Swan Song - Action Film Mood Board

Swan Song - Choosing a Location

Location 1: Ashtead

This is a picture of the type of location to be used in our film. We've been to this location many times and felt that they are the right fit for our film; we visited it at the appropriate times in the evening as it would give the right atmosphere into what the film could potentially have. The locations at night would grip the audience with fear and give them a sense of anticipation.



Location 2: North Leatherhead



Despite my partner and I feeling location 1 would be the best location; we still feel that this location is good suited and effective for our opening two minutes. We just feel that this location has useful elements that are most and more suited to our film genre and guidance of plot.







The graffiti, council flats, urban look environment and good lighting help enforce the genre clichés and but would not help get the best out of our planned film which is why this location is considered the worst within our opinion.








Location 3: Thefield School
                                                       
                                                   

We chose this location as one of the locations because we believe we can make a good chase scene in this location as its big. Our idea on making an action thriller involves the main character going back to college, so using this location would be most convenient. We would need to film in this location when its empty and quiet to make more suspense and tension.

Swan Song - Prop list

                                                 

Phone - Grove will be using this after he has killed Baker, ringing his associate, letting him know that it is over, this is so that his associate knows that Grove is coming out and needs to be picked up.






Gun – Grove and the guards will be using weapons such as a pistol to brawl, and will be used for the shooting of Baker. This would create tension and action for the audience as guns are dangerous.

Swan Song - Costumes - Guards

For these 3 guards we thought that wearing suits would be suitable as we do not want to make the guards seem over the top with full body armour, but be portrayed as private executive guards.

Swan Song - Costumes - Ross Grove

 

 

 

We decided that Grove should wear a thick jacket - a body warmer. This helps to identify him as we thought about putting him in a suit but this may have caused confusion between him and the guards. Also, we didn't think a suit would be suitable for this character as we don't know what he has been doing before he came to the school.

Song Song - Costumes - James Baker

For Baker's costume we thought simply that as he is attending college, it woule be smart-casual dress code, which is very easy to do, considering we come to college every day!

Swan Song - Script

Death of a Narcissist

Starring:

Daniel Malamud – Ross Grove

Aran Alisiroglu – James Baker

Muhammad Rahman – Guard 1

Harry Wedlake – Guard 2
Zubin Parekh - Guard 3

Richard Young - Voice of the Narrator

NARRATOR

Approximately 2 years ago, James Baker was thrown in jail for charges of burglary. He was always known to be vulgar and abusive, but no one knew that it was so bad to lead prison warden, Ross Grove, to the point of suicide. Since then, things have changed. Grove quit his job, Baker is looking to start fresh attending a local college, but Grove wants revenge, and won’t stop until he gets it.

[Grove entering the school, he has help waiting outside, they are speaking through an earpiece]

[Grove runs into some guards]

[As Grove tries to walk past innocently, hoping they won’t know what he’s doing, one of the guards spots his gun]

GUARD 1

STOP!

[Grove takes out the guard, but back up arrives and he has to fight them off]

[When the guards are dead, he is frantically trying to find Baker]

[He eventually finds him, and Baker has no idea what’s going on]

GROVE
Remember me, Baker? [Pulls gun out]

BAKER

Oh shit!

[Grove goes to shoot Baker. But he has already started running, after running round half of the school, Grove starts to give up, as he walks away, Baker quickly grabs a dead guard’s gun]

BAKER

It’s over Grove.

[Grove sees his intentions and as Baker shoots, Grove manages to duck. He turns around]

GROVE

 You’re right, it is. [Shoots Baker] [Gets phone out and calls associate] He's dead.

[Grove adjusts his jacket and walks away, looking satisfied with his actions]

Swan Song - Synopsis

Ex-Prison Warden Ross Grove is on the loose and dangerous. Armed with knife and gun, he heads to the local school to seek vengeance. James Baker, innocently studying in his Geography lesson is about get a small surprise. He has trouble getting to Baker, having to fight through numbers of undercover guards. Was this set up? By who? By the time he gets there, he is battered and bruised, but able to put up a fight while Baker is desperately looking for options. Time is running out and he runs. The chase is on. They are  hastily navigating the school when Grove gives up. As he walks away, Baker grabs one of the fallen guards guns and attempts to take Grove out but he sees it coming, dodges it and ends Baker. As Grove lays there, beaten and out of breath, he wonders, was it really worth it?

Online Tutorials - Photoshop

Photoshop
Click here to see the website I learned how to use photoshop.

I found this website very useful as I am a beginner and it explained everything very well and in detail to me. It showed me the complete production and workflow practices in producing internet delivered video graphics. It showed me how to get out the most out of Adobe Photoshop which saved me time as I had to learn those skills.

Photoshop is a computer program that lets me retouch, reshape, and completey change, distort, or combine pictures that I have used in the opening two minutes. Sort of like Microsoft Paint on steroids.

Soundtrack Research

For our film we are going to have James Richardson compose a soundtrack, James has had experience in doing this as he created the soundtrack for the "Sins of the Martyr" film. We chose James to create the soundtrack for our film as he is very skilled in composing his own music that perfectly fits with the themes with smooth transitions between sequences.

 

 

This is an example of the soundtrack that James has composed:

This will be similar to the type of soundtrack that we want, however there will be more fast-paced scenes.

Film Institutions - 20th Century Fox

 

Founded in 1935, 20th Century Fox is owned by News Corporation, who also own the Fox television channel, meaning they can make high budget films due to their high income.

An example of these films are Avatar and Star Wars.

Film Institutions - Walt Disney

Founded in 1928, Disney specialises in family movies and animation, they also own other film institutions such as: Touchstone pictures, Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm, through these institutions, Disney generates a large profit.

Film Institutions - Paramount

Paramount Studios, founded in 1916, is part of the American media company 'Viacom'.

They are ranked as one of the highest grossing film studios in the world.

Films such as Titanic and Mission Impossible are all part of Paramount.

Film Institutions - Warner Bros

Warner Bros is one of the biggest film studios, founded in 1903 by the Warner brothers, who also started Looney Tunes and other cartoons.

Warner Bros have a wide range of films, usually with a high budget and a very wide audience, some of these films inclue Harry Potter and The Dark Knight trilogy.

Preliminary Task - With Nick and Philip

Previous to my AS media course, i helped Nick Ashurst and Philip Smith with their preliminary task. This helped me to gain different skills which helped with my own preliminary task.

Preliminary Task - with Dan

Cinematography 

The main objective for our Preliminary Task was to have two people sitting opposite each other with a few lines of dialogue.The different shot types we used effectively showed expressions and emotions. For example the shot-reverse-shot we included portrayed facial expressions so that the audience were able to identify the atmosphere of the scene, while being able to follow the dialogue easily, i will be going into more depth about this later on.

We used a variety of different shot types, including:

• Shot reverse shot - Shot reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.
• Panning - The rotation in a horizontal plane of a still camera or video camera.
• Over the shoulder - A shot of someone or something taken from the perspective or camera angle from the shoulder of another person.
• 180 degree rule - An imaginary line called the axis connects the characters and by keeping the camera on one side of this axis for every shot in the scene
• Match on action -  The editor cuts from one shot to another view that matches the first shot's action.
• Two shot - A shot in which the frame encompasses a view of two people
• Zoom - Allows a camera operator to change their focal length within a shot or quickly between setups for shots
• Medium shot - A medium shot is a camera angle shot from a medium distance.
• Close up -  a type of shot, which tightly frames a person or an object.
• Shot reverse shot - a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.In terms of shot-reverse shot, we received good feedback from other students as some mentioned the fact that the use of shot-reverse-shot was effective for when Liam and Richard where sitting around the table face-to-face. They also thought that we had good use of shot-reverse shot in the video as a whole, so this was a strong positive factor of our video which was good.
• With this very varied range of shots we were able to really experiment with different methods of storytelling, and I think they are one of the main reasons for our films success! Film is a visual medium, and so these visuals should be used to their highest potential through different camera angles.
  
  The use of camera angles in our preliminary task video was overall seen as good.
  Also, based on then editing used in the video, we recieved fairly decent comments. Some of the comments involved the good length of shots, good range of shots like close-ups, the right pace of editing etc One slight problem of the editing was the dialogue.The reason why this was a slight problem is because the sound of the dialogue was quite quiet which was the only real downside to the editing of the video.
  The objectives of our task were to catch the audience's attention. To entertain them and to make them feel interested in the video.
  There were only a few 'named' shots that we did not include, because of practicality or just not finding a use for them:
  • Dutch Tilt
  • Aerial Shot
  The Dutch tilt is more commonly associated with horror films, so was a completely inappropriate shot to use for our film. The aerial shot is hugely impractical seeming as we do not have access to much height, however the opening establishing shots could be argued to be 'aerial'.
  
  Evaluation
  This task has taught me a great deal; not only about working in a group (and those constraints) but also about technical problems that can unexpectedly arise during filming. The filming process took longer than I expected due to a few issues with the camera. I think our preliminary task clearly demonstrated match on action (when the main character walked through the door), shot reverse shot (during the conversation), and the 180 degree rule.
  The first problem that occurred was the choice of our actors: it took enough time to film a standard amount of footage as they didn’t take it very seriously; this resulted in a lot of wasted time combined with poor quality footage. The next problem that surfaced was that the footage hadn’t recorded properly as the camera wasn’t set up to record on to the memory card.
  
  
  Our group did not have any organisation or planning, as we weren't able to decide on the storyline, as well as the different types of shots and angles before we started filming; this could of saved a lot of time. I am glad that the technical problems with the camera happened during the preliminary task and not the final task, as this taught me to always check that the camera is set up correctly and is recording on to the memory card – so we will not make the same mistake again. I also learnt that test filming is very useful as the lighting of a shot can appear very different on a full screen as opposed to a camera screen; its normally much darker than you actually think it is.
  
  
  I am glad that I worked with the group that I worked with, as it taught me to choose who I work with carefully as I don’t want to end up doing all of the work. Luckily there was one member of my group that I worked really well with; we contributed our ideas, worked hard, explored creative editing and filming techniques and committed our free time to finishing the film. So I now know that I work best in a pair as we can share out equal amounts of work, I also know who I am going to work with to create the final film – we already have many ideas and have past experience with working with each other so we will definitely make a good team.
  Overall I believe we done fairly good in our preliminary task as we all worked hard on different aspects and put them together rather well. We came across quite a few problems whilst filming but we overcame them and managed to finish filming. We could have improved our time management by finishing filming earlier but as we didn't have a room, we were still being productive by editing the bits we had filmed and comparing angles as we filmed some scenes a number of times at different angles to find the most suitable. To conclude, I believe our preliminary task was a success. The biggest problem for us was when we went against the 180 degree rule and this tells me how such a small factor can make people confused.

Mind Map of all Film Genres

The main genres I have explained here:

Action:

Usually involves high energy, stunts and energy with the possibility of rescues, battles, fights, escapes. Also involves non-stop, spectacular rhythm and pacing.

• Fighting scenes
• Fast paced.
• Explosions.
• Chase scenes.
• Battles.
• Murders.

Comedy:

Comedy puns are light hearted, pipes consistently and deliberately designed to amuse and provoke laughter by exaggerating the situation, the language, action, relationships and characters comedies usually come in two general formats: Comedian-ied and Situation comedy.

• Humorous.
• Over exaggerating.
• Funny.
• Stupid.

Crime:

Developed around one sinister action of Criminals, particularly bank robbers, underworld figures, stealing and murdering their way through life usually include aspects of killing, guns and chases.

Include aspects of killing, guns and chases.

• Bad guys.
• Detectives.
• Police.
• Secret Hideouts.
• Gangs.
• Deaths.

Thriller:

Thrillers are often hybrids with other genres - there are action thrillers, crime thrillers etc. These are types of films known to promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation and nerve racking tension. Another closing related genre is the horror genre, also designed to create tension and suspense, taking the viewer through agony and fear.

• Suspense.
• Murder.
• Police.
• Guns.
• Government/secret services.

I will be progressing with the choice of an action thriller for the opening two minutes of my film, I may include some comedy in it.

Skyfall Opening Scene Analysis

The film opens with the institution logos of Columbia Pictures and MGM, before the film properly begins with a dramatic shot of an out-of-focus James Bond in complete silhouette at the end of a darkened corridor. As he approaches the camera and comes into focus during the extended shot , a light source makes his eyes, and only this region of his face, visibly lit, before he raises his gun. This is a striking opening image, something that is typically not featured in a mainstream Hollywood film, but really adds to the visual flair, making this shot especially memorable.

Bond then proceeds to enter a room, where something has not gone to plan, with a visibly deceased agent on the bathroom floor and another seriously injured in an armchair. Bond communicates to his superiors via an earpiece, who we cut to during their discussion, establishing that they are in a remote location, obviously London that is colour graded grey to contrast with the visual heat of Bond's location. M and Bond discuss the missing hard drive and she orders him to abandon the dying agent in the room and maintain his pursuit of the suspect. As Bond follows these orders and leaves, the camera follows his silhouette as he exits the building and into the bright streets of a middle eastern city, where another female agent, Eve, awaits in a jeep. He promptly gets in, and the chase begins.

The rest of the sequence escalates in true Bond fashion, with Bond in pursuit of the villain of the sequence across Istanbul and into the countryside via the top of a train, that he had previously torn apart using a crane, whilst rapidly cutting between the perspectives of Bond and Eve during the mission and M at the MI6 headquarters in London, as she gives each of them orders over their earpieces. The lengthy sequence ends with Bond being accidentally shot by Eve on M's orders and sent hurtling towards the depths of the waters below.

Overall, this opening is really successful as it truly exhilarates the audience and pushes the film forward at a breakneck pace through camerawork and editing, a dramatic score, the enigma of the staple 'MacGuffin' (in this case the hard drive) and Bond's (albeit, incredibly obvious) fate, as well as of course an exciting series of set pieces that involve plenty of violence and destruction. With our final opening piece, we wish to employ a number of the same conventions in order to really draw the audience in, such as the constant awareness that the various characters are working together and communicating with each other from different locations and perspectives is very interesting to us and something we will definitely incorporate into our opening. The creation of enigmas is inspiring, as well as the general 'wow' factor that the opening to "Skyfall" has, which can be achieved by making the opening a large set piece of a sequence set in a major location that the audiences will, hopefully, instantly recognise and connect with.

Boogie Nights Opening Scene Analysis

The opening to the highly acclaimed Paul Thomas Anderson picture "Boogie Nights" features an almost three-minute sequence that takes us through a nightclub and introduces us to each of the major players in the film.

The film opens in 1977 with a shot of the title's namesake, the neon sign of the "Boogie Nights" club, and swoops down to street level to follow Burt Reynolds' director and Julianne Moore's actress as they enter the club, and take their seats. The tracking shit at the centre of this sequence then follows characters around the dancefloor, constantly joining different conversations, establishing each characters' status and distinguishable persona, moving onto another character, before returning to Reynolds and Moore, and culminating with a shot of the main protagonist, 'Dirk Diggler', portrayed by Mark Wahlberg, in what appears to be a single take.

The camera slows down and takes a moment to focus on him, inaugurating him as the character at the centre of the film. However this sequence also shows that this film is very much an ensemble piece, through introducing a large number of characters, and establishing the central premise of the film - the relationships between this wide array of roles, the conflicts that drive the story, and their goals that reveal their true intentions. The utilisation of the long take ensures that the audience can digest and explore the environment and its inhabitants as if they were actually in the scene. Viewers feel the rush and excitement of the nightclub as they attempt to absorb all the information that Anderson presents us with in this sequence. Production of such a scene is a very complex, lengthy process which is only possible after heavy rehearsal, especially of timing, and Anderson cleverly hides any crew or film equipment from view.

Phantom of the Opera Opening Scene Analysis

'The Phantom of the Opera' was one of the first great silent movies at the beginning of the 20th Century, and so, needless to say, it relies more on images than dialogue. It is also in black and white, so colour could not be changed either, and even the cameras weren't high-quality so image quality couldn't be a factor. The standard fps was lower, resulting in the images moving slightly faster then normal, and lighting and editing were not nearly as advanced as today. With this in mind 'Phantom of the Opera' must be analysed according to the limitations of the time, and what it did with what it had.

The opening two minutes (starting at 00:01:00) is a long shot of the inside of an underground crypt, with arches and old architecture. A man with a lantern walks in and stands around for a bit, before ducking behind a pillar as athe shadow of a man walks past. Then the man walks back into shot and stands around for a bit with horror chords blasting before exiting. The shadow of the man follows him.

Despite being a gothic romance film, it follows no romance conventions whatsoever, instead it seems to follow the conventions of a horror film, with gothic architecture and mysterious shadows. Perhaps it does not want to set up romance as a happy, wonderful thing, but rather as a dark mysterious venture into the unknown. The lead male is shown as a man who is hiding underneath an opera house in torture chamber, hiding from people coming downstairs - hardly the popular, sporty jock that is shown in 'High School Musical'. The opening also gives the idea of forbidden love, as the man is hiding and secretive, and is perhaps unsuitable for the lead woman who we have not met yet

The key to this opening is in the enigmas that it brings up. It drags the audience in through asking them questions about who the man is, why he is hiding, and why there are horror chords whenever he walks into the centre of the shot. This encourages the audience to carry on watching as they don't know how this is going to link to the romance genre, and they want to know all about this man and his past.

The lighting is very unlike any film lighting that would be used nowadays. Nowadays the lighting would be intricately set up, with three point lighting and many filters, although in this opening, the lighting is very minimalistic, and is only lit from the lights that are availible to the character, in this case - a lantern. Although this would have been the standard thing to do at the time, it doesn't work at all. We can't see the character clearly, or anything else on screen, and this is not a stylistic choice, but it's just bad lighting...sometimes you can just tell the difference. Admittedly this would have been because the cinematographer would not have been able to play back the footage afterwards and check it, nor would he have been able to see properly what was going to come out of it.

High School Musical 1 Opening Scene Analysis

'High School Musical' is a romance film that covers every romance cliche known to mankind, as it is aimed at a younger audience who enjoy watching films with predictable, yet warm-hearted plot lines. The film as a whole is clearly aimed at a young audience, and the first scene makes this very clear from the outset, by starting the love story in a very idealistic, too-good-to-be-true fashion.

The first shot is an establishing shot of a ski resort, and the text on the screen tells us that it is New Years Eve. This starts off the idealistic feel to the film, as New Years Eve can signify the start of something new (as is made clear in the first song) and it is also close to Christmas, which is the favourite time of the year for many young people. The text that appears on screen is very bland and uninteresting, however does have a glowing edge. For an older audience this could seem a bit childish, but for the younger audience, at which it is aimed, the text choice is perfect. For we must remember that to give this film opening a fair analysis we must remember that it is aimed at a much younger audience, who have far different tastes to adult films.

After this first establishing shot we are brought closer to the action and what is going on inside the resort. The audience is guided around a party scene, with teenagers wearing odd, fancy dress hats, colourful balloons and fairy lights. Again we can see that this is a very idealistic outlook on teenagers, and a film aimed at an older audience would probably present teenagers smoking, drinking and taking drugs. However here the teenagers are shaking hands and making friends and getting along very nicely while drinking what is, presumably, orange squash.

After this scene we are shown the lead female character who is bowing to the age old romance convention of being vulnerable, a bit geeky, and quiet. This cliche is seen in many other romance films such as 'Love Actually' and 'A Walk to Remember'. She is shown to follow this criteria by avidly reading a book on New Years Eve instead of going to parties or hanging out with her family. Not only is this good because it keeps the young viewers hooked on the film through the cliches, but it also encourages young people to read more, and not be worried about what people may think. Parents of the children would want to use this, so they would buy their child the film in the hope that it would inspire them to read more.

The next short scene is of the male lead playing basketball, which is a very American male sport, which shows him as 'the sporty, popular one', another cliche of the romance genre. As an audience we know from the rules of the romance genre that he will fall in love with the female lead, as they have completely opposite personalities and this leads to the idea of almost 'forbidden' or unlikely love. The male lead is played by Zac Efron who is a traditionally 'good-looking' actor who appeals to a young audience. In this scene the acting is very melodramatic and over-the-top to make it easier for a younger audience to follow. Their actions are exaggerated and their lines are very very cliche. This is, however, a good thing, as a younger audience would enjoy it more than deadly serious acting.

The production design as a whole is very colourful and vibrant, once again appealing to the target audience. Every location has a lot of colour, which helps the children feel safe and comforted in the environment in which the film is set. There is no litter or graffiti or anything negative about the scenes, and this presents an appriate setting for a childrens film.

Overall I think it is a strong opening for the film, as it appeals to the target audience, presents them with a safe and familiar environment, and follows the standard conventions of a romance movie. If it had been aimed at an adult audience then it would not have been good at all, but it was good for what it was.

Indiana Jones - Raiders Of The Lost Ark Opening Scene Analysis

The first shot shows a close up of the idol and the protagonist, zooming out so we can see the surroundings and the circumstances he's in. we then see a shot from behind him showing clearly the idol. The dramatic music shows the situation they are in. After this, the music stops as suddenly, after he thinks he's replaced the idol, the temple starts to collapse, there is then a tracking shot of him as he tries to run through all the traps. there is then some over the shoulder shots as the two people have a conversation. After this, there is an extreme high shot as the protagonist jumps over the hole, this shows us that although he seems to be in a tricky situation, we are hinted that he will make out alive. We then see a low shot as he slips back down and the door is almost closed, showing the doubt of him getting out. After he escapes, we then see a small establishing shot, showing us the type of place he's in: a skeleton with an arrow through its head shows the dangerous situation. We then see the corpse of the person he was talking to, and it makes the audience feel like that he deserved it for trying to leave him to die. We then see a number of different panning shots as he is running away frmo the huge boulder chasing him.  The dramatic music has started playing again, showing that he is desperate to escape alive.

Fast and Furious Five Opening Scene Analysis

The first shot in the scene shows people in a coach, wearing the same orange suits, showing they are going to some sort of prison. The person who we are focused on in this shot is looking down and staying still, however everyone else is looking around. The very short time in which this picture is shown, shows the dramaticness of his face, the expressionless, motionless face fixed on 1 point on the floor shows that he is either accepting defeat, or waiting for something to happen. We then see a long shot of the coach. This long shot shows the surrouding area, where the action is going to take place. The camera then loses focus on the coach, and focuses on 3 cars that we see enter the shot. For the next few seconds we see the cars surrond the coach. It then cuts back to inside the coach and the same person has the same expressions on his face, while everyone else in the coach is intrigued at what's going on around them, signifying that he knows what is happening. Next, we see a tracking shot of the car at the front, which cuts to inside the car, showing the female driver pull the handbrake and spin around. While she is heading back towards the coach we see an over the shoulder shot of the driver of the coach, this shows us what is happening from his point of view. After the coach has swerved around this car, the car in front stops suddenly and causes the coach to flip over and roll, during this roll we see it from multiple different angles and shots, showing us the seriousness of this moment.

Scream Opening Scene Analysis

The First shot of this clip shows a woman who is obviously very scared and trying to be quiet going out of a door, and then hiding in a corner. She is holding a phone which suggests she may want to call someone to get help, however by doing this she would have to speak, revealing her position, also, she seems to be shaking quite vigorously which signifies the terrified feelings that she has at this moment. The scene then cuts to a shot through the window - from her point of view - in which a dark figure runs across the room. We then see a car heading towards the house, as we don't know who this is, the audience could think it could be someone that she has called to get help, or it could be someone who's helping the hooded figure. However there is also the possibility that the car is just visiting without any knowledge of what is occurring at the house.

We then see the woman crawling under the window, as she doesn't want the person who's in her house to find her, however as she stands up she turns around and the figure is standing right next to the window. He then punches through the window and grabs her hand, which is holding a knife. As she is not expecting him to smash through the window she is not prepared and has to hit him with her phone. She then tries to run away, and we see her look at someone who is tied up, who we assume the figure has murdered. She knows the car is coming into the driveway, so she tries to run to them. The expression on her face shows her desperation, however the the masked infiltrator catches up with her, he drags her to the floor and shows no hesitation in sticking a knife through her chest, the shot of them on the floor shows the power of the murderer as the camera is facing upwards to see him, however the woman is being looked down upon by the camera shot. The close up of the mask shows that it is nothing more than a Halloween costume. Nevertheless she still tries to get up and run to the car, and when the people go to the door, they do not notice her as she cannot speak. They then notice the open door and start to panic, they rush around the house noticing the devastation, while just outside the murderer is with their daughter.

I Know What You Did Last Summer Opening Scene Analysis

The genre of the loud music at the start of the scene suggests that the film will be serious, and the low pitched vocals suggest to us that the film will be negative, and as it is a horror film, this is what we expect. Also, the overpowering sound of the waves on the rocks shows us the power of the sea, and suggests that the sea may be important later on during the film, the continuous music and spanning over the sea reinforces this idea. the sunset in the background suggests the film will be set in the night time, as this is the start of the film and the sun has almost set.

the high pitched sounds in the background suggests that something is building up and there may be an important event in the film. We then see a road which could mean that this road could be linked to this event.

We can see that the setting sun is always on the left of the picture until the camera starts to pan over the land. This suggests that the director wants us to notice the sun and how low it is until it gets dark, due to this being a horror film and this opening scene, we can expect the film to be at night time.

Looper Opening Scene Analysis

The start of this scene shows Levitt looking at his watch. The watch is quite outdated, which means we know that this is set some time ago. We then see a close up of his face in which he is repeating something which can be heard through his headphones. The dull look on his face and his tone of voice tells us he is bored, or he is fed up of doing this job.

He then looks at his watch again, as if he's waiting for something to happen, and after this he stands up. The fact that he is holding a gun shows us he has a lot of authority and the way he holds it shows us he is comfortable with handling this.

We then see a figure appear with a hood over his head. We know that this is not a realistic film as we see the hooded figure materialize from nothing. Then Levitt casually shoots him as soon as he appears. This shows that he's obviously doing a job for someone. Levitt seems to be quite casual about shooting someone in the face, we expect him to be a lot different seeing as he just killed someone.

Levitt throwing his gun down shows that he must have to do something with the body as a routine. The scene then cuts to the title of the film with a loud bang and slowly fades out.

The Dark Knight Opening Scene - Bank Robbery Analysis

The Dark Knight starts with an establishing shot of a City in which the opening scene takes place, of a bank robbery. In this scene, we expect to see conventions of an action film for example violence and weapons, which is portrayed by the criminals in masks. We can obviously depict the protagonist from scene when he decides to combat the criminals single handedly and shows no fear when they first enter the bank.

From how the criminals enter the bank, ziplining from another building shows that they have put alot of thought into this and are experienced in organised crime. This tells us that this scene is important in the film as there has been a lot of preparation, and the protagonist is introduced. Also, the fact that the scene is set in a busy city in daytime also shows that the bank robbers are confident and experienced enough so that they can pull it off.

The lack of music in the scene shows it is dramatic enough not to need any build up and shows the importance of the whole bank robbery. This could also be due to the speech during the scene being important, meaning having music would make the dialogue less effective.