Sophia's Media Blog: 2013

Sunday, 17 November 2013

Analysing Film Openings

Sweeney Todd

The film opening of Sweeney Todd begins with the music sound like an organ playing high pitched notes. The music starts off quiet and fast paced as the camera pans across to the barbers. More instruments are added which shows the audience are coming to a mysterious place. A high pitch sound is added to the music, as blood comes streaming down a frame. When the music gradually fades to silence for a few seconds, the volume builds up again, but this time at a low sound. It sounds very creepy and mysterious. The music is accompanied with the sounds of blood dripping and machinery being turned, which makes it effective. When the title is arranged onto the screen, the music is very loud and powerful.

The title is written in red letters, which can symbolise blood and murder from a gruesome man named 'Sweeney Todd'. The white writing is all in capital letters signifies the boldness and can perhaps represent ghosts and ghouls. The dark lighting and running blood are icons of horror. The running paint of the profile shots shows how the room is abandoned and this creates an eerie sense adding to the feel of horror.The use of sudden movement of closing doors, shocks the audience and creates tension of being scared and 'edge of seat' whilst watching.

Se7en

The opening sequence for Se7en is very well thought out and pictured. The whole sequence is a montage of clips and pictures from what i can gather is about a murderer, or it could also be about detectives.The constant beat throughout the opening, builds tension as it makes the audience feel unsettled. The tempo increases throughout the video; adding to the tense mood created. The entire sound clip is also built on a crescendo which sends out a warning to the audience that something is about to happen. The credits appear occasionally in time with the beats and occasionally at irregular intervals; this makes the audience feel uneasy.

From the opening, you know something unusual is unfolding in front of you. The credits are shot with flashing images, going in out of focus or fading away. The black and white images, with the dark background can symbolise death, horror, anything horrible that can be thought of. This film is a crime thriller. The conventions of this film are: policemen as protagonists, a murderer as a villain, gory, complicated murders and lots of mysteries to solve; than unravel a mystery in the end.

I thought the camera work was really effective in keeping the vital points of the film a mystery- making. The audience are more likely to want to know more. I also thought that it helped convey the genre of thriller as thrillers are usually quite mysterious and interesting to what will happen next. The extreme close ups focus on facial expressions or when someone is reading something important. This can help the identity of certain characters to not to be given away, so that the audience becomes intrigued as to who it is and instantly wants to watch on.

The Silence of the Lambs

During the opening, there is an establishing shot of the lake through the trees, with a spooky mist lingering around it. The camera then slowly moves into a tracking shot, and follows a young woman running along what appears to be a footpath through the woods. At first, it appears that she is running away from someone/something, but as the camera shot continues to follow her, it sweeps around and shows her jumping over an obstacle. This then indicates that she is doing an assault course. As the music builds, and gains in speed, the woman appears to be running faster, jumping more and more obstacles, and breathing heavier. The music fades, when the woman stops to talk to the man, at the start, so we are able to hear the dialogue clearly. There is a use of diegetic-sound as as: heavy breathing, gun shots, running through leaves, bird songs and helicopters.

The titles in the opening sequence are big, bold, and white text. The letters are slightly jagged in shape, which makes it look normal, but also shows that there is a twist as well. This could represent that the film may have a twist in it, pieces to a puzzle. The letters look slightly distorted, and fade on/off the screen according to the music.

Sunday, 10 November 2013

De-constructing Title Sequences

Thursday, 17 October 2013

Analysing Title Sequences

Selected thriller films from: http://www.artofthetitle.com

Psycho (1960)

Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho' (1960) is a film who's title sequence was designed by Saul Bass, and is very well known, especially the tense music. The title sequence, features black and grey lines moving across the screen to reveal the credits. Although the concept seems simple, it features a new style of kinetic typography ( moving text), invented by Bass himself. To me, the grey and black lines symbolise a "prisoner uniform", immediately suggesting the film revolves around a crime or criminal.

The font used is very simple, perhaps due to the lack of technology at the time, although it does look effective to the viewers.The music from the title sequence itself reappears three times in the film, and from the start creates a feeling of tension, as if anything could happen at any moment. It sounds as as a chase, as the music is short and snappy.

Casino Royale (2006)

In the first scene, it shows Bond aiming directly at the camera, shooting towards the audience, which gives us the sense he is the protagonist. Then immediately you see blood streaming down, which could possible be of an enemy and it gives us a sense that this is an action/thriller film, filled with suspense. Cards and casino wheels are used throughout the title sequence, suggesting that is the setting or theme of the whole film; referring to the title of the film - experiencing in gambling.

As the credits roll on, the main background is the elements of playing cards: diamonds, hearts, clubs and spades - which shows that gambling seems to be an important feature for the entire film, for it to be so effective and clear in the opening.When James Bond i shooting from the gun, a bullet doesn't come out, but a heart shaped arrow, which again links with the cards.

Nearer to the end of the title sequence, two bullets are shot through a playing card, making it the shape of two 00s, which is then transformed into the zeros from 007. This is cleverly done, because we now know for sure that he is the hero in the film and his job is to capture the villains. The images of Bond, flips through him being in human form, to a dark figure, which could symbolise his mysterious side of his character. Only right to the last few seconds, there is a extreme close up on James Bond's face and you can tell just by looking in his eyes, the power he has, right until it blocks out his body and ends.

Mission Impossible (1996)

The title sequence starts with the spark of a match lighting up, which then lightly explodes, showing that the turn of events 'explode' dramatically. It is accompanied by the famous theme tune, that is clear to hear that it is an action film. Sounds as if someone is chasing someone else, very quick and sharp beats. A few credits are shown, which are blurry, which could symbolise, that everything that happens in the film is dangerous and a blurred vision. It is in bold font and stands out, to show its importance that reflects on the film. Then there are flashy images and scenes that appear in the film, just one second each which shows briefly what happens. It is shown quickly, to create suspense and excitement to the audience of what they can expect.

The protagonist, Tom Cruise, has the credit of his name, followed by snappy images and scenes he is involved in, to show that he is the possible hero in this unsolved crime. The close ups and mid shots of several characters shown, demonstrates their facial expressions and body language in how they react, along with the music. The burning match is faded in the background, which could possibly mean that it is running out of time to catch the villains, because when the light burns out, it can either explode or burn out completely.

The Game (1997)

After a few seconds of a screen of darkness, puzzle pieces start to break apart, which I think could mean that someone is trying to look back in his life and fit the jigsaw pieces together and see what the outcome is. The scary music sounds like wind, very ghostlike and eerie. It is followed by the title of the film in the middle of the screen, in bold font. I think that "The Game" could mean that someone's life maybe have been unreal, that it wasn't the reality of his life, just a 'game' he was playing, that has been broken apart.

The music is suddenly transformed in a calmer, high pitched tone, a piano; yet still suspicious of why it is playing; whilst it is showing old videos of a young boy with his family and friends. Possibly thoughts, or deep flashbacks that once occurred. It all seemed peaceful and happy. It did seem a little fake, as if these people were just posing at the camera, that they had no role but just to stand there and act out a scene. A young boy seems to stand with his father at the beginning of all the small clips, then at the end, the father leaves the boy and turns around to walk into pitch darkness and then disappears.

The last video, is of a blurry video of a young boy smiling, which suddenly then turns to a man washing his face, in the present. It looked like as he was imaging all these videos, of his childhood or someone else's he is close with. It seemed to be in shock and disturbed, as we catch an extreme close up of his face, looking depressed.