Art of the Title Grid Activity

Our film is about a boy who is paranoid. is paranoia cause him to see things and sometimes do things. In the film, it causes him to do something very bad and this is what drives the plot and moves the film along. In this film opening, the boy's daily routine is shown. It starts with him going to school, shows him eating lunch, doing his homework, etc, and finishes with him staring up at a dark and hellish sky. The idea was that as the day progresses, he feels more and more isolated and his visions and hallucinations become more vivid and demonic.

This opening does not give away a lot. It is obvious from the grungy font, the crack effect on the screen and the sky in the last frame that the film is very dark and psychological. The sequence shows the boy's isolation as he is alone in every frame, looking thoughtful and troubled. The words and titles in the sequence show some of the people who had important roles in making the film such as the actors and the director.

The titles link to the main idea of the film mainly by the font that has been used, which is scratchy, grungy and dark. The film is also dark and the audience get a sense of this straight away because of the titles. They are integrated into the scenes but they are not the main focus and do not draw the attention of the viewer away from what else is happening on-screen.

The opening is fairly ambiguous. It does not directly tell the viewer what is happening but it is made very clear that something is wrong, shown by the fonts and the cracked screen. It is also made fairly obvious that this is the boys daily school routine as he is shown getting books from his locker and studying. The audience are supposed to be wondering what is wrong, why the boy's world seems so dark and why there is such a great sense of isolation.

boy introduced. theme/genre introduced. enigma.

Three things that I included in my grid that are important in the construction of an opening sequence:

• The main character is introduced. He is the only person in the sequence and so it is made clear that he will play an important role in the film.
• The theme and genre are introduced. The opening is highly stylised. It is dark and slightly hellish (the sky in the final frame). Straight away, this tells the audience that the film will be very dark and psychological. It is clear that the film's genre is horror/thriller.
• There is an enigma. What is the problem that the boy is facing and why is he seeing all these strange things? The audience is left wondering straight away about what is happening in the film, engaging them and making them pay close attention. This will cause them to be more immersed in the film and will hopefully make the film better.

This opening is quite effective. Obviously, with more time we would have been able to improve it. However, there is a strong sense of genre and there is a progression in the sequence. This makes it effective at introducing the film.

Hot Fuzz Opening Sequence Analysis - Continuity

The sequence starts with a very long shot of Simon Pegg walking towards the camera. The pace is very slow to begin with, leaving the audience wondering who the character is. As he comes into view, the voiceover begins and the pace picks up. Next there is a montage that shows the character's background. We are told things about his job, personality, previous experiences in the police force and other things. This is all done very quickly with the montage style editing, packed with quick cuts and wipes that are typical of films made by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

The camera is used well to introduce the character and his background. We get shots of the character from many different angles and the montage is packed with zooms and pans and lots of different shot distances, such as extreme close ups to show his determined facial expressions, a long shot of him helping people in the local community or zooms from a low angle as he skids on his bike to convey excitement and action.

The editing is very fast paced. All the different shot types are thrown together and we are bombarded with lots of different angles and things happening, giving the sense that Sgt. Angel is a man who's life is packed with action. The editing is very non-linear. It is constantly cutting between shots of him walking towards wherever it is that he is going and shots of his previous life as the voiceover describes them. This contant jumping about in time again adds to the pace and also helps to introduce the character.

There is a lot of parallel editing in the sequence that creates continuity. While we are not directly told that we are being shown his previous life, we can tell that this is the case because of the voiceover. The 30 degree rule is used a lot. There are a lot of cuts in this sequence and having lots of shots from different angles both adds to the pace and helps avoid the 'jumpy' feeling that can be created if two consecutive shots are too similar. The shot types are also varied enough so that the audience is not confused. While the sequence consists mainly of close-ups and medium close-ups, there are some long shots and mid shots that help to tie all the other shots together in space so that the audience isn't confused.

Accident Continuity Sequence

To create continuity, tried to keep a fast pace so that the audience was not left bored and felt the action of the sequence. Creating continuity was quite difficult as it was hard to film me falling out of a tree without me actually falling out of the tree. To solve this problem, we used quite cuts to different angles. This conveyed what was happening to the audience without it actually happening. We also kept the story as simple as possible to avoid any confusion as six shots is a very small number of shots to convey a story with.

To improve the narratvie flow, we could have jumped around a bit less with the angles. Doing this may have confused the audience about where they were viewing the event from at different points in the sequence. If I had actually been able to fall out fo the tree, we could have gotten better, more realistic shots of me falling without needing to do close ups to try and convey this. Another thing we could have done would be to introduce the other two characters in the first shot. They are not really involved until I start to fall and this might seem quite strange to the audience. By introducing them earlier, the sequence would have flowed better.

Film Still Analysis

This is a film still from the horror thriller genre. It is taken from a very high angle, making the character seem powerless. She is reaching towards the camera and looking directly towards us. This direct address adds a sense of urgency to the scene as she is trapped in the confined space between the two storage crates and trying to escape. This sense of urgency and danger is what makes this still typical of it's genre.

To achieve this effect, I climbed on top of one of the storage crates to get a very high angle, making the character seem small and powerless. Ideally, the shot would be a lot darker but we could not acheive this effect as this was shot outside. We took this shot in the darkest location we could find and made the most of what we had. The character's facial expression shows her fear and the enclosed setting adds to the feeling of powerlessness and claustrophobia.

The characters pose and the high angle are the most effective things about this shot. She is reaching for help, she is scared and she looks helpless due to the angle the shot was taken from. To improve the shot, we could have found a better, darker location to take it. If only her face was lit up, it would draw attention to her fear and make the shot more fitting for the horror thriller genre.

Trainspotting Introduction Analysis

Trainspotting is a crime fiction drama film released in 1996. It is the story of 5 men and how their lives are affected by heroin.

This scene introduces the 5 main characters: Renton, Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud and Tommy. The first shot is two of them running from cops. The voice-over's thick Scottish accent immediately informs us of where the film is set. The scene jumps between this chase scene, a football scene that is used to introduce 4 of the main characters and a scene of the fifth character smoking heroin in his unfurnished and tattered home, before collapsing on the floor. These events are not chronologically related. The only links between them are the characters involved and the fact that they are showing us their lifestyles. The football scene gives the viewer glimpses of the characters' personalities but nothing much. For example, we know that Degbie is a bit of a twat because he aggressively tackles someone from behind and laughs about it. Spud, as the name suggests, is a bit dim-witted. He looks out of place and a football flies past him into the goal. We can tell that Renton is the main character in the film due to the fact that he is doing the voice-over. He also gets the most screen time.

The audience needs to know who the characters are, where the film is set, the mood of the film and roughly what the film will be about. This all gets them interested straight away, keeping the pace up and grabbing their attention. This introduction does that well.

Not a lot of story information is revealed. The scene sets up the film by introducing the characters, their personalities and lifestyles and giving us a sense of location (Scotland). The fact that the characters are running from police immediately connotes the crime genre and the heroin section is meant to be slightly shocking and attention-grabbing. However, we are not told that Renton is smoking heroin until the very end of the introduction.

"Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a f***ing big television..."

The voice-over is supposed to be very monotonous, listing off the things that the average person is expected to choose in their life. This list steadily goes downhill, listing some of the less desirable aspects of this lifestyle. The listing makes it all seem unnecessary. Then the cycle is broken. As he collapses on the floor the voiceover says, "But why would i want to do a thing like that?" showing there's an alternative: heroin. "Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?"