Wednesday 23 October 2013

Film Opening: Part 1

Day of the Dead (1985)

Strengths:

The very instant the film begins, an image of a claustrophobic room is shown, connoting a sense of tension and enclosed fear, immediately setting a rather uncomfortable atmosphere. The music is also quite foreboding and sets nicely with the scene; it is quite dramatic and is used in order to give a sense of importance to the shot. In addition, there is a bold piece of  white text labelling the companies who made the film, therefore making the audience aware of their presence as they too are paramount. A variety of camera shots ranging from shot reverse shots of the female character to the calendar and close ups are also used to show facial expressions and relevance to the object she is looking at. After an admirable use of pieces of  props (and maybe some editing) in which hands are seen to be grasping the character (again referring back to the tension raised) intercutting is used to move onto a next scene where the previous one seems to be unreal/ a dream. Beyond this point dialogue is the main focus, which is almost dramatic, before more text appears on screen. Following this a pan of the helicopter in the sky and a birds eye view of the city is shown, so that the audience can gather information as to the whereabouts of the character, thus adding to the narrative of the story and developing it so it makes more sense.

Weaknesses:

Although the opening credits are bold and stand out, they still seem to be elusive in contrast to the overwhelming grey background. Instead the colour could be red, connoting danger and making it more conventional to a horror film and clearer. Furthermore, the fact that the film starts off in a mildly bland, grey room suggests that the film isn't going to be very good; connotations of the colour symbolise neutrality and is quite dull/boring thus suggesting the film is going to be of a similar nature. There are also a repetitive state of shot revers shots from the facial expression of the woman to the calendar, when there isn't an explained meaning behind why she is looking at it; the audience have to guess its significance. The general pace of it is quite slow and monotonous, surplus to the unnecessary change in music reverting it too a less foreboding/ominous atmosphere. However, the worst feature about the opening title is that it does not mention the name of the film itself, hence again having the viewer guess.


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