Film opening research - Skyfall (2012)

Skyfall (2012)

Skyfall is the 23^rd installment in a long running franchise of increasingly popular James Bond action films. The film was produced by Eon Productions (Michael G. Wilson & Barbara Broccoli) and distributed by Sony and MGM. The film was released on the 23^rd of October, and on its week of release, the film grossed at £37.2 million in the UK alone surpassing any other film release, and making it the most popular James Bond film in the franchise. By the end of the year, the films total gross made it the 7^th highest grossing film of all time. The target audience of the film would likely be anyone aged 13+ due to the themes of violence, and more particularly, James Bond fans. The franchise began in 1962, so over the years, a fan base has accumulated and James Bond has grown to become an iconic character in action films.

The initial 30 seconds of the 1:37 opening sequence consists of the logos of the producers/ distributors of the film. The other one minute shows the character we can all assume to be James bond walking around a unknown location, wielding a gun, walking past unknown characters dead on the floor. This gives the audience no clue as to what the storyline of the rest of the film may be, however it does give the audience hints as to what cods and conventions to expect throughout the duration of the film with the fact that the main character is walking around a low key lighting room wielding a gun.

By opening the film with the unchanged iconic logos, this shows the audience that the film is highly acclaimed as people can associate those logos with other films that they’ve seen begin with the same logo. It also gives a more professional connotation to the rest of the film as if it’s by a highly acclaimed production company; the film must be up to the standards of the company.

At the 0:32-second mark, we get our first glimpse into the film, which begins with the iconic James Bond opening. This includes a view seemingly through a sniper scope, tracking the character, which the audience can presume to be James Bond, up to the point where the character turns to face the lens, wield a gun, and shoot. This results in a red filter to flow from the top of the screen which the audience can connotate to being blood. The opening is an adapted version of the original, with the only noticeable difference being the character playing James Bond is different. In this case we’re presented with actor Daniel Craig, who the audience can assume is playing James Bond. By hardly adapting the original, this fits the codes and conventions of James Bond movies, which will instantly let the audience recognise the film as the next in the franchise.

The sound at this point in the opening is a mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic. The theme song that James Bond fans will recognise is played at the beginning as it in with every film in the franchise, and the diegetic element in this would be the point in which the character faces the camera from a long shot, points a gun, and we hear a gun shot. This brings an end to the non-diegetic sound track, and the scent transitions into the film. The lighting in this part if contrasted, the area is all white the character is walking in, so the background is high key lighting, but the character himself is somewhat shadowed, meaning he is in low-key lighting.

The remainder of the opening to the film is all in very dim low-key lighting, with not much of a variety of shots. The first shot is from a long shot to a close up as the character walks towards the camera, and as the close up is on, the characters face is emphasized in the light. This is establishing the character to the audience so they know who will be playing the lead role of James Bond in the movie. Following this shot, we’re presented with a tracking shot of the character walking around a seemingly dead building. The preferred reading of this scene would be that there has been some kind of shootout by the representation of guns lied on the floor amongst dead bodies. This is also one of the notable codes and conventions of action films, which would help the viewer, get the correct preferred reading. The sound in the opening continues to become non-diegetic as the character walks around the dead building, while the location is being established through the use of tracing shots following the main character around the building.

I have also completed a time sequence analysis of the opening credits to skyfall which can be seen below:

Film opening research - Scream (1996)

Scream (1996)

Scream was the first movie of an on going franchise of films, totalling at 4 as of 2011. ‘scream’ , the original, was released December 18^th, 1996 being directed by wes craven, produced by Cathy Konrad and Cary Woods. On its week of release, the film had a total box office of $6,354,586. Due to the films growing popularity, it was re-released on April 11^th 1997, and accrued a further $16.2 million.

The 5:16 opening scene begins with a black screen, with the abrupt appearance of the self-title ‘scream’. The colours are flashing red, white, and black, this gives the audience to connotation of the title representing police lights, this right off the top sets the mood for the fest of the film being a dark horror like film as police cars are usually connotative to crime scenes. Another one of the main points that can be drawn from the title will be the sound. As the title pulsates read, there’s the sound of a heartbeat which is growing progressively more regular, up to the point where there’s a loud bang; followed by a scream, and at this point the title becomes all red and still. The audience can use past imagery from similar films to imagine the scene, which is connotative of the genre. This also represent the sub genre in the fact it shows it’s a slasher horror in the way that the mise en scène represents that someone has just been killed.

Following the tense opening scene, we are presented a mid shot of a young woman, seemingly aged around 20, stood in the living room when her phone begins to ring. The lighting in the room is low key with dramatic lighting on various points, which helps to set an eerie tone for the rest of the movie. The sound of the room is diegetic and almost completely silent which helps with the dramatic feel when the phone begins to ring. Upon answering the phone, the conversation is somewhat strange where the person on the other line has a deep croaky voice in which he follows with the line “who is this?” Following this line, he continues asking other questions, and when the main character puts down the phone, the bellowing sound of the phone rings again. This helps the film to set a mysterious tone to the audience, as the audience at this point have no idea who is on the other line, but they know its dangerous in the way the sound is echoing and the main character become understandable worried.

Fitting in with the codes and conventions of the horror film genre, were presented with an extreme long shot from outside the house where the character is in. this connotates to the audience that the person who was on the phone is outside the house watching. This shot also shows the ain character in a more vulnerable state as it shows how easy it is for anyone who is outside to begin an attack.

By having the main character as a female, this creates more of a vulnerable ideology as the stereotype of a female in a horror film is that the commonly have a lack of self-defence and are usually the first to be killed. This makes the audience see the character as more vulnerable, connotating to the genre with the main character appearing helpless while the ‘killer’ stalks the character like a lion hunting a deer, before lunging in to the attack.

After a number of other phone calls from the mystery character, we’re presented with the line “I want to know who I’m looking at” which makes it clear to the audience the mystery character is in fact outside the house like we were able to foreshadow earlier from the extreme long shot from outside the house. As soon as this line is spoken, a non-diegetic sound begins to quietly play in the film, which progresses in volume through out the rest of the opening scene.

The majority of the second part of the opening consists of establishing the location through the use of tracking shots of the main character as she runs from room to room. While the audience is presented with a new frantic mood, the lighting becomes moor low key, while at the same time the non diegetic music becomes more fast pace. This all fits in with the codes and conventions of a slasher horror, and the ideology for the viewer would be that in a matter of minutes that main character comes to be killed.

While the tracking shots are establishing the location, it gives the viewers more of an insight to the background of the character. The character appears to be fairly rich in a large white house. This fits the stereotype people have for slasher horror, being a rich, young, white American who appears helpless with a lack of self defence.

 As the opening comes to an end, the audience can easily foreshadow what is going to happen in the duration of the film with the use of subliminal shots of weapons such as knives. These shots become mid shots as it adds more emphasis to the likely weapon that will be used in the duration of the film.

Preliminary Film

Evaluation of the preliminary film

Evaluation of the preliminary film

There were many strength and weaknesses that have been involve din both production and editing of the preliminary film. The first point I’m going to talk about will be the filming. When it came to the filming we had a tripod, and a flip camera. The fact we had a tripod came as a strength to the overall filming as it mean we could take steady clear shots, as opposed to hot having a tripod and the filming being shaky and disorientated. However the main weakness with the actual filming side of things would the quality of the camera we were using. The camera was of an ok quality, however things such as the microphone on the camera weren’t of the best quality, which gave the film less of a professional feel.

The next point I’m going to talk about will be the editing of the film. The editing wasn’t of a very good standard and this was down to one of many factors. The first and probably most predominant reason for the lack of quality, would be that no member of the group I was working with had ever used final cut before, which meant it was new to all of us. This caused a lack in the overall quality as we were trying to learn the basic skills at the same time of trying to produce a professional looking film. However a strength to go with our editing would have been our ability to over ride parts of the film with a soundtrack. Not only did we incorporate a sound track, we also were able to make it so the sound fades louder and quieter in various parts of the film. Having the soundtrack helped us to produce a general misé en scene as it set the tone for the rest of the film.

Many more factors could have been strengths if we went further into detain on the actual planning process of the film. The main weakness with our planning would have been the fact that we didn’t check what rooms were free and when, so once we used one room on the first day of filming, we went back on the second day to realise it was being used for a different. This caused a problem, as the continuity of our film isn’t very good with the film jumping from one room to another while in the middle of talking. Also the continuity was a problem in the fact that the main actors were both wearing different items of clothing the second day as opposed to wearing the same, which would have caused some confusion and disorientation with the viewer. However one of the main strength with our planning is that we planned the shot types and speech, which meant that when it came to the filming we were able to act efficiently and get the film done at a fast rate.

Moving on from the physical aspect of making the films such as the filming and editing, there were also other factors the helped/ hindered the films outcome involving factors such as the requirement of working in a group. The biggest strength I found while working in a group would have been the fact that we could all have in input by each bringing different tips and ideas to light which meant we could get the film to a higher standard than each of us would have done individually. However similar to the strength, one of the problems encountered with working in a group would have been the difference in ideas. I think our group dealt with this issue fairly well and we were only delayed a couple of minutes by negotiating which idea to use, but this could have potentially set us back quite some time