Analysis of an Opening Sequences

Sion Sono - Guilty of Romance

Sion Sono’s ‘Guilty of Romance’ opens with a black screen and simply Sion Sono’s trademark in graffiti styled lettering saying ‘A SION SONO S FILM’. This establishes the maker of the film and he usually self produces his own work. It then goes onto scrolling text telling the audience about key traits within the film and the issues it deals with…

Setting

The setting is an urban city street which is clearly dark and dismal. It is set in the demi-monde and the weather is that it is raining. This gives the atmosphere a chilling an depressing feel.

Lighting

As the woman gets out of the police car and walks towards the crime scene is gradually goes from neon light lit to very Low Key Lighting sometimes where the only light silhouettes the actors in the scene. The character in this scene then uses a flashlight to examine the first body, which is a really good technique to guide the audience’s eyes to where the director wants them to look. When they stumble on the next body the light from the lights outside comes through the windows and casts a shadow against the back wall and over the victim.

Cinematography

The opening sequence is mainly filmed on handy-cam which gives the scene a lot of movement which generates chaos and gets the audience more involved. They use POV shots to show the audience through the eyes of the character again letting them become more involved with the scene. Then is goes on to using extreme close ups and high and low angles.

Story

The opening sequence features elements of enigma because it starts at the end of the narrative (Non-Linear) so the audience will not be aware of what has happened at the start of the narrative. The film contains a lot of conventions from that of Neo Noir, it's elements of setting, mystery and cinematography suggests that this is the theme the director decided to go along with and keep it true to it's conventions.

The ending of the opening sequence it zooms on the dead 'body' and over the screen shot the title begins to write itself central of the frame, in script like text in the colour red. This sets the mood of the film that it is going in. The next shot simply cuts to a rich home and everything seems neutral, so the story has now begun from the start.

please excuse the the clip has not got the correct subtitles and is spoken in Japanese. 

Content Expectations of an Opening Sequence

The Title Sequence
When a film opens, it has certain features which establishes the scene and yet introduces the people who helped create the movie. In the movie industry their is a known hierarchy in which way the names of the people who created the film appear on screen (unless it is in alphabetical order).


In Order of Appearance

1. Producer - The one who has invested into the film. The opening sequence usually says the producers name and then the word 'Presents' in traditional credit styled openings.
2. Highest Billing Actors - These are often the lead roles and most famous actors/actresses that are appearing on camera.
3. Director - The one who has made the film.
4. Title - The films title usually appears after the Directors name, but can sometimes be put on the end of the title sequence as well.
5. Other Actors - The rest of the other actors who aren't highest billing are now mentioned.
6. Cast - These can be extras or actors who have played smaller roles.
7. Crew - The films crewe that have helped during films; Director of Cinematography, SFX crewe, Sound and Casting.
8. Final Name - Usually the director's name appears again here.

There are 3 main ways an opening title can go. 

• Classic Titles - Usually basic with the simplicity of just text and visuals that go through all the people who helped create the movie.
• No Titles - Some films (Like Star Wars) Don't have any titles in their opening and save them for the credits at the end of the film. The only thing they show is the TITLE OF THE FILM
• Interspersed Titles - These are usually in a sequence which goes 'Action, Titles, Action, Titles' Until the main part of the film begins.

There are many other ways of how films open but these are the ones which are broadly used throughout the film industry to establish a film itself. The whole point of a title sequence is to generate a feel for the audience by setting the scene, establishing characters, genre and narrative through:

• Visual Style and Titles
• Use of Sound
• Transitions of Titles

Example in two parts - Reservoir Dogs Directed by Quentin Tarantino 1992

---> Other half click this link... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2Xi3ioasik

Mood Board

Here is our mood board that me and my group created to give us inspiration for our own Film Noir styled opening sequence. We included different types of films that we looked at, and shots of photography used that we enjoyed and thought gave good effect which we would be interested in.


Films that we looked at:

• Night of the hunter - Cinematography
• The Third Man - Style
• Rumble Fish - Cinematography
• Double indemnity - Style and Narrative
• Murder, My Sweet - Cinematography and Narrative
• Sin City - Neo Noir Style, mixing the new with the old
• Out of The Past - Style and cinematography
• A Fool There Was - Origins of the Femme Fatale, Vamps
• Reservoir Dogs - Narrative and crime
• The Godfather - Cinematography
• Brighton Rock - Style and Crime narrative

Film Noir - Chosen Sub - Genre For Opening Sequence

Film Noir Conventions


Me and my peers have decided that our chosen sub genre of 'Crime' will be that of Film Noir. We all understand the main conventions of Film Noir and we thought it would be easy for us to define it and make a two minute opening sequence for this style.
We have to bare in mind all that Film Noir offers withins it's convention. One of which that we'd had to plan the lighting to establish that the opening sequence is a film noir. We would need a variety of low key lighting techniques and chiaroscuro lighting to pull off strong contrast with shadows during our sequence.
During Film Noir styled films there is heavy use of smoking, as we live in an era where smoking is not prohibited inside, we thought that using the studio's fog machine would be a good way of making the set look full of smoke and the impression of the actors smoking. 
Another thing we wanted to use was the use of non linear narrative. Many Film Noir's have a distinctive narrative where is usually starts at the end of the film and the protagonist tells the story through voice over and flashback. As we can't have that much dialogue during our opening sequence, we thought the convention of the voice over would be an advantage for our sequence. 
Costuming for Film Noir is an important factor as it sets the scene, we want a classic 40s feel so fedora hats and trench coats our key for our actors style to put that across to the audience so they understand the setting and time. For the femme fatale we would need to keep her looking glamourous and seductive to the audience again to put key points across on who she is and what her background is.
We are still playing about with story lines at this point and what conventions we need to include. The basic narrative of a Film Noir is that our protagonist is usually a P.I, Salesman (Insurance etc) or something else which lets him come across either something bad or allows for him to meet his downfall, which is generally the femme fatale. The Distraction then usually 'seduces' or disrupts the protagonist and leads him away from the centre to the margin.  Usually the story ends on a negative note but always with the bad guy getting locked away (and a majority of the time, our led protagonist as well).

Example Of An Opening Sequence

• Murder, My Sweet (Edward Dmytryk, 1944)

Here is the trailer for one of the films I looked at to help us with the planning of our opening sequence. The scene itself can be view here http://youtu.be/AAAXdj1E5Gc. All the key conventions I have looked at are established in this short clip and I feel we could use this scene as reference as we make our own opening sequence.

Conventions of the Crime Film

The genre CRIME has a variety of sub-genre's, which makes the crime genre itself very diverse. Choosing a sub-genre was next in line but first we watched a few examples of different openings which allowed us to look at the key conventions for the sub-genre and what we can see throughout every one of them. 


We looked at 6 different types of Sub-Genre's for crime.


Film Noir
Film Noir usually associates with an unlucky man usually working as a detective, insurance seller, law firm, etc. This man is usually vulnerable and meets a woman also known as the Femme Fatale which brings him to his downfall. Not every Noir goes on this structure but they have a variety of conventions which are recognisable. For example

• Chiaroscuro Lighting/Low Key Lighting/Shadows and Contrast
• The Protagonist/Femme Fatale/Ingenue
• Urban Cities/Demi-Monde
• A range of High and Low distinctive angle shots
• Theodora Hats/Trench Coats
• Cigarettes/Bars/Clubs/Police Stations

I.E Out Of The Past, Murder My Sweet, The Third Man, Double Indemnity


American Gangster
This sub-genre contains a range of different kind of gangs which one of the most popular in the American/Italian Mafia which usually tells the story of family and violence and what goes on among gangs. Themes to include are:

• Mafia/Mobsters/Drug Distributing gangs/Weapon Dealers
• Hierarchy amongst Gangs/Family Orientated
• Violence - Guns/Fight Scenes
• Suits
• Over exaggerated Sounds
• Richness and Wealth
• Film Noir-esque lighting

I.E Godfather, Goodfellas, Millers Crossing, Ichi The Killer, Alpha Dog


British Gangster
Like the American Gangster films, they focus on groups of people. The British Gangster films can focus on any age group or what was going on at the time. It may not even feature a group of 'gangsters' but people that get involved with the wrong side of life. Usually the British Gangster genre is gritty and less glamourous than the American version of Gangster films. Also this sub-genre can include the detective them.

• Teenage Groups/Razor Gangs/Mobsters/Drug Dealers
• Run Down Rural/Urban housing/Council Estates/Abandoned Buildings
• Hierarchy/Classes/Criminal Code
• Softer Lighting
• Popular Tourist Destinations/Big Cities
• Policeman/Detectives/Crime Solving

I.E Snatch, Lock Stock, Brighton Rock, Bullet Boy, Kidulthood, Sherlock Holmes




Spy
Usually the spy film sets one man or woman on a quest to find out information or go undercover. It is quite high tech compared to other sub-genres and has distinctive features.

• Terrorism/Authority/Politics
• One Protagonist - Undercover/Group of people
• Power Struggles
• High Impact Action/High Tech
• Invading of a country
• Crime as a family

I.E James Bond, Stormbreaker, The Sum of All Fears


Comedy
This genre of it's own brings comedic values and conventions to the crime genre. It's aim to mix violence and comedy to generate a different impact on the audience. 

• Over Exaggerated Violence
• Violence used as humour
• Strong use of swearing
• The main protagonist isn't generic (Pathetic or Useless)
• Power Struggle
• Car chases - With added Humour

I.E Austin Powers, Hot Fuzz, Johnny English, Pink Panther


Action
Action used crime with high level special effects and stunts and usually shows one man going against the system or against a group of people (Terrorists, Drug Dealers, Distractors). The ending is usually that the good wins and the evil loses.

• Rural/Tall buildings/Far Away Destinations
• One Man/Woman (The Hero or someone in the wrong place at the right time).
• Terrorism/Politics/Government/War
• Car chases and Stunts/Explosions 
• Low Key Lighting when needed
• Weapons/Power Struggle
• Loud Sound/Theme Song

I.E Die Hard, Mission Impossible, Kill Bill, Taken


Convention As A Whole

• Violence - Weapons
• Over Exaggeration
• Authority/Hierarchy
• Criminal Code
• Coppers/Good guys
• Range of High/Low angled shots
• Lighting/Chiaroscuro
• Setting

These are what me and my group will have to stick to whilst planning our opening sequence to make sure it fits in with the genre of Crime.

Prelim Video

Made by Megan Garrett, Jonathan Lloyd, Elishia Baker and Ben Davies

Prelim Exercise - Who Ate The Muffins?

So to start off with our foundation exercise we had to make a short piece of film using THREE key aspects of filming.

• 180 Degree Rule - Not Crossing The Line.
• Shot Reverse Shot.
• Eye-Line Match.

We filmed our short sequence in our tutors office, which would make it look more realistic too the audience. An Office scenario was perfect to practice the rules and techniques we needed to put across in our Prelim exercise. We made sure we had more than enough footage so that during editing we didn't have to go back and re film anything we missed out. 


Each of member of our group had a chance to edit a bit of the sequence, we encountered problems but nothing which wasn't solvable. We had to tweak the back ground noise and replace it with another sections sound as noise was effecting our shot. We didn't try anything special such as editing the colour saturation or contrast as we wanted to explore the editing tools for editing further when we have shot the opening sequence for our final piece.

Overall I think that me and my group succeeded this task and clearly demonstrated all these three points. We used a variety of close ups and panning techniques to make sure that the 30 second piece of film flowed swiftly from each cut to the next. The continuity was fluid and we made sure that nothing seemed to jumpy whilst editing it together.


3 TARGETS TO TAKE WITH ME TO THE OPENING SEQUENCE:

• Make sure the acting in the piece is continuous throughout filming.
• Keep people on set quiet so it saves time editing bits of noise out.
• Experiment more with lighting and camera angles.