Own initial idea submitted to group for consideration - storyboard.

page 1 of my own initial idea - storyboard.

page 2 of my own initial idea - storyboard.

Personal response to the brief.

I am looking forward to creating an opening sequence to a film because I am interested in how the film and television industry works. I also hope to get some understanding from this task of how the camera crew, cast etc cope and work especially within a timetable. I am looking forward to the following weeks and the outcome of our project and matching it up to other opening sequences out there.

Analysis of title sequence 1*

Era, genre, story lines, topics, characters, location:

Ocean's 11 is a 1960 heist film directed by Lewis Milestone and starring five Rat Packers: Peter Lawford, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin,Sammy Davis, Jr., and Joey Bishop.

Centered on a series of Las Vegas casino robberies, the film's other stars included Angie Dickinson, Cesar Romero, Richard Conte, Akim Tamiroff, Henry Silva, Ilka Chase, Norman Fell, Harry Wilson, and Buddy Lester, as well as cameo appearances by Shirley MacLaine,Red Skelton, and George Raft. 

Analysis of credit sequence 1*

Era, genre, location, story line, topics, characters:


Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper played by Kyle MacLachlan, of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer played by Sheryl Lee. Twin Peaks' pilot episode was first broadcast on April 8, 1990 on ABC, which led to another seven episodes being produced and a second season, which aired until June 10, 1991. The show's name came from its setting, a small fictional Washington town. Exteriors were primarily filmed in Snoqualmie and North Bend in Washington, with additional exteriors shot in southern California. Most of the interior scenes were shot on standing sets in a San Fernando Valley warehouse.


Sound-dialogue, music and editing style, features and camera movement, framing and credits,text:


The slow music in the background ties in with the slow editing style of the credits. The credits show the main characters involved instead of showing all the camera crew and extras. The angles of the credits are all medium shots. The credits are also the same colour and font but alternate in size.

Analysis Opening Sequence 5*

Characters, era, genre of film, location, story line, topics 

City of God (Portuguese: Cidade de Deus) is a 2002 Brazilian crime drama film directed by Fernando Meirelles and co-directed by Kátia Lund, released in its home country in 2002 and worldwide in 2003. The story was adapted by Bráulio Mantovani from the 1997 novel of the same name written by Paulo Lins, but the characters are not fabricated and the plot is based upon real events. It shows the growth of organized crime in the Cidade de Deus suburb of Rio de Janeiro, between the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1980s, with the closure of the film showing the war between the drug dealer Li'l Zé and criminal Knockout Ned. The tagline is "If you run, the beast catches; if you stay, the beast eats", (a proverb analogous to the English "Damned if you do, damned if you don't"). The cast includes Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino da Hora, Jonathan Haagensen, Douglas Silva, Alice Braga and Seu Jorge. Most of the actors were, in fact, residents of favelas such as Vidigal and the Cidade de Deus itself.

Sound-dialogue and music:


The fast music at the beginning and the extreme close up shots of the knife being sharpened against a stone indicates that they are killing chickens to prepare for a meal and celebration as people are also playing instruments and dancing. The dialogue is aggressive talk in portuguese from the gang and from a young man and his friend who talk about not coming in contact with the gang incase they will kill him.


Editing styles, features, camera movements and framing:
The editing styles and features in the 'City of God' opening sequence are clear as the fast, intrusive edits show two inter-connected storylines and take the audience back twenty years.

Analysis Opening Sequence 4*

Era, genre of film:

Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Which is by Philip K. Dick.

Story line, topics, location and characters:

The film shows a dystopian Los Angeles in November 2019 in which genetically engineered organic robots called replicants which are visually indistinguishable from adult humans and are manufactured by the powerful Tyrell Corporation as well as by other "mega–manufacturers" around the world. Their use on Earth is banned and replicants are exclusively used for dangerous, menial or leisure work on off-world colonies. Replicants who defy the ban and return to Earth are hunted down and "retired" by police special operatives known as "Blade Runners". The plot focuses on a brutal and cunning group of recently escaped replicants hiding in Los Angeles and the burnt out expert Blade Runner, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), who reluctantly agrees to take on one more assignment to track them down.

Sound-dialogue, music and props, sets:

The siren like sound at the beginning over the brief description of what the film is about could be to create a tense ambience and to make the audience feel of edge. The props of the spaceships and the sound of explosions in Los Angeles shows how destructive the scene is. Later on in the film it includes different diegesis as the studio inserted a film-noir style voiceover narration from Harrison Ford against the wishes of the director and it was only years later when the 'Director's Cut' was released without the voice-over that the audience caught onto the fact that the original has a less anchored, more ambiguous narrative. In the meantime the film had become a cult classic with the voice-over, featuring lines like 'I didn't know how long we would have together, but then again, who does?', a huge aspect of the film's popular appeal.

Editing styles, features and camera movement, framing:

The editing styles and features are quick and intrusive, the purpose of this is to show the catastrophe going on in Los Angeles. It starts off with a close up of the writing, then medium shot of Los Angeles then close up of Ford's eye to show what he is looking out onto.

Analysis Opening Sequence 3*

Era and genre of film:

Dr. No is a 1962 spy film, it is the first James Bond film and starring Sean Connery. Based on the 1958 Ian Fleming novel of the same name, it was adapted by Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, and Berkely Mather and was directed by Terence Young. The film was produced by Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli, a partnership that would continue until 1975.

Characters, location, story line and topics:

In the film, James Bond played by Sean Connery is sent to Jamaica on an investigation into the death of a fellow British agent. The murder trail leads him to the underground base of Dr. Julius No, who is plotting to disrupt an early American manned space launch with a radio beam weapon. Although the first of the Bond books to be made into a film, Dr. No was not the first of Fleming's novels, Casino Royale being the debut for the character; however, the film makes a few references to threads from earlier books.

Props, sound-dialogue, music 

At the beginning when the gun shot is let off and the James Bond theme starts that could be to show that the prop gun and the theme is connected with the main character, Bond and to also give away a bit to the audience about him and what he's like. Also the calypso version of 'Three Blind Mice' is in reference to three villains in the film. 

Editing style, features, camera movements and framing:

This opening sequence has become a recurring motif; an established convention expected by the audience.The style of edits and pace is quick and the edits are intrusive. It is close up shots of the coloured dots and the cast and crews names. 

Analysis Opening Sequence 2*

Era, genre of film and introduction of characters:


Taxi Driver is a 1976 American psychological thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. The loction of the film is set in New York City, not long after the Vietnam War. The film stars Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle who is the main character and features Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, and Cybill Shepherd.



Story lines, topics and location:


De Niro plays an ex-Marine named Travis Bickle who runs the nightshift, driving his taxi throughout decaying mid-'70s New York City, wishing for a "real rain" to wash the "scum" off the neon-lit streets. Travis is one of those lonely human beings who cannot connect with anyone, not even with other taxi drivers such as blowhard Wizard (Peter Boyle). He falls in love with dull blonde presidential campaign worker Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), who agrees to go out with him but then rejects him when he cluelessly takes her to see a pornography film. An increasingly paranoid Travis begins to condition and arm himself for his planned mission that changes from assassinating Betsy's candidate, Charles Palatine (Leonard Harris), to violently saving a teenager hooker Iris (Jodie Foster) from her pimp, Sport (Harvey Keitel). These events turn Travis into a media hero; but has it all really changed his mental state and him as a whole?


Props, sets and iconography:


I think it was a good idea for the close up shot of the taxi to be shown driving down a dark lit street of New York City at the beginning of the opening sequence as it is symbolised as the main object in connection with the main character, Travis Bickle.

The scenery where Travis goes to look for a job as a taxi driver looks run down and the print shirt he and the old man behind him wears are 1970's style.

Sound-dialogue, music, and editing styles, features and camera, movements, framing:


The close up of Bickle's eyes at the beginning slowly moving side to side shows the uncertainty of the character as if he is thinking where to go in the taxi and has been driving round for hours before making a stop to ask for a job as a taxi driver.

From the dialogue at the beginning between Bickle and the man, the audience learn or can gather he suffers from insomnia and he hopes to become a taxi driver to cope with it. At 3:00 the remark about him working Jewish holidays could be a reference to the large Jewish community in New York. The man questions him and he gives personal information away about himself such as his age, education and that he is an honorably discharged marine.

This film involves diegetic and non-diegetic sound. Later on the non-diegetic music builds up a haunting atmosphere while a voice-over of the main character's thoughts situates us in the mind of a character en route to destruction. This technique by the director Scorsese makes highly effective use of diegetic and non-diegetic elements placed deliberately in a state of confusion to defamiliarise the audience.

Analysis Opening Sequence 1*

Era, genre of film and introduction of characters:

Once Upon a Time in the West is a 1968 epic Italo-Western film directed by Sergio Leone for Paramount Pictures. It stars Henry Fonda as the villain,Charles Bronson as his archenemy, Jason Robards as a bandit, and Claudia Cardinale as a newly widowed homesteader who used to be a prostitute. The screenplay was written by Leone and Sergio Donati, from a story devised by Leone,Bernardo Bertolucci, and Dario Argento. 


Story lines, topics and location:


Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson were casted as the two main characters. The story revolves around them, this can be seen straight away with the short interaction between them that takes place at the beginning of the film and then throughout the film they end up looking for each other. The story takes place within a fictional town in the American Old West that is trying to develop where the railroad is starting to appear. The railroads has not yet spanned across the rest of the country and the people involved in this story are planning to take full advantage of the profits that can come from being involved in the whole process. However in the opening sequence with the three gunman standing near the train was the last sequence filmed in Spain. 

Fonda plays a villain named Frank, his actions throughout the film show just how he has become mentally unsound and what made him that way. He has many tendencies throughout the movie that show just how he has become so twisted, and what made him that way. Bronson plays his archenemy named Harmonica and happens to be one of those people who are in the wrong place at the wrong time.
They both admire the same woman named Jill McBain who is played by Cardinale. She has come to the west to find her family, but instead finds them murdered. Frank sets out to kill her to end it all and Harmonica wants to protect her. During a time when women have no rights, and is not looked upon as a weak character, Jill is on her own in a Western town that looks to be in control by Frank's boss. Working for the railroad, they want to own everything that it passes through, and that includes the land which Jill owns now. It is in the hands of the mysterious Harmonica , and another man who has been up to no good throughout his entire life, to stand in the way of Frank killing Jill and capturing everything for himself that she stands for.


Props, sets and iconography 


At the beginning you see the character Snaky, played by Jack Elam and this character is part of Frank's gang. You know he is associated with violence when he puts the gun to the fly and shoots it. Around 1:12 on the opening sequence when he sits there rocking back and forth, shaking the gun to make sure there is no noise from the fly now and that it's dead can be a dark comparison to when someone wants to quiet a baby, which is in the same way of rocking back and forth with the baby in their arms. 


The cowboy hats, jackets, coats, tucked in shirts, belts and guns makes it clear that it is a western film and the scenery of drought land, cactus like plants, wooden cabins adds to the typical western look too. 


Sound-dialogue, music and editing styles, features and camera movements, framing:

Diegetic sound is amplified with a total lack of dialogue to create audience anticipation. The camera movements and framing of extreme close ups and extended shots also creates a suspense ambience as the audience may be expecting for something to happen for them to react physiologically and physically. This is to build tension throughout the scene, this is broken towards the end when sudden violence breaks out.