My Probable Genre is...

My probable genre is a slasher horror movie opening. This is because I think it is interesting and also quite simple to follow the 'rules' of the genre, such as scream queen dying etc. Films such as Evil Dead (Raimi, 1981), the Saw franchise (Wan, first film 2004) and Sinister (Derrickson, 2012) have influenced my decision on this as they are all horror films I have seen and I would like to make a film opening because of this.

SDB: Film Opening EG 4: Four Lions

Four Lions

Christopher Morris, 2010

• Film4;Warp Films;Wild Bunch;Optimum Releasing (prod.)
• Budget;       US Box Office; $41,512 
• 
  
• RottenTomatoes.com 82%; IMDB 7.2 ; Roger Ebert 3*.

SYNOPSIS:

4 young men from Bradford filming plan of terrorism.

IDENTS/TITLES:

2 idents used 

1 of 2 idents used

MISE-EN-SCENE:
grim, dark , bad camera quality in opening shot, gives a video diary entry effect. Dirty room, characters sat on the floor, poor surroundings. 

REPRESENTATIONS:
Clothing; big coats, hat, army style clothing, main character introduced holding a gun. Possible army/ theme. Middle-aged men also related to army theme. Social class; possible quite low-working

NARRATIVE, GENRE, EXPOSITION:
Dialogue and narrative in opening scene, cockney accent, swearing- comical. Switching from bad quality camera to film camera.

SBD: Film Opening EG 3: The Matrix

the official poster

The Matrix

Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski, 1999

• Warner Bros.;Village Roadshow Pictures;Groucho II Film Partnership;Silver Pictures (prod.)

Budget: $630m; UK Box Office:$646,184

RottenTomatoes.com; 87% ; IMDB 8.7 ; Roger Ebert 3*

SUMMARY/IDEAS I MIGHT USE:
Edited idents to go with the genre of my film opening. E.g colour effect change on original idents, change of font and overall style of text. A reocurring theme to enhance the genre/style of the film, e.g certain colours used throughout, font style or soundtrack.

SYNOPSIS:
Sci-fi film with modern technology computer hacking.
Trinity is conducting a transaction in opening scene, there is a police raid which search the building and find her.

IDENTS/TITLES:

Edited Idents, Green and black theme

Two idents are used, both of which have been edited with a green colour over them/a green and black theme which goes with the sci-fi genre of the film. This then coinsides with the following titles/opening scene of green codes being typed out on a computer as someone hacking the system. This is effective and a simple way of getting across to the audience of the genre of the film before the titles have even begun. Also this theme can easily be put into the film throughout in a number of ways, eg. writing, colour of clothing.

Green and black codes on title screen

 

 MISE-EN-SCENE:

  After the idents in the titles/first opening scene it shows green and black computer coding being typed on a screen and this is repeated for about 25 seconds with computer and machine noises in the background. Straight away this gives away the sci-fi theme of the film and may possibly be used again throughout the film for added reinforcement of this re-ocurring theme of computer hacking.  The next scene is a grim, dark mise-en-scene with a few characters and police authority being introduced. It is a very Dark setting, using the police flashlights to show key events and actions going on around a deralict building. The lights are then shone onto a mysterious, female character alone in room, which gives us the impression she is the main character and is clearly the reason behind this police raid.

Deralict building, grim mise-en-scene

police light on female character being introduced

REPRESENTATIONS:

Clothing; Suits and ties, All black clothing, Tight leather, long coats, dark sunglasses, police uniform;- all these types of clothing may represent authority,mystery and give a sinister look.  
Age; Middle-aged men and women, this could represent some sort of action involved throughout with young, fit characters. 
Gender; The few main characters seem to be male-(the two main men in black suits and sunglasses), however the action seems to revolve around a main female character who is hacking some sort of computer system. The main attention of the opening scene is around introducing her and what it is she has done to cause this disturbance.

Female character introduced,
leather clothing

male character's clothing, black, dark

clothing, characters of authority

SOUNDTRACK:

Audio bridge: Non-diegetic computer sounds, typing, into diegetic dialogue of police, with non-diegetic music over the top. Slow, drawn out sounds followed by sharp dramatic percussions. Dramatic, on edge, creates tension and theme of action.

Opening EG3: Napoleon Dynamite

TBC

Napoleon Dynamite 
Jared Hess, 2004
Fox Searchlight Pictures, Paramount Pictures, MTV Films (prod.)

Budget: $400K; US box office: $44M

Opening duration: 5:20
Rottentomatoes.com 71%; IMDB 6.8.


Summary/Ideas I Might Use


Synopsis


Idents/Titles

All titles in order:
Fox Searchlight Pictures
and Paramount Pictures Present
in association with MTV Films
starring Jon Heder
as Napoleon Dynamite
Jon Gries
Aaron Ruell
Efren Ramirez
Tina Majorino
with Diedrich Bader
casting by Gary Weitz
music by John Swihart
edited by Jeremy Coon
Production Cory Lorenzen Designer
director of photography Munn Powell
executive producer Gary Weitz
Produced by Jeremy Coon Chris Wyatt Sean Covel
written by Jared Hess and Jerusha Hess
directed by Jared Hess
total title and ident time: 3:30
Mise-en-scene


Representations


Narrative, Genre, and Exposition


Soundtrack

Opening EG2: Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Ferris Bueller's Day Off 
John Hughes, 1986
Paramount Pictures (prod.)

Budget: $6M; US box office: $70M

Opening duration: 3:07
Rottentomatoes.com 84%; IMDB 7.8.


Summary/Ideas I Might Use
Outfits that tell us something about the person e.g. the parents wear posh clothes tell us they have posh jobs.

Synopsis
Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a coming-of-age comedy film about a high-school senior who decides to skip school and spend the day in downtown Chicago.

Idents/Titles

Title screen

There is one ident with no audio bridge. In the main titles there is an audio bridge, diegetic sound of a radio reading out the weather. The titles are a neon blue colour on a black background. Blue is closely associated with males. It is connoting that the movie will not be a girly rom-com but a movie for boys (as well as girls). 
The mother's voice (saying 'Ferris?') cuts in as the movie title is shown on the screen. There is about half a minute until the next titles appear. The titles are shown unevenly, with short gaps between some and long gaps between others. This is to make the audience focus on one part of the movie that is important, for example the titles stop when Ferris's sister Jeanie is introduced. This shows she is an important character. The titles are all the way through the opening.

Mise-en-scene

Opening shot of Ferris's house

First shot is ELS of Ferris's house. It's a nice house with three cars parked outside, cleanly cut lawn, and a hanging basket outside the door. These are all signifiers of (upper) middle class. 
The second shot is of Ferris himself, in bed, looking shocked. This is the first shot of any character, showing that he is the main character.

Mum and dad in 'posh' clothes

The dad is in a suit and the mum has fancy jewelry on, indicating they have important jobs and are well paid for said jobs.
There is a shot of Ferris's room as his dad feels his hands for clamminess. It looks like a typical boys room: posters, tv, phone, clothes sticking out of the drawers. All of these are signifiers that this is a teenage boys room (although there is a strange absence of clothes on the floor, which could show he is a 'goody two-shoes' sort of boy). 

First shot of Jeanie

When we are introduced to Jeanie, the first things we see are her shoes and her nails. They are both fashionable and this shows that Jeanie is fashion conscious and typical teenage girl. It also shows a binary opposition between her and her brother Ferris. His room is scruffy, whereas she is put together.
The last shot of the opening is Ferris sat up in bed, looking considerably less ill than a few moments ago, showing he was faking the illness and ready to get up and go.


Narrative, Genre, and Exposition
In the opening we are introduced to four characters: Ferris (the main character, protagonist), the parents, and Jeanie (one of the antagonists). The genre is showed through Ferris's obvious lying and parent's overly protectiveness. Also the angle of the camera when showing the parents looking down at Ferris connotes the genre because it is quite comical.
Soundtrack
At the start of the opening, all the sounds are diegetic: voices from the radio, mum speaking, dog barking, birds whistling. The music starts when the parents decide to let Ferris stay off of school for the day. The music is quite slow and sad, emphasising how Ferris appears to be feeling. When the parents leave, this music stops and instead there is loud bangs and crashes from the tv, telling us that Ferris isn't ill.

Opening EG1: Withnail & I

Movie poster

Withnail and I 
Bruce Robinson, 1987
HandMade Films (prod.)

Budget: £1.1M; US box office: $1.5M

Opening duration: 3:10
Rottentomatoes.com 93%; IMDB 7.6.

Summary/Ideas I Might Use
Mise-en-scene to show the characters personality if it's their house/room.

Synopsis
Withnail and I is a black comedy following two young unemployed actors who live in Camden Town in 1969 waiting for their careers to take off. Needing a holiday, they obtain the key to a cottage belonging to Withnail's flamboyant uncle Monty, but the holiday is less recuperative than they expected.

Idents/Titles

HandMade Films ident

There is 1 ident, HandMade Films, at the start. It has an audio bridge between the ident and the opening shot, non-diegetic music. 
The title of the movie appears straight away with the first shot. It is in the bottom right of the screen so you can see the person in the shot, the first main character, Marwood/"I".

Opening shot with title

The next title is 'A Paul Heller production', then the actors names. The titles all come up and then fade out in about five seconds, no titles get more time than the others. This creates a slow and rhythmic pattern, matching the music over the top of it. These titles all appear in the same first shot of Marwood.
The next titles come in in the next shot. These are the 'lesser' actors, and the names appear in pairs, alongside the crew members names too.
The titles last for almost all of the opening, finishing about 15 seconds before the end of the opening.

Mise-en-scene

MCU of Marwood smoking

The first shot is of Marwood sat in a chair smoking. There is a lamp switched on, the furniture is made of dark wood, and it is generally very dark and gloomy in the room, which usually connotes depression or foreboding. 
However there is another light source shining on Marwood's back, which looks like it could be coming from a window. He has his back turned to it and this could connote that Marwood does not see the 'light', the better part of the world, or maybe that he doesn't want to see it.
Marwood's scruffy hair, 5 o-clock shadow, and smoker status is showing that Marwood is working class.

Pots and pans in the sink

As the second shot pans across the flat, we see lots of empty bottles and general scruff about the place, including curtains that are falling down and a sink full of pots. This connotes that Marwood has given up and has no motivation (to clean or otherwise). 
He shoves the kettle under the tap, not even noticing the dirty pots and pans, showing that he is used to them being there. 

Open drawers

There are more empty bottles, which is giving the audience an idea of the age of Marwood (old enough to drink). He grabs a bottle which draws attention to the number of bottles around the flat. 
When he leaves the room, the camera stays for a few seconds showing the drawers that are open. 
The whole aesthetic of the flat is messy and uncared for.

Narrative, Genre, and Exposition
We see that the character's life isn't very fast moving or exciting. He moves slowly, indicating that he isn't in a rush to do anything in particular. We get a very (very) brief introduction to Withnail (he says no to the cup of tea offer from Marwood), showing he might be an important character in the film.
We get to see where these characters live, and what their relationship is (even if it is very briefly shown).

Having not seen this film before, I thought that it was the opening to a social-realist film. There are no signifiers or anchorage telling us that the film will be a comedy.

Soundtrack
There is non-diegetic music over the top of the scene. The song is a live version because there is clapping and cheering every so often in the background. It is a jazz song mainly with a saxophone and keyboard. There isn't any diegetic sound until Marwood asks Withnail if he wants a cup of tea.

Mise-en-scene film

We made a short film that focused on the mise-en-scene in the film. We were allowed up to 10 words and had to convey the message/narrative and genre of the film through the mise-en-scene only. Here is the final product:

SDB: Film Opening EG 2: Love Actually

Love Actually 
Richard Curtis, 2003
Universal Pictures ;StudioCanal ; Working Title Film; DNA Films  (prod.)

Budget: $9m; US box office: $40.5m

Opening duration: 2:30/4:41*
RottenTomatoes.com 81%; IMDB 6.6 ; Roger Ebert 4*.

SYNOPSIS:
A british rom-com starring Colin Firth, Hugh Grant etc. This ensemble film features a series of vignettes centred around Hugh Grant as prime minister.

IDENTS/TITLES:

3 Idents are used in this film.The titles are shown on the opening scene of people embracing at Heathrow airport. The titles are shown as one letter highlighted in red, followed by white lettering on the actors' names fading in after.This repeats as each of the actor's names are individually shown on screen -which normally portrays that these are the well known actors. This repeats throughout this scene with 8 actor's names which are then followed by a group of four actors' names on screen together at once, possibly showing the less well-known actors. Hugh Grant narrates as this then breaks down the film title which comes onto screen at the same pace as Hugh Grant's voiceover.

1 of 3 Idents used

Breaking down of film title with Hugh Grant's VO

representation of christmas in montange during titles

revealing  of London eye behind christmas tree, setting, comical

Alan Rickman

..followed by four Actors at once

Bill Nighy
Colin Firth
Emma Thompson
Hugh Grant
Laura Linney
Liam Neeson
Martine McCutcheon

MISE-EN-SCENE:

A bright, white, stereo-typical british mise-en-scene is introduced, starting with the opening scene at Heathrow airport, with mainly British, white, middle-aged characters embracing in a happy atmosphere. This mise-en-scene is then carried on in the following montage of christmas. There is a "5 days to christmas" countdown and then scenes of snow, christmas trees, winter clothing,decorations etc. The theme of christmas and love is straight away representated through the titles, opening scene and montage. To start the montage there is a comic reveal of the london eye from behind a man carrying a christmas tree, revealing the setting of London before then going onto the christmas scenes.

REPRESENTATIONS:
Clothing; Male main characters wear shirts, suits and ties, christmas jumpers giving a stereo-typical white, middle-class, British actor. The majority of the main female characters wear jumpers, long skirts are generally covered- up giving a conservative look, also going with this stereo-typical London, British look. There are also a few binary opposite female characters later on for comic effect.
Gender; The opening scene and film consists of mainly white male and female  hetrosexual relationships, children, families etc.
SOUNDTRACK:
There is an audio bridge from the 3rd ident to the first scene at Heathrow airport of non-diegetic music.
Denotation; the piece has long, drawn out notes, from some sort of synthesiser.
Conotation; this music is emotional and sad  in contrast with the visual in this scene of people embracing and happy reunions with loved ones. Ontop of the music there is a non-diegetic voice over from Hugh Grant, speaking slowly, giving a moving and perhaps slightly emotional speech about love. This may get the audience thinking and feeling happy about love themselves. 
Hugh Grant finishes speaking and it then jumps to the next scene and into the  diegetic sound of Bill Nighy singing his christmas song. There is some slight dialogue inbetween the singing of Bill swearing (comical character) and his manager talking talking to him, also shouting and swearing at him. This is then followed by a montage in which the non-diegeticmusic starts again and is played throughought the montage until it has finished with the titles.

NARRATIVE, GENRE, EXPOSITION:
Opening introuduced to main character Bill Nighy- swearing, bad christmas song, producer "solid gold shit" -comedy introduced. Themes of love, christmas and comedy recurring throughout within opening titles, scene, music, film title, representations etc.