Opening Film Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vshC4xgayM0

As our chosen genre is "action comedy," we have decided to analyse the opening of Rush Hour 3. We have chosen this film as it has similar ideas to what we want to include in our opening film. The conventions that make this an "action comedy" film are conventions we will use in our main task. These include similar setting which is in town, humour through the use of speech, dramatic action included in the storyline etc. In the opening scene, there are firstly several establishing shots of both the city and then buildings. There are also opening credits which are white and bold making them stand out. There is then an aerial shot of the character who is shown to be both dancing and singing in the middle of the road. This creates the humour in the film which is then contrasted with action, when suddenly a car crashes. It is filmed on a sunny day and so had natural lighting. The mis en scene is typical of everyday in town centres consisting of busy roads, traffic, cars, people etc. These all establish this opening scene to represent this film as being of a "action comedy" genre.

Shot list 2

This is one of the ideas we came across while brainstorming for the final film opening. We decided to save this and use it as a plan B just in case our main plan came to an unreasonable end.

That is the list of different camera techniques used in this idea:

1. Mid shot
2. High angle
3. Low angle
4. Cut in
5. Two shot
6. POV
7. Zoom in
8. Over the shoulder
9. Low and deep depth of field
10. Close up
11. Extreme close up
12. Long shot
13. Wide shot
14. Slow motion
15. Shot reverse shot
16. Bird eye
17. Rule of third
18. 180 degree rule

Weather shot

– gloomy day, credits

Long shot

– guy A sitting on a bench (film from his side)

Cut in

- guy B's hand holding iPod

Mid shot

– film from guy A front

Extreme close up

– guy A’s eyes (emotion, not happy)

Cut in

- guy B's feet walking fast

Over the shoulder

– guy B step out of guy A’s head

Long shot

– guy A getting up, walking towards guy B

Two shot

– guy A entering shot (while guy B already in shot)

Cut in

– guy A’s hand with a pack of Skittels

Over the shoulder

– guy A: “Skittels?”

- guy B: “Nahh”

Shot reverse shot + over the shoulder

- guy A: “is that how it’s gona be?”

- guy A eating skittels

- guy B: “YEAH”

- guy A: “Alright” (spits skittles like machine gun at guy B’s face)

Shot of protestrian (zooming in + out blurr + clear)

- looking at them thinking what is going on

Two shot

– guy A: “is this where it ends”

- guy B reach out to push guy A

Over the shoulder

– guy B’s hands reaches guy A

Two shot

– guy A tries to punch guy B but got block

POV

– big swing to the face from guy B (slow motion)

- guy A falls back (deep breathing)

- low angle POV (guy A looking up to guy B who is posing, making guy A powerless)

Bird eye + zoom in – guy A’s head

POV

- sky (head drops back) + (eyes close)

All black

– “a week ago” (text)

- traffic noise (sound bridge)

Medium close up (rule of third)

– guy B steeping into shot (shallow depth of field)

- guy A walking behind towards guy B

- guy B turns around

- hands reach out

Cut in (long take)

– hand shake

- guy A: “itee”

- guy B: “sup”

- guy B: “where’s the others”

- guy A: “over there”

Wide shot

– guy C and guy D walking toward them with a football

POV

- guy C passing the ball doing skills

Tracking shot

- following guy D's feet while dribbling

Wide shot

- a pass to guy A/B (film from their direction)

Two shot

– guy A/B gets the ball

- guy A: “so! is that how it’s gona be?”

- guy B: “Yeahh”

- both walk toward into the camera

- end with title

Main Task Outline

In our main task, we will produce a 2 minute opening of a film. This has to include at least 30 different camera shots. We will have to decide on a genre and then an idea of how this type of generic film is made. We will also analyse a film opening of the same genre, which will involve looking at how and what conventions are used to create this to be a specific genre. We have 7 weeks to complete our main task, which will also include the editing completion too.

Shot List # 1

My Wings

1. high angle shot - tall building
2. wide shot - city centre
3. long shot - 'curry mile' (location)
4. close up - a chip shop name
5. medium shot - Ephrem and Edwin walking to a chip shop
6. high angle shot - someone cooking in chip shop
7. close up - Kailin's face
8. medium shot - Kailin looking for money on the floor
9. over the shoulder shot - Ephrem and Edwin ordering the chicken
10. close up - Kailin asking Zain for money
11. wide shot - camera looking through window of chip shop at Ephrem and Edwin
12. point of view shot - Kailin looking at Ephrem and Edwin
13. low angle shot - Kailin hiding behind the cornerof the chip shop
14. close up - Ephrem and Edwin opening their boxes with chicken inside them
15. medium shot - Ephrem and Edwin walking out of the chip shop
16. close up - Kailin's hand on Ephrem's chicken box
17. medium shot - Kailin taking the box
18. wide shot - Kailin running away with the box, Ephrem and Edwin chasing him
19. low angle - looking at Ephrem's face who is tired
20. close up - Edwin asking Ephrem if he's alright
21. two shot - Edwin giving Ephrem his box of chicken so he can run after Kailin
22. low angle - Kailin jumping over railings
23. close up - Kailin eating the chicken whilst running
24. over the shoulder shot - Edwin still chasing Kailin
25. high angle shot - Kailin running up stairs in a building he entered
26. low angle shot - Edwin running up the same set of stairs
27. 360 degree shot - Edwin and Kailin looking at each other
28. long shot - Kailin doing karate moves
29. close up shot - Edwin looking at Kailin, puzzled
30. point of view shot - Edwin's fist hitting Kailin's face (fist hitting camera lens)

Preliminary Task

Analysis of preliminary task

What did you learn about the cameras and editing software during the preliminary task?

In the preliminary task we have learned how to put the tape into and taking out of the camera without breaking it, also learned to use the tripod correctly, making sure the video was recorded straight. The camera can zoom in and out during recording, which it helped us to record facial expressions. There are two modes play and record mode. Play mode allowed us to watch the clip we have recorded and to put it on the computer. The video was stored onto the tape which takes long time to access the wanted clip, unlike digital recorders.

The editing software we used was “final cut pro”, it was easy to use. We learned to put shots together and to put text on the video. Also deleting the original sound and put music on it. The editing software also allowed us to cut clips we did not want and add it to the video.

In the filming and editing of your project, what worked well and what could have been improved?

During the filming, most things went well even though it was our first time using the cameras. With the help of the tri-pod, it was more comfortable to pan, the camera was steadier and it was easier to create certain angles. On the other hand, we did have slight problems when filming. The major problem consisted of us not finishing filming some scenes, were we used different shots for the same sequence. For example, when we had a conversation between the two people present in the scene, instead of shooting the same scene multiple times with different shots, we basically stopped filming when we had the part we needed. This affected the finished product as some of the shots didn’t perfectly fit in with each other and were noticeable in the film.

Using the iMacs to edit was a great experience as it made our production look very professional. The fact that we could manoeuvre the clips we had filmed and put them anywhere on the timeline made it very easy to finish the project in the given time. The only thing that we could have improved is the music we put into the task. After putting the clips together, we had some time left over, so we decided to add sound, but the process of putting the music into the project was time consuming, so we ended up rushing the process and it didn’t sound like we wanted it to sound.

How did you make sure that you didn’t break the 180 degree rule? Or if you broke it, what have you learnt from this?

We made sure that we didn’t break this rule by keeping the camera on one side of the action at all times, this can be seen throughout the conversation between the two characters in the video, because we filmed it from just one side. Furthermore there was a long table on the other side of the characters so we couldn’t film from that side therefore we did not break the 180 degree rule. When watching this scene over again, it clearly portrays the conversation in a smooth way from over the shoulder of both characters but not breaking the 180 degree rule. We learnt that if we broke this and filmed from both sides of each character, then it would look weird and as if the characters had swapped positions. This wouldn’t make the video as smooth as it could be. This is why we filmed from over the right shoulder of Edwin, and over the left shoulder of Kailin This ensured we didn’t break the 180 degree ruled.

Give a detailed, specific example of how you have used a shot/ reverse shot combination in your film
We used shot/reverse shot between the 2 characters when they were speaking. This consisted of us filming one character when speaking, and then the other character when he replied. However we used certain camera angles when filming the conversation using shot/reverse shot. To be more precise, when the more dominant character was speaking, we filmed from over his shoulder using a high angle shot therefore he was looking down on the other character. This emphasises on his dominance and the other character being weaker. Furthermore, when filming from over the shoulder of the weak character, we filmed at a low angle thus portraying him as looking up to the more dominant character. This also connotes the authority of each character when being juxta-posed together.

The opening sequence of the movie has a lot of elements to it that classify it under the genre of thriller. Some elements are clearly visible, for e.g.: The score is very eerie, scary and action –packed, these contribute in categorizing the movie as a thriller.
The low key lighting makes the scene seem freaky and mysterious, this connotes the film to thriller. It makes the audience feel there is something bad it going to happen.
The face of the antagonist was not shown in the scene it hides the person’s identity making the audience wonder, this also adds a kick into the movie making the audience want to continue watching to see where it would lead them to, The antagonist has a cloak on which raises the subject of him being mysterious, also the time the film was dated relates to the fact that during that era a cloak would be most associated with the genre of being a ‘film noir’ which was used in the 50’s and 60’s. There was a dead body in the scene this shows there has been a crime. There was petrol, this gave the viewer an idea that there was going to be an explosion, which we later witness when the faceless antagonist enters and leaves the scene. There was a man lying critically injured next to the petrol on the floor, he was smoking a cigarette which is known to be very dangerous seeing that petrol is flammable and could easily be triggered to pick fire from any source of heat, this tells the viewer that the man smoking isn’t scared to die and probably knew that he was going to die, later on we see he was shot dead by the mysterious man who later after he kills him lights the petrol on the floor causing the whole boat to explode and burst into flames.

Bhaji on the Beach

Throughout the opening scenes, various conventions are used to create the film to portray a drama/ social realism genre. The conventions are used in a specific way to portray certain things which represent the type of film this is. An example of this is at the beginning there is a tracking shot. This reveals and juxta-poses an English butcher shop with a Asian shop. It also shows racist symbols which are drawn on walls. For the audience, this represents the time period the film was set in and the sort of social conflicts going on e.g. racism. Subtle racism is also portrayed through the use of dialogue that the delivery man gives. Also through the use of what he was delivering, this was newspapers. The headline had subtle racism in targeting the ethnic group whom the protagonists in the film are.
The audience knows more about the genre through them reasons but furthermore through the mis en scene. For example the mother is wearing typical Asian clothes. They also own a corner shop which was associated with them ethnic groups during that time period. The dialogue from the father is Asian however the son’s is English. This juxta-poses the two ethnic groups and in some sense portrays there family as being of both an English and Asian background.
The director of the film is called Gurinder Chadha and the film was released during a specific time period which represented how families of this ethnic group during this time period, had different lifestyles and values then other people.

Bhaji on the Beach

We know this is a realist drama because of some of the issues that are raised in the opening scene. The issues that are included are racism and the contrasts between western and Hindu culture. The director Gurinder Chadha has shown racism directly and indirectly to show the viewer what it is like to live as an Asian woman in Britain. The fact that a white male has done graffiti’s of the swastika sign, used by the Nazi and the initials ‘NF’, which stands for National Front, which is a racist party, showing the direct racism present. There is also indirect racism, like when a white man enters the shop and comments on the fact that the Asian woman should be used to the hot weather, stereotyping the fact that she is from a hot country and should be used to it. There are also contrasts between the different cultures, varying from the languages, to the dress code, accent and music. Also, when the Asian woman is hallucinating, we see a high angle shot of a Hindu god, showing it’s more powerful than the woman. There is also a bird’s eye view shot of the woman walking through a hallway, surrounded by Bollywood videos, Hindu posters and logo’s of Western companies like Coca Cola and Walls.