Opening Sequences 03 - Sherlock Holmes

From the opening the audience will be able to acknowledge that this film is set in the past, as the the typewriter and the characters clothing suggest that the film is not in a present time period and the fact that the character says that the year he is in is 1891.

The music and the way how the characters are introduced suggest that the film genre is an action mystery movie. The plot of the film is not made clear but the main characters are established and the film suggests through narration that its about the life of the character Sherlock Holmes.

The music of the opening works well with the time period of the film as it is not something you would expect to hear in a film set in the present. The music also links in well with the genre of the film as its quite mysterious but its fast paced, which is something you would expect from an action movie.

Opening Sequences 02 - Star Trek

From the opening of Star Trek into darkness we are brought into the location and genre of the film, we can see from the text on the screen that tells us that they are on a different planet than earth which immediately suggests to the audience that this is a science fiction film. This is followed by the non-diegetic sounds of wildlife from the particular planet. The camera then zooms in rather quickly from a birds eye view to what appears to be someone running away from an army of aliens.The music really picks up the pace when the camera cuts to a closer view of the person who is frantically being chased. The character appears to be holding something in their hand, which suggests that this person has taken something that army of angry natives want back. This is another indication of another genre this film is categorized in, as a chase is something you would frequently see in an action film.The plot of the opening is later made clear to be a rescue mission, and the character that was being chased,that is revealed to be Captain Kirk stole something as a way to get the aliens out of harms way of a active volcano.

The science fiction element of the film and the time is made apparent again when the spaceship flies round, which indicates that this film is set somewhere in the future. In the opening there is a contrast between the sounds that are going on from the inside of the spaceship and the outside of it. On the outside it's very loud, with explosions going on, as they are inside the volcano that's about to erupt but on the inside of the ship all of the outside explosions is almost in a way dimmed down. The explosions are still made noticeable from the inside of the ship as there are slight rumbles in the background that matches the shaking of the camera, showing that ship is being affected by whats going on around it. The music changes and when Spock drops into the volcano from the ship. The pace of the music at this point gets slower and it becomes louder and intense which conveys a sense of danger, indicating the character is in a life threatening situation.

Opening Sequences 01 - Quantum of Solace

This is the movie opening for James Bond-Quantum Of Solace, the film opens with production company and the film industry. The beginning of the action starts inside a tunnel upon a steep cliff. Tension is built up for the audience with a non-diegetic sound, that slowly gets gets louder,almost notifying to the audience that something dangerous is going to happen.Then a quick cut scene appears of a moving car wheel, it is uncertain what car it would be, but if it would stick to the James Bond legacy, it is most likely going to be an Aston Martin. This automatically entices the audience’s attention, and wanting to know who could possibly be in the high speed car. At the moment  the scenes are accompanied by the diegetic sounds of cars being driven and the changing of gears. The music gets louder and the tempo rises, suggesting we are closing in on the main action of the opening. We then see a shot of another car, and a close up of the character changing gears and stamping on the accelerator, this is indicating to the audience that a car chase is going to begin.This builds excitement amongst the audience, and it is a notifier that tells them genre of the film, as car chases are something you associate with most action films.Then the rest of the action falls into play, with guns firing, and cars swiftly weaving in and out of civilian cars.All of this action is shown in a series of rapid editing, this is too show the speed and motion of how fast they are driving.

From the opening scene you are very much made aware of which character is the main character of the film as the camera is mainly focused on the face and reactions of this character(Bond). From this opening, we are able to just about make out the plot of the film as we know that bond is being chased which reveals, that he is holding information or has something that the people who are following him want. The costumes that Bond and the chasers are wearing are very smart and sophisticated suits. Usually when a character is wearing suits in an action film it usually suggests that they are security, gangsters or agents.

Something that is not made aware from the beginning of the opening, but closer to the ending, is the location of the film.We later on see after car chase has ended that it is based in Sienna Italy, which is made obvious as it is typed across the screen in black letters in front of a view of the city. 

In the Quantum Of Solace opening, the credits are done in a more interesting manor,as it is showing the character firing a gun with the names of the cast and crew coming up around him. instead of the credits being shown throughout the films opening, its shown directly after, this may have been done so the viewers have full attention of whats going on and have no distractions. 

I have learnt alot from the research i have done on the Quantum of Solace opening. Doing this research has contributed alot to what i will be doing in class, this is because the film is in the same genre category as one of the plot ideas that my group and i plan on doing for our movie opening. This opening has really given me more insight to what an action film needs to be recognized and considered as an action film.

Preliminary Task

Here is my prelim video. The feedback we received was fair and i agreed with most of what was said. The audience really liked the variety and range of camera angles and shots we used and which they thought made it look more interesting. In particular they enjoyed the scene of the tree transitioning and forming into the hair of our character. They thought our editing was very accurate as they noticed our match on action of the door handle was very good and precise. They also noticed that the lighting was very good, but this was mainly due to the majority of our filming being filmed indoors with the use of artificial lighting.

However, what they criticized and thought could be improved, was the transition from the person walking down stairs and into the room they noticed it wasn't right and could have been better. They also didn't like the editing between the two characters talking as they thought it was a bit jumpy and it cut too quickly.