Looper opening sequenece analysis

The opening sequence in Looper only consists of two shots. One short extreme close up and on long shot which starts as a close up and finishes as a medium long shot. The opening sequence starts with an extreme close up of a man opening his pocket watch. The is very interesting shot because it tells the audience e that this character is waiting for something which builds tension between the spectator and the film, it also seems very strange to the spectator as he is using a pocket watch which would be condisered a bit old fashioned in the present and we already know that this film was set in the future. After this shot the scene cuts to a close up of the protagonist. It looks fairly dark in this shot and as the camera moves to the left of him we can see more of the sky over the cornfields and we can see that it is dusk. The protagonist is listening to a French language lesson through his wireless headphones. At first this may seem like a very strange scene to the spectator as it shows a man sitting in the middle of a cornfield learning French, however this information makes more sense as the film continues. As camera moves to the left of the protagonist it zooms movest backward which gives a medium long shot from behind. When the camera moves it is revealed to the spectator that the protagonist is facing a pice of light blue tarpaulin which is on the ground weighed down by some dirt in the corners. The protagonist checks his watch again which makes the audience think that whatever he is waiting for must be about to happen. The protagonist stands up after checking his watch. He takes his earphones out and it is revealed to us that he is holding a gun. He points the gun towards the tarpaulin which may seem quite strange to the spectator as there is nothing to shoot. A man suddenly appears on the tarpaulin kneeling with his hands behind his back and a bag over his head. The man is instantly shot by the protagonist and his body fly backwards because of the force from the shot. The opening sequence ends here when the title of the film comes on the screen.

No Country For Old Men Opening Analysis



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first couple of shots are establishing shots which all show  a rural landscape of Texas at dawn. The use of these shots introduces the spectator to the setting and shows them the landscape.  These shots are not still but there is no camera movement and there is no major movement within the shot. While these shots are being shown there is a voice over by Tommy Lee Jones who is one of the main characters within the film.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The opening continues to show shots of the vast landscape in Texas with no camera movement. However, these shots have been taken after the sun has come out. The colours are slightly desaturated which I think was used to emphasise how dry the landscape and to represent the time that the film is set in. These shots are also establishing shots and they have been used to introduce the spectator to the setting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first two shots are again establishing shots with no camera movement. The third and fourth screenshots are both taken from the shot. The camera pans from right to left which provides a smooth transition from the still establishing shots into the rest of the film. It is in this shot that we first see characters in the film. The shot shows a police officer walking a restrained man to his car. They are both positioned in the centre of the shot and we can see that there is no one around them for miles.

 

 

 

 

This shot shows the police officer placing an object used to kill cattle. This becomes a key prop later on in the film. This shot is used to foreshadow future events within the film.

 

This shot shows the police car driving away. It is the last shot of the rural landscape in the opening sequence.

 

In these two shots the police officer is the is the dominant aspect and Bardem’s character is the subsidiary contrast. This shot shows the police officer talking about his suspect while Bardem escapes from his handcuffs in the background.

 

The first shot here shows Bardem’s character walking towards the police officer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This shot shows Bardem’s character killing the police officer by strangling him with his handcuffs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next shot shows the two characters from behind. It shows Bardem’s character taking the police character to the ground.

 

 

 

 

 

The following shot shows the two characters on the ground. It shows the desperation of the police officer as he is being strangled by Bardem’s character. 

 

 

 These shots also show the police officer being strangled by Bardem’s character. These shots show the police officer struggling and fighting for his life. 

 

 

I think that this murder scene was used to shock the spectator right at the start of the film and to foreshadow other events that are yet to be seen.

 

 

These two screenshots are both taken from the same shot. The camera slowly moves up and zooms in onto Bardem’s face. Bardem’s face is very disturbing in this shot as it appears to the spectator as if Bardem’s character is getting a sense of enjoyment from murdering the police officer.

 

 

 

These two shots show Bardem’s character twisting his handcuffs so that they cut into the arteries in the neck of the police officer. A large amount of blood quickly spurts out from the neck of the police officer.

 

 

 

 

The last shot here is a close up of Bardem’s character. It shows his unflinchingly cold reaction to the murder he has just committed.








 

This shot shows a sink from above. It then shows Bardem’s character washing the blood of his hands. We can see in great detail the cuts on his wrists from the handcuffs he used to strangle the police officer. This has a profound effect on the spectator as it shows how much pain must have been inflicted on him in the process of him murdering the police officer.

The last shot shows the dead police officers feet and the marks on the floor from his shoes. This further represents the desperation of the police officer.

 

Breaking bad pilot analysis

The episode starts with several establishing shots of the desert landscape in New Mexico. This shows the spectator where the show is set and the desert becomes a place where many of the major events take place. After the establishing shot we see a shot of the sky, we then see a pair of trousers fly across the screen. At first this is very surprising to the spectator and quite comical. The camera follows the trajectory of the pair of trousers. When the trousers hit the ground the pace of the scene speeds up as we see an RV run over the pair of trousers on the ground. The next shot is from inside the RV where we can see a man wearing only his underwear and a gas mask driving the RV erratically. He is sitting next to another man wearing a gas mask but he looks as though he is unconscious. The next shot is from inside the RV which shows a lot of chemistry equipment, liquid and two dead men rolling around on the floor. The man driving the RV soon loses control of vehicle and crashes it into a rock. The man gets out of the RV and throws his gas mask away. He then proceeds to put on a green shirt which was hanging o n the wing mirror of the RV the whole time. The man runs back into the RV and picks up a handgun and a camera. At this point in the episode the spectator has very little knowledge of what is actually happening. This is because the makers of the show have decided to show a part from the end of the episode in the opening. This gives the spectator something to look forward to in the show; it means that they are more likely to continue watching the show as there is a lot of energy and excitement right from the start. As the man steps out of the RV we start to hear police sirens getting louder and louder which makes us think that this man has been involved in some kind of criminal activity. The man then takes the camera and films himself; he tells the camera his name and proceeds to tell his family that he loves them and explains that he is morally innocent of any crimes he has committed. The opening sequence ends with a shot of the man walking into the middle of a dirt road pointing a gun towards the sound of the oncoming sirens. This opening leaves the spectator thinking that the man is going to shoot at the police which would be an exciting and climactic ending, this is a reason for the audience to continue watching the show.

Casino royale opening scene analysis

The film starts with an establishing shot which shows a large office building in prague. The film starts in black and white which could have been used by the filmmakers to make the opening more stylised or it could have been used to show that this part of the film happened in the past. A car then pulls in and a man steps out of the car. The man is well dressed in a suit and tie. This shows the audience that he is a man of some importance. We then see a shot of the man going up an elevator, a lowangle is used in this shot which could have been used to make him the more powerful. The next shot in the sequence is from inside the lift, a high angle is uesd in this shot which could have been used to show how vulnerable he really is. The man then wlaks into his office. He turns a lamp on inside his office and he then realises that his safe has been opened by someone. We can see a suprised expression on his face which shows us that his safe was opened without his permission. The camera pand from right to left to reveal Bond sitting down in the corner of the room. Bond is sat down on a chair in a fairly slouched posistion which shows the audience that he is very relaxed. Dryden proceeds to sit down at his chair facing Bond, he pulls one of the drawers open from his table which reveals that he is concealing a gun. In this shot we can also see a stack of files in his drawer beneath the gun. The files say "Universal Exports" on the front of them. This shows the spectator that Dryden also works for MI6. After a short piece of dialogue between Bond and Dryden the film cuts to a fight sequence between Bond and Dryden's contact in a public toilet. The editing in the fight sequence is very fast paced which makes the action more exciting for the spectator. The film then cut back to Bond and Dryden sitting in an office. Dryden pulls out the gun he was concealing and points it at Bond. Bond is very calm and doesn't flinch when Dryden pulls the gun on him. when Dryden pulls the trigger nothing happens. It is then revealed that Bond had already removed the bullets from his gun. The film then cuts again to show the fight scene between Bond and Dryden's contact. Bond continues to win the fight and he eventually drowns Dryden's contact in one of the sinks in the bathroom. Several low angles are used within the fight sequence which all make Bond look more powerful and strongewr than the man he is fighting. The film cuts back to Bond and dryden sitting in the office again. Bond shoots Dryden at the end of this scene. The editing that shows Dryden being shot is much faster paced than the rest of the editing in that scene which makes Dryden's death more shocking.

Layer cake opening sequence

The opening sequnce starts with a shot of a black van's doors being blown off, the camera slowly moves away from the van and it is revealed that the van is being robbed. This shot starts in black and white which could have been used by the filmmakers to show that this scene in the film is set at the end of the fifties. As the camera moves and pans from the robbers the saturation of the colour is enhanced moving from black and white to muted colour. There is a transistion between the fifties and the sixties and at this time the colour is enhanced even more which gives the spectator a more psychedelic feel. This colour saturation was obviously used by the filmmakers to show the spectator the perspective of the characters in that environment. As the opening sequence continues there is another transistion between the "summer of love" scene and the prison scene. The colours in the prison scene become noticably more desaturated which shows the difference in environment from the previous scene. The opening sequence then transistions between the prison scene and the present. The pharmacy seen shows the protagonist walking through a pharmacy and all of the products are drugs which are labeled using the same branding which shows that he believes that one day all drugs will be comercialised. As he walks through the pharmacy the products slowly change into what they actually are. Throughout the opening sequence there is a monlogue from the protagonist in which he exlains his reasons for becoming a drug dealer.

Eastern promises opening scene

The opening shot of the film shows the sign of a barbers shop.The shop has the barber's name on the sign in bold, blood red writing. The red writing could have been used by the filmmakers to symbolise how dangerous the barber is. This could also be linked to Sweeney Todd as he is seen as a dangerous barber by the general public in Great Britain. I think that the filmmakers have also used pathetic fallacy in this film by introducing the stormy weather at the start of the scene. This opening scene would have a much different effect on the spectator if the filmmakers had set it on a nice, sunny day, the bad weather acts as a further warning along with the sign on the front of the barbers shop. The two men inside the shop are comfortably conversing with one another showing that well acquainted. As the third man enters the shop he quickly changes the open sign to closed and closes the blinds as if he is trying to hide from something as opposed to hiding what is about to happen. As the third man walks further into the barber's shop he looks very nervous and it appears to the spectator that he is hiding something behind his newspaper. The barber and his customer continue to chat and don't seem to notice the third man's discomfort. The barber's demeaner changes as the third man walks further into the shop. The customer attempts to shake his hand unaware of the third man's obvious discomfort. The barber attempts to hand his cuttthroat razor to the third man but he refuses to take it. The barber moans to his customer about how the third man isn't willing to help him. The barber again insits that the third man should take the razor, the third man pleads to the barber in turkish saying "Azim, please." The change in language by the barber and the third man from english to turkish shows the spectator that they are both hiding something from  the spectator. The customer laughs and tells him to leave the third man alone, he then continues to read his newspaper. This shows the spectator how comfortable the customer is within this environment. The barber then loses his temper with the third man and swears at the third man telling him to finish the job. The third man finally takes the razor from the barber. At this point it is clear to the customer what is about to happen. Before the customer has the time to stand up the third man brutually slits his throat. This method of murder once again links to the idea of Sweeney Todd and it shows that is is possible that the filmmakers were inspired by his story.

Se7en Opening sequence

The first shot in the opening sequnece shows the pages being turned on an unidentified book, we can see the book has been well used as it has come away from its bindings. The hands of the person turning the pages are out of focus and his face is out of shot which adds a sense of enigma to the character. Many disturbing images are used throughout the opening cretis such as the image of an old man's broken hands on a piece of paper. The opening then shows someone carefully slicing of their fingerprints with a razor blade. This shows the specatar that the mysterious character could be covering up his identity which adds to the sense of enigma of the character. There is no reason why a person would need to cut of their fingerprints unless they were about to take part in a well organised, pre-meditated crime. Throughout the rest of the opening sequence we can see that the character has wrapped bandages arount his fingertips, this shows the spectator the extent of the injuries he has inflicted upon himself. a blast of red is shown later on in the opening sequence which could the nature of the crime the character is about to commit. throughout the opeining credits the charcater is collecting articles, images and film cells which all have religious context. The shots in the opening all appear to the spectator to be parts of the mysterious characters plan for his future crime. Towards the end of the opening sequence we see the character cut out the word god from a dollar bill, this gives the spectator the impression that it could be used later on in the film to write an anonymous letter, it also links to the religious context of the film. At the end of the opening sequence the singer in the backgroung music sings "gonna bring me closer to god" which show that the character believes that what he is about to do will brng him closer to god.

Cigarettes and Coffee

"Cigarettes and coffee" is a short film by Paul Thomas Anderson. Anderson has directed films such as "There will be blood", "Boogie nights" and "Magnolia". This film has a very complex structure within its narrative. It has three different groups of characters all having separate conversations at a diner. The film starts at quite a slow pace and it might seem slightly confusing to the spectator as it doesn't have and introduce the characters in any way. The film builds up very slowly to quite a dark ending

American Psycho Opening Scene

The opening scene in "American Psycho" is one of my favourite opening scenes in a film. It starts with the protagonist, Patrick Bateman, introducing himself by telling the spectator his name, age and where he lives. He then proceeds to talk us through his diet and his exercise routine. This draws the audiences attention to the fact that he cares a lot about the way he looks and that he is very self concious. Bateman goes into a lot of detail into the different products that he uses for his personal hygiene which again shows how much he cares about the way he looks. Towards the end of Bateman's monlogue he describes himself as feeling mysterioulsy inhuman which could be foreshadowing events in the film that have yet to come. Bateman's flat looks very meticulously clean and expensive which gives the spectator an idea of his social status and his overall personality.

Memento opening scene

The opening scene in memento shows a muder in reverse. It starts of by showing the protagonist holding a photo. He waves the photo in the air several times and it becomes less developed each time. This links in very well as the film has many scenes in both chonlogical and reverse chronlogical order. I think that showing this opening scene in reverse adds a sense of enigma to the film. Lucy and I were inspired by the technique and we are planning to use it our opening scene as we think it suits the thriller genre very well as it makes the story more mysterious.

Can't we be friends

The majority of this film seems like a romance film which would have a happy ending, however the man the protagonist goes on a date with turns out to be a narissistic womanizer by the end of the film. The male characterb in this film is always quite mysterious as we don't really find out anything about him. The film shows the romatic side of their relationship very well which makes the twist at the end much more surprising. This film does a very good job of shows the worst case scenario of what could happen when meeting someone from the internet. The colours in this film are very vibrant in the more romantic and optimistic scenes but they become much more desaturated towards the end of the film when it takes a darker turn.