Opening sequence analysis in 3(?) posts (Conclusion)

There are different typses of opening sequnces. It depends on the genre of the movie, on what the creators want to focus the audience attention on. Usually, they don't put very important information in the begging of a movie, because audience needs to get used to the action, immerse themselves in it, understand the kind of movie there are watching. It should be attractive to make people watch the movie attentively and carefully, at least make people watch it. It doesn't matter so much, probably, when people are in the cinema and have already payed for their tickets, but it's crucial for TV series or movie on TV.

Some of the opening sequences aren't made by directors of the movie itself, but by somebody else. Still, they usually match with the mood of the movie. "Se7en" is a good example.

Also the music plays an esseential part in opening sequence, it shows the atmosphere, sometimes gives us some clue about the following action.

Camera work is probably the main part of it as it focuses our attention on the things we need to pay attention to.

Editing is impotant as well as it indicates the rythm of the movie and gives the mood as well.

Finally, mise-en-scene is very important as well. But, probably, actors themselves are not that crucial, their names in credits - that's what matters in opening sequence.

And, by the way, if somebody make a good opening sequence you will then watch it on YouTube and put 'Likes' to it. That's what matters most of all!!!

Opening sequence analysis in 3 posts (The Shining)

Relatively, there are not so many people in the World who didn't hear a name of Stanley Kubrick as well as Jeff Nicholson's and Stephen King's. The opening sequence of "The Shining" concentrates on the credits that consist of 'very' huge, I would say enormous, names as the ones mentioned above. Credits are made in a rather unusual blue color, which breaks people's stereotypes from the very beginning and, of course, attracts attention. There is no so much action... there is no action at all, actually!! What would you say if you seen this...

 And then that...

And so on...

for 3 minutes!!!

No doubts, the views are breathtaking, but I bet you'll have been bored by the end of this time!!

Still the atmosphere seems quite tense and the music helps this. We see the journey of some anonimous car to some place almost in the middle of nowhere. Finally, it reaches its final destination (sounds very scary!) at the end of the opening titles. Anonimity also gets us into this atmosphere of suspicion.

In fact, the opening scene doesn't tell us anything about the movie and the plot, it keeps us guessing... or just giving a chance to feel comfortable in the armchair in front of the screen, prepare all necessary things such as popcorn or some drinks, some of them probably contain alcohol... Who knows. 

Anyway, it's more likely that you'll enjoy what is coming after that...

Opening sequence analysis in 3 posts (Sexy Beast)

At first, we see the sun in the middle of a shot without a single cloud in the sky which tells us from the very beginning what kind of a man is the main hero, who's V.O. appears several moments later and what he thinks of himself. He is a bastard who doens't take anybodu into consideration except for himself. During his monologue that distinctly shows the way he thinks it just becomes more clear. He is lying on a sunbed enjoying the sun, then he makes a great effort lift his body and sit. Then a small conversation with a boy... He looks more and more "bastardous" in our eyes and, moreover, his accent becomes clearer. Sometimes the action cuts to a woman driving a car, (probably, this is his wife) but these moments are very rare, everything is concentrated on him. 

This opening sequence is all about introducing a character. There are lots of small details hinting at the pecularities of his character, perhaps, at how he make his money (it seems like he is a gangster). Maybe, he has some enemies (this stone at the end of the scene doen't seem occasional). Those empty bottles of alcohol drinks in the picture above explicitly tells about his crushes. Also his house stands somewhere not far from the top of the mountain, which can mean his arrogance, on the one hand, but on the other - his will to be farer from civilization. And, of course, this philandering music... Oh, this music!!!

There were several 'big' names in opening credits which attract audience's attenrion as well. The aim of such an opening sequence is to intrigue the audience by a character and this "invisible" threat to him which is presented in a form of a huge stone, which almost killed him. But, there is a possibility that this death would be too simple for such a fellow. And who will kill the main character in the beginning of a movie??!

Opening sequence analysis in 3 posts (Dead Man's Shoes)

"Dead Man's Shoes" opening sequence captures audience attention and immerses into the action from the very beginning. The director combines two periods of time which mood is completely opposed to each other. We can see some moments of childhood of main heroes, supposing how much their family means to them, how much space it occupies in their minds. It depicts different aspects of their life in the past. Through the special effects  the director creates an impression that these little videos were filmed by a member of the family on an amateur camera. This footage arouses deep emotion in everyone which helps from the first moments start to emphasis to the main heroes. That probably prepares us for the further action (as we can say by the name of the movie, there will be some crime) and somehow explains the motives of the main hero. The other part of the opening sequence, in contrast, shows us the isolation and solitude of the two main characters. It shows how they are going somewhere, but actor's body language demonstrates that they have a certain direction. The music on the background also develops the depth of emotions.

We can build various assumptions in our mind trying to guess what is going to happen next, what is going on right now. This is a great adventage of this sequence. It doesn't give a chance to simply pass by, but it ctches the audience, simultaneously, not giving any exact information about the plot of the movie, but giving only a type of relationships of the main heroes between them.

And the colors are also very significant. During the family scenes it is usually sunny and in general colors are bright. On the other hand, during their long journey the weather is cloudy which helps to indicate a mood as well as the general situation where the main heroes find themselves.

Post-production (I kinda' try to describe it)

Our first collective creation with Carla, Brandon and Katie (working on the script we were given last week) is nearing the end, but didn't reach its final stage yet. This week we started to edit it and approximately a half of our movie is ready to be displayed, but of course, it won't be until the sequence is edited completely.
This Thursday there was much more flair in our work than a week ago, I assume. The reason for this is probably that this final part of movie production usually appeals to everybody most of all. The program where we worked is called "Final Cut Pro".













It's usually used on TV, because it's possible to cut everything very quickly. So the first thing of the editing process is to crate a "Rush Bin" where all your raw footage is retained. Next, you need to create a "Log Bin" where you put all the material that you want to see in your movie subsequently. If it is an actual film and there are many scenes there, you need to create the individual "Log Bin" for every scene in order to regularize the material. But, of course, for our sequence we needed only one "Log Bin".
So we alternately took videos and cut them to proper size, so that the action looked smooth and eloquent. We succeed,  I suppose. Hopefully, we will manage to edit our "peace of art" completely next week. I look so forward to watching it!!

Prelim shooting

                             































































Here is our first inelaborate screenplay that we were to bring to life. That didn't seem as something hard, probably it didn't turn out to be something hard, but still we got some problems. Basically, it was 180 degree rule. We were supposed to use all these shots that you see in these pictures, but we were also free to make some additional shots and with these additional shots some problems occured. But, apparantely, it doesn't matter so much, as we coped with everything and had much fun. I'm looking forward to editing our piecec of "art" as it promises to be hilarious.
Our main purpose was to give this piece of text some live. Our story was quite stupid, but perhaps, it'll turn out to be pretty amusing, who knows, even though I doubt, but we'll see. Hopefully, next week it will be possible to upload our video to YouTube. I'm so excited about it!!
As it was mentioned before, 90% of the entire process of shooting is communication. As it was our first time, we probably were too shy to tell each other what we think is needed to be done, but everything comes with experience. So I wish our next shooting day came as fast as possible!
Maybe, I should tell about shooting process in greater detail. So there were 4 of us in a crew. Two of us were actors, one director and one director of photography. I was an actor. I don't think it was an impressive performance, but anyway that was much fun. We needed to play this scene 8 or 10 times, and each of them should have been played in the same style, with the same movements, which was a kind of hard, but of course not something we couldn't cope with. And when the director said "Cut!" for the last time I felt a surge of happiness! Wish everybody filmed something, then there will be many more happy people in this World!

 

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