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Opening scene research task Lukinskaia Anastasiia
Fight Club is a 1999 American psychological thriller film directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter.
Narrative • From the beginning of the scene we can hear non-diegetic, fast anxious music which makes us feel uncomfortable, feel not safe and there is a feeling of impending danger. The first shot we can observe connotes moving abstract dark places and then it becomes clear that shooting takes place ‘inside the human’s body’. After the ‘inside’ filming we see the shot of the sweating body part which provokes the feeling of disgust. It signified the person is nervous and may be in danger. Then there is a close up shot of the gun and the man’s face: the gun is in his mouth and he is absolutely wet because of the sweat. • From their conversation we can understand that the ‘hostage’ has planned an explosion in the city. Also, someone named Tyler is involved in this plan. We can hear the voice over of the first man’s thoughts when he realizes that all these ‘gun, bomb and revolution is connected with the woman whos name is Marla Singer.
What do we expect from the narrative?
Who is the target audience? • 18-45 y.o. • In the opening scene we already could see weapons, bombs, blood and traces of violence, which are not allowed to show the audience younger than 18 y.o. • Not all the people who are older than 45 y.o. can watch such films calmly. The reasons could be mental health, heart disease e.t.c.
• In the opening scene we already saw weapons, elements of murdering and puzzles of the plot (enigma codes) which we were supposed to find out during the film. These elements make us feel excited, suspense. • The main goal of thrillers is to make the viewer feel agitated, tensely. On this basis we can already recognize this film’s genre from it’s opening scene. Genre of the film
• We’ve seen 2 characters and from their conversation + the main character’s voice over we could know some facts about 2 more people. • 2 characters we’ve seen: the hostage- the main character of the film who will narrate us the storyline of the film. Man with a gun (I can’t call him a criminal, because we don’t know the enigma answers yet and I can’t draw conclusions about his nature) Characters
• In the beginning of the scene we can hear the non-diegetic music which conveys the atmosphere of the film: as it’s thriller the upbeat, fast, energetic music is suitable for the mood of the whole film. • Director used such camera work as close ups and medium shots while the characters have had a dialogue to represent the atmosphere of the placeand the distance between them. • To tell the viewers the pre-story of the actions there was used parallel editing e.g. in time with the main character voice over, there were shown the shots of the bomb construction to connect to narratives to each other.
Is this opening scene successful or not? •I think that this opening scene is one of the best in this list. •It has lots of enigma codes which help to attract the audience and build a suspense effect. •Camera work isn’t boring. Director has used interesting and dynamic shots. It's a very important point to force the viewer to watch the film because if there are too many stabilized shots the whole picture could be boring as a result.
• ‘A Quiet Place’ is a 2018 science fiction horror film directed by and starring John Krasinski. Main cast: Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe.
Narrative •Events take place in a post apocalyptic world, we could find it out from the empty store shelves, abandoned streets and cars. There is not a single extraneous sound in the film besides the natural sounds (as wind), non-diegetic music and sounds caused by the actor's actions (as steps). The main subject of the opening scene was a toy which made a sound effect and by the actor’s reaction we could understand that the main idea of the film is to keep silence. The opening scene ending with a shot of a monster killing the youngest member of the family. •On this basis, we expect to feel intense. These kinds of films aim to keep the public from relaxing.
Who is the target audience? • 18-35 y.o. • People yonger than 18 y.o. are not allowed to watch these kinds of movies because it could negatively affect their mind. • Usually, people who are older than 30-35 y.o. do not prefer to watch horrors because of lack of semantic load and scary moments.
Genre of the film • The genre of the film is horror. It’s easy to recognise because of a few factors: most part of film is accompanied by low key lights, what make the atmosphere more fearful; there are lots of SFX such as monster’s shouting which works as screamers e.t.c.
• The opening sequence is the family in the store. We already saw parents and 3 children, but we don’t know their names or any other information from their biography. Only conclusions we can make are based on their behaviour, and we can only guess types of their nature. Characters But the youngest boy is already dead, so -1 :)
•Because of the main idea of the film, the director tried to focus on sound and sound effects. Through the all opening scene we can hear the ambient sound of the wind and ‘natural’ sounds. •Outside sounds were mostly highlighted to make a strong accent on them e.g. monster’s roar, toy beep. •As the camera work mostly were used wider shots and close ups.Wider shots connote us the area and it makes it clear that the actions take place in a post apocalyptic world. Close ups forced us to pay attention to action codes e.g. the toy.
Is this opening scene successful or not? •In my opinion – no, it’s not. It feels like the production company just cutted of a random scene from the beginning of the film, with hope that the audience will learn what's going on in the film. The characters aren't introduced to us at all. We only can make a conclusion that they’re family and guess their exemplary age. We don’t know what happened to the world and why it’s destroyed andabbonded. How do the monsters appear on Earth? On one hand there are enigma codes which could attract the viewers,but there are too many of them and the storyline becomes unclear at all.
• ‘Raiders Of The Lost Ark’ (1981) -an action film directed by Steven Spielberg. Main cast: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey, John Rhys-Davies and Denholm Elliott.
Narrative • The narrative given to us shows Indiana Jones and a group of men walking across the forest to find an ancient temple. Accordingly, the viewers expect to watch an adventure movie with an exciting plot. In the opening scene we’ve already seen a few enigma codes which force us to watch the whole movie
Who is the target audience? • 14-35 y.o • There are no violence sciences in this film (or they are smoothed and allowed to show the audience under 18 y.o). Mostly teen boys are interested in thise kind of films e.g. adventure, investigations. • People who are older than 35 y.o. could be not interested in this film because of actors play (it’s overplayed) • This film is targeted to people who enjoy watching action/adventure films or are fans of Steven Spielberg's productions.
Genre of the film • The genre of the film is action/adventure. This genre of the film is clearly conveyed through the use of key conventions such as upbeat, fast music; visual style - exotic setting; hero-like characters etc.
• The opening sequence is the group of explorers and guide and the The characters introduced to archaeologist and main character, Indiana Jones. Throughout, the opening scene the main character is kept hidden, always facing his back to the camera. He is first properly introduced in the last bit of the scene where he steps out of the shadows. By his performance and movement we learn that this character is a serious individual. Also by usage of costume and props we understand that he is quite adventurous by the whole action figure like costume and that he is equipped to dangerous scenarios such as fights. The scene begins with a closeup shot as an establishing shot. The title is shown in bold letters in the middle of the frame As the title fades the camera slowly zooms out into a mid-shot of a man. Characters
Is this opening scene successful or not? •Based on the film date of release I can say that it is, but nowadays it wouldn’t be. At first, it’s quite boring. No action scenes, not quite complicated enigma codes. I don’t have a desire to watch the whole film because it's obvious for what will be the storyline. But, on the other hand, it introduced us to the timeline (1936), the exact place (South America) what is necessary information for understanding the narrative.
• ‘Divergent’ is a 2014 science fiction action film directed by Neil Burger, based on the 2011 novel of the same name by Veronica Roth. The film is the first installment in The ‘Divergent Series’ and was produced by Lucy Fisher, Pouya Shahbazian, and Douglas Wick, with a screenplay by Evan Daugherty and Vanessa Taylor.It stars Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Ashley Judd, Jai Courtney, Ray Stevenson, Zoë Kravitz, Miles Teller, Tony Goldwyn, Ansel Elgort, Maggie Q, and Kate Winslet.
Narrative • The narrative given to us shows the area (Chicago) where the actions took place, introduce us to the main character: we don’t know her name but we know her faction. And we know the main idea of the film’s world (all people are divided into factions. factions are societal divisions that classify citizens based on their aptitudes and values. The factions are Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the kind), Erudite (the intelligent), Abnegation (the selfless ), and Candor (the honest)).
Who is the target audience? • 14-40 y.o • Teens are usually interested in plots conneted to changes in our world with a ‘pinch’ of fantasy. • Most people who are older than 40 y.o. interested in films with a semantic load or with an educational conext.
• The genre of the film is sci-fi. This genre of the film is clearly conveyed through the use of key conventions such as time travel (the actions take place in our world but hundreds years later). It’s an utopian fiction because the main goal of the factions is to bring the world to the ideal. Genre of the film
• We’ve been introduced to only one character-the girl who will narrate us the story. As she is a main character we can understand that the storyline will be directly connected with her life. Characters
•At the beginning we could see the panorama of the area where the actions take place in-it was a good decision to enlighten viewers into the films world. •High angles shot have been used in the scenes with the Dauntless to show their power and kind of superiority over the rest of the factions. •Low angles have been used in the scenes with the Amity to show that they are weaker. •We can notice how the non-diegetic music is changing based on the who the speech is about e.g. when the main character was talking about the brave faction the music was intense and upbeat/when the speech was about the kind faction it became calmer and slower.
Is this opening scene successful or not? • Yes, it is. • It connote us the main character and her biography, introduces us the film’s world. • It’s also mixed quiet a lot techniques of filming and editing which make the whole picture more attractive and ‘juicy’ for the audience.
• ‘Dunkirk’ is a 2017 war film directed, and produced by Christopher Nolan. Its ensemble cast includes Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles, Aneurin Barnard, Barry Keoghan, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, and Tom Hardy. The film was distributed by Warner Bros.
Narrative • The group of soldiers are walking the city. From the titles we know that the enemy have driven the British and French armies to the sea. Trapped at Dunkirk, they await their fate, hoping for deliverance. While they were walking around the city, the enemy started to attack them. Only one guy stood alive, because he said that he is english. The opening scene ends with the shot of the main character running out to the beach and see hundreds of soldiers.
Who is the target audience? • 18-45 y.o • People younger than 18 y.o. are usually not interested in war films. They want to watch films with a lighter plot. Of course there could be exceptions e.g. teens who are interested in history. • The cast is relatively young. From my own experience I can assume that this may affect on the target audience age because older people more likely to teach young generation. So as the main theme of the film is war, older people can start to argue that some actions in the film are false.
Genre of the film • It is a war film. We can make such a conclusion based on the following factors: it contains futility and inhumanity of battle, the effects of war on society and connote us the storyline of the conflict between governments.
• In the opening scene we could observe only one character: it was a young english man who is obviously is the main character of he film. We don’t know his name yet. We only were introduced to the story of his appearance in the area take place in. Characters
•Director tried to pay attention to the viewer's sounds. There were a lot of diegetic sounds as water dropped, rustle of the papers, steps etc It created a calm atmosphere in the beginning and then it was used to disterrup this calmness. •There are lots of shots which make accents on the objects (cigarettes close up, map’s close up e.t.c.) This kind of camera work helped to convey the atmosphere of the place and forced the viewers to pay attention to important details.
Is this opening scene successful or not? •I can’t say that this is the perfect example of the opening scene. There are few strong benefits of this example: all necessary information about the plot and narratives is given to the audience;the director used lots of satisfying shots which are ‘enjoyable’ for watching. But it’s also quite boring because of: we heard only one speech during the whole opening scene; the director paid attention mostly on the good looking shots than on the dynamic and actions.
What’s in common? • Most of the opening scenes have titles e.g. name of the director/producer, names of the cast. • All of the opening scenes introduce us to main characters of the film. • From the opening scenes we can understand a genre of the film and the main idea. • We can always learn who are the main character(s) of the film.
‘Dunkirk’ and ‘Divergent’ opening scenes were different from others because they introduced us to the background of the story. In the opening scenes of ‘Fight club’, ‘A Quiet Place’ and ‘The Raiders Of The Lost Ark’ were shown only certain scenes and the viewers have to understand themselves who is the main character and what’s going on. And ‘Dunkirk’ and ‘Divergent’, on the contrary, explained the audience the main idea of the film, who are the main characters and sample description of what’s going on in the film.
The most successful opening scene •Personally, I think that ‘Divergent’ opening scene is the most successful. First of all, it is very easy to understand: the viewer is initiated into the main events, so you can imagine what will be happening next and what character will be involved in the storyline. Also the main actions of the movie start when the audience is already involved in the process of watching e.g. you don’t have to learn the ‘pre story’ which provokes the storyline of the present events. •Also the ’Fight Club’ opening scene is kinda kul:) It has lots of enigma codes which provoke us to watch the whole film.
The least successful opening scene •In my opinion, ‘A Quiet Place’ has the least successful opening scene. All of the opening science, at least gives us description of the action and an understanding of what’s going on. This opening scene forces us to learn the whole storyline ourselves.It doesn’t introduce us to the characters at all, it only connotes us to them.
