Opening Credits Analysis

Opening Credits Analysis

Genre:
chick flick/comedy
Confessions Of A Shopaholic

The sound in this starts off with a bit of a fast tempo piece of music that has a bit of bounce to it that is quietly being played behind a character talking about how she feels towards shopping and how it makes her who she is. The music and voice combination is almost "rebellious" and creates a sense of humour and this instantly sets the mod of the film. The visuals are also rather effective as we are made to follow the same lady of the voice into numerous stores as she's shopping and carrying loads of bags. It leads right into the first scene with an instant transition. There's a lot of pinks and oranges that give more of an idea to it being a very girly movie. The fonts used are just two diffent styles. One is itaic and that states the proffensin the persn had in orer to make the movie and the other is the standard font and states the person who has the particular profession. The font is all done in a pale pink which also exaggerates the idea of it being a very feminine film. The text comes on screen one at a time and is put randomly over the screen. I think this is a very successful opening credit sequence as it does portray a humour that can relate to several other women. The use of the dialogue is very engaging and makes it even more interesting.

Genre:
action
Fast and Furious 6

The very beginning of the credits is one of the main characters saying a quote from within the film and then the music is bout right in and it shows the importance of that character. As soon as this quote is said we are introduced to a rap which is very fast tempo and gives the sense of relations to streets which can link with the visuals nicely. The visuals are little snapped videos lasting for seconds long taken from the actual film creating an insight as to what the film is about. There are lots of cars and men with woman. These images create a very rushed thought of what the actual film will be like, where it’s set, who is in it and what some of their roles are. It is definitely a very intense opening sequence. The font is a metallic grey/white and reflect the imagery of cars. Another way it does this is by making the text rush on and off screen going to the sides. The font is very bold and capitalised creating a sense of significance. These opening credits are very effective and really do give a deep insight to the film so I would say they are very successful at showing what genre it is. 

 

Genre:
comedy/action
The Hangover

The sound is of numerous voicemails and dialling tones. There’s little music being played in the background and these create the image of either a lazy character or an overly busy character due to the fact they are missing all of these phone calls. The music in the background reminds me very much of café music or something that would be played in a fancy restaurant, it has a very blues feel to it. The tempo is very calm which adds to the blues atmosphere. We are shown weddings preparation images e.g. a floral van, people getting flowers, a wedding cake, dresses etc. after this we are introduced to the bride getting ready and then the dialogue comes in. The font is plain white and looks handwritten. This creates the sense of romance which is also seen to link with the visual effects. I don't think the opening credits worked very well with the film genre because it was a very soothing sequence where as the film is a comedy. However, as son as the credits have finished we're rushed into the first scene which gives a sense of irony and contrasts with the opening credits which then make it funny.

Genre:  
thriller/drama/crime
Silence of the Lambs

There’s a very orchestral piece of music, it is very calm with a constant steady tempo. It brings a sense of tension which is really good for the genre of the film and is very effective in the sense it is it very mystical; it creates a sense of edginess and discomfort. There is a very blank screen, plain black background. The words are off to the side of the screen and an occasional moth comes fluttering through onto the screen which is yellow, cream, orange and brown. Though those sound like bright colours, combined they are really dull but compared to the background much attention is drawn to the moth. The font is very simplistic, it is pain white making it stand out against the contrasting background. The actual title itself is made much larger than the other credits. The text fades off and on screen but stays in one place. This is nice and calming but due to the haunting music it is very taunting. I think this is a very successful piece of opening credits, they work so well with the genre of the movie especially since the taunting effect is kept constant through out. It is very simple yet very effective. 

Genre:
action/thriller/spy
Skyfall

The song is called 'Skyfall' from Adele and was purposely made for this particular movie. The mood is very intense as the whole song follows the same slow tempo but starts off very quietly which draws attention to the images. Some actions and sounds are made in sync which emphasises the genre and is even more enhancing. The whole thing is made to fit. The whole thing fades and dissolves transitions that merge together and some images create new scenes which is very interesting. There is lots of grey, white, black and red, deep red. The can show how graphic the film is. The whole thing has a flow in body movements too, it is very symbolic and reflective of the film. The font is very straight forward, simple, it creates the idea of the movie being quite serious. The font is in white showing bit is very plain and again, serious. This can reflect the genre of the film. It is very blocky meaning it has sharp cut corner, suggesting formality and style. I think this is one of the most successful opening credits I have seen (along with Silence of the Lambs) because it just gets such a grasp on the genre of the film and how it will turn out. The visuals are just incredible and wok so well with the music and the fact the song was made for the film made it all the more better.

Preliminary Task and Production Notes

Preliminary Task and Production Notes

Panning notes:

In order to plan for the preliminary we created a story board which had a time scale and images of shots we would have like to include into the final piece. The story board contained our ideas for each shot, how they would look, what dialogue would be included and who would be filming. We needed to plan a time and place to film that would work well for the whole group and knew it would have to be done in our own spare time.

Ideas:

Our first initial idea was a drug dealer handing in the drugs to his boss and getting paid a large deal. The boss tells the dealer someone is threatening their business and then kills the dealer because he had supposedly told the police. This wasn't chosen because it seemed a bit too extreme for a task like this and didn't suit everyone in the group and was therefore changed.

The last idea was a man of pride walking into his bank to take out ALL is money. When the assistant takes his money out we discover he actually has very little and the man still leaves in pride... except a little more proud than in the beginning.

Filming:

For the main filming we had to use a tripod to balance the camera and to add different types of movement to add a greater effect. I was rather please with the amount of input the group put in. There were multiple cut decisions, many shot suggestions and we all decided on how we chose it together. In order for all of us to be satisfied we played around with shot types and took the same scene but at multiple angles; we chose our favorite altogether.

Editing:

In order to edit the clips I used Final X-cut Pro. With this I could cut the clips I found appropriate to use and used certain effects to change the atmosphere of each individual moment. The lighting I used was changed, I tried to get a more neutral look and turned up the tones of yellows, blues and greens, whilst taking the red down a tint. Transitions were used to make the scenes run smoother and follow a better and more structured story line, I feel these ran successfully. Titles were another thing that was rather helpful; I chose mine to be 'Prelim Task' just because I found it was most appropriate.

 Team Work:

I was in a group with two other people, James and Frank. I personally didn't feel like there was much cooperation going on in the group and felt it could have been improved greatly. However, I think the idea of keeping a small group kept us more on task and it made things easier for me to handle. James was very good at picking out multiple camera shots whereas Frank was more open to ideas. I really enjoyed working with the camera and felt I learnt new things quickly, like how to use the tripod efficiently for the uses of camera movements.

Here is my final edit: