The Shining Opening Sequence Analysis

The opening sequence for Stanley Kubrick's 1980s Horror, The Shining is almost fully consisted of establishing shots, conveying the peaceful countryside and the yellow car driving along it. This connotes to the audience the isolation of where characters are staying, as well as setting the overall tone of the film as this idea of them being isolated is a major theme in this film. From the establishing shots the emphasis of the amount of isolation is strongly shown with the contrast of the small yellow car surrounded by all of the trees and mountains.

The only time where there was not a form of an establishing shot was when the camera zoomed in on the yellow car, where at this point 'Jack Nicholson' scrolls up on the screen, connoting to the audience that he is the person who is in the car as well as suggesting that he is the main character within the film as he is the first person to be introduced to the audience.

The typography used in the opening allows the audience to clearly see the companies and people who are involved with the film, the use of making the text a icy blue colour does this as well as also connote the Horror genre of the film as this colour could relate to the fact that sometimes death causes human bodies to turn blue, thus foreshadowing that there is probably going to be deaths in the film.


The use of the music with the shots help to produce an interesting contrast with the peaceful setting of the landscape and the use of the sinister music, where at first the two objects do not blend together. This helps for the music to set the tone for the film.

The transitions used are very sharp when showing a different location and symbolising one of the main themes in the film (Change), as the sharp cuts to a different location can convey the dramatic change in the main character.

The main focus throughout the opening is the car as this is the consistent object throughout the opening from the change of location the car is still evident in the shot which conveys a sense of time of how far he has travelled. The use of not including any actors in the opening helps to keep the audience interested, as it allows the audience to wonder why nobody has been introduced and adds to the suspense as this makes the opening more mysterious. The cameras main focus is this car as it is always tracking it, connoting its significance, as the audience may miss it at first. With the car being yellow it could connote that the character in the car is nervous as the colour yellow is associated as a warning colour as well as madness and fear, suggesting that this isn't going to be a 'normal' holiday. The colour yellow for the car is unusual as they are not very common conveying that the main character is not common and can suggest that he is quite abstract.

The lighting used throughout the opening is all from the natural sources suggesting that at this moment everything is fine and that nothing bad is going to happen yet due to the brightness of the lighting.

Se7en Opening Sequence Analysis

Love Actually Opening Sequence Analysis

Love Actually Opening Sequence Analysis from Charlotte Dyer

The Notebook Opening Sequence Analysis

The Notebook is a film made in 2004 which is based on two people who fall in love in the 1940's. This film is based on the novel 'The Notebook' which was by Nicholas Sparks, who also created the book 'Dear John' which got made into a film in 2010.





 At the very beginning of the opening we are introduced to the scene of a man rowing on the lake during the sunset.

The very first shot is a long shot of the man rowing and the sunset. The use of an extreme long shot helps the audience to establish the size of the lake compared to the rower who is much more insignificant compared to the lake. The use of the shot also shows the audience more of the location and showing them the isolation which the rower has out on the lake.
The shot also shows the rower at the centre of the image suggesting that he is a main character in the film.

The whole of the opening is filmed in the 'letterbox' style of format, this helps the audience to enable them to see it in a much grander scope on a large magnitude therefore almost engulfing the audience into the film. This can also connote to the audience that the film is based in the mid 1900's as this is what filmmakers at the time tended to do so they could present a larger image.

The lighting in the opening sequence is a dim red / orange colour connoting to the audience that it is sunset therefore based in the late afternoon. The use of the two colours helps to add to the beauty of the scene making it nice for the audience to see. The colour red also has the connotations of love which can help the audience to deconstruct what the genre of the film is going to be.  

All the way throughout the opening there is a subtle non-diegetic sound of a piano playing ('On the Lake' by Aaron Zigman) in the background which has a relaxing aroma to it, and connects with the man rowing in a slow and steady place suggesting that he isn't in any hurry and that this may be his way of finding peace. This can  also portray that everything is smooth sailing as the piano isn't neither ascending or descending in speed or volume again helping to support how he is in no rush as well as giving out a peaceful aroma.

The style of typography used within the opening sequence helps the audience to clearly see who is starring in the film or who plays a key part in making the film as the text is written in a white font which nicely contrasts with the darker background making it extremely clear for the audience to see, and also in a way show off the people who are in it. The serif font used can help to convey an old fashioned style to it which can signify that the story was based back in the mid 1900's.

While the man is rowing there is a lack of lighting and the audience is unable to see his face, this helps to not give too much away as this helps to make the audience have to watch the rest of the film to find out.

The use of a tracking shot following the mad rowing helps to make the audience feel as though they are with him making it more personal for the audience as they feel as though they are with him.

As the opening sequence goes on the audience is able to see a clear change in the amount of lighting used when the man is rowing this can show to the audience the length of time which has gone past.

In the shot where the rower is coming towards the camera the audience is able to establish how far the man has travelled and also shows a sense of time passing from the very first shot.

When the audience is first shown the massive white house the audience gets a sense of where the rowers destination may be to conveying that he may be meeting someone he knows.

In this shot the 'Rule of Thirds' is used as the centre object (the house) is not in the centre of the frame, this allows the shot to look more interesting and give the impression that the audience is in the rowers P.O.V looking towards the house.

In this shot there is also a clear number of white birds which can connote the freedom which the rower has as well as adding to the beauty of the shot. however they aren't very distracting for the audience as the text is going to be more in the audiences face.

The use of  the 'Over the Shoulder' shot for when the woman is looking out towards the rower, helps the audience to establish why they had been watching the rower, as this shows that she may be the reason for why we are watching him. It also helps to show what exactly she is looking out towards suggesting that she may know the man who is rowing.

The white birds are again used in this shot, however, they covey a sense of greed and the striving for freedom when this time they can be linked to the woman connoting how the woman may be feeling and / or what she is experiencing. 

The white house is again shown in the opening sequence connoting the importance which it has within the film, foreshadowing what may be to come in the film.

The use of a low angle, medium long shot, is used to help exaggerate the pure size of the house, also in this shot you can see the woman standing by the top right window. This shows her insignificance in size towards the grand house.

In the final shot of the opening we are again shown the woman in the window but from the other side of the glass. The use of a medium close up helps the audience to understand how the woman is feeling towards the rower by her facial expressions.

Throughout the whole opening the Fade out / Fade in transitions used within it helps to make the whole opening flow nicely together and also fits in with the slow pace of the music.

   

Research - Genre

For my Final Piece I am researching two main genres, Horror and Romantic Drama.

Horror

The reasons for why I decided to research into this genre was because  there are always different ideas and aspects which you can include into this genre and can base it on any social group (e.g. people with mental health, teenagers, etc.)


Horror films generally follow the idea of the characters being placed in delocalised locations where nobody would be able to help them. (e.g. a forest, an abandoned buildings, a house in the middle of nowhere. Horror films are always more than likely to have at least one of the following: danger, death, a curse and blood as these are what makes a film classify as a horror.

When doing my research I gathered up what the top 10 horror films were from 1980 - now.


Source: boxofficemojo.com

 

 

From the top 10 I am able to gather that the company which comes up the most is dimension films, who are well known for some of their horror films, when I look into existing horror film openings I will look particularly at dimension films and the other studios which are in the top 10.   

Romantic Drama

The reason for why I decided to look more into this genre was because I think that this genre would be different towards the Horror genre which I am also looking at as it involves much different techniques for the opening sequences as the transitions tend to be a lot softer, helping it to flow nicely as well as having less harsh music in the background.
Romantic Drama films tend to follow the ' Boy meets the girl' Scenario where it traditionally ends with a 'happily ever after'. The story line tends to involve a huge amount of emotions, feelings, pain, love, flashbacks and past stories.
Again like when looking into the horror genre I found out the Top 10 Romantic drama films from 1980- now which will help me when I have to analyse some opening sequences


Source: boxofficemojo.com

Romantic dramas tend to be aimed towards the female gender as women tend to find human relationships more interesting than other genres of films as they sometimes believe that one day their lives would be like that of a character in the film.

Institutional Conventions of Film Titles

The Institutional Conventions of Film titles from Charlotte Dyer