An analysis of a film opening in my chosen genre

An analysis of a film opening in my chosen genre

The first shot of the movie is an establishing shot which sets the scene up for us because it shows helicopters and dense forest showing that their may be a lot of fighting going on in this area of dense forest.




Within the first two seconds of the film we already know what a main part of the film is going to be because of what this text says which is that they are going on a secret mission to Vietnam and this doesn't make the audience confused over the plot.


The titles in this film perfectly match the colours of the film and whats happening because the titles look like they are from a typewriter which were used during the Vietnam war.

In the opening scene of this film it only shows stuff to do with war like helicopters, infantryman, guns and bombs which could tell us that this film is mainly about war.

The voice of the man at the start reading whats on the screen has a voice just like an army sergeant linking again to how the film could mainly feature war in it.

The atmosphere in this movie is mainly of fear because they are constantly being attacked by the enemy.

This will help me when it comes to making my own film opening because I am analysing a film that will be quite similar to the film opening that we are doing which will help me a lot.

Our chosen genre and research

Our chosen genre and research

The genre we chose to use in our film was mockumentary. A mockumentary is a film or even a television programme that takes events that have happened in the past and makes it satirical.

Examples of mockumentary TV programmes and films

• Parks and Recreation
• The Office
• Charlie Brooker's 2016 wipe
• Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
• This Is Spinal Tap
• Bruno

Charlie Brooker's 2016 wipe is an example of a mockumentary TV programme because in this show he does every year, he takes a satirical look at the year including all the events that have happened in the past year and makes them all funny.

What We Do in the Shadows is a horror mockumentary where a team is allowed to film a documentary about four vampires living in a house together.

The similarities between these two mockumentaries Borat and What We Do in the Shadows is that in both of these movies, the main character is showing around a camera crew who are filming what it is going on for a documentary. At the start of each one they both show you around their area and tell you whats what.

The difference between these two mockumentaries are that in Borat the main character is wearing a suit and tie which is what you usually see in mockumentaries whereas in What We Do in the Shadows the main character is wearing capes and the other two are wearing a t-shirt and a waistcoat.

The mockumentary generic conventions we have used from these examples are that we used a camera group to follow a small group of chavs in the army in our film, we also used another generic conventions which was a on screen narrator telling us about this chav squadron, we also included comedic interviews with each character to make our film opening not serious and like a mockumentary.

This will help me when it comes to making my own film opening because it shows me what mockumentaries put in their films to make them satirical.

Our Opening re-make

Our Opening re-make

My group decided to remake a film because we wanted to see what a film opening consists of and then we could put all of this knowledge into making our own film opening.

Remaking a film will help us when it comes to making our own film opening because in this remake we will see where titles should go and how long they should be on their for and what a film opening should be. As we are remaking a film this will give us the chance to use all the equipment again so we all know how to use it as it will be fresh in our minds.

Difference between mainstream and independent films

Difference between mainstream and independent films

• Big star names such as Daniel Craig
• Popular songs and music used in the films opening sequence 
• The genre they use is a safe genre
• The film will have high production values
• They will be able to use better technology
• Font and titling are key

• Independent genres are specific, they are not afraid to do risky genres
• Low Budget
• Not as good technology as mainstream
• Gritty
• Independent film opening use less titles because there is less personnel
• Less distribution compared to mainstream films

This will help me when it comes to making my own film opening because it shows me what the difference is between mainstream and independent.

Film Openings and Audiences

Film Openings and Audiences

Film openings could attract audiences by using two theories, the first theory is the hypodermic needle theory which is where the media has a direct and very powerful effect on its audiences.



A famous example of the hypodermic needle theory is when Orson Wells was reading the War Of The Worlds and he was interrupted by a news bulletin claiming that Earth was being attacked by martians and that their landing point was Grover's Mill, New Jersey and this caused mass hysteria.

Film openings could also attract audiences by using the second theory which is the uses and gratification theory and this is different to the hypodermic needle theory because it assumes that the audience are not passive and that they take an active role in putting media into their own lives.



For example people may watch the Indiana Jones franchise because they want to escape what is going on in their life and join in the Indiana Jones world and enjoy it.

This will help me when it comes to making my own film opening because it shows me the two main audience theories I could use in my film opening.

Making a film opening with jelly babies

Making a film opening with jelly babies

In class we were told to make a film opening using only post it notes and jelly babies.

The reason we did this was to plan a film and to also put all of the film titles in the correct order and to also see what other people in our class made.

This will help me when it comes to my own film opening because it showed me what I could do for my film and where all the titles in a film opening should appear

Generic Conventions in Film Openings

Generic Conventions in Film Openings 

In films different genres show different generic conventions, for example comedies have light hearted music and horrors have lots of death shown. This means that at the start of the film the audience will already know what the genre is and will not be confused because they will see all these typical generic conventions. 

Toy Story - Generic Giveaways - Animation/Family

• Happy upbeat music       
• The name "toy story"
• The titles are all in lower case
• Animation
• Non diegetic sound - Song is about friendship 

The Shining - Generic Giveaways - Psychological thriller

• Non diegetic sound - music is dramatic and frightening
• Not much of the film shown
• Not a lot given away, audience have to watch it to understand it

Superbad - Generic Giveaways - Comedy

• Music is light hearted and upbeat
• Comical Dancing
• The colours in the film opening are all bright and vibrant

Dawn of the Dead - Generic Giveaways - Horror

• Lots of death is shown
• Music was ironically upbeat
• Close up shot of zombies
• Smeary blood writing used for the titles
• Diegetic sound - Screams and the news reporter 

Drive - Generic Giveaways - Thriller/Crime

• Dark Background
• Not much given away in the film opening
• A lot of low key lighting is used in the opening

The Vow - Generic Giveaways - Romantic

• The title of the film "the vow"
• The man singing I could do anything for love
• Quite a slow pace

This will help me when it comes to making my film because these all tell me what to include if I was to do that certain genre.