Title Sequence Analysis - Spider-Man 2

Titles: 

Columbia pictures presents
A marvel enterprises / Laura Ziskin production
Spider-man 
2
Toby Maguire
Kristen Dunst
James Franco
Alfred Molina
Rosemary Harris
J.K Simmons
Donna Murphy
Daniel Gillies, Dylan Baker
Bill Nunn, Vanessa Ferlito, Aasif Mandvi
Casting by Dianne Crittenden
Music by Danny Elfman
Costume designers, James Acheson, Gary Jones
Visual effects designed by Jogn Dykstra, ASC
Film editor, Bob Murawski
Production designer, Neil Spisak
Director of photography, Bill Pope ASC
Co-producer, Grant Curtis
Executive producers, Stan Lee, Kevin Feige
Executive producer Joseph M. Caracciolo
Produced by Lara Ziskin, Avi Arad
Based on the marvel comic book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
Screen story by Alfred Gough & Miles Millar and Michael Chabon
Screenplay by Alvin Sargent
Directed by Sam Raimi

Evaluation

To start off with, the first few titles fade slowly in and then each letter flies quickly towards us as if they have been knocked. This is all in front of a red smoky background. The fading slowly in creates mystery and the flying out relates to the film genre of action. The main title of the film is made very clear, with bigger, bolder, bright text which stays on the screen for a while. This is so the audience are aware of the title. From then on, all of the titles appear and quickly dissappear in a bold black or white font. Because the titles change so quickly, they relate to the action genre. In the background of these titles are moving lines, and illustrated pictures. The moving lines related to the film because they resemble a spiders web, and the drawings lead back to the traditional spider-man marvel comic. 

Title Sequence Analysis - Incidious

Titles:

In association with stage 6 films
An alliance films and IM global presentation of a haunted movies production
A James Wan film
Incidious
Patrick Wilson
Rose Byrne
Lin Shaye
Ty Simpkins
And Barbara Hershey
Leigh Whannell , Angus Sampson
Andrew Astor, Joseph Bishara
Casting by Annie McCarthy, Kellie Gesell
Costume Designer, Kristin M. Burke
Music by Joseph Bishara
Edited by James Wan, Kirk Morri
Production designer Aaron Sims
Director of photography, John R. Leonetti asc, David M. Brewer
Line producer, Jeanette Volturno-Brill
Co-produced by John R. Leonetti, Aaron Sims
Executive producer, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones
Produced by Jason Blum, Steven Schneider, Oren Peli
Written by Leigh Whannell
Directed by James Wan

Evaluation

Firstly, the font and colour of the titles relates to the film genre. The font is thin and pointy which creates an eerie look, while the colour is red which could be associated with blood and death. Secondly, the way the titles physically appear on the screen also reflects the genre of the film. The titles fade in, then there is an echoed affect that looks like ghosts of the letters coming out of them, which then fade into smoke, and then each letter fades away one by one. The fact that the titles slowly fade in and out rather than suddenly appearing and disappearing creates a sense of mystery, while the ghost effect relates to the genre of horror, as people would associate ghosts with horror films. It also adds to the eerie atmosphere. While these titles are rolling, black and white establishing shots of the house that the film takes place in are being shown in the background. Every time a new title appears, a new photograph is shown. This creates mystery and tension as the audience are not being shown any footage yet, apart from right at the beginning when the boy is in his bed. This will create enigmas. Also, the establishing shots show the audience where the film will be taking place, so that they know where the film is going to start and will not be confused.

Preliminary Task

Evaluation

I enjoyed filming and editing my preliminary video. I think that my video flows well which was a main aim of the task. To try and do this I made sure I filmed more footage than I needed so that I could cut the clips down and get rid of what I didn't want. If I hadn't done this I might have not got enough footage, meaning that the video might not have been able to flow well. Another thing I did which I think was beneficial to the end result was filming all of each persons dialogue in one go. I did this so that the camera would't have drastically moved every time the same person spoke. I tried using a range of different camera angles to make my video more interesting, for example after filming Nathan walking down the stairs I filmed it again but just his feet, and also the very last shot where the camera was positioned very low.   I had used a script for the dialogue during this video, rather than making up the conversation on the spot. I think this was beneficial because it meant no one made a mistake, and it could be filmed quickly. During the editing of the video, I tried docking the clips so that the music didn't suddenly cut when someone spoke, and the music didn't drown out their voices. 

If I were to make this video again, I would choose to film it in an area with brighter lighting so both faces could be clearly seen. This would have improved the reaction shots, as the emotion would be a lot clearer. I would also make the shots with the dialogue in a bit longer, as the camera cuts quite quickly when Nathan and Keir are having the conversation. Although I did dock the clips so that the music quietened when the dialogue was spoken, I think that Nathan and Keir's voices were still a bit quiet. To overcome this i should have made the clips with the dialogue a bit louder. Despite these negatives, I am happy with the outcome of my preliminary task. 

Film Opening Analysis - The Matrix

The Matrix film opening analysis

The film starts with mysterious music, which stops after the title appears. A load of numbers and letters appear on the screen flashing while a conversation is heard. The sentence "We're gonna kill him" will create enigmas for the audience, as they do not yet know who "him" is.

The camera zooms into a small light very quickly, and we realise this is a torch light. The music stops and the mis-en-scene depicts a very close up frame of a man's face looking straight down the camera with a gun, as if the audience were a character in the film. The camera is zooms and pans about a lot to add to the mysterious feel, and the make the audience feel like they are part of this group. At one point the camera moves from an over shoulder shot, round the back of the police men, and to the other side. This is an example of how to keep to the 180 degree rule if you want to film from the other side, in order to not confuse the audience.

When one of the men kick down the door, the camera is placed in front of him in a low angle, medium shot so that it looks like he is kicking the camera. This causes suspense for the audience, and the noise of the door being kicked down contrasts against the quiet background music, which becomes louder once the door is kicked. From this sudden change in volume, the audience can tell that something is about to happen.

There is a long shot of the back of a women in a very dark room, which is followed by a very long take of the woman's face hidden behind a laptop screen, however the camera pans upwards to slowly reveal more an more of her face. This will cause further enigmas for the audience, like why are the police after this woman? What's she doing on the laptop? Why is she hiding in a dark deserted room?These enigmas are what keeps the audience intrigued.

Film Opening Analysis - Quantum Of Solace

James Bond film opening analysis

The film starts with very quiet music while the mis-en-scene depicts an establishing shot of a mountain which zooms in quickly as if the camera is flying above the sea. This shot cuts to parts of a fancy car in a shot reverse shot sequence, which can only be visible every now and then when the light shines on it. This creates a mysterious atmosphere for the audience. The music quickly gets a lot louder, and as it does, the car begins speeding and is now clearly visible as it is out in the open. This will make the audience feel suspense. The shots are very quick and an there is a lot of sudden camera movement in order to make the audience feel like they are in this position, and to make the action seem more realistic. One example of this is when the camera is inside of the car, and is vigorously shaken about when the car crashes into the wall. This would probably be what the audience would see if they were in that car, so it is getting them involved and feeling like they're part of the experience which they may find enjoyable.

The fast pace, non-diagetic music begins again, and gets louder and more tense. It gets faster when the car is crashing into things, and when something intense happens such as a gun being fired, the music tends to become higher pitched.This is all to keep the audience on edge and intrigued.

When all the enemies are lost, the music stops and then starts again, but this time its very quiet and relaxed. During this the camera zooms out from the car to show another establishing shot of the whole town. This informs the audience that the location of the film has changed so that they can keep up with it. The music becomes very mysterious when the car drives into a deserted looking tunnel, and once again stops when it is revealed that there has been a man in the boot this whole time. Right at the end of the opening, the sentence "It's time to get out" will created enigmas for the audience such as why is this man tied up, and what has he done? These will make the audience eager to find out more.

  The Women In Black film opening analysis

The scene starts with the mis-en-scene depicting small teacups being filled with imaginary tea. From this the audience might be able to guess that, stereotypically, it is young girls having a tea party. The first few shots are close ups rather than an establishing shot. Creepy toy dolls are shown, and from this, as well as the dull lighting, non-diagetic eerie music and slow pace of the shots the audience can clearly see this is a horror film. These close ups create enigmas for the audience, which keeps them wanting to watch more.

 After these close ups there is a long shot of three young girls and we can see them playing with their dolls and teacups. They are in old fashioned looking dresses which gives the audience a clue that this is set in the Edwardian era. We can see even clearer now that the building is very dully lit which adds to the eerie feel, and the girls are smiling and laughing which contrasts which the creepiness of the scene, which makes the audience think that something bad might be coming.

The music suddenly changes as the shot changes, and there is a long take of the girls staring right down the camera, which doesn't make sense at this time. This sudden music change as well as the long, strange shot, creates further enigmas such as what are the girls looking at? Why did they all turn around at the same time? The girls then turn around and begin to walk towards the window, and as this happens the cuts are quicker and the shots are shorter, and at the same time the music becomes louder and louder with more instruments being introduced. There is a long close up of the window being opened very slowly with loud sound effects which also creates suspense. All of this creates a lot of suspense for the audience.

After the girls jump, the music suddenly stops while there is a very long take of the window, slowly zooming out, and a loud, echoed scream can be heard. From this the audience can tell what has happened to the girls, even without seeing it. During this screaming the mis-en-scene depicts a close up of a very creepy looking doll, with a frightened expression. This would be very uncomfortable for the audience, and strange because the doll looks like it has reacted to what has just happened, as if it were alive. The scene finishes with another establishing shot of the small, dark room, and as the camera zooms out we see that this shot is over the shoulder of a mysterious dark silhouette. The audience would realise that this is what the three girls were looking at before jumping out the window, and realising this will create a lot more enigmas which cause the audience to want to continue watching, such as who is this person? and what did they say to the children?

Opening A Door

Evaluation

I am happy with the outcome of this session and with my video. It runs smoothly and is fluent, which was the main aim of the activity. To try to meet this aim I filmed the same footage a few times, but from different angles. I think this has benefited the overall result because I was able to take the bits I wanted from the footage and cut some bits down, rather than filming each part individually, which could have made the video choppy and unrealistic. I also stuck to the 180 degree rule so that the video did not seem confusing in any way. Learning how to do this will be really useful for any future videos I make.

If I was to make this video again I would probably make my takes longer because all the action happens a bit quickly. Also, my end titles are not correctly structured or spelt. I will be more careful with them in future videos.

Conversation Video

Evaluation

Overall I feel that this video could have been a lot better. Firstly, I had stopped filming too early in one case and had cut off the end of Grace's sentence. this makes the video seem unrealistic and to avoid this I should have recorded a little longer than I needed and just cut off what I didn't want.  In some frames i had some wasted space which could have been filled up with a more close up shot of both speakers faces. This would have been better because It would show emotion more clearly on their faces. In one frame in particular Grace's hair is in the way of Frankie's face even though there is enough space for her whole face to be shown. I should have positioned myself in a different way so that Frankie's face could be shown clearly. I feel that a larger variation of camera angles could have been used, for example when both Grace and Frankie walk into the establishing shot, and if I were to film this same conversation again I would have have filmed one of them walking in and sitting down, and then the other one walking towards them in the point of view of the person sitting down. One final error in my conversation video is that I had forgotten to include end titles. This is something which will be important in future videos.

Despite these negatives, I think that the type of camera shots i used in the video such as over shoulder shots, long shots and two shots as well as the shot reverse shot sequence improved the video. I also think that some of the framing was good as i had used up most of the space in the frame.

My Video

Evaluation

The purpose of this video was to try out three different camera shots; a long shot, medium shot, and a close up. I included all 3 of these in my video, however I think the video as a whole could have been a lot better. For example, a big error in the video is the positioning of the camera. When Nathan and Nicole are both shown walking in the first two shots, you can see from the building behind them that they would have already crossed paths if this was reality. In the future I will take this into more consideration. Also, after the slap, Nathan falls backwards far too late. This should have happened during the slap, so this causes the video not to flow.

Although I feel this video could have flowed a lot better, I have included good reaction shots which clearly show both Nicole and Nathan's expressions, and I have successfully used all 3 camera shots I was aiming for.