Friday, 4 November 2016

AS G321: Film Opening Analysis

On Fridays lesson with Mrs Mallet, our class were looking into Drama film openings to begin understanding what makes a successful opening. Sophie and I are focussing on the Horror genre however, each are some what similar therefore, will be incorporating certain aspects from what we noted down in class.

What to look for:

  • Shot sizes
  • Shot angles
  • Shot durations
  • Transitions & Overall place
  • Sound effects
  • Use of music 
  • Title fonts and colours
  • Colour palette & lighting
  • Setting
  • Types of characters & their contexts
  • Storyline/plot development 
  • Overall tone/mood/atmosphere
The Judge
- Guitar - Fades in & out
- Transition - Slow fade in & out 
- Depth of Field - flowers 
- Title - Serif (More Traditional)
- Change in music - Quicker Pace
- Extreme long shot of City
- Dialogue in office toilet
- Colour tone - Blues, Whites, Greys / Corresponds with the colour of their suits
- Cool palette
- High Key Lighting

Forrest Gump
- Soft, soothing music - Piano
- Feather softly floats around the city (It floats smoothly with the music)
- Shot: Begins at the top of the building, ends at street level
- Has a slow pace 
- When the shot gets closer to the ground - more ambient sounds (cars, wind etc.)
- Natural lighting 
- Setting - Large town 
- Character (Tom Hanks) waiting at a bus stop 
- Happy and gentle mood

The Time Travellers Wife
- Violin over production title 
- On going melodic voice (Mother singing in the car)
- Setting: Christmas - Winter 
- Night time - Low lighting 
- Quick transition - Fast pace
- Small shot sizes - Eye Level 
- Tense, threatening & worrying

The Descendants
- Hawaiian Music - Ukulele
- Hawaiian flower background, mix of warm & cool colours 
- Changes to sad, melodic music when the hospital is shown
- Narration - voice over 



From this, I gathered that the most intriguing film opening was 'The Time Travellers wife' as it was very intense and creates a dramatic atmosphere for the audience. This is similar to the horror genre we will be working towards due to the use of low lighting and sharp sound effects. 

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