Analysis Of 3 Film Openings.


First film opening i will be analysing will be 'Harry Brown'. The opening of this film is shot very cleverly, it shows a group of rough youths (shown by the clothes they are wearing, hoods are up and faces covered - Mise-en-scene) that are pressuring another youth into joining their gang. they get him to smoke drugs and they give him a gun. the newest member then shoots a vulnerable woman with a child dead. this is very realistic and believable as this does happen in this day and age in some London estates. The reason it is cleverly shot is because it looks like it is filmed on a phone camera as there is bad quality, its shaking everywhere and the sound is very distorted and low quality also. this also makes it very realistic and believable. there is a few close ups, match on action and eye line shots in the first couple of minutes of this film. the main reason for this opening clip is, when the clip ends it then leads into the main story line of the film introducing the main character (Michael Cain). The lighting is good but as it is supposed to look like a phone camera it is slightly pixelated and low quality.

The second film opening i will be analysing will be 'Saving Private Ryan'. The opening scene in this film jumps straight into action. You witness a lot of deaths, people being blown up, people on fire, blood everywhere, it is a very effective opening. It's world war 2, you can tell by the setting, the guns and the uniform (Mise-en-scene). The main character (Tom Hanks) is the obvious captain of his squad, as you can tell by the dialogue that he has obvious power as he orders everything that is going to happen. it is filmed cleverly with sound, as when they get into the water you cant hear much as its all muffled, and when the camera goes back to the surface it goes back to normal sound, this is cleverly done. The lighting is very good, you can clearly see the characters and everything that is going on. the editing was very good, there was a slow motion shot which caught my eye when Tom Hanks was looking around in shock at everything that was happening for example the man searching for his lost arm. it was high quality and led you straight into the story line.

The third film opening i will be analysing will be '8 Mile'. The opening scene introduces us to the main character and what the whole film will be about. It shows Eminem at a rap battle, but he doesn't say anything and gets booed off stage, he then walks out and his mates say that he will win next time. therefore telling us there will be a next time and he will be battling. The lighting is good, clearly showing everything we need to see as a viewer, the camera angles are good, showing us exactly what we need to see. There is a few close ups, eye line shots, match on action shots, wide shots to show the crowd, medium shots to show body language, two shots etc.. the mise-en-scene shows that he isn't rich, he's quite poor with his shabby, ripped clothes that he carries in a bin bag. The sound is clear and easy to hear what is going on and what is being shouted etc. it is also a cliff hanger as it leaves the viewers thinking what is going to happen next.

In conclusion these three opening scenes from these films are very good, they are good for camera, sound, editing, lighting and mise-en-scene. They have given me a few ideas for my film opening i will be doing at school.

Henry Kidman.