Opening Titles Research

The opening titles tell the audience the name of a film and is normally shown at the very beginning of the film. Genre effects the opening titles in different ways, as well as the target audience of the film.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a comedy film targeted at children.

They used colourful light blue writing for their opening titles

as this connotes playfulness and innocence, which is what most kids are like. The light but colourful writing will also attract kids attention to the poster, increasing the chances of their parents taking them to see it. The word "diary" is written in a bold, blocky font which looks more boring whereas "wimpy kid" looks as if it has been written by a small child which would appeal to the target audience as well as juxtaposing the idea of keeping a diary and the image of children and fun. This kind of font and style is conventional for films targeted at young children as it lets the children and parents know the film is not too serious.

The A-Team is a very well-known action film.

This title is from the most recent A-Team film   

made in 2010, which is a remake starring Bradley Cooper, Liam Neeson and Sharlto Copley. They have used a silver colour with the font to make it look like it is metallic which connotes guns and bullets.
The bullet holes in the writing suggests to

the audience that that this film will have guns

and violence in it which is typical of an action film.

They have also chosen to use bold military

style font making it look tough and professional.

The black background makes the title stand out

and be more in your face preparing the audience

for what might come in the rest of the film.

The film Insidious is a horror film. They used red

writing in their titles as it connotes blood and evil, however some   

romance films do choose to use red in their titles too, but the way in which the audience is able to

distinguish between the two is the font and the

background. The font used in this makes it look

like there are devil horns suggesting that the film

will have evil and religious aspects in it. Another thing done that adds a lot of effect is the shadows on the writing from what looks to be a fire which makes it look mysterious and evil. All these aspects of the title suggest to the audience that film will be a horror.

The opening title of the Harry Potter film series look

like they are written in an old-style font, something                  

which looks like it would be in an old hand-written book which reflects the theme of the film

which is magic and mystery. The font is a dark, old looking silver and the background is dark clouds, much like you would see when it's raining which will make the audience think that there is going to be a lot more serious and evil parts to this film compared to the traditional Harry Potter title which is gold. The P in the title is shaped the same as the scar on
Harry's forehead which is a major plot element in the film, linking the title with the film. The detailed and unique title makes it very recognizable which makes for a
great marketing tool which helps promote and sell the film.

The Bourne Legacy is an action packed spy film.

The titles of this film are in plain white block text, with each word being in a different level of boldness which makes it stand out more and gives it a sense of being more sophisticated. It is quite conventional of an action film to have plain white text. The black background of the title makes it stand out more. My group are doing an action film quite similar to The Bourne Legacy and we are probably going to use the same type of font as we want our film to seem as professional as possible.

Script

This is the script for our film. The pages should be read from left to right and may need to be enlarged so they are clearer. I am really happy with our script, not only in its contents but in its physical appearance as well, which is the result of research and analysation of other film scripts I could find online. The main script I read through, and took the format for my script from, was The Godfather (1972) written by Francis Ford Coppola and adapted from a novel of the same name written by Mario Puzo. As a result of me taking parts of the layout from this script, our script looks professional and has stage directions and dialogue that make sense to the reader. The script itself is simplistic, as would be expected from a 2 minute scene that cannot fit much in. However, we have still managed to include a sensible amount of dialogue which we can use to demonstrate shot reverse shot techniques in our film.

Shot List

Shots

#1: Close-up of train station warning sign
#2: Mid-shot of train barriers closing
#3: Long-shot of train approaching the platform
#4: Mid-shot of train rushing past camera
#5: Low angled close-up of doors of train opening and man stepping off train
#6: High angled long-shot of man walking down the platform
#7: Close-up of mans briefcase, camera pans across to match the mans walking pace
#8: Mid-shot of man walking away from camera
#9: Over-the-shoulder shot of man walking down a stone pathway
#10:Long-shot from behind a tree, with slow camera movement to suggest it is a point of view shot from an unknown onlooker
#11: Close-up of man looking around for the unknown character
#12: Extreme close-up of the man gripping the briefcase tighter
#13: Mid-shot of bolt going into tree, with the focus pull changing between the background and foreground
#14: Over-the-shoulder shot of attacker aiming a crossbow at running man
#15: Mid-shot of attacker from a side-on view as he runs after the man
#16: Mid-shot of man running past the camera and showing the attacker in the background taking aim
#17: Over-the-shoulder shot of attacker as he fires at man in background
#18: Low angled mid-shot of attacker as he sheathes his crossbow and walks over the camera
#19: High-angled mid-shot of the wounded man crawling slowly away and propping himself up against a tree
#20: Close-up of mans face showing him in pain
#21: Point-of-view shot from mans perspective looking at the bolt through his knee
#22: Mid-shot of villain facing the injured man in the background
#23: Long-shot of villain from side-on view walking towards man
#24: Close-up of villain taking the mans briefcase
#25: Mid-shot of villain crouching down to open the briefcase
#26: Close-up of padlock on briefcase
#27: Point-of-view shot from the man watching as the villain turns to face him again
#28: Close-up of man against tree
#29: Close-up of villain twisting the bolt in the mans leg
#30: Close-up of mans face showing his pain
#31: Long-shot from a side on view showing villain walking back to briefcase
#32: Extreme close-up of villain opening the padlock
#33: Close-up of villain searching through the briefcase and pulling out a harddrive
#34: Close-up of villain putting harddrive in his pocket
#35: Close-up of villain taking a phone call
#36: Mid-shot of villain facing wounded man
#37: Low-angled close-up of villain as he takes off his mask
#38: High-angled close-up of man against tree
#39: Low-angled close-up of villain
#40: High-angled close-up of man
#41: Mid-shot of villain as he kills the man

Storyboard

                                                                                       

                       

Here are pictures of our films storyboard. The pictures are ordered left to right, they may need to be enlarged in order to make it clearer. Although noone in my group has much artistic ability, we feel like the pictures are clear enough so it makes sense to the reader. We have made sure every sound and piece of dialogue in our film is accounted for in our storyboard and have even included possible background noises in shots that we know will be filmed in busy locations. We feel like we have a suitably varied shot list that is demonstrated in our storyboard. The dialogue we have in our storyboard may be rewritten by the time of filming, as we feel some of our characters lines could be phrased better or shortened if time doesn't allow for longer lines. The length of these shots are a rough outline of what we intend to do, but when we edit the scene some shots may be lengthened or shortened depending on what looks best. Overall I'm proud of the storyboard we've created and I think it gives a good idea as to the depth of planning we have put in to our opening scene.

Institution Research

These are the six major film institutions (The Big Six). Film institutions are very important as they provide the money for films to be made, and without them, no one would ever get enough money to make a decent budget film. These companies also own studios, providing places in which major films can shoot exactly what they want. The only problem with film institutions funding a film is that they like to have complete control over the project, so if you go to them for money your film may not end up being completely how you originally planned. They are all about making money, and this stops film advancing as an art form. However a lot of good films are made by studios and the film business wouldn't be what it is today without these major institutions.

 

Warner Bros studios was founded in 1903. It was formed by four brothers called the Warner brothers, and was one of the first companies to make movies with dialogue in it. They also famously started the original 'Looney Tunes', as well as many more successful cartoons. Warner Bros have a very wide range of films. They tend to make high budget movies, to make a lot of money, and their films are shown around the world. Their films appeal to a very wide range of audience as they make films from many different genres.
Previous Warner Bros films include: 'Harry Potter', 'The Departed', 'The Dark Knight', 'Slumdog Millionaire', 'P.S. I Love You', 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', 'Troy', 'Blade Runner', 'The Wrong Man'.

Paramount Studios was founded in 1916 and is one of the oldest film institutions. Steven Spielberg is a major partner with Paramount as he is one of the leading film directors in Hollywood and this is a major contributor to Paramounts success as he has many fans and followers who will watch anything he puts out, making most of his films instant money makers. Paramount are ranked as one of the highest-grossing film studios in the world. As with Warner Bros, they make a very wide range of films which targets many different audiences with each film.
Paramount films include: 'Titanic', 'Transformers' 'Indiana Jones', 'Iron Man', 'Forrest Gump', 'War of the Worlds', 'Mission Impossible', 'Shutter Island', 'Paranormal Activity' .

Sony Pictures is another of the film studios in 'the big six'. Although you wouldn't think that Sony would be in the big six it does own Columbia Pictures, which is a much more well known company. Another slightly less well known, but still widely appreciated company that they own is Tristar Pictures. As Sony are primarily associated with gaming and electronics their film side isn't as well known. Despite this, they are still one of the highest grossing companies in the world. Most of their money comes from the fact that they are already such a big company so people have heard of them so will trust in them. They also do a lot of advertising for their films through their other products (such as the PS3 gaming console).
Sony Pictures films include: 'Spiderman', 'Men in Black', 'Gladiator', 'The Da Vinci Code', 'Quantum of Solace', 'Hancock', 'The Pursuit of Happyness', 'The Adventures of Tintin, 'The Social Network', 'Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star'.


Walt Disney Pictures is probably the most famous film institution, mainly because most people grow up watching most of their films and TV shows. Disney are famous for their traditional family movies and cartoons but recently have made more action films for example 'Tron' and 'Pirates of the Caribbean' to reach out to a larger target audience by doing something a bit more appealing to teens and adults. They also own a large number of institutions: Touchstone Pictures, Pixar, Marvel, and most recently Lucasfilm. Pixar are seen as one of the best film institutions in the world, as they consistently make excellent films. Their films are enjoyable for both children and their parents, making them a real money maker. Pixar and Marvel both stray from producing a large number of films, opting instead for taking their time with each one and increasing the quality of the films. The quality of the films aren't as high as Marvel , but are more 'fun'. This is what makes for millions of fans as everyone is on edge waiting for them to bring out the next film. Through these companies Disney manages to get a huge amount of money, and it is a big factor in their recent success.

Disney films include: 'The Lion King', 'Toy Story 3', 'The Avengers', 'Pirates of the Carribean', 'Beauty and the Beast', 'High School Musical', 'Tangled', 'Thor', 'Finding Nemo', 'Hannah Montana', 'Bambi', 'The Princess and the Frog', 'Alladin', 'A Bug's Life' .

 

Universal Pictures is another major film institution. They have large theme parks around America which help promote their business, helping them make more money. Universal, like many other film institutions, make a large range of film genres to target a large market of people. They are another company that go hand in hand with Warner Bros and Paramount as they are all in it more for the money than for the art form of making films itself. However they don't disappoint bringing out big budget films that have been highly successful and have made many films that are seen to be classics for example 'E.T' and 'Jaws'.
Universal films include: 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy', 'E.T', 'Bourne Identity', 'Despicable Me', 'Back to the Future', 'A Beautiful Mind', 'American Graffiti', 'Love Actually', 'Bruce Almighty', 'Jaws', 'American Gangster', 'Mamma Mia!', 'Jurassic Park', 'King Kong', 'Meet the Fockers', 'The Mummy'.

Finally 20th Century Fox is another very large film institution well known across the world. 20th Century Fox was one of the film institutions that started a little later compared to the other big companies. This institution is owned by a news corporation which also own the Fox television channel which helps in making them a lot of money. The TV channel has pumped out many shows that the world has loved for many years. They sometimes even make films from the TV shows they play on their channel for example 'The Simpsons Movie'. 20th Century Fox tend to make very high budget films and like many other institutions, make films for a wide range of genres. Many people criticize them and say that the company is nothing more then a logo where as other institutions have more to show for, like Universal with a theme park and Sony with its electronics. However 20th Century Fox are still a widely well known institution.
Famous 20th Century Fox films include: 'Avatar', 'Star Wars', 'Independence Day', 'Home Alone', 'X-Men', 'The Simpsons Movie', 'Ice Age', 'I, Robot', 'Marley and Me', 'Taken', 'Minority Report', 'Prometheus', 'Die Hard', 'Speed', 'Alien', 'Eragon', 'True Lies', 'Titanic', 'Moulin Rouge!', 'Road to Perdition', 'Night at the Museum', 'Austrailia'.

It seems that many of the large film institutions  that started right at the beginning of film making are the most successful production companies in recent times. This makes sense as they have had the most time to evolve and grow to what they are now, giving the audience the best possible films they can make for us to enjoy. 

Influences on Production

Our film has many different influences, which has effected plot, locations and our characters. Most influences and ideas came from action films, as obviously more of the ideas these films use would be applicable to our film as we are doing the same genre. The obvious influence to our film is the James Bond series of films, which links to our use of spies in our film.  However in terms of plot, the main influence would be the Bourne film series, which focuses on the undercover government spy work which is a major theme to our opening scene. This scene in particular from The Bourne Ultimatum influenced the part of our film where our main character has to try to escape his pursuer through the forest. The idea of the audience knowing where the lead character is but always second guessing where the pursuer is hiding is a big factor to this scene, and one we are aiming to use in our film as well. However, we aim to give our scene a more tension-filled and sinister tone.

Other action films also influenced our choice of location for our film. For example, the above scene also helped influence our decision to use a train station as a location in our film as we can see that they use a normal, everyday environment that the audience knows well in order to make them feel closer to the action as they can relate to what they see onscreen more. This is the reason we chose a train station as our first location to film at. The Hunger Games and Indiana Jones both use forest environments in several of their set-pieces, and after seeing this in our research it helped us decide to set our opening scene in a forest. The forest scene out of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows also showed us how that environment can be used effectively in an action film. The forests normal tranquil and natural atmosphere is contrasted heavily with the action conventions of guns and explosions, or in our films case crossbows and blood.

Our main character being a man follows most action films, which tend to have a male in the lead role. The list of influences on this are endless but include more or less every Jason Statham, Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone film to date. Our main character being made to look professional and sophisticated despite the violence his job entails was inspired by the lead character in the 2007 film Hitman where, as you can see in the poster below, the lead is dressed in a suit and tie and wears black leather gloves. There were 2 main influences for our villain, the first being the character Daryl Dixon from the TV series The Walking Dead. He is shown to be an expert hunter and his signature weapon is a crossbow. Our villain also uses a crossbow and several shots in our film show him to be hunting our main character, making it easy to draw comparisons. The second influence for our villain is Bane out of The Dark Knight Rises. He has half of his face covered making him seem more mysterious as the audience doesn't fully know what he looks like and he is an expert fighter and killer, a trait we are trying to reflect onto our films villain. Our villain also has half of his face covered which is again, inspired by Bane as well as other movie villains who wear masks.

           

                                                    

Location Research #2

Our second location is Ashtead Common. This is where the majority of our film takes place. We chose to film here as a forest can offer plenty of dynamic shots and is visually interesting as well. Ashtead Common is near to our first filming location, Ashtead train station which means we can track our characters journey from our first set to the second without wasting a lot of screen time. We are filming down a stone pathway that leads deeper into the forest shown in this picture. This also shows the camera angle and shot type we will be using in our opening scene for this location.









We are also filming shots that take place deeper in the forest. We think the remote location adds to the tension as the action that takes place is private and away from the public eye. Another positive aspect to using this location is production-wise, we're almost guaranteed no disturbance from other people walking into shot or causing noise that disrupts the shot. This picture shows how one of our shots in our opening scene should look, and we want to change the focus pull of this shot between the background and the foreground where the tree is.









This is the spot in this location we chose to film the end of our opening scene at. Our main character will be slumped against this tree when he is shot by his attacker. We need to make sure the light from the background doesn't ruin the lighting of the shot, so we'll try to block this unnecessary brightness out.

Location Research #1

We have two locations we have picked to film at. The first is Ashtead train station, for the beginning of our film where we are introduced to the character the opening scene focuses on. We needed a train station that was not too big or busy for production purposes as it would have taken longer to film the shots in a loud train station due to all the background noise, and we didn't want that disrupting the scene or distracting the audience. Ashtead station is small enough too avoid this. However it also looks modern enough to still fit in with the modern storyline of our opening scene.





Another reason would be the fact that most of our opening scene takes place in a forest, so starting the scene off in a large busy city train station then jumping to a quiet, deserted location would've been too confusing for the audience, as well as not being very realistic. Filming at Ashtead train station allows us to track our characters steps between the station and the forest, as they are close to one another. This means we can link the 2 locations in a few shots, whereas getting our lead character from a large city train station to a forest would've required a lot of shots to explain to the audience how the character got from A to B.










Another benefit of this location is how you can see the trains approaching the station from a long way away, which is the idea for one of our opening shots. We want the cameras perspective to be from the station platform filming the train just as it comes round the corner, which is when our background music will start. This picture shows what kind of shot we are aiming at getting.

Location Research Video Diary

Technical difficulties are preventing me from uploading my video diary from my groups location research to my blog, but it can be viewed on my filming partners blog at: 

http://petercavallarig321.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/video-diary-location-research.html

The video diary is listed under Video Diary: location research. Filmed on our way to researching our first location, Ashtead train station.

Mood Board

 

This is a mood board with images relating to my film.

 

1) Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight represents the villain in our film, who is crazed and has an off-kilter personality.

2) This picture of Howard Stark in Captain America shows the kind of costume our main character will be wearing, with a smart suit giving him a look of professionalism

3) This picture shows the kind of shot we are aiming at producing, with the background being the focus pull of the shot and the foreground blurred to draw the audiences attention.

4) Part of the inspiration for our villain comes from this character, Daryl from The Walking Dead, who is good at hunting and identifiable by his crossbow, which our villain will also be using.

5) This is the kind of briefcase we want for our main prop, with folders inside that can be made to look like they include top secret information.

6) This is an example of when a villain is all black, which connotes evil and darkness. This villain is Venom from Spiderman 3. This is why we chose to dress our villain all in black.

7) Jason from Friday 13th is an example of a villain being more menacing when you cannot see their face, which is why we decided to have our villains face partially covered with a balaclava.

8) James Bond is a representation of a theme in our film, which is spies and undercover government work.

9) This image shows a collection of film characters that use crossbows and bow and arrows, showing how popularised this prop has become.

10) The blood in this shot compares to the blood we'll be using in our film, with the violent nature of the shot appealing to our target audience.

11) This is a shot of a location used in The Hunger Games, a large forest. We'll be using a similar location in our film as we think it will create more tension and looks visually interesting.

Focus Pull

 

This tutorial I found on Youtube explains exactly what a focus pull and rack focusing is. We are more interested in a simple focus pull, as many of the shots we have in mind for our film would require a change in focus pull between the background and foreground of the shot to draw the audiences attention to different events happening in the film. This tutorial also explains the best type of lenses to use for focus changing when filming, which will help us if we do need to buy a lens for our camera, which we think we might.

Props

Our opening scene requires quite a few props in order to fit with our chosen genre. These include a crossbow, crossbow bolts, a briefcase, fake blood and a mobile phone. Our main prop, the crossbow and its bolts, will be used by the villain of our film to catch the main character and steal his briefcase. This prop will come from a family member of our group. Thematically, we think the crossbow is a good choice of weapon for our villain, as it makes him seem more violent and anarchic and gives the audience a sense of the crazy personality of our villain. A convention of most film villains is a mentally unstable background, which is represented in many action films such as The Joker in The Dark Knight and Raoul Silva in Skyfall. Mike Myers in Halloween would be another example of a mentally unwell villain, although this is from a different genre. Therefore our crossbow prop helps to give our villain the qualities of a conventional film villain. To let the audience know who they should be siding with, the use of a crossbow suggests the man using it is the villain as it is a particularly nasty and medieval way of killing someone. Production-wise, we also like this choice of prop as it allows us to explore many different shots that a weapon such as a gun or knife would not allow. For example, aside from shots of the crossbow being aimed and fired (which in itself we think is more visually interesting to watch than a gun doing the same thing) we also can have shots of bolts fired from the crossbow darting into trees and this will look especially interesting when our main character gets hit by a bolt.

Our second most important prop will be the main characters briefcase. This will contain something of clear importance that is not revealed to the audience in the opening scene, to gain the audiences interest and make them want to watch on. It is the only explanation the audience have for what is going on in the scene, and explains the characters motives for their violent actions.  The briefcase itself looks professional to match the main characters business-like appearance. The case also has a lock on it as this gives our villain a reason to force a combination out of the main character, showing his dark personality. Fake blood will be needed for when our main character is hit through the leg by one of the villains bolts. We want it to look as realistic as possible, so will more than likely buy actual fake blood from a joke shop. If not, we can make fake blood ourselves out of home ingredients. We can then stick one of the bolts through the actors trouser legs to make it look like it has actually gone through his leg. The final prop, a mobile phone, will be used only at the end of our scene by the villain to confirm the job is done to an unknown authority. 

Questionnaire Feedback

The results from our questionnaire helped tell us a lot about our target audience. Results from the question about genre preferences showed that half of the 15-24 year olds we questioned favoured action over other genres. This tells us we are aiming our film at the right age group as most have an interest in action. Comedy and romance were liked evenly, with all the people who favoured romance being female and comedy being male, conforming to the stereotypes on those genre audiences

Our second question was about the number of times our target audience visited a cinema per year. Most said between 1-10, which is lower than we expected. Strangely only one of the people we questioned went to the cinema between 11-20 times a year, but three people said they went over 20 times a year. This suggests a lot of this age group watches films through DVD rather than going to the cinema.

Our third questions feedback told us that half of our target audience are likely to spend under £50 on films per year (including DVD purchases and cinema visits) and only 1 in 10 is likely to spend over £100. Not one person we questioned said they spent no money on films, showing that this age group is keen on films.

The fourth questions feedback was mixed, as it was hard to put the question as a multiple choice because there were so many different answers. After grouping our answers together into different categories we found that most of this age group is disinterested in dialogue driven or "clever" films, which ties into the fact that most of the age group enjoy action films. Half the people we sampled were divided into explosions and humour, which meant oddly enough relationships was the most interesting part of films for this age group, which was unexpected.

Our last questions feedback told us that the majority of 15-24 year olds had large DVD collections, with over half of the people sampled owning 41 DVD's or more. Few people owned less than 20 DVD's, which also shows this age groups interest in films and explains why so much money for action films is earned through DVD releases.

Costumes

Our main character will be wearing a suit and tie outfit for our opening scene. This is to give the character an air of professionalism and show him to be of some importance in whatever he does. The briefcase prop will also let the audience know that this character is working in underhand activities and suggest he works within the government. The suit and tie should help to reinforce this imagery. He will also be wearing well-polished leather shoes to show the character is meticulous and thorough, which also connotes power and control. This will be contrasted heavily by the end of our opening scene, where the main character of the scene has been beaten by the villain and is killed in the mud. The way this character has been shown to be powerful only to be beaten by our villain only shows how powerful our villain is. If we can, we'd like to reinforce this imagery by having a shot early on of the polished shoes, then contrast this at the end of our opening scene with a similar shot, only showing the shoes dirty and caked in mud.

Our villain will be wearing an all black costume. Black trainers, black jeans, and a black jacket will make sure the villain is always associated with darkness, which has connotations of evil. He'll also be wearing a ripped balaclava, which covers only the lower half of his face. This makes him seem more dangerous, as the audience can see he wants to cover his face in order to protect his identity. The fact the balaclava only covers the lower half of his face shows this character must be in danger a lot as his clothing is ripped. The all black costume also ties in with the part of our scene where our villain is hiding in the shadows, spying on the main character.

Certificate Research

A films certificate is issued by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) to state that in its opinion and by law a film, video recording or game shouldnot be seen or purchased by a person under the age of that certificate. Every film is analysed and issued either a U, PG, 12, 12A, 15 or 18 certificate.

The film that our group is making is an action film. A large majority of action films are rated 15. This is because the target audience for actions are 15-23 and if the film is rated 18 a large proportion of their target audience isn't allowed to go and watch or purchase the film. This means they may lose out on profit they could have made if the film was a 15 and a bigger audience could be targeted. For example, Taken 2 was rated 15, and the majority of its audience (38%) were 15-24 year olds. If it had have been rated 18 it would have lost a lot of this audience and earned less than its £8,000,000 takings. Another example would be Bad Boys 2, which had 64% of its audience made up of 15-24 year olds. However, some actions are still rated 12A and 18, although there are few that earn as much money as a 15 rated action film.

Our film follows the majority of other action films as it would more than likely gain a 15 certificate. This is because we plan to have a bit of violence and a shot of an arrow going through someones leg with blood showing, which may look quite graphic if we do it correctly and may be inappropriate for younger audience members. Our film is targeted at that age group anyway and we know the violence and blood in our film would appeal to their interests so we would expect and be happy with a certificate of 15.

Questionnaire

Here is our film questionnaire. We're hoping to distribute it to at least 10 different people and we aim to cover both genders of our target age group of teenagers and young adults in our sample. This will help us find out about our target audience and what their interests are and their level of interest in our genre and different parts of films.

Transporter 3 Opening Scene Analysis

 

Transporter 3 is a 2008 French-produced action film, starring Jason Statham. The series follows Statham's character Frank Martin, a man who will transport any package without questions for the right price. The film opens with a closeup of a piece of paper being held with the name Malcolm and a phone number written on it. The whiskey in the background of the shot is a very masculine drink and has a sophisticated image associated with it, appealing to the action genre target audience of men. The camera changes to a mid-shot, showing two men sitting at a table, one of them Frank Martin, the other an unknown eastern European man. Frank passes the paper over to the unknown man, who seems displeased as he was asking for Franks price for his services and instead received an alternate man to call. Shot reverse shot is used to show the characters conversation and reactions to each others lines. Lines of dramatic impact are delivered in a closer shot. The soft and quiet background music amplifies the tension. As Frank refuses the offer once again and stands to walk away, he is surrounded by 3 other men who stop him in his tracks. The man grabs Franks jacket and tells him he has 10 seconds to change his mind, Frank comes back with a cliched cheesy action line "I'll give you 5 seconds to remove your hand."

Suddenly the shots speed up dramatically, and the background music changes into something more fast-paced. Shots here vary a lot to give the audience the best view of the fight scene that begins. Another cliche of the genre is the bad guys never attacking the hero at the same time, and that is conformed to in this scene. A brief pause from the fast pace of the editing shows an example of match on action, where we see Frank throw his jacket to one side and in the next shot we see the jacket landing perfectly on a coat hanger.  Many shots of Frank twisting the attackers arms or causing them pain in some way are shot from a low angle, with Frank above his attackers to make him look more powerful. When the 3 accomplices have been dealt with Frank and the other man from the beginning of the scene square off against each other. After another brief pause to show the characters preparing for the fight, the action resumes again. Each shot tries to show the characters moves from different angles to make the scene more interesting. After the man bad guy has been beaten, one of the accomplices returns, only to have his head smashed against a piano repeatedly by Frank. This gives the audience a piece of the violence they wanted to see from a film of this genre. The scene ends with Frank catching his jacket just before it falls to the floor, and calmly walks away from the chaos. This again makes the character seem as cool and masculine as possible, so male audience members enjoy putting themselves in his shoes.

This opener lets the audience know the filmmakers know exactly what they want from the film, and they waste no time in giving it to them. Although clearly incredibly cliched, (particularly with the white male hero and the eastern European villains) it's also clear that the film is aware of this, and embraces these cliches so they can get to the action sequences, which are more important to the audience than an amazing and original script.

Sherlock Holmes Opening Scene Analysis

 

Sherlock Holmes is a 2009 film labelled as an action mystery. It stars Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law. The film opens with a creative way of showing the production companies involved in making the film, with each companies logo panned across on a paved floor as if they are part of the brickwork. Background music that will become the main theme music of the film and the main character starts, which sounds like an off-key or slightly broken piano. The music is fast paced, has an air of mystery to it and has an old feeling to it, which matches the films historical setting in Victorian London. The olden style brickwork in the shot also matches the music and the location together. In the same shot the camera pans up from the bricked pavement to show three carriages pulled by horses moving quickly through narrow streets at night time. It is clear from the speed they are travelling at, the metal bars on the back of the carriages and the policemen on top of the carriage that this is official and important business. The same shot that opened the film continues, zooming fast down the road after the last carriage until the audience can see through the metal bars. The camera passes a seemingly random small fire on its pursuit of the carriage, which connotes danger and action. The background music also builds pace and volume as the camera moves faster, to build audience anticipation and expectations of action. Through the metal bars we see two men, both wearing Victorian style hats and costumes, adding to the realism of the film.

The next shot shows a closeup of a shotgun being loaded by one of the men in the carriage, followed by a pistol being checked by the other. This tells the audience these men are expecting confrontation at wherever they are going, and raises questions as to where they're going and why. A series of short shots show another man running, although it is not clear whether it is away from something or towards something. Match on action is used in the editing when we see the character running past a small fire from a side-on perspective that only shows his legs, then have a long shot of the character from behind that shows the same small fire just behind him. This makes the transition between shots less noticeable. Another editing technique used is crosscutting. Close-up shots of the horses as they run are interspersed between shots of the man running, which draws comparisons between the 2 events as both groups of people are in a frantic rush, this helps to build tension. Lighting is used effectively at showing brief glimpses of the running man without revealing the character entirely. We already know the character is important due to his prevalence in the shots, but not fully revealing him adds mystery. Another shot of a pistol being loaded reinforces the idea of danger and action onto the audience. We cut back to the running man in a closeup, then a long shot, then back to a closeup. The change in shots makes an otherwise simple shot more interesting to watch. The man jumps off a small ledge and rolls forward, and when he straightens up the camera changes to a closeup of the characters face, revealing him to be Sherlock Holmes.

The films opening scene checks off one of the requirements for all action films, a chase scene. Although nobody actually seems to be being chased, the speed of the carriages and the pace of the shots certainly match that of a chase scene. This opener also raises questions for the audience as they've been thrown straight into the action without any real explanation or set-up.

The Dark Knight Rises Analysis

 

The Dark Knight Rises is a 2012 action film that is the final chapter in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. The film fits into the sub-genre of superhero films, but still has all the normal conventions of an action film. The opening scene begins with an extreme long shot, showing a plane flying around a grassy mountain. The location is definitely eye-catching and makes the shot more visually interesting. Some background music also begins that sounds mysterious and builds tension. In the next shot we are inside the plane, and can see three men on their knees with bags over their heads and their hands tied, clearly being held captive.

The audience are also introduced to a man who we can connote works for the government by the way he mentions "the agency." The way this man fumbles to get his gun out of its holster and the fact this is shown in close-up suggests his inexperience or nerves. He is backed up by several soldiers, all in camo uniform and holding guns, showing the importance of whatever mission they are on. Another man who is a doctor is also in the plane, but the audience are unsure why at this point in the film so this raises questions. The agent then threatens to throw the captives who do not talk out of the plane. After firing the gun out of the plane door and pretending he shot one of the captives and threw him out of the plane, the man begins to interrogate the second captive. He says "tell me about Bane! Why does he wear the mask?" This raises questions for the audience themselves, who are now intrigued as to who Bane is themselves, why he is so important and why he wears a mask?

The third captive speaks up and outsmarts the agent, asking why he would bother to shoot a man before throwing him out of a plane. This shows this mysterious characters intelligence and confidence, as well as his importance as he is the only one out of the three captives to speak. The man speaks with an almost mechanical voice, letting the audience know there is something off about this character before he is revealed. The agent takes the characters head bag off very slowly, showing his cautiousness. When the bag is lifted we see a metal mask with lots of pipes that completely covers the lower half of his face. This makes the character seem more scary and raises more questions. The audience can assume this is the Bane the agent was asking about. Once the mask is off, Bane is always shot through a low angle to reflect his power and the agent is always shot from a high angle highlighting his weakness. Bane tells the agent the next part of his plan is to crash the plane they are on. A second larger plane is shown flying above the first, showing it to be a threat.

The background music has been gradually escalating throughout this scene, hinting at the oncoming action. A team of geared out professional-looking men rappel from the second plane down to the first, and fire machine guns through the windows from the outside, killing the soldiers. Rappelling is featured in the majority of action movies recently and is starting to turn into a cliche. The rappel men then use high-tech equipment to link the first plane to the second with wires, allowing them to tilt the first plane vertical. Banes strength is displayed as he prevents himself from falling down the plane aisle by pushing down on the plane seats, a shot that is taken from a very low-angle to highlight this strength. This subverts action stereotypes of making the villain less muscular and more inclined to fight with his brain.

After the men rappel into the plane and perform a blood transfusion between the doctor and a random man in a body bag, Bane and the doctor are hooked up to a wire and dragged out of the plane and towards the second plane. The first plane is shown slowly falling to the ground, guaranteed to kill anyone on board that is still alive. The large-scale action set-piece is a great film-opener, as it lets the audience know what to expect from the rest of the film. The villain is also introduced and the audience is shown the threat he imposes early on.

Action Target Audience

The action genre is lucky in that it appeals to a broad range of audience. Although the majority of its target audience is male, the age group can span from early teens all the way up to 40-50 year olds. Most action films can be divided into 2 sections, one geared towards the younger male audience and one geared towards the older male audience. The latest Jason Statham film would appeal to the younger audience whereas Red 2 with Bruce Willis, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren would appeal to the older audience. Women are stereo typically less interested in action films as the loud explosions and gunfire do not appeal to them as much as it does to men.

The hero in the film is always strong and masculine as the audience then enjoys imagining themselves as part of the action. To help the audience detach themselves as far as possible from their boring everyday lives an action film often takes place in a far off exotic land like the Caribbean or Italy. This also makes for more interesting establishing shots and locations that you would not get in Surrey. Action films get away with having less realism as the audience forgives a few plot holes or laws of physics being broken in order to see spectacular set-pieces with car chases and mass brawls. Action films are less focused on the plot and the script and more focused on the carnage and debris their audience want to see.

Action Conventions

This is a mindmap I have created to show many of the locations, characters and cliches you would expect to see in a typical action film.

Hitch Opening Scene Analysis

 

Hitch is a 2005 romantic-comedy starring Will Smith, who plays a 'date doctor', a man who teaches other men how to woo women. The opening scene introduces the audience to Will Smiths character, Alex, and gives them an idea as to what he does and the methods he uses. Alex begins narrating over a brief montage of different men seeing women they are interested in. In every different situation shown it is always the man admiring the woman rather than vice versa, making women seem more powerful than men. Alex's narration details his knowledge about relationships, showing his expertise. A convention of romance films is talked about in this narration, rather than shown, and that is a romantic lead initially not liking the other lead.

The location is shown to be in America in a city environment, likely New York. This is shown through the classic yellow taxi cab identified with New York in many classic films. New York is a popular setting for many romance films, as it has a mass market appeal as many people across the world can identify with New York. We then see the lockers in an apartment block. A woman we have followed through parts of the montage leaves the foreground of the shot, and Alex enters in the foreground in close-up, also becoming the focus pull of the shot. This is the first time we see his character. The narration continues, although it is now delivered directly to the audience in a soliloquy from Alex, breaking the fourth wall.

Alex's costume is a suit, showing an air of professionalism. The lack of tie and undone top button on his shirt also suggests a laid back attitude. In other words, the audience is supposed to look at Alex as a cool character. We know of his importance because he gets the prevalence of the shots as soon as he is introduced, and is mainly shown in close-up. The audience also sees his intelligence and methods in the introduction. Alex uses a dog to lure another dog to him, that belongs to the woman shown in the montage. He then hands the dog to a man outside her apartment block, who then lays in front of a cab with her dog in his hands, so the woman believes he dived in front of it to save her dog.

We see 2 quick shots of Alex shaking hands with the other 2 men shown in the montage, which suggests he is popular and successful in what he does. The next shot is a long shot of the man handing the dog back to the woman, which then pans downwards and puts the foreground in focus to show Alex talking again to the camera. He talks about the "basic principles" and tells the audience how any man can get any woman, which provides the hope and inspiration many of the target market look for in a romance film. The opening scene ends with an establishing shot of the famous New York skyline, confirming the setting of the film.

She's Out of My League Analysis

 

She's Out of My League is a 2010 American romantic-comedy starring Jay Baruchel and Alice Eve. The film begins with a lengthy shot that begins as a close-up of the main character and pans back into a mid-shot after a minute. It is clear who the focus of the film is on as the only person that the opening shot aims to introduce is the main character, Kirk. Kirk is sitting in the foreground of the shot addressing the camera directly, with a grass, trees and a blue sky in the background. The natural location of the shot sets a romantic tone for the film, with the lead supposedly talking to his love interest in this environment. The audience are made to sympathise for this character through his clear awkwardness (shown through his poor jokes and snorting laugh, associated with the 'nerdy' archetype) and the situation he's in, convincing his ex-girlfriend to start going out with him again after a prolonged "time off." Kirk's costume also helps the audience to sympathise with him, with the name tag over his simple white shirt and tie suggesting he is in a small-time job. The black hoodie he wears over the top also suggests he is not paid a lot of money or does not care about his appearance. A romantic tone to the scene is also provided by the ambient sound, which consists of bird noises and the soft piano background music.

With the next shot, the film suddenly takes the action in a different direction. A long shot from a different angle reveals that the location of the scene is actually just a rooftop in an airport, and the trees and blue sky are actually just on a billboard behind the main character. Audience expectations have already been subverted, showing the comedy part of the film. The background music changes to support this change in tone, with a more upbeat song replacing the piano music. We have a genre convention displayed when we are introduced to the main characters friends, who were really the ones listening to Kirks opening speech. We have the typical cynical sarcastic friend and the stupid but loveable friend introduced to us, which are cliches represented in a lot of films. The audience are also shown the stereotypical lazy slob of a friend which is shown through the dirtiness of his costume. Another convention of a lot of romantic films is the main character being in a relationship with the wrong person at the start of the film before they find the films real love interest. This is shown in the opening scene through the cynical friend, Stainer, talking about his hate of Marnie, Kirk's current love interest. Realism is added to the scene with the ambient digetic sound of airplanes taking off, reminding the audience of the location.