RESEARCH - FILM OPENING ANALYSIS: MEAN GIRLS

 

I analysed the opening scene of Mean Girls, which is a teenage comedy released in 2004.

Throughout this scene, there were around 30 titles, including names of actors, editors, directors, and even costume designers. The credits were stretched throughout the whole 4-minute scene, showing how many people were involved in making this film.

In this opening scene, the images that are prioritised are the school, and all the different people attending it. There are all different types of social groups, and we are introduced to all of these very early on. This is one of the ways I think the film appeals to its target audience. This is a comedy for teenagers, so having characters a similar age to some viewers makes it relatable and more entertaining. The different types of people mean all people watching can associate themselves with a character, making it an enjoyable watch for everyone. They can compare different characters to different people they know at school.
In my opinion, the images of all the schools and students have very overwhelming connotations, and a very unwelcoming environment. We are seeing it all from the view of Cady – whom it is her first day at the school – and we can empathise with how difficult it must be. This also keeps us engaged and wanting to carry on watching – we want to know who she ends up friends with and who ends up being friendly, etc. We are also introduced to the two mains teachers – Ms Norbury and Principal Duvall. There are obvious flirtations going on between them in the short time they are shown on the screen, and this is another insight of what is to come throughout the film.

Throughout this opening scene, although short, there are a lot of different camera angles used, for different effect. The first thing we see in the film is Cady saying goodbye to her parents before heading into school. During this, there is an over the shoulder shot of the parents looking at their daughter, as she innocently smiles at them. This shows the teenage audience that Cady is perhaps quite oblivious to what’s to come, and she may be slightly ‘geeky’ as she’s excited for school.

There is also a low angled shot of Cady’s parents, looking worriedly at her. This low angle shot has Cady’s parents looking down, symbolising their superiority over their daughter, and they still see her as a child.

 

 

 

RESEARCH - FILM OPENING ANALYSIS: WILDCHILD

 

This film opening has no film titles, apart from the title of the film which appears within the first few seconds of the scene. This is different to other film openings I have watched, but I don’t think it leaves the film at any sort of disadvantage. The main images portrayed are a rich American household, and the main characters life style. We learn quickly that the mother of the family has died, explaining why although rich, we are shown the young daughter making her own sandwich alone. Poppy, the main character and older sister, helps finish her sisters’ lunch when she walks into the kitchen, showing she has perhaps taken over the maternal role in the household.  
We are then introduced to many of Poppy’s friends, who she brings to ‘sabotage’ all of her stepmother’s belongings. All the kids are unruly, loud and seem to have no respect, and this can be quite overwhelming. However, Poppy is the ringleader of all the chaos so it seems to be a fun, although crazy atmosphere.
The genre of this film is a comedy, romance, teen drama. There are many elements suited to everyone’s interests throughout the film, therefore covering several different genres.
This opening scene may already appeal to the target audience because of the lifestyle shown. The target audience for this film is predominately teenage girls, so showing a popular, glamourous teenage girl with all her friends in her big house in Malibu is appealing. It looks like great fun and the main character, Poppy, is obviously rebellious so the audience want to see what happens, after her Dad threatens seriously to send her to boarding school for all her misbehaviour.
Different shots are used throughout this scene, to portray different things. For example, in front of all her friends Poppy jumps off her garden wall into the sea, and everyone is laughing until her Dad appears. We see Poppy from a high angle shot as her Dad looks at her from the top of the wall, showing her vulnerability in this position and her Dads authority and power. We also see a low angled shot from Poppy’s point of view, as her father and friends looking down at her, both having very different reactions. The moment where all the teenagers swarm the delivery van to sabotage all of the stepmother’s belongings, it is filmed at eye level to show the chaos of how many people were there, causing trouble with Poppy.
This opening scene is very different to the rest of the film, but is probably one of the most important. We are shown Poppy’s lifestyle in America, and it is how we understand her struggles in England at Boarding School, when her father carries out his threat.

PLANNING: FILM TREATMENT

 Ideas for Film Opening

Our brainstormed ideas about the plot, the soundtrack

-a title that's dynamic and engaging

- the top line - elegant sentence that sums up the story

-the big question - cliff-hanger?
who is the clown? why is that person killed? how many others have been killed?

the synopsis - one or two paragraphs outlining the plot
dead person lying by the swings
cuts to news report. killer clowns sighted first time in 5 years. person murdered in the park. is it a coincidence?
cctv of person walking out of the park
flashback of person being killed in the woods

characters. brief introduction 
person who was killed
clown
newsreader - killer clowns sighted first time in 5 years. person murdered in the park. halloween
flashback to person being killed in the woods

Halloween, park swings at night. killer clown. 

news report killer clowns reported seen after 5 years. someone seen dead by the swings. person walking away.

PLANNING: TOPLINE and BIG QUESTION

I watched a presentation by Frank Ash. He is a creative consultant, who has taught storytelling and creativity techniques to teams across the BBC and beyond. It is important to focus on the audience, for example what will interest the audience? How will the narrative develop

For Frank Ash, film makers need to think of what the Top Line and the Big Question are. He calls the Top Line 'one elegant sentence', that sums up the story.
He says we need to leave the audience wanting to find out more - which is The Big Question.

Having learnt from Frank Ash's presentation on future learn, I decided to sign up for Future Learns Film Distribution: Connecting Films with Audiences. The Course promises to cover how our favourite films make it to our local cinema or television screen, through the film distribution process. The start date is 18th October 2021.

RESEARCH: ART OF THE TITLE

Research

We viewed three examples of opening sequences filmed in a similar table top style.
Using Art of the Title, we watched the opening of Delicatessen, and noticed how its birdesye camerawork tells a story and sets the theme. The titles are also embedded in the props, which was very interesting and an unusual take of filming. Another title sequence we saw was To Kill A Mockingbird,  which gave a childish impact but had a much more sophisticated meaning deep down. You can’t see what the child is colouring until the end of the opening sequence. We also viewed work created by last year's students.
We then use these as inspiration to create an original title sequence in groups, by setting up the table top using props from our props collection.

Planning

Myself and two classmates filmed and created this table top exercise. Using the props available, we came up with a basic storyline – a man shoots his wife and their baby is left alone. We came up with this to make the most of the props available, and so the story could be obvious through the table top filming of the objects.

Filming

Our table top filming consists of objects that give away the plot – including a missing women newspaper, her wedding ring, a necklace and a picture of a ‘happy’ couple.
Our live action is a gloved hand picking up the gun laid on the table, then placing a wedding photo next to the missing woman newspaper. This implies that this is the same woman and it was the husband who shot her. On top of this, the gloved hand removes the wedding rings placed next to the pictures, symbolising the husband sabotaging their marriage.
After this, we have a flashback scene, where the women is running and we see a gun, before it is complete darkness as the gunshot sounds. This black and white edit, complimented by our song audio ‘Always and Forever’, makes the trailer gripping and viewers wanting to see more. We did two edits of this exercise – the top one we edited together and the one below I edited alone. This being my first edit of the course I wanted to experiment with different techniques, so we can all merge our skills into one for future edits. 

 

RESEARCH: CRIMES OF PASSION

In literature, as in cinema, crimes of passion have been powerful subject matter, often involving gripping themes of infatuation, obsession, despair and revenge. The genre usually involves an intense love relationship in which overwhelmingly strong feelings result in impulses towards violence. The term ‘crime passionnel’ refers to this type of murder, in which the perpetrator finds himself in the grip of irresistibly powerful emotions, and argues that the crime is not premeditated, therefore cannot be first degree murder. The narrative is often built around a love triangle, with jealousy and possessiveness at its core.
Certain Societies have tolerated such crimes against women, arguing the defence of passion and provocation. Shakespeare's Othello for instance is a tale of sexual jealousy culminating in murder. In the film A Perfect Murder, a powerful and wealthy husband arranges for the death of his wife.

Robert Browning's My Last Duchess is a dramatic monologue which voices the justification of a jealous husband for doing away with his young bride. The Duke is a collector of beautiful objects, but when he finds that his wife smiles innocently at other people and thanks them prettily, rather than saving all the gratitude for him, he has her murdered. Later, he 'possesses' her by keeping her portrait hidden behind a curtain in his gallery, another object in his expensive, rare collection of beautiful objects.

In our film, we plan to feature a similar scenario, in which the object of the mans love is kept in a sort of shrine, and he justifies his violence towards her. Literature and film is full of women sacrificed on the altar of powerful men's pride.

RESEARCH - FILM OPENING ANALYSIS: GONE GIRL

Gone Girl Opening Sequence

I analysed the opening of Gone Girl, which is a film directed by David Fincher. I think the start of the film is brilliant – it is gripping and you want to watch to see what happens. It starts with the man lovingly stroking his wife’s hair, as she affectionately looks up at him. However, the voiceover could not be more different. He speaks about wanting to ‘crack open her skull’, in an eerily calm voice. The contrast between his affectionate actions but violent language grips the person watching, as they can tell this is an unusual storyline and wants to know what happens. After this short scene and voiceover, in my opinion the opening goes slightly downhill. The rest of it is just still videos of calm landscapes, each obviously having some significance to the film and storyline. However, whenever I watch this trailer I start to lose interest in this section – the music is slow and there is no more action, so it is hard to stay focused and really gripped on the story. To keep me more engaged, I think in between some of the landscape scenes there could have been half seconds of dramatic danger, giving inside of some of the action that will come later in the film.

The main images that have been prioritised in this opening sequence is the wife lying close to her husband as he strokes her hair. This also comes at the beginning, so we meet the two main characters, what they look like and their relationship. All the scenes – all the landscapes as well as the live action - convey calmness. However, the language being used by the man contradicts with this, making it much more interesting. The man’s speech also implies this film may come slightly under the horror genre. The language is gruesome, and not your typical romance film.

Before any scenes are shot, the black screen is placed, which shows clearly the different titles, and people who were involved. Different camera shots included an arc pan – which was the main shot type. There are also several still shots to show the scenery.

RESEARCH - FILM OPENING ANALYSIS: A FOND KISS

 In my opinion, the opening of this film was very gripping and interesting. It covers several different landscapes and places, which will be of some significance throughout the film. Through this we are introduced to the characters, their personalities and society in Glasgow.

The opening scene was a nightclub in Glasgow. It shows the night life for young adults, which are predominantly third and fourth generation Pakistani/Muslims. The connotations the images carry are positivity, happiness and unity. There is no tension between all the people, as they happily dance to Bhangra music, which are cultural songs that bring everyone together. In this scene we also see Casim, as a DJ in the club.

We are also introduced to Casims father, who owns a corner shop. This is almost a typical Asian corner shop, and it has connotations of both men of the family working. At this point we haven’t met the mother, and the younger girl is at school. However, when she’s not we are shown she helps her Dad in his shop.

In the opening credits, there are 9 titles displayed, these can give off a pedigree influence as they name all the famous actors in the film, what awards they’ve won, etc. It is a Sixteen Film Production (Ken Loach Company), funded by Scottish Screen. This shows it also has a lower budget for a film – not one of Hollywood’s top 6. It is a romance genre, also including some comedy and Bollywood. After the opening credits, there is a clear title of the film, with the background being a pan of Glasgow. This shows the ‘calm before the storm’ and we are shown the place the whole film will be taking place. The titles and credits show us how much organisation and funding actually goes into any film, which is why films can take a very long time to make. 

 

‘I’m a dazzling mixture and I’m proud of it.’

This is what Tahara says when she is doing a speech in her school assembly. She talks about how she’s not just Glaswegian, not just Muslim but a mix of different cultures and identities and she embraces that. This is a key point in the opening section because it shows this is not just a romance, but also a ‘coming of age’ film. She is proud who she is, but this is contrasted by the racial tension by some of the Irish Catholic boys in the school.

 

I think the most romantic scene in this opening section is where Casim sees the Irish music teacher in a classroom teaching a lesson, and gazes through the window at her. Her student is singing ‘A Fond Kiss’ which symbolises and summaries how their relationship is going to go throughout the film. They will fall in love; however, it will fall apart as their cultures won’t allow it. He is a Muslim and she is an Irish Catholic, so their relationship will run cold and they will be pulled apart. With a voiceover of the girl singing ‘A Fond Kiss’, we are shown an insight into Casims home life. All of his family are in the garden with an architecture plan, looking to build an extension for Casim and his wife when he eventually gets married. This is normal for Muslim tradition as the bride will move in with her husband and his family, but it is just a reason Casim and the teacher Roisin won’t work, because she has other plans and morals.