Analysing different film openings

I've analyzed the film openings of the three movies '300', 'Mean Streets and 'Blade II' concluding similarities and differences between them in my conclusion.

Mean Streets:

• Starts of with Warner Bros. Logo and blank black screen. – red writing
• Starts with voice-over of man
• Close up of man waking up from sleep, free-hand camera movement
• Police sirens in the background and sound of cars etc. urban background
• Camera follows him through the room and when he looks at himself in the mirror
• Music starts abruptly as he puts his head on his pillow with jump-cuts and zooms into his face (close-up). The music sounds old fashioned
• Shot goes to next scene of a projector, camera still moving in a freehand fashion
• Shot then changes to an olden film
• The name of the film ‘Mean Streets’ then appears on the screen in big red writing then shows all the names and credits while a film plays in the background of random men. Footage looks old fashioned.
• Slow paced

300:

• Starts with black background and blood splattering, with the directors names etc (credits) – red writing
• War-like music and instruments for music
• Pictures of horses with men on them who have harpoons sticking out of their bodies
• Names are on the horses and the camera quickly zooms out to more horses which have other names
• Fast paced
• Animated
• About a third of the way through the name of the film (300) appears in big red writing
• Names of cast then appear

Blade II:

• Starts with blank black screen with red writing and an action kind of melody in the background and logo ‘New Line Cinema’
• The camera then appears to be moving sideways as a new scene slowly transitions into the screen, the new scene is blurry in the background but there are chains hanging that are in focus. A voice-over then comes in – side pan?
• The voice-over introduces himself as ‘Blade’ (the main character)
• The scene then cuts into a hospital scene – again transitioning from the side giving it a train like effect
• The camera continues to move to the right throughout the trailer
• A lot of close ups of different activities but conceals who’s doing it, just shows the object etc.
• Red writing then appears again with names
• Close-ups of a lot of different weapons
• At the end the title of the film then appears ‘Blade II’ in a font made out of blades.

All three openings are similar as the genre maybe similar, they all may include violence because they all starts with black dark background with red big writing which represents violence, danger, gore maybe. ‘Mean Streets’ and ‘Blade II’ start with a logo whereas 300 doesn’t and they both have a lot of close-ups of different things or people, maybe to establish the personality of the character, what he looks like or who he is. In the 300’s case it’s just a long sequence of credits but with pictures in the background of gory war images. Mean Streets and Blade II have voice-overs which may also be used to establish the characters.

 

Rafial Talukdar

Props and Costume

For props and costume we've decided to use different things for different scenes. We've manages to obtain certain objects to re-enforce the idea of Sonny being in a police officer's office by getting a Police hat and a print out of the Metropolitan Police's logo which is stuck on the wall. We've also taken pictures of 'suspected criminals', printed them out and stuck them on a board the undercover officer will be using to write down information and analyze his suspects. In the dealing scene we've used a powder tightly wrapped in a small piece of plastic to give it the appearance that the drug dealer is giving drugs to him.

We've also thought out the characters costume for all 3 scenes. The first scene in the building/office Sonny will be wearing formal wear as he will be in a formal environment (office) where people usually dress in shirts, trousers etc, because of this we have chosen a white shirt and a smart black jacket for Sonny to wear when we shoot this scene.

The other 2 scenes will be Sonny leaving the building and buying drugs, during these times Sonny will be undercover and dress casual/street to fit in with the drug-related storyline and blend in with a typical guy who wants to buy drugs. We chose Sonny to wear a hoody with casual bottoms.

This contrast between the office scene and the street in terms of costume and props gives a good relevance into someone's typical view. So we will be feeding into what a viewer expects and how things are shown usually.

Rafial Talukdar

Specs of video

Choose your actors - Onder, Sunny
Choose your costumes (that fit the actor) - Undercover Officer will be wearing a shirt (formal) in the first 2 scenes, then change into a hoody in the last 2 scenes. Formal - Streetwear.

Create an animatic (take still photos and put them in an iMovie timeline
Make a bullet point list of all the shots you NEED to film (to take with you on the shoot)

• ECU
• Close ups
• Medium Shot
• Long Shot
• Panning shot
• Birds eye and worms eye (low and high angle)
• Over the shoulder

Brief of storyline

• Opens with main character (undercover cop) in his office working on a long ongoing case, all stressed out looking at a big board with a big picture in the center of the drug dealer he's trying to pin down. In this scene he'll be dressed formally, shirt etc.
• Second scene shows him going into the toilet with a rucksack which he then opens, pulling out a hoodie looking at himself hard in the mirror.
• The next scene shows him walking out of a police station, establishing that he's involved with the police and he maybe is a police officer, or in this case an undercover one. The shot will pan upwards to show the police station sign and logo.
• The last scene will show him meeting this drug dealer he's trying to build a case on. They then conduct a drug deal and he buys something of him. There will be a parallel edit of him putting taking the drugs of his hands to him putting paper into a evidence folder. There will be another action match/parellel edit of him putting the drugs downwards into his pocket then cutting into him in the office putting the folder downwards into a filing cabinet/draw.

Our Main Task

We've chosen to do a establishing scene for our main task as it links into our genre of Action. Typically Action drama films start with an opening scene where the main character is introduced and shown to the audience about who he is and his personalty. We've chosen the particular scene of an undercover officer working on a case. We will show him in an office building a case and posting notes and evidence of a drug dealer. He ill then be shown coming out of a police station getting into his car changing into a hood and jeans. Then he will go meet the drug dealer and buy drugs of him. There will then be parellel editing and action matches of him picking the drugs of him and him putting evidence and documents into his evidence folder.

The film will ideally be shot an office, outside a police station and in an alleyway

This is where the drug deal will go on

This is the police station he will come out of

Preliminary Task

Planning Meeting

What is the name of your Production Company?
5*Generalz

What genre are you gong to make it?
Action

What are the key existing texts in this genre?
The Godfather
Rambo
Lethal Weapon
Pulp Fiction
Die Hard
I, Robot
Se7en

What are the generic conventions of this genre?
Intense storylines
1 main character with alot of other sub characters
Violence
Guns
Dangerous stunts
Loud soundtrack/ upbeat music i.e rock
Hero/Villain

What role are you going to take?
Rafial - Cameraman (Assistant Director)
Onder - Director (Editor, Actor, Assistant Producer)
Sunny - Producer (Editor, Actor)