Research for three examples of chosen task

By Ollie Dwyer

EXISTING FILM OPENINGS: CRIME GENRE

KILL BILL: VOL. 1

In this film opening most of the scene uses the same shot. As this opening starts the camera shows a close up of a women laying on the floor in pain and covered in blood. The only other shot used in this opening is when a man walks into the scene, and the camera focus’s on his feet as he walks. This man is talking to her calmly, however at the end of the scene there is a loud bang (gunshot) and it seems that blood comes out from her head, suggesting to the reader that this man has shot her. The reader never gets to see his face, but they do see that the name ‘Bill’ is on his napkin as he wipes this women’s bloody face. The reader has no idea why this crime was committed or who either of these characters are, although they should gather that this mans name is bill.

WATCHMEN

This opening starts with a man sitting on his sofa, the reader will not think that any thing is out of the ordinary. However the camera focus’s on the door from the other side and a shot shows the man on his sofa looking at a shadow coming from underneath the other side of the door. It will become clear to the reader that, this man dressed in black is going to attack the man in the dressing gown.

The sound of the TV is amplified as the two men fight to perhaps create tension and suspence The music that is men’t to be coming from the TV is quite jolly and contridits the fact that two people are fighting each other to the death.

Finally slow motion is used to show the man who is being attack being thrown out of a window. A small smiley face badge falls down as the man is falling. This also contridicts the action that is taking place in the film.

LORD OF WAR

This film opening starts off in a factory, the camera zooms into a machine. It then becomes clear that this is a factory for making bullets as the camera follows behind one bullet In particular. This bullet moves down the factory belt line and ends up being shipped off in a box among other bullets. The box of bullets travels between three different sets of people after it is shipped out. It seems that these bullets end up in the control of what readers might think of to be a illegal small private army. It doesn’t seem legal as the men at the end don’t seem to be wearing an army uniform of any sort, and a young boy is shot by the the bullet in which the camera was following from the start.

The music in this video is quite slow paced, but is also quite uplifting. The music used could be said to be relaxing, which goes against what is actually happening in the video, as the actual content seen is not relaxing and uplifting.

The opening credits start with the title of the film ‘Lord of war’. The various actors and producers are then listed throughout the opening as their titles fade in and out slowly. The opening credits stop as the camera follows the barrel of the gun just before the young man is shot at the end.

KILL BILL: VOL. 1 - DETAILED RESEARCH At the start of the Kill Bill film opening a women can be heard panting and breathing heavily, although she cannot be seen yet. I think applying sound to a picture before any action can be seen gives the opening a mysterious effect, as the audience will begin to wonder what is causing that sound. This is an aspect of filming which Josh and I might decided to add to our crime film opening at some point in order too make the feel of the opening more intense.

This film opening has been shot in black and white, this is likely to be because the producer wants to make the audience feel like this is a past event/flashback, which is in turn the cause and effect for the action that will later take place in the film. Another interpretation is that it could be a flash-forward of the action that is going to take place later In the film. Josh and I we’re thinking about perhaps applying some form of flashback to our crime film opening. We could do this in similar way to how it has been done in the Kill Bill opening through black and white film editing.

The camera stays closely zoomed in on the female character’s face, as she lay on the floor in the Kill Bill film opening. This allows the audience to see her facial expressions and recognise the pain that she is in. We may apply aspects of this to our film opening as we are planning on having a confrontational scene between two of the characters in our film opening and we think it will be good to show the facial expressions of the characters when they are in pain. A title screen shows almost as soon after the women character is shot. This means that the audience does not have a long time to analysis what has happened, therefore they are left which questions, like is she dead or not? In our film opening we may decide to leave the audience on a cliff hanger like this.

This film is age rated 18 so clearly it is aimed at people aged 18 or above to enjoy. However not all crime genre films are 18 a lot of them are 15’s depending on the amount of violence, strong language, sexual scenes and aspects of illegal behaviour. Most people who see this film are likely to be between the ages of 18-40 both male and female. We feel that our film opening should be rated a 15 as there will not be excessive amounts of violence or strong language however it will include some.

WATCHMEN - DETAILED RESEARCHThe watchmen opening scene is shot in very low level light, this emphasise's the dark feel which it seems this scene in trying to create. It is clear that one man has come to kill the other and both are prepared to fight to the death, which in turn is dark as murder is on of the worst crimes that a human being can commit, not only in terms of the law but also in terms of norms and morals. We may use a lower level of lighting for our confrontational scene in our film opening, as we feel that this could make it more dramatic and perhaps a little bit more sinister, in turn the audience we be easily able to fit our film opening into the crime genre.

The audience never manages to see the face of the attacker in this film opening. This leaves them with questions such as who is this attacker? Why did he want to kill this man? Why was the other man not surprised? Was he expecting this attack? What is the past of these two men? These questions will make the audience want to continue watching as they will want to find the answers to them through watching the film. We therefore may use a similar aspect in our film opening, leaving the audience with an unanswered question. For example perhaps someone will try to kill our main character but the audience will not find out why.

The camera shot often focus’s on the weapons which these two characters try to use against each other in this film opening, this emphasise's the fact that this is a crime film as guns and knifes are often associated with criminal behaviour in modern society.

The target audience for this film is clearly people at the age of 18 or above as this is the age classification of the film itself. However it is likely that the age range between most of the audience is between 18-40. Both males and females will watch films that are largely based round the crime genre such as watchmen, as crime is a very real and continuing issue that occurs in modern day life and society in all different areas of the world.

LORDS OF WAR – DETAILED RESEARCH This film doesn’t follow the usual conventions of a crime film, although this film is about a man trafficing guns it is not always illegal. However much of the audience would see it as a crime as this man is acting against moral values and the unwritten rules of society.

This film opening focus’s mainly on one particular bullet, as it passes through the different stages of production and travel. The audience is left with unanswered questions like, is this all legal? Are these people at the end fighting a legal war? It would seen to the audience that this is a crime as the people in this factory are willingly making products that will later be used to kill people.

Black title screens have been put into this opening in order to show credits briefly, whilst the camera switches between the process of travel and production of these bullets. We are thinking of using black title cut anyways in our film opening also in order to show the credits. This gives the audience a chance to focus on the credits without being sidetracked from the action which may be taking place behind them, if they were to be running in time with the film opening footage itself.

The target audience for this film is people aged 15 and above due to the 15 age rating. People most likely to watch this film are likely to be between the ages of 15 and 40, as I have concluded that people between these ages are the ones who are most likely to be interested in the action which a crime based film brings. Our film opening will target audiences between these ages similarly because it will contain some unanswered questions, a bit of violence and some strong language.