in it.
The protagonist throughout some parts of the movie is covered in blood splatters
and is also looking rough etc with an unshaken beard.
When the protagonist is running or doing something frantically
there is an emphasis on his breathing or surrounding noises to show his fear. Pictures are from the Internet
The opening sequence starts off with the film production company’s
logo which is ‘Newmarket’ films. The distribution company has been involved in
movies such as Cruel Intentions, Donnie Darko and The Usual Suspects which
follow the same genre of Neo-Noir, Mystery and Psychological Thriller and Crime
which link in with Memento which has elements of all the genres listed before.
The next scene is the credits scene which shows the production
company again and also the international distribution company which is ‘Summit
Entertainment’. Then another production credit is shown to show who produced the
movie, Suzanne Todd has produced Predator 2, Die Hard 2 and Lethal Weapon 2
which have some similar aspects to Memento.
The credits are against a plain black background with a light blue
colour to contrast against and stand out. The main actor ‘Guy Pearce’ hadn’t
done much work in the genre of thriller or mystery prior to Memento so it shows
that the movie’s purpose is focused on the narrative and not which big star is
portrayed in it. The main credits only show 3 names to show who the main
characters are in the movie.
The title of the movie is then showed, all in caps and matching
the previous credits as it’s all blue. The
background of the scene which is black cross fades into the footage from the
movie of a man holding up a Polaroid picture of bloody tiles and a dead body.
The scene in the picture seems to contrast the scene happening around him.
Whilst this occurs the title of the movie stays on over the background. Credits for the other characters, casting and
music appear as the protagonist continues to stare at the image.
The actor then shakes the Polaroid picture and stares at it again
to get a clearer image of what its showing. The colours of the picture continue
to change as he repeatedly shakes the image. The once clear and red image has
now turned to something similar to a blank slate which represents the narrative
and the aspect that the main character has anterograde amnesia who can’t
remember the recent past so the clear image going blank is a metaphor for that.
The shot then changes in a reverse shot from him taking the
picture out of his pocket to placing it back into a camera. This shows that the
previous events were all in a reversed order and link into the narrative
structure. The protagonist is then shown
for the first time and his face is covered in blood streaks and sweat to show
he’s been in some sort of fight.
The shot then continues to go in a reverse order with the main
character putting the gun away (getting his gun out), a close up of his face is
shown subtly taking a breath in to show his shock of something and that it’s
over now. He’s wearing a suit which stands out of place against the scenario. An
extreme close up is then shown of blood but it’s falling in the reverse way and
back up the wall. An extreme shot is then shown of a bullet on the ground; the
simplicity of the shot adds emphasis to the object. A similar shot of an
extreme close up is shown of a pair of glasses hinted to link to the victim,
the glasses are all bloody and surrounded by blood streaked tiles.
The shot of the victim face
down is shown covered in blood next to the glasses. His head is centre stage in
the shot to show that the blood is his and from a high angle to show he’s on
the ground and that this may be from the perspective of the protagonist. A shot
of the gun flying upwards to the main character’s hands is shown to illustrate
clearly that the events occurring are in a reversed order.
The camera then follows the actor downwards and zooms in to show
his slightly angry facial expressions and his crouched body language over the
victim. The previous shots of the
glasses and bullet are shown again but in reverse order to show they both are
important to the events that occurred. A shot of the victim reversing from the
ground to sitting up is shown, the blood also reverses back into nothing and
the bullet goes into the protagonist’s gun.
The editing so far has been slow paced but the moment the gun is
put into its compartment which as it’s in reverse order is the bullet being
fired. The editing pace quickens drastically and we catch a glimpse of the
victim’s face as he’s being shot.
The music during the credits is instrumental and very dramatic; as
the Polaroid image is shaken and taken there is its emphasis on the noise – all
the protagonist’s actions have been highly emphasised to compare it to the background
music. The shot then ends with the victim shouting something.
