Film Openings - The Shining (Representation) // Research

Characters/Social Groups

No characters are shown in this film opening so costume, make up, accents cannot be commented on. A moving car is shown therefore it is likely for a main character to be driving it however as I said this character is not shown at all. As the character appears to be driving on a long, empty road in quite a scenic place you could assume this character is on holiday or is going somewhere for a purpose although these things may not be true.

Settings/Locations

The location shown appears to be a rural, empty, mountainous place with lots of trees (it could be somewhere like Canada), so it's stereotypically where a horror film may be set as those kind of locations can rely on things like mysterious events happening in the woods, etc. as they are so remote which makes the events seem more sinister as not so many people are around to help or save anyone.



A car driving along a dangerous road

The car driving throughout appears to be a Volkswagen Beetle which at the time wasn't a very expensive car. From this I can infer that the character driving it may be poor so is more likely to be driving somewhere for a purpose, possibly a job as he may need more money.

The road the car is driving along at times adds a dangerous feeling as the road has steep drops to the side at points and this adds uncertainty and worry for the audience as it would be easy to crash and fall.



A slightly camouflaged building

The opening scene ends with a long shot of a big house which is a very similar colour to the rest of the mountain. This makes it seem almost camouflaged which could emphasise the idea that if you live here you're very hard to find or send help to. Just from the size of this building you would assume it would be a hotel or some sort of public building.


Sound

The only sound heard throughout is a non diegetic, soundtrack which also acts as incidental music. The atmosphere created is very eerie and spine-chilling. It creates an air of uncertainty as unusual sounds are included that almost sound like someone screaming or animals making noises. The sound revolves around a theme that is heard and played a couple of times. This makes the audience more familiar with the music but also more scared as the melody is sinister. The variety in dynamics and texture create an even bigger atmosphere as at points the music gets louder and more instruments/sounds can be heard. This is almost mirroring the fear in the audience growing as the music does this.

Creating Mood/Atmosphere

I doubt any lighting is used in the opening as it is simply shots of scenery. As well as this as the film is over 30 years old so I doubt any filters were used. In my opinion I don't think not having any filters ruins the creepy mood being portrayed. If anything I believe it adds to it as it makes the location seem more real and normal which could make the audience feel like whatever is going to happen in the film could happen to them. As I mentioned before the incidental music is definitely the key element to creating a haunting effect. The sound effects of people (or maybe animals) screaming and making noises really adds to this as it foreshadows events that could happen in the film again adding tension for the audience as they know they will have to watch these terrifying moments.

From all this I can see that this opening engages the audience in a subtle way as it makes them wonder who is driving the car and what will happen to them.

Film Openings - The Shining (Background Information & Narrative) // Research

Background Information:

The Shining (1980)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Studio:
 -Peregrine Productions
  -Producers Circle
Success?
 -Box Office: $44,017,374
 -Awards:
    -Saturn Award, Nominated, Best Horror Film
    -Saturn Award, Scatman Crothers, Won, Best Supporting Actor
    and more..

Narrative:

The opening scene starts with an long, establishing shot revealing to the audience a lake with mountains either side of it. This shot is tracking along the scenery moving forward. Various other shots of scenery are shown. Accompanied by this is eerie music which gives a creepy effect. As well as this one of the shots is a birds eye view that appears to be following a car which in turn emphasises the creepy aspect as someone is being followed. This continues for the rest of the opening with various shots of the scenery and the car being followed, the music builds up near the end and a long shot of an almost camouflaged house is shown at the bottom of a mountain. This shot establishes where the film may be located and shows a creepy, large house which again intensifies the creepy aspect. No key storyline is established immediately however a clear scene for the film has been set.

Film Openings - Hot Fuzz (Media Language) // Research

The first shot is an establishing, extra long shot of an empty police station with a man, the protagonist, walking towards the camera. After around 30 seconds this shot becomes a close up as he has walked closer to the camera. Following this is a montage of medium shots, close ups, extreme close ups, and long shots. These are all made more interesting by camera movements such as panning and tracking. For example at 0:33 there is a close up of the main characters feet walking, followed by medium shot of him still walking along which shows his uniform and the forceful way in which he walks makes the audience realise the power he has with that uniform. These two shots also show match on action.

The speed of the editing is very fast making it too much to give a detailed account of every single shot used. However, some quite interesting editing is used as at 0:47-0:48 for less than a second two clips from the same shot are laid over each other making the shot seem busier than it really is and giving the audience this impression of how there is so much going on in the main characters life.


Overlapping shots

The same thing happens at 1:42 when extreme close ups of him putting hand cuffs on people are shown. This makes him seem very powerful and successful as he's caught many criminals.

The opening ends on a close up of a Father Christmas stabbing a knife into the main character's hand. At 1:52 the action shot of the wound is stopped, by freeze-framing the video so it becomes a still image and then the image fades out. The way they've edited it to make the video stop just as he was being wounded and then stay on that picture for a bit makes the audience again see how much of a good police man he is and how he is very brave and will do anything for his job.

Film Openings - Hot Fuzz (Titles) // Research

The titles begin to appear at 0:10 where is says 'Universal Pictures Presents'. The other titles displayed are 'In Association with Studio Canal', 'A Working Title Production' and 'In Association with Big Talk Productions.' All titles fade in and out and stay there for around 3 seconds one after the other. The style of writing is quite bold and it is a font where, or they have decided to make, all the letters capitals. This makes the titles stand out more in front of the background of the inside of the empty police station with the man walking towards the camera. The colour of the font is white with a black shadow effect around the edge of each letter. There is no sound when the titles appear. Usually at the start of a film idents would be shown but in this case they have just used a simple font and made the titles quite subtle probably since it is a Working Title Production which is an independent film company and they therefore don't need to make a bit thing out of where/who the film has been made by.

An example of one of the titles shown

Film Openings - Hot Fuzz (Representation) // Research

Characters/Social Groups

Throughout the opening scene the main character is shown wearing various uniforms (mostly police uniforms but also training uniforms, cycling gear, and other plain clothes for activities like chess and running).




Nicholas Angel wearing police gear

His police uniform appears most throughout and varies as props like protective shields and headgear are added when he is shown doing dangerous activities. This often appearance of the police uniform emphasises his power and represents him to be a stereotypically strong, confident and ideal policeman to have at a police station near you. The extras throughout the opening are never properly focused on but you can see they are wearing the same things as the main character, Nicholas Angel. This shows Nicholas surrounds himself with people who have the same aspirations as him but as he is the main focus throughout he must be much better than all the other people. As well as this some citizens are shown wearing normal, everyday clothes showing that Nicholas talks to regular people and cares about looking after all citizens. The contrast of the police uniform next to the citizens regular clothes also emphasises his power as you can see how more important he looks.

Nicholas Angel does not wear any obvious make up throughout the opening scene which gives an image of an archetypal male as he does not enhance his looks and instead focuses on more practical, physical things to make him more dominant and powerful. His hair is also short and practical which would be expected for a policeman.

The only voice heard throughout is the main character's (Nicholas Angel's). His accent is British but not in an obvious, stereotypical way and more of a realistic, social-realism way (as the actor, Simon Pegg, is actually British so he does not need to put on an accent).

Nicholas is shown in many locations all associated with the police training and work he is doing. This makes the audience see how he spends a lot of his time in places doing things for his job which as I said before makes him seem like an ideal policeman. The locations themselves are pretty typical and don't look like sets which enforces how it has more of a realistic style as the opening doesn't make things out to look better than they are.

Settings/Locations




A conveniently quiet road

Nicholas Angel is shown in many settings throughout the opening scene including offices, training academies, classrooms, and many more. However, the scenes are rarely notable or important as the main focus the entire time is Nicholas Angel. The locations vary from busy training centres to a fairly quiet road near a car park to conveniently film him showing his 'advanced driving' and 'advanced cycling'. All these locations appear to be urban as he is in offices a lot and when he is on a race track running (at 1:24 in the video clip) you can see blocks of flats and other buildings in the background which suggest he lives in an urban area.







Location: A police station

It's hard to pin point certain details in the shots in this opening as they are all so fast moving and change quickly from one location to another. The audience doesn't really get a chance to micro analyse many scenes and see what is in them. By micro analysing the shots myself I can see that they are fairly basic locations with not much smaller details added to the composition. This reinforces the audience to see Nicholas Angel as the important, powerful protagonist that will almost definitely be the main character in this film. There are exceptions as when he's in a police station you can see office desks and things on the desks in the background but they are blurred and Nicholas Angel is focused on. The mise en scene of this location looks quite expensive and tidy implying that Nicholas Angel has a high up job where appearance of the workplace matters. Although in this scene I don't think it reinforces any reading into the shot (the same goes for all the other shots) as they change so fast and as I've said before the focus is on Nicholas Angel and not the locations themselves.

Sound

At the start of the opening a police siren is heard which I assume is non-diegetic as it immediately fades out. This acts as a sound bridge as it comes at the start of the scene and gives the impression that the police will somehow be involved in this film. After this you hear the diegetic sound of the doors sliding open, this sound slightly echoes which makes the audience realise the location is pretty big and not much else is going on. Diegetic footsteps are heard as the character comes closer and these sound strong and forceful which gives the impression that the character himself will be strong and forceful. To establish the narrative the most dominant sound overall is the non-diegetic, voice over which is the voice of the main character and explains the main character (who he is, where he's from, what he's done, etc.). Non-diegetic, incidental music is played under this voice over and during this time diegetic sounds of what's going on in the scenes can be heard which makes the scenes seem more real and believable. The shots quickly go from one to another very fast and as some of the shots change sound effects are used which tend to be a 'swooping' sound. Very little dialogue is heard and diegetic sounds are used throughout but tend to be exaggerated. For example at 0:55 when Nicholas Angel is ticking the correct answers on a question paper you can very easily hear the sound of the pen on the paper. Usually this sound wouldn't be that loud especially over all the other sounds going on but in this case it is as it emphasises his power and how easily he can get the correct answers.

Creating Mood/Atmosphere

At first quite low key lighting is used and it gives an impression of back lighting as the character walking towards the camera is almost a silhouette. However, this effect fades as he gets closer and we can see him more clearly. To me it doesn't look like any lighting is used in the rest of the opening however it is very likely that some high key lighting is used just to improve the general lighting of the various shots. No obvious filters are used whereas a grey filter could have been used in places to make the shots seem more British and real. The incidental music gives an up beat mood to the character implying he is likely to be the protagonist in the film. At the beginning the use of silence (except for the footsteps) makes the atmosphere tense as you do not know who's walking towards you and why. Overall I think all these things establish quite a light-hearted, jolly feel to a police officers life so far with the added humour in the voice over and dialogue to make the audience like the character or even slightly warm to him.

Film Openings - Hot Fuzz (Background Information & Narrative) // Research

Background Information:

Hot Fuzz (2007)
Director: Edgar Wright
Studio:
 -Studio Canal
 -Working Title Films
 -Big Talk Productions
Success?
 -Box Office: $80,736,657
 -Awards:
     -Empire Awards, UK (2008) Won, Best Comedy
     -National Movie Awards, UK (2007) Won, Best Comedy
    and more..

Narrative:

The opening scene starts with a long shot that establishes the scene showing a man, the protagonist, walking towards the camera. The way this man walks with meaning and in a strong way suggests he has power and is an important character. This man walks so close that the composition becomes a close up and the man reveals his identity by showing his police badge and a voice over coming in introducing himself. This voice over explains who he is, where he comes from and what he's done. A montage of shots show him mainly doing the corresponding things the voice over is saying. Close ups of his uniform emphasises his connotations of power. As well as this the large mixture of shots show how he must be the best, most important police officer as he has done so many things. The serious, but confident expression on his face shows he is aware of this. It ends with him getting wounded by Father Christmas making a negative situation slightly comedic but also showing how he is fearless and will do anything for his job.

Research

An important part of going through the media production process is researching. I am going to research into 5 film opening scenes. I will do detailed analyses of each film opening including background information on the film, the narrative of the opening scene, and thoroughly analysing the representation, sound and titles in the opening.

This will give me a better understanding of how film openings are made and what things I'll need to include or even avoid for the opening of my film.