Analysis of Opening Sequences - Casino Royale

Action, Crime and Thriller 
Armed with a license to kill, Secret Agent James Bond sets out on his first mission as 007 and must defeat a weapons dealer in a high stakes game of poker at Casino Royale, but things are not what they seem.

The pre-credit of the sequence gives the audience a rough idea of what the storyline is about.  It starts with Bond's trademark gun barrel with James Bond character as the central figure and that connotes it is a action, crime genre film. Also, Bond is the only character introduced in the whole sequence to show his importance in the film. 

The usage of white and black in the sequence suggests the contrast between the relationship of the good and bad. The red used signifies the passion and possibly the love for his girls. The use of the aces, clovers, hearts, diamonds relate back to the theme of the title - casino and card playing. As the animation pan on scene, it is like showing his story and the role in his job(spy) with the guns and fighting; which also represents the dangers and how it may be life-threatening. The soundtrack is face paced and tense which emphasise the chasing and fighting, which also builds up tension and have a right mindset for the film. 

Analysis of Opening Sequence - Fast & Furious 6

Action, Crime and Thriller
Hobbs has Dom and Brian reassemble their crew in order to take down a mastermind who commands an organization of mercenary drivers across 12 countries. Payment? Full pardons for them all.

They have started the film with a recap from the previous 5 Fast & Furious. "Let's go for a little ride" suggests "let's have a recap" and as the audience recall things from past, it helps them relate to the story more quickly. 

A montage of close-up shots of the interior design in a car at a fast pace which connotes the idea of fast cars and racing. The protagonists were introduced at the very beginning without any mystery because audience already know who they are and what they do from the previous Fast & Furious films. The flash back of the crashing, chasing, explosions suggests the danger and fun of the game/mission. 

The soundtrack is specifically recorded for this film's title sequence and they have matched some of the wording in the song with the visual from the film. For example: 'in the dark' and it shows a picture of Vin Diesel lighting up from the dark. 

The order of characters introduced is the order of their role's importance in the film. They have also layout the titles in the same way, firstly the production companies; Universal Pictures then the main actors' names; Vin Diesel, Paul Walker then director, costume designer and so on. 

Analysis of Opening Sequence - Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Action, Adventure and Crime
Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson join forces to outwit and bring down their fiercest adversary, Professor Moriarty.

The use of vintage items such as the typewriter suggests the time period is set in the pass. For the production company logos, they have sketched it to fit in with the old, aged idea and makes the audience feel like it is part of the movie. The clothing also suggests it is not set in present time as the characters wore corsets dresses and old-fashioned classic suits. 

The protagonist is introduced through the narration (sound bridged) which shows it is 'his' story. There was a few over head shots and close up shots on grabbing beans/rice to establish the setting. To build the tension, a bomb scene was included and it didn't show what happened afterwards which makes audience want to know. The interesting use of track, mid shot framing of the women (no face, just body) creates a sense of mystery and makes audience question who she is. 

There is no music at the very beginning and then slowly/quietly fades in which gets attention and builds mood. The background music they use is fast and up-beat which suggest this is an action movie. It is also very subtle in the background to allow mood building up but at the same time not over powering the diegetic sound. 

However the plot is unclear which makes the audience wonder and want to watch on. 

Institution

Institutions that might distribute our film: 

1) Revolver Entertainment - This is one of the UK leading 'All Rights' independents, multi-award winning film distributor and production company that continues to shake up the industry with a unique, innovative approach to managing releases. It was founded in 1997, the company has operations in both London and Los Angeles. In the past 10 years Revolver's independent spirit and flair has been awarded with 18 of the industry's top awards for marketing excellence. 

I have chosen this institution as one of our potential distribution company because it has produced lots of successful low budget films such as kidulthood and Ill Manors. Revolver's films are available through a multitude of platforms in addition to physical DVDs and the company has deals in place with Apple's iTunes, X-Box, Netflix and Amazon. The company also strives to ensure it maximises TV rights to all of its films through its strong relationships with numerous broadcast networks. This means that our film can appeal to people who would rather stay at home to watch and it is also a very effective method to increase our profit. 

By using social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and others; it also provide a 'free' marketing service for our film. This can target our ideal audience (15-25) directly as most of them spend most of their time on social networking sites nowadays. 

2) Warner Bros - An American producer of film, television, and music entertainment. It is one of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank, California (NY). Warner Bros is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). They have distributed a lot of famous films and is one of the well known high budget film distributor. For example, Harry Potter, Hobbit, Batman, Man of Steel and many more. 

They would be a great distributor because the company itself is well known and having them to distributing the film will make the film popular and seem high budget to audience although it may not necessarily be a high budget film. Therefore it will also increase our profit/box office hugely. However since we are low budget producers, there isn't much chance of them distributing our film so it is best sticking with an UK distributor. 

Genre Research

Preliminary Sequence Evaluation

What you thought went well?
I thought the shots and editing went quite well. The shots were clear and the range of different shots used made it look interesting and fascinating to audience. The cuts was just on point, for example the match on action was correctly done. We have also made sure we didn't break the 180° rule while filming over shoulder shots and others. The lighting was also good because we used natural lighting therefore everything in the shot that's meant to be seen was seen very clearly seen since it is bright. 


Criticisms
Some of the criticisms from our classmate is that the the sequence need to have continuity  since we have filmed the first part on a normal, sunny day and the second part on a rainy and dull day. Another criticism is that the tracking shot of Katie walking is too long and could be cut shorter or use effects like fading to help make it shorter. 


Do you agree with the criticisms or not?
I totally agree with the criticisms we got back from them because those were the things we noticed was done wrong while editing but we didn't have time to re-film and fix it. I think this is something that we need to focus on when doing our actual opening sequence and make sure they are done to the highest standard. 


Organisation - time keeping, planning etc. 
I thought our organisation for this pre-lim sequence went quite well since we only had less than 1 hour to finish the storyboard and script. We did not finish everything during that one hour planning. What we did was while filming, we were planning on the spot for the sequence, the shots we are going to use, and how to improve some of the shots we already shot. For example, at the very beginning we used skateboard to track the shot of Lucy's feet walking but we realised the background sound from the skateboard was too loud and it is very shaky therefore we thought of using other props like a box lid and strings instead to improve it.   


How to Improve? 
I think we could improve by making sure we have the continuity of the sequence - the clothes the actors were wearing, the weather, the lighting, the way they have their and others. We could also use a external microphone to block off all the unwanted sounds like the sound of the wind, etc. We could also use a higher quality camera to improve the quality and colours of the film. 

Preliminary Sequence

After getting into our groups, we were told to film a short video of a conversation including certain shots. For example: 2 close ups, 1 tracking shot, 2 mid shots. The purpose of this activity is to prepare us for our proper opening sequence later on. This allow us to have a rough idea how long it will take, what type of shots looks good, how often do you have to include a different shot, the lighting we are going to use, how to cut/edit and others.

Ranking Opening Sequences

1) The Deception (12E8) - I have ranked this first because I liked the title animation idea they did at the beginning. The shot reverse shot used is very well edited and the use of montage creates tension and that is good for an opening sequence because it can hook the audience into watching more. The music they used match the actions quite well and changed accordingly. I also thought the idea of using the ripples of the water to represent the sound of the door bell very clever. 

2) The Slayer (12E10) - There are a lot of different shots used and that makes it interesting. The story line was very clear and the details in the office helped hugely for audience to understand who the characters are. However, I think the music could be improved. 

3) Abduction (12C6) - They have used good camera shots/framing. I thought the idea of the CCTV was quite clever and nicely edited but it was a bit long. The titles wasn't very good either.  

4)  Snakes and Ladders (12B2) - The graphic match was beautifully edited and filmed and the titles at the beginning was good but not during the middle. There was too many close up shots and the storyline wasn't clear. It is also edited in way that's more like a TV show. 

5) Graves (12C7) - They have used interesting camera shots and the panning was satisfying. Both the storyline and voice over was clear and easy to understand. However, the camera was a bit shaky.

6) Bacterium (12B1) - I like the titles and the shot reverse shot was edited nicely but a bit long. The storyline was not very clear and they need to cut down on the walking and focus more on what they are doing (storyline). I didn't like the music because I feel like it doesn't fit well.

7) Rundown (12E7) - I thought the titles was interesting and fits genre. A lot of action shots was included and some of them was very good, for example the over head shot and when he steps in the puddle. However, the start and end was terribly but together and didn't make sense at all. 

8) It Swings in Roundabouts (12C7) - Good effects, interesting flash-back shots and music matched the genre, which helps create tension. The sounds effects need to be improved and the acting was quite bad. 

9) Chroniker (12A2) - The idea of split screens they used was clever but it went on for too long and got boring. The story and ending didn't really make sense. The music was quite bad and annoying, and the sound bridge at the beginning was too long.   

10) The Resistance (12B6) - They have use interesting POV shot. The shot reverse shot was badly filmed because they are looking directly at the camera which doesn't feels like a conversation. The camera was often shaky and the acting needs improvement. 

11) 1962 (12E9) - Terrible framing, storyline wasn't clear. The music got annoying and the screaming was very irritating.