Research and Planning: Opening Sequences Now You See Me

Opening Sequences

Now You See Me:

At the beginning of this film the 4 main characters are introduced. They are all given different personalities and traits that make the audience recognise they are different people but they all have one thing in common so that the audience can tell that they are linked in some way. We have a group of burglars in our film but because our opening sequence is going to be around two minutes, we won't have time to give them different personalities. However, showing the burglars and the police in different places could make it clear that they are working against each other and that they are two different forces which would help to develop the story with a short amount of time.

The movement for this film seemed quite fast paced because the introduction to the characters doesn't take too long which is good because there isn't much time in our opening sequence. It was easy to learn about them through their different scenes because of the way they acted and their dialogue. Using a lot of dialogue in our sequence could be risky since the dialogue will emphasise any bad acting that we have. Relying more on editing would be safer.


The first character stares straight into the camera. This 'fourth wall' rule of film is broken because it looks like he's looking at the audience. The illusion of watching another story is gone and this fits well with the theme of the movie which is the reality (or non-existence) of magic. This also sets the film apart from others because it breaks the conventions of films in the first few seconds of it. The audience is invited to take part in the magic trick which draws them into the film even more because it feels almost interactive.

The second character is introduced in the same way as the first, staring into the camera except that a few seconds later, the audience finds out they are staring at a poster. The piercing blue eyes make them think that they are being pulled into the scene again, making them pay attention, but when they see that its a poster they are thrown back into their position as an audience again. This plays mind games with them and further reinforces the theme of reality and fantasy.

Research and Planning: Opening Sequences Se7en

Opening Sequences

Se7en:

The opening scene for 'Se7en' starts with a bang (almost like a gunshot) and a black screen. This seems significant because it shows right from the start that the movie will include something dangerous and it foreshadows murder. 

There is an even louder bang when the first shot appears of someone opening a book. This is an indicator that the person (whose face is never shown) is to blame for all of the chaos that will happen during the film. The sound effect probably won't be used in ours because of its dark and chilling effect, and ours is more action than horror.

The shots used are a disorganised compilation of things that the character is doing. The audience can't tell any information from this except that the character might be crazed because of the disturbing images shown in whatever scrapbook he is making. 

There are certain close ups (of hands with a razor, a lot of writing) that make it hard to see what all of it means, which could be representative of the crime genre and that detectives have to piece together whatever evidence they have to solve the crime. This could be useful for our film because of our genre but instead of unrelated and random shots we could put together shots that flow together to tell the story e.g. Burglars planning an escape route.

The music is made up of lots of distorted single sound effects with the steady drum beat and sizzling sound accompanying it. The sounds make the atmosphere quite intense and creepy because it's all unorganised. This keeps the audience tense and anticipating something popping out because things are usually calm before a jump scare in thrillers and horrors.

Research and Planning: Opening Sequences Fast and Furious 6

Opening Sequences

Fast and Furious 6:

The first line of this movie is "Let's go for a little ride". This is obviously an iconic line from the first Fast and Furious movie. A huge amount of the audience for this film would be people who are fans of the franchise. This was movie has been hugely anticipated since the last sequel and the makers of the film knew this so they compiled a selection of clips from the previous movies and pieced together an opening. This would call the audience's attention because they are encouraged to look back at all of the characters' ventures and mishaps over the years.

Within this opening montage, the audience gets to relive the characters' journeys from past to present, including how we met them and how they formed their friendships with the group. Someone who has watched all of the films would be able to make sense of the way that the characters are introduced but those who haven't would still be entertained because there is still a sufficient amount of action, car chases and guns (always expected as codes and conventions of the crime-action genre).

The titles for the opening appear in a metallic font and zoom across the screen, slowing only enough to be read for about 3 seconds maximum  before it zooms off screen again. This could be representing the ever-present customised cars in the film and their speedy car chases and races, but the font style could also be linked to a gun or a bullet whizzing across the screen because of the crime in the film.

All of the clips used have been given a colour filter effect, a blurred edges effect or been blurred. This communicates to the audience that the action isn't happening now and makes it look almost dream-like so that it looks like the past. The blurred edges effect could suggest that we are looking through a hole to these memories, maybe even the memory of one of the characters.

The song that accompanies the sequence (We Own It by 2Chainz & Wiz Khalifa) is a hip hop song and as well as connoting anger and trouble which are tones set in the film, it was also recorded by two famous rap artists and so some of the audience would recognise this and pay attention to the screen or possibly sing with it.

Secrets and Lies Representation Analysis

Secrets and Lies
Representation Analysis

Children Of Men Analysis

'Children of Men' Analysis

The opening sequence of ‘Children of Men’ features various filming techniques and signifiers that have different purposes and meanings.

This film follows the codes and conventions for big budget films, showing the production companies (Universal and Strike) before the film begins. There is no sound during this part which brings the audience’s attention to the screen because it gives the illusion that the sound isn’t working. We can also tell that it is a big budget movie because Universal funded it, and Universal usually funds big block busters.

Following the silence of the production companies, we can suddenly hear dialogue. The speech is in very formal English accents and includes facts and figures (not like a conversation between two people), and this indicates that we are hearing a British news report. Hearing the two news reports before seeing anything means that the audience can focus on what is being said. For instance, one of the presenters mentions that immigration has been banned and that many people are being deported back to their home countries. The audience now knows that the movie is not set in present day Britain.

The institutional information appears in block white writing against the black background after the first few stories. The voices of the news presenters continue and this makes the audience impatient to know more because when you see the first few words it makes you think you’re about to find out more about the movie.

The screen goes black again and then the female presenter says ‘Death of the youngest person on the planet.’ This news story is confusing to the audience because people have babies all the time. As soon as the words are said, a shot of a crowd of people appears. None of the people in the shot look confused so the audience knows that what the reporter said isn’t a mistake and that in the movie there are no longer children i.e. No one is having babies anymore.

Everyone in the scene is wearing dull colours like grey or black and none of them are smiling, so it gives us the idea that the setting isn’t cheerful.

We can tell that this crowd of people are in an English cafe because there are pastries in a container in the corner of the screen, the word ‘Caffe’ is on the wall, there are people holding coffee cups and also we can tell that it is set in England because there are two policemen wearing the conventional British holster and badge and one of them was wearing a police hat.

All of the people in the frame have their eyes fixed on a common object that the camera can’t see. However there is a TV placed directly opposite the camera on the other side of the room as evidence that they are all watching a TV.

As well as the dialogue from the news report, we can hear passing cars and honking. This suggests that it is rush hour or a busy time of day, especially since the cafe is packed and there are a few characters wearing smart clothes like they are on their way to work.

No one is moving in the cafe and they all stay fixed on the TV behind the camera, but a man bustles his way to the front of the shot to get to the counter and order a drink. This singles him out and the audience is immediately aware that the man is a main character. When he looks at the screen he is still fiddling around in his pockets, which shows he isn’t as affected by the news as everyone else.

The shot changes to a screen (presumably the one everyone is watching) showing a montage of the youngest man’s life. At the bottom of the screen it says 2009-2027, which subtly communicates to the audience two important pieces of information; 1. That no one was born after this person in 2009 and 2. That the movie is set in 2027.

The shot changes back to the cafe and we see the man pick up his coffee and exit the shop. The camera uses a handheld shot to follow the man through the crowd and out of the cafe to convey realism so we can tell this is going to be a gritty film.

When he steps outside of the shop and turns left, the camera turns to the right and then pans to the left to exhibit the surroundings. There are a lot of odd vehicles speeding past with the odd few red buses which are iconic to London if the audience hadn’t guessed where it was set already. It looks dirty and polluted, with cars sputtering out smoke and rubbish bags on the pavement which doesn’t paint a positive picture of the future. The date and location show up at the bottom of the frame which confirms what the audience have probably guessed already.

The camera is following the main character again and we see him stop to set his cup down and unscrew a bottle he gets from his coat. This implies he is about to pour alcohol into his cup. We associate drinking in adulthood with unhappiness and so we can assume that the man isn’t happy with his life.

The camera arcs around him and we expect it to be because they can get a better view of what he is doing but he puts the bottle back in his coat pocket.

The camera is now faced in the direction it just came from and an explosion goes off in one of the shops. The audience can deduce that it’s in the cafe that he just walked out of.

We see him drop his cup and back away into a wall behind him possibly to show that he is unharmed, and then the camera moves towards the action much quicker than it moved a few seconds ago before the explosion. The shakiness of the camera creates a sense of urgency and importance.

There is smoke drifting from the cafe and we can hear very high-pitched painful screaming. A woman limps out of the smoke holding her own dismembered arm in her hand. The shocking gruesomeness of this scene is a sign of what is to come in the rest of the film.

The screams and picture is cut off and there is just silence and the title of the movie ‘Children of Men’ appears white on black abruptly. This insinuates that the movie will be grim throughout and there isn’t any time to dwell on the morbid nature.