Action and Adventure is one of the most popular genres and there are six different types of action/adventure films, Historical, Thriller/Suspense, Quest, Swashbuckler, Disaster and Fantasy. A code of action/adventure is Levi Strauss' Binary Opposites; the idea that conflict drives the narrative, this can be any opposites, the stereotypical good vs bad, or any others like, man vs woman, rich vs poor, military vs rebels etc. This is shown quite clearly in the scene from The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003, dir. Peter Jackson), where it is clearly the Orcs vs everyone else. You can also distinguish the Orcs and the antagonists who are all a cream, dirty white, colour, whilst the protagonists are all in white or silver, clearly representing them as clean and good.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQee3ag4niE)
The locations of action adventure films are usually quite dangerous place, like other planets, jungles, or a fantasy seemingly dangerous world. One exception to this rule that is used reasonably a lot, is that locations can also be set in cities, or ordinary setting, this makes the narrative seem more believable and 'close to home' and this also makes the film more exciting more the audience.
Action/adventure typically follow the character types, theorized by Vladimir Propp, these different character types, can be found in most films, not just action/adventure. The character types are as below. You can also easily show these though an example of a film. Take Pirates of The Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003, dir. Gore Verbinski),each corresponding character is next to the character stereotype.
Hero- Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp)
Villain- Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush)
Princess- Elizabeth Swann (Kiera Knightly)
False Hero- Norrington (Jack Davenport)
The Donor- Joshamee Gibbs (Kevin McNally)
The Princess' Father- Govenor Weatherby Swann (Jonathan Pryce)
The Helper- Will Turner (Orlando Bloom)
The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is slightly unstereotypical regarding character stereotypes, as the main character easily seem to 'swap sides'. Captain Jack Sparrow's position regarding being protagonist or antagonist changes frequently throughout the films. Barbossa also swaps sides from film to film, antagonist in the first film, protagonist in the third, and antagonist yet converts again to protagonist in the fourth. The characters in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise change sides so often because they're all lots of different groups, and some enemies join together against a common enemy depending on the current narrative. Also unstereotypical about The Pirates of the Carribbean franchise, is Jack Sparrow. Typically, the main character are, strong, straight, physically able characters, but Jack Sparrow, is rather camp and gets around doing things by using other people and trickery. As you can tell, there are a lot of adaptations on the stereotypes of Action and Adventure films, this is because Action/Adventure is a very common genre, and directors and filmmakers often are trying new ways to represent and portray the similar narratives.
In action/adventure films the film is veer much driven by the narrative, with the appropriate mise-en-scene maintaining this. There is often a love interest sub-story within the plot along with this, and as Thriller can be considered as sub-genre of Action/Adventure, the way the love interest in thrillers and action/adventure are very similar. Either genre, include both participants of the love interest, equally or relatively equally. The best example of this, is also, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pear, (2003, dir. Gore Verbinski), below is the trailer.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z1XpfbuZOA)
You can see from the trailer, that Elizabeth Swann (Kiera Knightly) features a lot through out the film, as has about equal screen time, and importance to the narrative, as her love interest counter part, Will Turner (Orlando Bloom).
Disaster films are a subgenre of Action/Adventure, but are often crossed with thrillers, as well as the drama genre. Disasters are typically a action/adventure narratives, such as a goal, binary opposites, all mentioned above, but are set in typical thriller, and possibly even horror genre locations. If they are also crossed with Drama, that is normally from isoloation, or struggle of survival. Disaster films predict or show the ending, or destruction of a community, normally the earth or human population, although can focus on smaller communities; Titanic (1997, dir. James Cameron). There are endless ways that filmmakers show how this occurs, but the main three catergories of Disaster film disasters are man made, alien, and natural disasters. Below, are the most popular ways of disaster causes within the three catergories, in film and a few known examples:
Alien contact- I am Ledgend (2007, dir. Francis Lawrence); War of the Worlds (2005, dir. Steven Speilberg)
Epidemic- Contagian (2011, dir. Steven Soderberg); 28 Days Later (2002, dir. Danny Boyle)
Transportation crash- Source Code (2011, dir. Duncan Jones); Titanic (1997, dir. James Cameron)
Geological- Deep Impact (1998, dir. Mimi Leder); 2012 (2009, Roland Emmerich)
The classification of disaster causes in film, and the examples are from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_disaster_films Although Wikipedia is considered unreliable, here, it was only used as www.imdb.com (a more reliable film database) did not provide a listing of Disaster films. All examples I used from Wikipediainfomation found on Wikipedia.
We are considering doing a film opening in one of the genres:
Thriller
Horror
Action/Adventure
Disaster
Film Noir
I have done some research into the codes and conventions of each of these genres,
Thriller
Thrillers are about provoking some fear and typically use music and low key lighting to show most of the narrative, depending on the specific narrative it may also be based a lot in the night, as this is an easy way to achieve low key lighting. Night environment also adds mystery and fear of what is within the darkness. Thrillers often include aliens or monsters and within that, invasions. Isolation is another convention of horror, but thrillers, use isolated locations, but there is often a group facing whatever is in that location. an example is in Super 8 (2011, dir. J.J Abrams), when they face the monster, the heroes are a group of children, but everyone has abandoned their town, leaving them isolated, yet together. Below is the trailer for Super 8 which is a typical thriller film and fits all the codes and conventions mentioned above.
Horror
Horror and Thriller codes and conventions are quite similar, low key lighting, music and aliens or monsters are typical of horror films, but horror would tend to have more blood, violence and gruesome scenes. Horrors are more often shown from one person's view, or specifically about one person, although they may be looking for or protecting other characters. This is opposed to Super 8, mentioned above, which although has a main character, he has a close circle of friends, that are heavily involved. Isolation of location as well as character makes the scene scarier for the audience, which is why it is used in horror and not thriller. There is often a love interest in both, Thrillers and Horrors, but the second character involved in the love interest, in Thrillers is heavily present, yet, Horror, they would be included less, focussing mostly on the main character. An example is in Super 8, Joe (Joel Courtney) and Alice (Elle Fanning) are the love interest, and Joe is the main character in the film, and Alice is involved in the narrative as more than a love interest. If Super 8, was more of a typical Horror, Alice, would be more of a materialistic goal than she is.
DVD cover of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Weaponry is exaggerated in horrors, to make the weapon seem more dangerous, brutal and threatening. An example of this is The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974, dir. Tobe Hooper) where the villain is using a chainsaw, which is normally used for trees and large pieces of wood, and is being used for humans. Also, how he's holding the chainsaw in the poster/DVD cover right, suggests violence and extreme use of the weapon, as does the blood down his clothing. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, is based on a true story and this isn't a convention of Horror, but is a theme used fairly regularly, to provoke the fear produces, further, although the film production is often exaggerated compared to the original event.
The villain or whoever is provoking the horror behaviour, is normally physically, a stereotypical villain; they may have disfigurements, or wear masks, this is to make them seem unnatural or different; the masks would also make them mysterious, as they are hiding their identity. The mask can either be a normal thing, making them seem more close to home and realistic, like a plain white mask or the mask can add to their physical difference, and in that respect, making them more fearful. The murderer's mask in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, comes under, adding to the physical differences. I believe his mask is made of, or supposed to the look like it's made of animal and human skin. A similar concept, is Saw (2004, dir. James Wan) where you never see the villain, he acts through a puppet, Jigsaw and the audience, and the characters in the film, never see the real villain. Below is the trailer for Saw (2004, dir. James Wan)
Not seeing the actual villain, for most or all of the Saw franchise, would provoke even more fear, as you never really know what your up against. You learn some of his attributes of how he tortures or kills the victims, but nothing further about him, and often the fear of the unknown, especially in films, is the most fear-provoking thing you could include into a film. It also adds tension to whether the villain will appear and reveal themselves later on.
Slow cut editing is used in horrors quite a lot, as it builds tension to whether anything is 'just around the corner'. Slow cut editing can also be used to draw out any horrific scenes for as long as possible as it allows you to take in all the mise-en-scene of that one shot, drawing on the horror. On the other hand, fast-paced editing can also contribute to the horror, as things can seem more fearful if you can only see quick flashes of it.
This is shown in the iconic shower sequence of Psycho (1960, dir. Alfred Hitchcock). You can watch this scene, here. Leading up to the stabbing, the editing pace, is rather slow, increasing the tension. But during the stabbing, the pace increases, and also, is edited to the rhythm of the incidental music, which corresponds to the repeated stabbing. Once the stabber has left, the pace of editing considerably slows again, with a long take, watching the panning down of the woman, Marion (Janet Leigh). The silence that accompanys the scene, from after Marion pulls down the shower curtain, adds to the stillness of the scene and the shock of the brutual murder.
A rather popular sub-genre of thriller and/or horrors, is psychological thriller/horror, these films don't bring fear because of the mise-en-scene or the specific villain like traditional thrillers or horror, but its the narrative that brings fear. Normally, the main character is mentally ill, hallucinating or similar, and we experience the story from their perspective, or looking onto them as an outsider, with glimpses of what they are experiencing. Unusual camera angle such as canted and high/low angles are used more in these films as the fear, suspense and disorientation is all within the characters head, allowing screenwriters to experiment with disorientating camera angles to portray to same feeling and sympathise with the main character, whom is often the one who is experiencing this. Music is also an important concept of psychological thriller, as music is an easy way to change the perspective of a scene, and music in thrillers and horrors is often low, deep tones to build tension or sharp high notes to make people jump. Crescendos are also used quite a lot as these build tension and can make people feel scared and overwhelmed. A lot of these camera angles and This genre and the codes of conventions is shown well in the trailer of Black Swan (2010, dir. Darren Aronofsky)
Psychological thrillers, and horrors, rely mainly on questioning the things within the film. An example would be Nina, in Black Swan, she questions what she really is seeing and believing is real, and this is protrayed onto the audience, as the film is through her point of view, leaving the audience wanting the answers to the questions as much as Nina does. A good example of this within Black Swan, is a scene towards the end, were she thinks, she has stabbed someone else, but is in fact, herself.
books used in this post:
Rubin, Martin., Thrillers, 1999
I have concluded, from my research on the codes and conventions of film openings, that a good opening film sequence will reflect the genre of the film to give the audience an idea of whats to follow in the rest of the film; participate in the enigma code, to gain the audience's interest, and also, typically, the opening will be either a flashback, narration, establishing shot, or a fight scene as these are the best ways to either tell the backlog of events leading to the current situation, begin the story as it is, or enticing the audience to keep their interest.
It can be also be a title sequence or a cold open, both of which i think are as good as each other. But a cold open is better for the more action full film, like Dramas, Thrillers, Horrors and Action/Adventure as these allow to get straight into the action and add cliffhanger between the cold open and title sequence. 'Softer' films, like Romance and comedy, would suit having a title sequence over a cold open as the majority of the film is from the narrative, opposed to mise-en-scene, so it suits the style of the film better to begin with the title sequence and then have the narrative uninterrupted. The films opening also typically showing normality of the film, as films often participate in Todorov's theory of Equilibrium, Disruption and Restoration. This Equilibrium would be slightly interupted if there was a a flashback involving some of the distruption, yet leads the audience into what to expect next.
Propp's character types would also be shown, as they would throughout the film. Mostly, films would begin with the main character, to establish that they are the main character. But some other films may break this convention and start with obsure characters, like in Pulp Fiction (1994, dir. Quentin Tarantino).
Nadine and I came up with some rough ideas regarding our film opening Production. We think we might do an opening scene in the genre of Thriller/Horror/Action/Adventure/Disaster, something where we can include the enigma code well, because we think these are better film opening sequences.
Idea 1-
Shot 1- black screen/ distributors logo,
Shot 2- mid shot of feet running in a urban setting
Shot 3- black screen, 'A film by....'
Shot 4- mid shot of person running round a corner of a building and hiding
Shot 5- CU of person's face, showing the emotion, which would be scared, worried, anxious
Shot 6- Mid shot of person running
Shot 7- CU of person looking back, behind them
Shot 8- LS of person running around a corner, hiding, looking around
Shot 9- LS of safe-looking house
Shot 10- CU of person's face, seeing house, showing relief
Shot 11- LS of person jogging towards house
Shot 12- mid shot of person opening door and entering house
Storyboard for Idea 1
From shot 6 onwards, studio credits would be onscreen one at a time, but not entirely distracting from the action and there would be fast paced non-diegetic, dramatic music playing from shot 4 onwards; shot 1 would be silent, shot 2 would have panting and possibly music played, shot 3, would possibly be silent again, and then music comes in at shot 4 and play until the end or shot 8, where you could play slower less tense music.
Idea 2-
Shot 1- black screen/distributors logo
Shot 2- eye level shot of grass, slowly panning across/cutting to different angles of the grass
Shot 3- pans onto/cuts to mid shot of feet, standing still in the field
Shot 4- pans up from the feet to reveal a person standing completely still, gets up to person's face to show slight scared, but mainly blank, no emotion
Shot 5- LS of person standing ridged with fear, slow zoom out to XLS of the person and field.
Storyboard for Idea 2
Shot 6- XLS of person and field, silent, tense
Shot 7- loud noise- bang/crash out of shot, CU of person's face showing very scared emotion
Shot 8- black screen with/without title of film
Studio credits would be onscreen throughout, one at a time. There would also be non-diegetic music building to a crescendo at shot 6 which would go silent just before the loud noise in shot 7.
Idea 3-
Shot 1- Black screen/distributors logo
Shot2- Person laying dead/severally injured on floor- audio: 'This is the story of how I died, but it wasn't my fault'
Shot 3- several angles surrounding the body on the floor
Shot 3- fade to black screen, pause, A [director] film
Shot 4- CU of same person, happy, with headphones, non-diegetic music playing
Shot 5- Mid shot of person walking, urban setting
Storyboard for Idea 3
After this shot, we are unsure on what to happen next besides just having the person continue walking, possibly to somewhere to become significant, or to just have them walk and turn it into a title sequence, but this is quite similar to the opening sequence of Juno (2007, dir. Jason Reitman). At the end of the sequence we thought we could have to person take out their headphones, and turn the music to diegetic.
Bits of these ideas would be hard to to do, for instance filming a person running, in idea 1, or making the music sound more diegetic in idea 3, or achieving the XLS through zoom, in idea 2. I will do more research into the genres we are considering before modifying the ideas.
Casino Royale (2006, dir. Martin Campbell) Opening Scene
Scott Pilgrim vs the World (2010, dir. Edgar Wright) Opening Scene
Another version of the enigma code would be having an cold open and then a title sequence, especially if at the end of the opening scene it is a cliffhanger, although I haven't found an example of this. Having the opening scene first introduces the plot and characters, to keep interest, and then leads into a credit sequence once your interest has been captured. Casino Royale (2006, dir. Martin Campbell) is a good example of this, (pictured left) as is Scott Pilgrim vs the World (2010, dir. Edgar Wright) (pictured right). Both these films are entirely different regarding narrative, director, genre, and target audience, yet their openings are done in very similar ways.
I have written about both of these in previous blog posts, and to see full opening sequences, click here for Scott Pilgrim and here for Casino Royale.
Scott Pilgrim tells us a lot about each character, and has a small information box next to each character as we first see them in the opening sequence, shown in the image right. We meet all the main characters except Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and we understand that music is big part of the film, as the cold open leads up to the band playing and the opening conversational scene revolves mainly around the band and Scott's new girlfriend, this opening scene is supposed to be typical of an everyday conversation between friends and band mates.
Casino Royale on the other hand tells us very little about any of the characters, except James Bond's obvious characteristics, besides Bond, we meet no-one with any real importance to the film, this is typical for a spy, action film like James Bond though, being action in the opening sequences, to grab the audience with the fights and seeing Bond outsmart the villains. the opening is to simply familiarize the audiences with the characteristics of Bond, as he outsmarts and kills two characters. Yet this is also, basically supposed to be the average day in James Bond's life, just like the Scott Pilgrim opening sequence. After both of these cold opens, the title sequence is again, done in the same way, but with different results.
On the left, below there is the gun barrel shot which links the cold open to the title sequence in Casino Royale, while on the right, is the same for Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Below them are the main character's name as it appears in the title sequence, you can see the very similar animated pattern with the name in the middle of the frame. These films have gone about their opening, in technical aspects, very similar ways, but the films, are entirely different.
Images from:
Scott Pilgrim vs The World: http://www.artofthetitle.com/?s=scott+pilgrim
Casino Royale: http://www.artofthetitle.com/?s=casino+royale
Another convention of opening sequences of films is the Enigma Code, this is when a film gives away some information, but leaves some to keep us watching to find out more, or the rest of the information. A common way of doing this is an the opening scene being a scene from the film, often chronologically reoccurring towards the end of the film. This hooks the audience to find out more about this scene, and the circumstances it unfolds under. This is a popular technique for opening sequences and some examples of this are, Fight Club (1999, dir. David Fincher), The Hangover (2009, dir. ToddPhillips) and Pulp Fiction (1995, dir. Quentin Tarantino). In Fight Club, when the scene plays again in its chronological place in the film, they add in a line of dialogue, saying Tyler Durden: I'm sorry...
Narrator: I still can't think of anything. Tyler Durden: Ah... flashback humor.
whilst in the opening scene the same dialogue is, Tyler Durden: I'm sorry... Narrator: I can't think of anything.
Pulp Fiction is particularly good use of the enigma code, because in the film, you don't see these character again until this scene reoccurs which is towards the end of the film, so for the entire film, the audience is compelled to keep watching to see whether these characters reappear and this opening scene comes into context.
Another variation of the Enigma Code would be not having any sort of introduction, but going straight into action or a fight, this is is called a cold open, because there is no introduction. This is because we don't know anything about the characters as all we've seen is their abilities. An example of this is The Matrix (1999, dir. Andy and Lana Wachoski) because we see Trinity is doing something important and she is physically able to kill, and is very agile, but we don't know anything else about her personality, which intrigues the audience and keep them watching. The opening of the film is linked here and the rest of the opening scene showing Trinity's ability is below.
This could be considered a rather long opening scene, but doesn't seem it, because you are interested to find out what Trinity is doing from the outset.The initial panning across allows us to realise what sort of environment we are in, and we can recognise almost immediately that there are policemen, by the hats, guns as this is all we can see of the in the fist few seconds.
The low key lighting in the beginning makes the scene seem secretive, as does the music, because the music is very quiet and only significant bits are music are heard at significant parts of the scene, like, the low horns when the door is kicked down and the slight crescendo when Trinity raises her hands to surrender. The PoV shot from the door as it's kicked down, makes the policemen look more intimidating. When we see Trinity for the first time, she is illuminated by the policeman's torchlight, but the rest of the room besides her immediate surroundings is completely black, adding more fear and secrecy of the environment to the audience. The slow upwards pan to reveal Trinity's face and the first PoV shot from the policemen build up the tension of revealing her identity also, this also makes her seem unapproachable by the audience.
The fact Trinity is female is slightly unstereotypical as woman are rarely seen in this sort of, major, physically able role, She is, though, wearing a fairly feminine costume, it's quite tight to reveal her figure, and shiny, leather looking. Rarely in a film would a leading male in an Action film wear a similar sort of costume.
All this adds to the enigma code as until the pan down the hotel sign, we are unaware where the scene is taking place. I would consider the point in which Trinity surrenders, the end of the opening sequence, because after that, it begins the narrative, and we find out the background surrounding the scene unfolding, by seeing the agents and policemen stationed outside. This is a unique way of opening a film, because it is hard to distinguish between where the opening sequence ends and the film's narrative begins. Typically, I think, some filmmakers would put a title sequence between trinity surrendering and the continuation the this scene.
I think the enigma code it an effective way of opening a film because it is a good way to "hook" the audience into carrying on watching. These variations of the enigma code are used very regularly, which shows that filmmakers also consider this an effective way of opening a film. It is a quick way of starting a film without being boring, and keeping the audiences interest until the narrative of the film can really start.
Most films participate in Todorov's theory of Equilibrium, Disruption and Restoration; film openings would be in the equlibrium section of this, as it is at the begining, although, flashback scenes from within the scene could be from the restoration or disruption section of the film, giving an insight into the rest of the film and how it gets to that point.
As well as the films mentioned in the previous blog post, I also looked at the opening sequences of:
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (2010, dir. Edgar Wright)
The Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud (2010, dir. Burr Steers)
Superbad (2007, dir. Greg Mottola)
Juno (2007, dir. Jason Reitman)
Lord of War (2005, dir. Andrew Niccol)
Spiderman 2 (2004, dir. Sam Raimi)
The Devil Wears Prada (2006, dir. David Frankel)
Casino Royale (2006, dir. Martin Campbell)
King Arthur (2004, dir. Antoine Fuqua)
Due Date (2010, dir. Todd Phillips)
Black Swan (2010, dir. Darren Aronofsky)
Back to The Future (1985, Robert Zemeckis)
All of these opening sequences reflect the genre or the plot of the film.
Scott Pilgrim Vs the World is slightly different to the other opening sequences I looked at, as it has an opening scene and then a title sequence.
This is an excerpt from an interview between artofthetitle.com and director Edgar Wright about the opening sequence to Scott Pilgrim vs the World (Interview date 3rd January 2011).
"Art of the Title: As the director, at what stage in the process does the decision to use a title sequence occur?
Edgar Wright: In this case, the bulk of the title sequence came late in the day. The film always opened with the studio credits and title of the movie always occurred over the long tracking shot in the living room with the band playing. That was one of the first scenes boarded and pre-vised. But originally all the credit cards were at the end over black. We originally ended on a completely different song too, "In The Long Run" by The Carrie Nations."
Having an opening scene and then a credit sequence is a slightly unusual technique, although it is used in other films. This techique is called a cold open, or teaser. Scott Pilgrim vs the World, in terms of genre is an odd film with mix of animation and real life as well as the video game sound effects and also hard to classify. The film opens with a simple scene of a conversation between a group of friends, and has a little information box pop up next to each character as we see them for the first time and the scene leads to their band playing the song where the title sequence begins. Below is the opening scene and title sequence of Scott Pilgrim vs the World.
(Video from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_BM4KxBJXY&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL8BDECD86FDC21E3E)
King Arthur is another slightly different opening in terms of codes and conventions, it is a flashback as well as a narrative opening, which is a hybrid of two of the types of openings, it is mainly a flashback, but it being shown in the perspective of and narrated by the main character Lancelot. This opening also uses panning of Landscape. Below is a video of the first 10 minutes of King Arthur, I have only focused on the first 4 minutes of this.
Casino Royale (2006, dir. Martin Campbell) is a particularly effective opening, it gives you both sides of Bond's character in the opening sequence, there's the action where he kills a man, but it also shows the smart side where he's one step ahead of his opponent and shoots him without thinking too much about it. Following this scene, there is also a credit sequence. Click here to see the opening scene of Casino Royale, and below is the video of the credit sequence.
Bibliography for this post:
Edgar Wright interview from
http://www.artofthetitle.com/2011/01/03/scott-pilgrim-vs-the-world/
updated 3rd January 2011
visited 9th November 2011
The main task is a film opening sequence, so I have done some research looking at the main types of film opening sequences.
The objective of an opening sequence in a film is to introduce the characters or plot. The main four ways in which this is done is through
Flashback,
Panning of Landscape,
Narration,
Chase/Fight scene.
The last one is typical in the action and adventure genre as this goes straight into the action which normally is what the main character would be doing for the majority of the rest of the film, an example of this would be Blitz (2011, dir. Elliot Lester), where we are immediately introduced to Statham's character and this aspect of his personality.
The crashes and dog barking show we hear in the first few seconds of the clip show that the area in which this scene is set, isn't a particularly good area.
the high angle shot looking down onto the criminals from Statham's character PoV may be interpreted that he considers himself higher up in society than the criminals.
The handheld camera emphasises the action and fighting ability by moving as Statham strikes, like when Statham hits the first criminal for the second time, the camera quickly looks down then back at Statham, this could also be imitating the other criminals PoV. This also happens with the other two criminals as they are hit. The LS at 1:42 emphasises Statham's fighting ability more, as all three criminals are on the floor, yet he is standing. Also, with the same effect, Stathams stature throughout the scene, how he defeats the criminals with such apparent ease.
Flashback can be when either the narrative goes back in time for just the opening scene or, the opening scene starts in the future and goes back in time for the rest of the film. An example would be Saving Private Ryan (1998, dir. Steven Spielberg), where it starts as a war veterinarian visits a war cemetery in the opening scene, but the rest of the film takes place in 1944.
The mise-en-scene in this opening allows us to see it's 'flashing forward' to the present day. The veteran's family has a modern camera, and the clothes that are worn in this sequence are typical of modern day, rather than 1944, where the rest of the film is set. Also, a gentleman visiting a military cemetery, and getting particularly emotional about it, as he does, we assume he fought, or was alive during one of the World Wars, and his age also supports this assumption the audience gets.
An example of narration is Hot Fuzz (2007, dir. Edgar Wright), where Simon Pegg narrates his characters previous achievements prior to the film. Narration is a good way of quickly introducing characters and the situation in which the story starts, In Hot Fuzz, Simon Pegg narrates for a little over a minute and we have a overview of his character Nicholas Angel's personality and his job. To watch the opening of Hot Fuzz, click here.
Panning of landscape is just an Establishing shot of the film, so this would usually happen if the film is set in the same setting for most of the film, Examples would be westerns, or period dramas because they stay in the same setting for the film and the setting is an important part of the film, the only way to show where these settings are are to do an Establishing shot, showing the mise-en-scene. One exception to this is the film Beetlejuice (1988, dir. Tim Burton), where the opening is high angle helicopter over typical suburban America, whilst the opening credit are shown, but after two minutes of this, it is revealed to be and miniature model village. This is an exception because although Beetlejuice is set predominately in the house, the panning ES that is shown in the opening sequence, is different to that of which the film is set. To view the Beetlejuice opening sequence on YouTube.com click here
The opening sequence of a film also reflects the genre of which the film is, even if that genre is portrayed through different mise-en-scene. So if it's a comedy film, there will often be some funny things in the opening sequence, or if it's action, there would probably be a fight or similar action. These things are not necessarily related to the upcoming plot.
The animated film Coraline (2009, dir. Henry Selick), reflects the genre of the film, the opening shot is similar to theatre curtains with the credits stitched onto them it then goes to a sequence of a doll flying as if summoned through an open window where it is un-stitched and made up again with a different persona. This is done eerily as the things un-stitching the doll are metal hands, with long spindly fingers. Most of this sequence is done in close ups so we can't see much about the environment this takes place in, except its dusty and looks similar to a tailors or seamstress workshop with the appropriate mise en scene. All this links to the film as the film has an eerily, slightly magical theme to it, which is reflected in the opening sequence by the way the doll is flying as if possessed and the mysterious metal hands being alive and working. Click here to watch
Bibliography for this post:
http://www.slideshare.net/elfhero/film-opening-codes-and-conventions
updated March 2011
visited 1st November 2011
The video preliminary exercise was a continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom they then exchange a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot-reverse-shot and the 180 degree rule.
This is our Preliminary video:
The things I think are good about our video is that we use shot-reverse-shot, match on action and the 180-degree rule. We followed the brief well, and kept the narrative simple so we could focus mainly on the technical aspects, like mise-en-scene, camera shots, editing and sound. The mise-en-scene was reasonably easy to do because the scene was set in a house and we filmed in a house and we characters were wearing normal everyday clothes, but the lighting was one thing we dismissed prior to filming, and the room we were filming in, wasn't particularly well lit, as you can see in the conversation scene, as Nadine is slightly silhouetted by the window behind her, to improve this, we could have moved the table so both characters were perpendicular to the light, rather than parallel to it. We could also use video flashguns to light the scene, these give off white light, rather than the yellow light from most everyday lamps, so wouldn't alter the colour of the scene. Also, we could of used low-key lighting as the atmosphere of the scene is mysterious and low-key lighting is associated with this atmosphere. These are the main improvement I have from my preliminary video, that I will consider for the main video.
