Initial Research..

To begin.. I will research five film openings to get inspiration for our film opening. To do this i will watch the first two minutes of each film as this is how long our opening should be and annotate which shots they use, what music/sound they are using and the mis-en-scene in each film.



State Of Play

This 2009 thriller is directed by Kevin Macdonanld. The film is about a rising congressman and an investigative journalist that are perplexed in a case of seemingly unrelated murders. The congressman Stephan Collins, played by Ben Affleck, is they rising star of his political party. This was until his research assistant, also mistress, was brutally murdered. Her murder leads to a lot of buried secrets to come tumbling out. Investigative journalist, Cal McCaffrey, played by Oscar winning Russell Crowe, is tied between his old friendship with Stephan and his ruthless editor who assigns him to the story and demands answers.

The opening of the film begins at a slow pace with the camera just edging in on the action switching from an establishing shot to a long shot, the viewer immediately notices that it is set in the night time. This may create the connotation that something bad will happen as it is dark and mysterious. The setting, of an urban city, is established immediately through the sound of helicopters in the background and the use of the long shot to show the traffic in the city. The pace immediately changes as a man runs into an old couple in the street. He then falls into the road, the camera then follows this action using a panning tilt angling down towards the man. From then on a series of jolty shots are used as the man runs and falls trying to get away from 'something'. The shots are taken from behind the man creating the connotation that someone is following him. As he runs through the back alleys the director wanted to give the impression that something is about to happen so he chose to darken the lighting as he falls from a wall there is barley any lighting used at all. After he falls from the wall he then hides behind some oil barrels, close up shots are used to give the impression someone can see him. However, you can only partially see his face through the barrels and shadows showing that this 'person' cannot see him properly. The shots then gradually get further away from him ending with a medium shot of him crawling out from the barrels. Suddenly the man is shot dead, the sound of the gunshot is loud and prominent giving the impression that that specific moment is significant in the film. A panning tilt up towards the shooter is then used to establish who he is, however the lighting is suspicious as the background is lit subtly so the viewer is unable to see shooter in detail. This creates a mysterious element to the opening making the viewer watch the rest of the film in order to see what happens next. Throughout this film opening no dialogue is used this creates a confusing edge to the film opening as the viewer has no idea who that man is, what he is running from and why he has been shot.

I think that this film opening is very effective and that we could incorporate many aspects of this film opening in ours. I particularly like the jolty shots that are used to give the impression that someone is following this man. The gun shot is also very effective however using this in our film opening would be a disaster as we don't have the budget to create that sort of scene. I also like the variety of shots they have used it makes a very good film opening.



21, When you change the rules, you change the game.



This 2008 movie is based on the true story of MIT students who mastered the are of counting cards and took Vegas casinos for millions. The star of the film Ben Campbell, played by Jim Sturgess, is looking for a way to pay for his tuition for university and finds himself to be recruited by MIT's most gifted students in a daring plot to break Vegas. With the help of their brilliant statistics professor, played by Kevin Spacey, and in the possession with fakes IDs, intelligence and a complicated system of counting cards, Ben and his friends succeed in taking the Vegas casinos for millions.

This opening of the film is simple but effective. It consists of a number of close up shots of cards, poker chips and the poker table. Over this is a monologue of Ben talking about the phrase "winner, winner, chicken dinner" and where it came from. He then goes on to talk about his success with counting cards, he even says "I couldn't lose". Ben then states that not just anyone can count cards you have to be gifted and that he "has a gifted mind". The use of this monologue gets the viewer in the correct frame of mind for the rest of the film and enables them to begin to understand the situation that Ben is in.

I think that this film opening is effective as it is appropriate for the film. However, most of the filming used in this opening would be impossible for us to create as we wouldn't have the equipment to do so. On the other hand I think the monologue used is a great aspect that we could maybe include in our film opening as it is very useful to get the viewer to understand the situations that the character may be in.



American History X



This 1998 thriller was directed by Tony Kaye and written by David McKenna. The film unfolds through the eyes of Danny, played by Edward Furlong, whose older brother Dereck, played by Edward Norton, is seeking revenge for their fathers murder. Full of anger, Derek becomes the leader of a local white power movement. His hateful actions towards black people result in a brutal murder and lead to his imprisonment for three years. On the outside his mother Doris, played by Beverly D'Angelo, his girlfriend Stacey, played by Fairuza Balk, and his brother Danny await his release. However, little did they know that Derek is a changed man. Out of prison and ashamed of his actions in the past, he now needs to save his brother and his family from the violence he has brought to them.

The opening of this film is terrible. Despite the overall film being amazing with a heart-warming end, the opening does it no justice. It begins with a black and white shot of a beach which the credits are over. The use of large bold text makes it seem that the credits are more important than whats about to happen in the film.

I think that this film opening is not inspirational as it only uses one shot of a beach for the first two minutes of the film. I think that viewers would get bored immediately and wouldn't want to know whats about to happen.



Raging Bull



This award winning film from 1980 was directed by Martin Scorsese. It was based on the book written by Jake LeMotta and tells the story of an emotionally self-destructive boxer's journey through life, as the violence and temper that leads him to the top in the ring, destroys his life outside it. It tells the story of how when he steps into the boxing ring her obliterates his opponents and is a winner. However when he treats his family and friends in the same way, he definitely isn't the winner as he winds up in the ring alone.

The opening of this film is very similar to American History X as it is bland and has nothing going on. They have used a single black and white long shot of Jake in the ring punching the air. Almost psyching himself up ready for the film. This also has the credits over powering the shot behind it also making them look more important that the character behind them.

I think that this film opening is terrible as it wouldn't make a viewer want to watch the rest of the film. The only thing we may incorporate from this is to put the credit in shot of the opening however we will use small less overpowering text to make sure the viewer isn't distracted by the credits.



The Bank Job

This 2008 film was directed by Roger Donaldson and was inspired by an extraordinary true event, a daring bank robbery, that took place in the 70's. The film reveals an amazing back story where for once the criminals were the most innocents ones involved. The story begins when Martine offers Terry a lead on a foolproof bank hit on London's Baker street. She targeted a room that the security would be down that was full of safety deposit boxes worth millions in cash and jewelry. However, Terry and his crew do not realise the boxes also contain a treasure trove of dirty secrets in the form of photographs. Little did they know that these photographs will lead them to a deadly web of corruption.

This film opening has a lot going on for the first two minutes, however I think this works well as it is interesting to watch. It begins with a sexually orientated scene, with the very apt song by T-Rex, Get It On, playing in the background. The scene begins in the sea and lots of medium shots and close ups are used both under and above the water to convey the sexual tension of the characters involved. It then switches to them being in an assumed to be hotel room having sexual intercourse, however there is a twist to this as someone is taking photographs of them. Long shots are then used to show the man taking pictures and lots of camera sounds are added to establish that he is taking many photos of them. One reverse shot is used with the man in the foreground and the others in the background but slightly blurred suggesting that the man taking photographs is more important than what is going on in front of him. The title is then shown in order to split this sexual scene and the next scene. This then introduces the main character of the film, Terry. This scene begins with a close up of a car that tilts up to Terry and then switches to a long shot of him outside his garage. From using this tilt from the car up to him it shows his interest in the cars and how his business is important to him. The scene carries on with a conversation between him and his employee where a series of effective over the shoulder shots are used. Little dialogue is used in this film opening up until this scene where Terry has a conversation with his employee about what he is wearing to his wedding.

I think this film opening is good at interesting the viewer however there is a bit too much going on for my liking. There are various successful aspects to this opening such as the blurring effect at the beginning and the choice of song for the first scene was very good. I think we could incorporate a blurred effect in our film as I think it effective if used correctly. I also like their song choice so we will have to think very carefully about the song we are using.