Film Opening research (What i've learned)

From watching many opening scenes of films i have learnt that the introduction and opening scene is one if the most important parts of a film. The opening scene is the equvelent of an establishing shot, the opening of a film sets the scene, introduces characters and gives a hint to the story line and the main events that are going to happen in the film.

Characters.

In the opening scene of films we are introduced to main characters but not to the extent that we can predict what is/will happen to them in the main part of the film but we establish enough information about the so that we kno their name, age, likes, dislikes and abit about their personality which helps us to guess or try to predict the story line of the film.






Setting.

Film openings are made to allow the reader to establish where the film is set and to get an idea of the Characters background, financial status, Social status or even to see how successful this character is. By allowing the film opening to show us the setting we are familliar with the surroundings and it also gives the storyline away a little. e.g. if the film opening was made in Las Vagas, then we would be able to tell that the film would be about money, gambling, gansters maybe even crime and fighting..

Film Opening Research - "PRETTY WOMAN"

Pretty Woman is a 1990 American Romantic comedy. Written by J.F Lawton and directed by Garry Marshall, the film features Rochard Gere, Julia Roberts and Hector Elizondo. Pretty Woman's plot centers on down-on-her-luck Hollywood prostitute Vivian Ward who is hired by a wealthy businessman, Edward Lewis, to be his escort for several business and social functions, and their developing relationship over the course of Vivian's week long stay with him.
Opening Scene To 'Pretty Woman'
The opening scene to pretty woman works by introducing the audience to the main characters (Edward And Vivian) at the start we establish that edward is obviously popular among his work colleagues and friends as he is at a party that has classical music in the background, people dressed up in smart suits and gowns and a magician to entertain the guests, the magician is doing a magic trick that involves money and the first part of dialouge we hear as an audience is "No matter what they say, it's all about the money". Within the first few minutes of meating edward we know that he is wealthy, popular because everyone is asking about his where abouts, how he is and what hes doing. We first meet edward when he is on the phone to his wife/ex-wife having an argument therefore we know he is single. This allows the audience to realise that in the film he isnt a cheater or a character that us as an audience might dislike.

At the begining it is hard to establish the genre of the film because it doesnt yet show any convetions or characteristics of any particular type of film. The film language consists of visual gags e.g The 'H' and the 'O' are the only letters light up on the 'Hotel' Sign, Cross-Cutting from Edward to Vivian.

The narrative structure fits the typical structure of a successful romantic comedy.

Film Opening Research - "HOT FUZZ"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpeYvuV5J_I

In the film opening to 'Hot Fuzz' it starts with the main character Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) walking up to the camera that is gradually moving in on him. The character then remove his police had and holds up his identity, whilst doing this he reads out his name and the rank he is in the police force. This tells us a little about his job, name and background. After this the camera then tracks him doing day to day events and an over voice tells the viewers all about him and where he was educated and how he entered the police force the overvo. The opening to this scene is very effective as it tells us all we need to know about the character in the first 5 minutes of the film.

Film Opening Research - "LAYER CAKE"

Review of 'Layer Cake'

The opening monolouge to layer cake is there to make the audience sympathise with the main character, it does this by using non-diagetic dialouge (a voice over) to allow the audience to feel they are inside the mind of the character. The dialoge says "Im not a gangster, Im am business man, this shows the audience that the main character isnt a criminal but he is a clever business man that doesnt get caught out like stereotypical drug dealers, and he also has different methods as to how to make billions.After that the voice over introduces us to another character by saying " This is Clark, double first in Cambridge in industrial drugs. Mummy's gotta pay off his student loan somehow". this suggest that daniel craig's character works with clever businessmen with alot of knowledge about the drug industry. Normally in films based around drug dealers and people in the dealing business the audience instantly dislike the main characters but in layer cake the main character talks about how he is in it just for the money and he doesnt touch the drugs himself, therefore the audience feel the sence of innocence in the characters mind.

The first scene shows a room of people smoking drugs using camera work such at cross cuts, zooming and graphic matches, For example there is a shot of a womans legs walking across the room the a graphic match is used turning the womans legs into a prison guards legs, this demonstrates that the drug users end up in prison which allows the audience to understand the story better. After The voice over explains everything about drugs we are intoduced to Daniel Craig's character, he is walking through a pharmacy but at first it looks like a storage for drugs such a speed and cocaine, but using a graphic match everything changes to things you would normally see in a pharmacy such as medicine and cough sweets when the camera pans across the shelves. This makes the audience like the main character because it shows that he thinks alot about drugs and gets involved in the dealing business but in everyday life he is innocent untill proven guilty.