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Sunday 30 October 2016

Analysis of Kill Bill Vol.1 Opening

The introduction to Kill Bill begins with a quote. The quote is written in a sans-serif font and is seen as very modern. The white font is used to stand out against the black background, creating contrast. The quote reads "Revenge is a dish best served cold.". Tarantino probably put this quote at the very beginning of the film to let the audience know what to expect from the film. Revenge. By establishing the movie with a quote such as this, the audience is then encouraged to indulge themselves in the movie immediately. 

The entire scene in the opening is filmed in black and white, this connotes that perhaps everything white is pure and that everything black is not. As soon as the quote fades out, a sound bridge of a woman breathing heavily is heard. She sounds distressed and worried and the audience is quickly drawn in by the mystery. As this continues, the titles continue with 'Mirimax Films Present' and a 'A Band Apart'. This then fades to the already black screen, before a straight cut to a woman, lying on the floor, bloody and battered from a high angle, mid-closeup. All that is seen of her costume is a veil but it is drenched in blood as her face and the floor. Her hair clings to her face, wet and her face glistens with sweat. 
As she breathes and cries, loud, deep, ambient foot steps can be heard. An eye-line match is made where the woman turns her head and her eyes go wide before the camera cuts to a shot of a man's feet. He wears heeled boots and this explains his overly loud footsteps. As he walks, the creaking of the old wooden floorboards can be heard too, this helps to bring atmosphere to the scene and add to the verisimilitude. As he walks, the shaky breathing of the woman can still be heard, suggesting that he is walking towards her. This suggestion is then reinforced as the camera cuts back to the woman and his foot fits only slightly in the shot. 
He bends down and wipes blood off of her face with a handkerchief, embroidered on it is the name Bill. This is highly significant as the title of the film is Kill Bill and the quote on the beginning suggests revenge. By using the embroidered handkerchief, the audience then knows who's dialogue this is and then knows who's footsteps they were. However, throughout the scene, Bill's face is never shown and the woman's is. The reversal of their hidden identities helps to further create mystery as his face isn't shown but his name is and her face is shown but her name is not told. This further entices the audience and draws them into the narrative.
The first part of dialogue in the entire film is spoken by Bill. He says "Do you find me sadistic?". He says this to a woman that is lying on the floor covered in blood and she's crying. This suggests that they know each other, as that question isn't commonly used as an introduction. 
Bill's costume consists of what appears to be an expensive bracelet,  a long sleeved shirt/jacket, trousers and heeled boots. This gives the impression that Bill is someone to be feared, this is especially reinforced by how casually he deals with the situation at hand and the way he talks to the woman. 
As the scene progresses, the woman's eyes grow wide after Bill has moved himself from the frame and says "This moment, this

is me in my most masochistic", while he says this sentence, the diegetic sound of him loading a gun is heard. The woman replies to this with "Bill, it's your baby.". This suggests that woman is pregnant by this man. This then confuses the audience as he seems to be a threat to the woman. After her first line of dialogue, Bill shoots her in the head. Thus creating a very gruesome opening scene to a thriller, exciting and stunning the audience into watching more. 

This is immediately cut to a title showing that this is the fourth film that Tarantino has directed. The name of Quentin Tarantino is written in capitals, bold and a larger font to the rest of the title, this signifies his importance to the film. Also, as soon as this title appears, the incidental music, Bang Bang, begins to play slowly and solemnly. This truly helps to create the dark, twisted nature that film already bares. 
This title then fades to a blank black screen which is followed by Uma Thurman's title, which is also in the same format as Tarantino's title. This signifies how important Uma Thurman is to the film and states her alongside Tarantino before anyone else is mentioned. Uma's name the fades to blackness before the title of the film appears. 
This time, the font is serifed and stands out in white boldly against the black background, as do the rest of the titles in opening. 

Analysis of Lost Highway Opening

The opening scene to Lost Highway is introduced with a jumpy, fast paced image of a road with headlights jumping around. The vehicle being depicted is obviously driving very fast and this connotes danger and the possibility of someone being injured. 

There's bright yellow stripes in the middle of the road which are vivid in contradiction to the darkness of the road and the bright lights from the car. This suggests to the audience that there's a situation in which people need to be driving recklessly. This is fitting of the thriller genre as risks are being taken and this puts the audience on edge. 

The titles zoom into the screen as if from the distance, the font used is bright yellow - which fits in with the theme of yellow that is seen on the road - in capital letters and in a sans-serif font which indicates that the movie is modern. The font used bares a resemblance to road signs and the painted writing found on roads. The theme of roads is therefore continued and sets up the semantic field of the movie to the audience. 

The incidental music in the opening to Lost Highway is very fast paced and has lots of layers of heavy techno beats and drums. The fast rhythm reflects the actions that are being displayed on screen. Also, the titles zoom into view in time to the music which holds the opening together well. 


The title of the film appears in a much bigger font than the other titles. This allows the audience to remember the title and depicts the importance and significance of the title to the film.

Saturday 29 October 2016

Analysis of Mulholland Drive Opening



Mulholland Drive, dir. David Lynch, begins it's opening sequence with a black screen and the titles fading in and out in time  to a low pitched, soft toned incidental music. The music has a dark feel to it which fits in with the theme of a thriller. However, this is quickly contradicted by the bright pink dancing scene which follows.  


This juxtaposes the introduction to the film as dark and scary to light and lively. As the pink is being introduced through silhouettes, the music changes and becomes more lively and upbeat and focuses on the sound of drums and trumpets, also as the dancing scene progresses, the ambient sound of audience cheers is heard. 



The costume that the people in the dancing scene wear is very stereo typically 40's, they wear oversized shirts with old-fashioned patterns, long brown skirts and dull colours. Layers of editing is used to compose what is in the frame. Towards the back there's a pink background and silhouettes of people dancing, and various clips of couples dancing are edited in. Towards the front of the frame, very white images start to move around and further focus into people smiling. This helps to create an establishing idea of the film as light-hearted and happy, which is then flipped on it's head as the music begins to fade out and the people dancing disappear. Suddenly, you can hear someone breathing and the camera uses a point of view angle and blurs in and out of focus. This suggests that the person is weary and unstable which contradicts the scene before. The uncertainty of the situations draws the audience in.


The audience is introduced to the title of the film through a street sign that says 'Mulholland Dr.', this subtly informs them of the title without it being too explicit.






Friday 21 October 2016

Conventions of form - an opening sequence

  • Titles 


    • of the movie
      • so that the audience know what they are watching
    • of the director
      • so fans of the director are aware of their work
    • of the editors/producers etc.
    • of the actors and actresses
      • so that the audience is aware of who's in the movie.
  •  Plot isn't revealed
    • this ensures that the audience doesn't discover the entire plot of the film within the first couple of minutes
  •  Suggests/foreshadows what is yet to happen
    • e.g Seven's opening sequence displays the first murder and the title sequence suggests more about the film without revealing too much of the plot
  •  Music
    • usually slow and intense to create the typical atmosphere of a thriller
  • Introduces audience to characters without revealing a plot
    • this helps to sustain the mystery of a thriller without giving away too much

Conventions of a Thriller

  • Fight sequences
  • Suspense
    • Music
      • low tones
      • edgy
      • Can help to reflect the moods of the antagonist and the protagonist
  • Mission
  • Mystery
  • Low lighting
    • urban
    • moody

  • Mise-En-Scene
    • agents
    • suits
    • dark, low level lighting
    • scars
  • Heroic Protagonists
    • Innocent
    • Wrong man's shoes
    • Ex Military
    • Agents/Spies
      • e.g Bond, Jason Bourne
    • Role reversal (hunter becomes hunted)
  • Villainous Antagonist
    • Psycho
    • Anti-government
    • Scars
    • Political/religious beliefs and causes
  • Espionage
  • Editing
    • shot-reverse-shot
    • fast pace cuts to represent intensity of scenes
    • Match on action
    • Action match
    • Graphic match
  • Camera
    • close ups to show characters emotions
    • medium-long shots
    • establishing shots