Today, I'm going to be analysing and deconstructing 3 film openings, that last 2 minutes, plus 3 student made 2 minute film openings!. So, first question is...
WHAT IS EXPECTED OF A FILM OPENING?
*How much of the plot is introduced in the opening 2 minutes?
*How many key characters are there?
*Is there much dialogue?
*How many locations are there?
*What are the credits like?
So, if that's what we need to analyse the opening, let's get into the examples!Firstly, I've chosen Deadpool, by Marvel and 20th Century Fox.
The opening involves the camera traveling around a frozen shot of the film, right in the middle of an action scene; this is probably done to have an opening that doesn't start at the beginning of the storyline. There is one key character shown nearer the end, which is Deadpool himself. He was probably saved until the end since he has a build up reveal, due to the massive fan following he has, and the filmmakers probably wanted to keep the fans in suspense for a bit.
The opening credits are DEFINITELY more satirical than serious. They play on the clichés of action/superhero movies, by having the names of the actors replaced with "God's Perfect Idiot" (a play on Ryan Reynolds), "Directed by An Overpayed Tool", etc.
There is no dialogue at all, only the song "Angel of the Morning" by Juice Newton.
The only setting is the car on the bridge, since it is just a freeze frame.
None of the plot is introduced in the opening 2 minutes, since as a comedy film, it should open with a good joke... and it delivers.
Secondly is Toy Story, by Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Pictures.
This film opening starts off with Andy playing with his toys, with the main character of Woody being introduced as the hero of both the film and this scene. Other characters, such as Rex, Slinky, Hamm and Mr. Potato Head are also introduced, but only as the characters Andy assigns onto them. After the game is done, the song "You've Got A Friend In Me" by Randy Newman starts playing, and it shows Andy playing with Woody throughout his house.
None of the plot is introduced in this opening, since it's more focused on setting the tone and some light lore; Woody is Andy's favourite toy, and is always the hero.
The main character, Sheriff Woody, is introduced in this opening, as stated before, as the hero of this story.
The titles are used in the "blank" areas where nothing is happening. Instead of highlighting the stars of the film, e.g. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, it focuses on showing the animators and more behind the scenes members.
The only spoken dialogue is from Andy, who speaks "for" Woody, Mr Potato Head (known in this segment as "One-Eyed Bart"), and Bo Peep. However, there is a song which is sung by Randy Newman.
The main location is Andy's room, but we see small snippets of the rest of his house as he plays with Woody.
My last movie choice is Avengers: Age of Ultron, by Marvel Studios.
The intro involves The Avengers going through a forest in one continuous shot, fighting HYDRA spies while they go. After around a minute of fighting, it shows Iron Man and Captain America trying to bring down the shield around HYDRA's base.
Some light plot points are shown, such as HYDRA being one of the enemies, and establishing which Avengers team is used.
There are 7 main characters shown; Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and JARVIS, who later becomes Vision.
There is dialogue, which is as follows:
Iron Man: Shit!
Captain America: Language! JARVIS, what's the view from upstairs?
JARVIS: The central building is protected by some kind of energy shield. Strucker's technology is well beyond any other Hydra base we've taken.
Thor: Loki's scepter must be here. Strucker couldn't mount this defense without it. At long last.
Black Widow: At long last is lasting a little long, boys.
Hawkeye: Yeah. I think we lost the element of surprise.
Iron Man: Wait a second. No one else is going to deal with the fact that Cap just said "language?"
Captain America: I know. It just slipped out.
There are two main locations; inside and outside of the HYDRA base in the fictional location of Sokovia. The inside is meant to look like a castle that has been lightly repurposed into an engine of war, and the outside is a snowy forest.
There are no title credits at all, which is probably best since they would distract from all the action; plus, Marvel movies normally keep their titles that would usually be in the intro for a small clip before the mid-credits scene, seen here.
Now, I'll analyse 3 A-Level, student made openings.
First up is an intro by a student with the username "Ben Joels", which I'd safely guess is his real name.
It follows a journalist who tells the audience the truth about competitive racing, and how he was one of the "lucky ones."
There is only one location, which is a racetrack. They don't do too much with it, but there are some fairly nice visuals of some cars speeding along the track.
The credits are fairly bland and seem too forced. They're fairly simple edits, but they don't last long enough. Plus, the film studio credit was taken from another studio; Warner Bros.
The main character is introduced, and we know that he is a journalist who writes about racing.
The only dialogue is from the journalist talking about the "secret world of racing"; however, the speech is very clichéd at many points, and is both bland and predictable.
There is very little plot given away. It mainly focuses on establishing what happened in the past.
The second intro is by "Aiden Stent." It too has no title.
It follows a man in a mask waiting for another man. Once the other gets there, he's immediately pushed over and is threatened by the masked man. He then escapes, and after a pursuit, the masked man gives up trying to catch him, and drops his mask.
There is only one location, which looks like a small train station. Unlike the first A-Level opening, they use it fairly well, given the limited potential of a station. Having people doing flips during the pursuit while using the location to assist that really helps bring more life to it.
There are no opening titles, which is good, since it might distract from the action and suspense.
Some light plot elements are introduced, such as the Masked Man is a man with a lot of power, and that the other man has had experiences with him before, and owes him money.
There is dialogue, but a lot of it is too quiet or too distorted. The only pieces of dialogue I could make out were "Where's my money?" and "I don't give a f*ck about your business."
There are only 2 key characters shown; the Masked Man and the Other Man.
The third opening I chose was by "LogicOfLois", which was titled "Carnage."
It involves two people running through a forest, and gives off a strong indication that one is chasing the other. It ends off with one character, using a rifle, shooting a woman while she has her back turned.
There are two characters introduced, the man with a gun and the woman. We learn nothing about them, apart from one of them is running from the other and that one owns a gun.
There is no dialogue exchanged between anyone.
There are some titles, but they really distract from the rest of the opening, since they fully cut away from the story.
There is only one setting, which is a forest. They don't really use it to the best of it's potential, but it is used as well as the plot would allow.
There are not very many plot details revealed, but all the audience can assume that is one of the characters is in trouble with the other, and has done something so terrible that they had to be shot.
Phew, this post took a while. Worth it though.
Well, my next phew posts will be about coursework... fun(!)
~ Noah :D
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