Having now completed my preliminary task, I am now analysing the openings of different films for my coursework as I will have to produce a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes. All video and audio material must be original, produced by us, with the exception of music and audio effects from a copyright-free source.
To start with it is important that I understand the conventions of an opening sequence as even across the different genres they all have elements in common.
In the film ‘Tandem’, which is the genre of drama, the makers have used a sound bridge of a voice over, over a black screen to open the film, we hear voices before we see anything and this sets up an enigma. On the black screen they show the production company and title of the film before leading into the establishing shot. The editing they have used is fasted paced with an average shot length of six seconds when the film starts. The opening of 'Tandem' is simple, a convention of short films as all of the short films we watched had few credits, didn't use special effects and several used no music and some were silent.
In the film ‘Tandem’, which is the genre of drama, the makers have used a sound bridge of a voice over, over a black screen to open the film, we hear voices before we see anything and this sets up an enigma. On the black screen they show the production company and title of the film before leading into the establishing shot. The editing they have used is fasted paced with an average shot length of six seconds when the film starts. The opening of 'Tandem' is simple, a convention of short films as all of the short films we watched had few credits, didn't use special effects and several used no music and some were silent.
I have also watched ‘Casino Royal’ (2006), one of the James Bond films, set firmly in the action drama thriller genre. Its opening sequence is a series of animations of themes from the film, with a faded clip of the characters in the film laid over the top. The only sound that was used was a soundtrack of ‘you know my name’ which is now the song associated with that film, just like all the James Bond films have their iconic soundtrack. This animation sequence lasted for three minutes with images relating to the film setting up a number of narrative themes, also it shows the title of the films along with the producers and names of the actors. Here are some screen grabs of the beginning sequence of ' Casino Roylal' showing the different animation used and how the creators have used the images to foreshadow what the film is about.
