Analysing Opening Sequences

Kidulthood

The first 20 seconds of the opening is filled with production titles of different companies who contributed in this film against a black background and the transitions of each title was faded in and out one after each other. As they faded in and out their wasn't any background music used. The background music came in at 21 seconds in the opening and showing the what film productions were involved. The transitions of the text was a smooth and slow fade in, moving slowly across each direction. As this is followed up by main Kidulthood title in a cool looking font.

The opening scene is with a persons legs and a football moving in slow motion to the right. As the person kicks the ball, the camera moves from slow motion to a high speed on to the main characters and as the camera shows the characters it goes back into slow motion. This is because the camera wants to show how each character is represented in the opening such as it can be showing someone who is popular or a bully, etc. The camera is showing each character from a medium long shot which allows the audience to see the mise-en-scene. This lets us see where the location could be which in this case is a playground of a school. It also lets them see how framing of the camera shows what groups of people are each represented as, as the camera allows them to notice that there are groups all spread out in different areas which can mean there is tension between certain groups. This is also supported by how the camera not only shows certain characters but also groups looking across at another group and how the group use their body language to stand up for themselves. The camera is also almost never still, it is moving in nearly every scene whether its slow or fast. The scene where the camera is still is when you see a character drilling but the camera is at a subtle low angle which hides what the person is drilling and this grabs the audiences attention as the want to see what exactly the person is drilling. Is it a weapon they could be drilling to show how corrupt the school is or something for a project to show a benefit of students who are in school? But it also shows that the person is alone, and this senses that its something he doesn't want people seeing, this could lead to the fact that its some dangerous which makes the audience wonder and engages them into the film to see what it really is.

The generic conventions of this film is based on a urban British thriller and this links well with our idea for our film as we have the genre. The use of slow motions in the beginning is what we want to do in our opening sequence because it is a good technique which we thought would be perfect for us and the effect it has would be appropriate for our opening sequence. Also the fact Kidulthood's opening sequence starts with a close up of a football, links to our idea because we looking to do a similar shot in our opening sequence to show the technique used.

Trainspotting

The film starts the same as Kidulthood, with the black background and the production company's name. The first shot is a mid shot of the legs which is also the same as the opening shot of Kidulthood. This camera angle links well with what we want to do with our opening sequence and this camera technique used could be used in our opening as its shows action and it introduces the audience to the miss-en-scene. This shot gets the audience straight into the action in the movie and this starts the film with a bang as there is background music of drums being played. This engages the audience straight in because the film gets introduced with an action scene which is a very good technique that we could use. Also this shot of the legs is framed well, making the legs in the centre of the screen which is the only part of the shot what that is focused to show that it is main area in the shot. This directs the audience to know where to look and the mise-en-scene is blurred in the background to make sure the audience focus on the legs.

The use of a close up in this shot shows some of the character of this film and how they are represented. The fact that one of the main characters is in front of the other and more closer to the camera shows that he must be the most important main character in this film but also because the camera puts him front with a close up and not the main character shows that it is to make the audience focus more on him. This technique used is a really smart technique as it uses the rule of thirds and this is shown by the close up of the main character on the left side of the frame, the middle side of the frame shows the mise-en-scene captured of the two people in suits chasing these two characters and right side of the frame is mid shot of the other main character running. This is demonstrated extremely well in this shot and we like how its shown to the audience because this one shot shows a lot of what's going on.

The voice over sound used over the background music is to establish protagonist and to engage the audience in to hear hear what the character is saying and what it means in this film. The background music is non-diegetic and it also because of the use the narrator speaking in the background.

The comparison to the opening of this film and Kidulthood with the mid shots of the legs in the beginning tells us that it would be ideal for us to start our opening sequence similar to them as it is a very common and effective shot. Also the close up of the main character is key to what we want to do because of the fact we are planning on doing it in our sequence and they way its used in this film has helped us decide on how we are going to use it and what sort of technique we can use. The use of voice over in the opening is helpful as we could be doing voice over in our sequence and the fact the voice over is over the heavy background, makes us closer of putting music in as it is proved to work very well in this film. The use of mise-en-scene has proved to look well in this film and it has helped us to know what we should have in the background and if we should use it such as in the rule of thirds like the way its been done in this film.