Casino Royale
Starts in greyscale, all throughout the institutions. Fades from black into low angle show of building. Low angle shot of man. Low angle shot of elevator. High angle shot of man. Close up on numbers. Fighting very exaggerated. Genre: Action. Soundtrack: Throughout the opening sequence there are a couple of different types of soundtrack; a very minor, sharp, sudden melody during the back-flash of the fighting sequence, which includes the use of a deep, threatening tuba (or some other brass instrument), and then a menacing growl and high pitched note to intensify the meeting between the two characters. As the credits begin, the films soundtrack ‘You Know My Name’ by Chris Cornell begins. Signifiers: There is instantly fighting in the movie – evening before the credits begin. Also, guns are used. Suits to show they mean business. Font: The font is very clean, crisp, and easy to read. Stylish, like a casino, which is what the whole film is based around. Shot types: Almost every type of shot is used within the first couple of minutes of film; Low angle establishing shot showing a clean, stylish building. Close ups of the men talking. Over the shoulder. Simply too many to mention. Editing: The film is cut together so that the action and cuts fit perfectly with the music going on. This also happens during the credits. During the credits, and very advanced animation shot is shown, once again, fitting the music, which shows lots of fighting amid the twirling casino-themed animation. Mise-en-scene: Suits, guns, casino-based imagery moving around the screen. The dirty toilets they fight in. The clean office they chat in – contrast. Other: Something else which I think is really clever is when Daniel Craig breaks the fourth wall at the end of the credits, looking straight into the eyes of the audience. This adds tensions and excitement to the sequence.
The Village
Genre: Thriller. Soundtrack: Very minor, eerie, sudden heavy beats every now and then. Brooding, menacing. A sudden thud as the film’s title shows. The beat continues to get faster and heavier until a sudden end, when the camera shows a long shot of the forest before fading to black. Signifiers: Along with the disturbing music, the low angle pan of tall, bare trees gives a sense of isolation of confusion. Fonts: The graphics shows up in the centre of the screen only very briefly before fading back into black. The writing is sharp but strictly traditional. It is all very quick, and therefore sometimes a bit difficult to read. Something else I noticed was that all of the names fade from black towards you, before fading away again, however, M. Night Shyamalan’s name fades from black away from you. I think this is to let his name stand out from the rest of the credits. Shot types: Mostly low angle, showing the trees as creepy and frightening. The camera also moves and pans through the forest, but always keeping trees as the subject. As the film begins, we see a crowd watching a grieving man lying over a coffin. The camera slowly zooms in, almost as if we are part of the crowd, and are privileged to have a better view. Editing: The title and cuts are of course set in time with the music. Mise-en-scene: Trees. Very dark and cold. Traditional clothing. Fields. Other: Something else I noticed was that as the camera zoomed onto the grieving man, a shadow moves from across the forest behind him, highlighting this as an important part in the film.
Emma’s Title Sequence Analysis’s
War of the Worlds (2005)
Directed by Steven Spielberg 
Institutions:
· Paramount
· Viacom Company
· Dreamworks SKG
Opens with an obscure extreme close-up - this later zooms out to reveal that it is graphics. We see that it’s the cells of a plant that we were initially watching. There is also a space/sci-fi theme to the opening, with an establishing shot of the earth from space. This maybe gives the impression the earth is being watched. This with the plant cells may indicate some kind of life form or alien species. After the graphics when the footage begins, there is an aerial shot of the streets with small people walking around, these people seem almost insignificant and are not focused on through the narration by Morgan Freeman. The choice of Morgan Freeman as a narrator is an interesting one, looking at past films he has acted in, ‘Bruce Almighty’ stands out due to his role as God. With his narration over this aerial shot, and the insignificance of the people, he almost seems God-like, and he has a very smooth, mysterious voice which adds to the confusion and building tension. Many different and contemporary shot types are used throughout the opening sequence. These include typical close-ups and long shots, as well as blocked vision, pans and tracking. The genre of the film is supernatural action, or sci-fi. The font of the credits is white on the graphic scenes at the opening, and this is teamed with mysterious music. When the film title comes up, the music subsides and leaves a drum beat. This also subsides when the scene begins. There are no name credits in this opening sequence, which is something I found on several of the films that I studied. Instead they chose to just include the institutional credits and the film title.
Amy's Title Sequence Analysis's
When analysing the opening sequence of Panic Room, I took into account the micro-elements of film, for example mise-en-scene, editing, camera and sound, and how they were used to create an effective title sequence.
This film fits into many genres. Examples would be crime, mystery, action and thriller.
The sequence begins with an establishing shot of the city. The audience is introduced to one of the genres; crime, as a big city is commonly known for its levels of crime. The opening sequence seems to travel down a street in New York; this may be more evident to a resident of NY as they would recognise the sequence travelling down the street to a location.
Visual effects editor, David Ebner believes that the opening sequence perfectly achieves its goals which he says were to create “a mood and rhythm that this film was kind of different”
An interesting use of typography is present within the opening sequence. The titles link with the footage in that they look like they are hanging off of the buildings of NYC or are part of the buildings themselves.
The titles reflect on the city and its architecture, the way that the buildings have developed over time, for example the windowed-buildings, the familiar Times Square, Central Park and other associated locations feature within the opening sequence. This firmly plants the location of the film into the viewers mind so that they know what to expect from the film. The titles are embedded with the opening sequence footage which means that the talents of two Hollywood companies were combined to create a joint area of film that usually remains separate (The films footage and then the added titles). The titles in the opening sequence show names and also the institutional details of the film.
The sound within the opening sequence links with the typography, for example the stillness of the titles and the deep orchestral music is kept at a low volume. This contradicts with the films title and expectations of the films opening sequence – perhaps a viewer would expect loud sound with an extreme sense of panic and confusion within the opening sequence, however the viewer gets the complete opposite. There are, however, some diegetic sounds featured at the start, for example car engines and horns – this helps to make the opening seem realistic of the busy New York lifestyle.
The music gets slightly louder when the films’ title “Panic Room” appears on screen, it changes slightly into a lower note, that is louder and the notes are elongated. This allows the viewer to pay attention to the title of the film, and also creates impact on the title of the film. There is also a ticking within the audio track, maybe linking to time, suggesting that there is only a certain amount of time before the unexpected event occurs. After the next transition, the music quickens in pace and some stringed instruments are introduced. This compliments the earlier suggestion that something is just around the corner waiting to happen. There are underlying strings featured that contrast to the main audio heard within the sequence which help to create suspense and tension. The music and titles work well in creating suspense and foreboding – suggesting that something bad is going to happen within the film.
Linking with the suspense, the titles sometimes “creep up” on each other. An example of this is where Jodie Foster’s name appears lurking behind the production company “Indelible Pictures”, as shown in the image below.
The editing within this particular opening sequence is quite simple, but extremely effective. The camera swivels, sometimes tracks side-to-side and also sits still on occasion, tying in with the stillness of the opening sequence, and aids in the foreboding.
The opening sequence seems to be slightly saturated, perhaps suggesting the season featured at the beginning of the film, the autumn leaves suggest a change and this could be an insight into a change for the main protagonist within the film.
Transitions within the opening sequence are minimal yet still effective – it features mainly cuts and some jump cuts. These add effect to the suspense and foreboding.
Sheryl's Title Sequence Analyses
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Writer: M. N Shyamalan
Studio: Hollywood Pictures
Spyglass Entertainment
The Kennedy/Marshall Company
Distributed by: Buena Vista Pictures
Shot types: The first shot of the opening titles sequence shows a close up of a dusty light bulb slowly turning on; this suggests it’s a room people rarely go in. The camera at one point is placed behind a wine rack as she walks up to it; this shows that the woman feels she is being watched. Her expression changes to show her concern and worry. There is a long shot of the woman standing up, the director shows her shadow lots of times suggesting again and giving the audience further feeling that she is not alone. She has her arms wrapped around her whilst she is shivering; this shows she’s cold, vulnerable and scared. Keeping the camera at a low level as she runs up the stairs, this leaves the audience feeling like they’ve been left alone in the basement.
Soundtrack: The soundtrack is slow with changes in the pitch of the music, the beat gets heavier and faster. This adds to the eerie feel to the opening sequence and makes it even uneasier for the audience to watch.
Signifiers: Along with the soundtrack the low-key lighting in the room helps to create the feeling of isolation from the woman.
Editing: The transitions are straight cuts; this keeps the sequence simple to watch and allows the audience to concentrate on what is going on in the film rather than being distracted by all different transitions.
Mise-en-scene: The props in the room that the woman is in are all covered in dust and are dull colours – they are no bright colours in the room – this along with the low-key lighting makes the audience feel like something bad is going to happen. This room is in contrast to the room in which the man is in upstairs, with the colourful props and wallpaper and the lit fire.
Bad Boys 2 (2003)
Director: Michael Bay
Writer: Ron Shelton
Jerry Stahl
Marianne Wibberley
Cormac Wibberley
Ron Shelton
Studio: Columbia Pictures Corporation
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Shot types: This film opens with extreme close ups of various machines, this is effective because it confused the audience and therefore makes them keep watching to find out what is going on. Next there is a close up pan of pills (ecstasy) all laid out and the camera gradually speeds up, this allows the audience to get a slightly better idea of what is going on. It then zooms out to a wide shot of several coffins with the pills in them, this again lets the audience know more about what is going on. The shots then switch from interior shots to exterior shots. There is a low angle shot of a coffin being lifted up by a crane with the camera placed underneath the coffin, the fact that they have to be lifted by cranes to be transported shows that there is a large quantity of the pills and that they need to be hidden from people’s view. At one point there is an aerial shot showing a boat, which lets the audience know where this sequence is being filmed. One of the last shots in the opening sequence is an establishing wide shot of a sunset over the sea and the skyline of buildings, it is unusual for this type of shot to be at the end of the sequence – it is normally at the beginning – but because it is zooming in towards the building it gives the audience the feeling that they are on the boat.
Soundtrack: The soundtrack is fast paced, like dance music. The reason for this could be that ecstasy is associated with parties and clubs. Another reason that the music may be so fast paced is because the actions of the people in the sequence are illegal and therefore they may be scared and wanting to get things done quickly. Whilst this soundtrack is being played you can hear the diagetic sounds as well.
Signifiers: Cold colours mixed with coffins set an uncomfortable atmosphere.
Editing: Throughout the sequence all of the transitions are straight cuts, this keeps the action flowing and therefore keeps the audience more interested. At points in the opening sequence there is graphic writing on the screen as if it is being typed on an old computer really quickly. This ties in with all the machines being shown during the sequence.
Mise-en-scene: All of the props used throughout the sequence tie in with the location in which the film is shot. Such as the cranes carrying the coffins onto the boat. The interior shots have low-key lighting and natural lighting sources. This contrasts with the exterior shots as they lighting is a lot more bright, but still low-key.
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