Analysis of Previous Student Film Opening

This task was to choose a previous student film opening and analyse it in terms of camera, editing, sound and mise en scene. I went to the Hall of Fame and chose the film opening called The List.

Analysis of: The List

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Sound, camera, editing and mise en scene are demonstrated in a variety of ways throughout the clip of The List. The opening starts off with a cooker being lit with the diegetic sound of the ticker to create an intense feel and to hold the audiences focus on the situation. Non diegetic sound of music starts to play, which consists of string chords which creates and eerie feel throughout. You then see someone start to cook and do things in the kitchen like chopping onions and pounding and cutting meat and you can hear the sound effects of these. Blood is also on the chopping boards and on the persons hand. Mise en scene is used throughout the clip as the area is full of props like utensils, food and objects like the cooker and kettle for example. 

Chopping onions

The cooker

Slicing meat

Pounding meat

This shot is a match cut of when the person was pounding the meat, it was edited to show a close up of the pounding which emphasises danger as it is a forceful action.

As you can see the the opening credits also appear whilst the audience watch the film.. This shows that it is a narrative opening.

Another match cut was made with the butter in the frying pan at a high camera angle.

You then see a close up of a wine glass with water in it, then 'blood' being poured in it, making a swirling motion of the blood in the glass. Bits start to drop into the glass as well which could be suggesting something. Slow motion is used when blood dropped into the glass, to show emphasis. 

A close up of the main character.

A cross cut takes places as she drinks the blood and then the victim is shown. She is dead with blood coming from her, showing that these two shots are linked. This goes back and forth a few times to show a build of tension.

The title appears.

An extreme close up is the last shot of the opening. The audience is left with a dramatic take on the characters intentions and attitude toward the situation, as the extreme close up shows facial expressions and emotion.

Structure of Film Openings

There are 3 main structures of a film opening:

• A narrative opening
• A discrete title sequence
• Stand alone titles

Narrative Opening: You Got Served

A narrative opening is where the first part of the film is seen with titles either superimposed or intercut. You Got Served is a great example of this, as it goes straight into the film and storyline. As it is a dance battle, this makes it more interesting and captures the audiences interest straight away.

As I am a dancer it was natural for me to choose a film that I know definitely captured my interest as well. *Dances*

The titles swoop in and out whilst the film continues to roll.

Discrete Title Sequence: Twilight - Breaking Dawn Part 2

A discrete title sequence is when the shots, images or scene stand apart from the film with titles. It may contain elements from the film that could be indicators to the plot or genre, but it is not part of this narrative. Breaking Dawn Part 2 demonstrates this with the use of scenery, flowers, weather etc.

Stand Alone Titles: Memoirs of  a Geisha

A stand alone title sequence is when the text is on its own and then leads directly onto the film. This is demonstrated in the opening  of Memoirs of a Geisha.

Stylized Editing: Sin City (2005)

A stylised opening is an opening that has special effects and is well edited to create a sophisticated look. Sin City uses a stylized editing to create a comic book/computer game look.

Research: Intertexuality

Intertexuality is a term used to describe the  transformation or borrowing of texts from another. The term can describe the visual referencing between films. Certain aspects of a film such as camera angles, editing, sound and mise en scene could be 'borrowed' and then can be noticed by the audience as they watch the film that has used this feature. It would be a popular scene or theme for it to be continuously  used by other films. Examples of how intertexuality is used is demonstrated as follows:

Scream (1996)

The film Scream is an original move where various aspects are used throughout different films as the years go on...

Specifically listen to the line "What's your favourite scary movie?"

Scary Movie (2000)

Scary Movie is a spoof of Scream. Sequels are continuously being made for Scary Movie to follow up the films of Scream and use some of the same jokes, dialogue and mise en scene, for example:

Now listen as the same line is used "What's your favourite scary movie?"

Scream is famous for the 'Scream Mask', the killer character in the white mask and black costume.This aspect of mise en scene has made a big impact in various movies and is a good example of intertexuality. It is even used in reality, for Halloween costumes and so forth.

This video shows more examples of intertexuality!

Intertexuality can influence our own thriller film as we could also 'borrow' a feature that is popular and well known that we could use. Which then the audience would recognise and be more familiar with.

Research: Student Film Opening Analysis

As part of our research, we had to analyse thriller openings which were created by previous students. I have chosen to analyse the opening ‘One Way 61363.’ The thriller starts with the first part of the film being shown, with the titles superimposed on the screen; this is known as a narrative opening structure.

This is the thriller opening 'One Way 61363:' 

 

A variety of camera, editing, sound & mise-en-scene techniques are used in the opening to give the audience a clue that the film is a thriller.

 The clip starts off with a close up shot of a phone, whilst there is a diegetic sound of the alarm ringing.  The angle and shot then switches to a man who is turning around to switch off the alarm, and as he is doing so non diegetic music is introduced. This music has a slow tempo, but is slowly building to a crescendo; this helps to create a tense atmosphere for the audience.

A high angle shot is used to show the audience that the main character is in power as he is on top/above the female; the use of tense music connotes that he has probably done something to the female sleeping next to him (who may be dead). This thriller opening is set in a slightly messy bedroom which connotes that the male has not yet sorted out his problems/mess.

An over the shoulder shot was used here to show that the man is looking at his reflection in the mirror. From this shot we can see that he looks nervous and therefore connotes that he may be contemplating about something which he has done. 

This clip used fade to transition between scenes, as well as a lot of cuts.

A match cut is used in this clip. This helps to show the audience what he had dropped and was picking up. It showed the man bending down to pick something up, and then cut to a closeup of the ticket which had dropped and showed him picking it up.

Different structures of film openings - Research

There are 3 main structures used within a film opening, these consist of:

1. A narrative opening
2. A discrete title sequence
3. Stand alone titles

narrative Opening
A narrative opening is when the first part of the film is seen with the titles either superimposed or intercut. Narrative Openings are mainly used to introduce the story whilst capturing the audiences attention but when its superimposed its not disturbing the film to much as the titles come above the film so you still see whats happening in the background. However when it is Intercut the titles cut to a seperate screen which mainly stands out more and after the titles have been seen it cuts back to the film opening. A great example of a film using a narrative opening is Panic Room:

Discrete title sequence
A discrete title sequence is when there are shots, images, scenes that stand apart from the film with titles. It may have some aspects from the film that will show the viewers suggestions about the plot or and genre of the film, it is not part of the narrative. Discrete title sequences are seperately edited sequences that stand apart from the film opening. They are stylised and heavy edited, and they support nearly all of the opening credits and film title. A great example of a film using a Discrete title sequence is Seven:

Stand alone titles
A stand alone title sequence is on its own and leads directly into the film. The titles are alone and not combined with the scenes. There is no indicator of the plot or genre and the titles lead directly into narrative.  A great example of a film using Stand alone titles is Donnie Darko here are screen shots of the opening title sequence: 

Intertextuality Research

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is the way in which texts refer to other media texts that producers assume audiences will recognise. Intertextuality is the shaping of texts'. It can include an authors borrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a readers referencing of on text in reading another.

The main use of Intertextuality used in films is arguably the shower scence from the film "psycho" many other films have borrowed the idea of a murder occuring in bathroom.

All the films below share some aspects of the shower scene from "Psycho" including the props used Mise en scene, the setting and also the sound. By the films using these aspects from "Psycho" Intertextuality is created.

PSYCHO:

WHAT LIES BENEATH:

FATAL ATTRACTION:  

When we create are opening thriller scene the use of intertextuality is going to be very important when creating it because it will give us ideas of what to do and how to do it and this will help save time and not overthinking as we will borrow aspects from other film scenes instead of coming up with a brand new idea.

Research: Structures of a film opening

Research: Intertextuality

Intertextuality is the way in which similar or related piece of work influence, reflect or differ from each other. This is done by using references and similar technical areas (camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene) from other texts to relate them together. Intertextuality is common in the media industry; an example of this would be the way the film ‘What Lies Beneath’ has borrowed aspects from the film ‘Psycho.’ They both had a similar shower scene - it involved the use of the shower curtain and a view from the shower head and the sound of water. Although ‘Psycho’ is filmed in black and white, we can tell that the lighting used I in ‘What Lies Beneath’ is similar. The film ‘Friday 13^th’ also shared the shower scene and similar music with ‘Psycho’

Psycho

Friday 13th

What Lies Beneath