FARGO - Film opening

The film begins with a title card: “THIS IS A TRUE STORY. The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly how it occurred.” The title card is presented in white lettering, over a static black. This helps to set a serious tone for the rest of the piece. It may have been employed by the filmmakers so that it may raises questions within members of the audience (such as what exactly happened, who exactly died, etc). It also may have been used by the filmmakers as it helps to sets a time and a place, and gives the film context. Over this title card plays a piece of music, the film’s main theme, which is played on strings. This piece of music may have been used as it helps to conjure up emotions of sadness, moodiness, and melancholy. It may also have been used as it helps to reflect the sadness and desperation of the situation which is about to ensue and as such, helps to set the tone for the rest of the film.

The film then fades to a shot filled with seemingly unending bluish white, the colour of snow. This shot helps to connotes wide open spaces, desolation, desperation.
At this point, the film’s main theme becomes harsher, with much more piercing, violent sounding strings. This may have been done in order to reflect the violent, brutal, unrelenting situation that the characters will soon find themselves in.
On the horizon appears a single, solitary car, driving down a long, deserted road, covered in snow and trapped in fog. With this, the filmmakers may be trying to diverting our attention to the car. They may be trying to imply that the car is out of place here, and that there is something not quiet right about its’ being here.

As the car appears closer and closer toward the screen, the music swells, exploding in cinematic exuberance. This may have been used so that it may serve as a reflection of the situation that the characters find themselves in (i.e., the situation builds and builds before finally reaching a crescendo and than exploding in violence).

When the car exits the frame, the title appears, presented in black: “FARGO.” The car leaves the screen the way it entered it: filled with the same, seemingly unending bluish white. This could be to signify that the events which are about to transpire are seemingly a passing occurrence, and that at the story’s conclusion normality will return and things will carry on the way they were before these dreadful events.

The car is then seen travelling down yet another long, deserted road, out in the middle of nowhere, with nobody and nothing but piles and piles of snow. This helps to reinforce the idea that the car is out of place here, and that the driver of the car may be embroiled in something that is odd, or dangerous, or criminal.

Once the theme reaches its’ final crescendo, the screen fades out and then in on the exterior of a bar located in, according to the subtitle which appears, “Fargo, North Dakota.” The use of this subtitle immediately gives us a sense of where we are, and signifies to us that this is the Fargo of the title. Also, the use of the word “Fargo,” could be a play on the words “Far go,” possibly questioning the audience as to how far the characters will go in the events which are about to ensue. The area outside the bar is also covered in snow, which helps to keep with the continuity, and adheres to a certain motif which has already been successfully established in the world of the film. The car which we saw in the previous scenes pulls up outside the bar. Here, our attention is drawn to both the bar and the car, and may be the filmmakers’ way of signifying to us that an event of great importance is about to take place within the bar.

We then see the interior of the bar. There is tacky country music playing, dull, monotone colours, and fat, middle aged men wearing country, hillbilly-like attire, who are drinking beer and shooting pool. This helps to further reinforce a sense of lowdown, secretive, seedy dealings taking place.

In amongst this enters Jerry Lundegaard, our male protagonist (or, arguably, antagonist). Jerry is dressed in a big beige coat with a simple brown hat and a pair of off brown leather gloves. Jerry’s choice of simple and boring attire could be the filmmakers trying to suggest that Jerry is a simple, boring man, and arguably the embodiment of stereotypical small town, “Minnesota-nice,” American male. With this in mind, this, then reinforces the idea that Jerry is out of place in a bar like this, and that his presence here, his reason for being in this bar at this time, is on the grounds of something which is not quiet right.
Serving as a harsh counterpoint to Jerry’s simple and boring mentality are Carl Showalter and Gaear Grimsrud, two criminals who are seen, seated at a shady lit booth, surrounded by beer bottles, and with cigarettes jutting out of their mouths. Their dialogue with Jerry, especially the way in which Showalter speaks to Jerry, immediately helps to establish the idea that they are the ones in charge here, and that it is Jerry who is the “weaker,” of the three.
This is further reinforced because, as their conversation ensues (their topic of conversation being the kidnapping of Jerry’s wife), the camera begins to slowly push in on Showalter and Grimsrud, so that they occupy more of the frame while Jerry is pushed further and further to the side. This not only helps to reinforce their control of the situation, and that they have the upper hand over Jerry, but it also possibly foreshadows the conclusions of the events.

GOODFELLAS - Film opening

The film begins with the principal cast and crew credits flying in, in quick succession, one after the other. The credits are presented in white lettering against a black background, and they are punctuated by the sound of a car being driven. The car sound effect could possibly have been used in order for the filmmakers to establish, to the audience, a sense of where the opening scene is going to take place.
Then, a title card appears, presented in the same fashion as the credits (white lettering, black background). It reads: “This film is based on a true story.” This title card could have been implemented by the filmmakers in order to show the audience that this film is, first and foremost, based on a true story, and as such, the events depicted within the film are entirely believable and plausible and should be respected as such.
The opening shot of the film is of a 1967 Oldsmobile cruising down a long stretch of road at night. The car may have been used in order for the filmmakers to establish, to the audience, a sense of historical period (late 60s, early 70s). The long stretch of road at night may have been used in order to establish, to the audience, a sense of where this scene is taking place.
There then appears a title card: “New York, 1970.” This may have been placed by the filmmakers in order to reinforce the sense of historical period (60s-70s) that they were trying to convey.
We then cut to the interior of the car. Three people (all men) are in it. Two men (Henry and Jimmy) sit in front. The third man (Tommy) sits in the back, handling a shovel. These men are all dressed in sharp suits from the ‘70s. This, again, helps to reinforce the sense of historical period, and also the idea of professionalism and, arguably, camaraderie amongst the three men (they are all dressed the same, they do the same thing, they share the same ideals, etc).
There is then the repeated sound of loud banging, heard somewhere near/around the car. This is a cause of great concern amongst the three men. They all speculate over what it might be (i.e., a flat tire), and then they come to the conclusion that they need to pull over and see. The sound, and the character’s actions, may have been utilised by the filmmakers in order to indicate to the audience a change, or impending danger, etc.
We then cut to the car, which has been parked in a woodland area. Tommy and Jimmy are standing outside it, and Henry is walking over to them. The banging persists, and it is clear that the noise is coming from something (or someone) inside the trunk. This is reinforced when the camera dollies in on the trunk. The trunk (and, moreover, what’s inside it), is the key focus point in this scene, and the dolly may have been used in order to indicate to the viewer that what is in the trunk is vitally important to the overall piece.
The red of the car backlight shines on Henry, Tommy and Jimmy. This use of red could possibly in order to reinforce the idea of impending danger and bloodshed.
Henry is then told, by Jimmy, to open the trunk. He does. Inside is a man, wrapped in a white sheet. From what we can tell, the man has been beaten, is bleeding heavily, and is struggling to both breathe and speak. The decision to show this man, in this state, at this early stage in the film, could possibly be the filmmakers trying to shock the audience, and also, to indicate that this man, and the circumstances under which he came to be in the trunk, is of great importance to the overall story.
Then, the violence begins. Tommy stabs the man seven times, in cold blood, screaming “Die! Die! Fucking die!” Jimmy shoots the man four times, also in cold blood. The use of violence this early on in the film indicates to the audience that not only will this be a violent film, but that the characters themselves are also violent, and that violence is an accepted, or arguably, expected occurrence in this business of theirs.
Henry walks over to the trunk. As he does, we hear the immortal opening lines: “As far back as I could remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.” The use of the opening line not only confirms to the audience exactly who and what these men (and, in particular, Henry) are, but also that this film tells Henry’s story.
Tony Bennett’s “Rags to Riches,” plays as the title and the remaining crew credits appear. The use of this song (which is very upbeat and catch) may have been used to not only serve as a darkly humorous counterpoint to the violence that has just been witnessed, but to also fit in with Henry’s rags to riches life story.

PULP FICTION - Film opening

The opening scene of the film centres around two characters sat talking in a diner. The fact that the whole opening sequence centres on these two people signifies that they will play an important role in the film.
Throughout the opening scene the main camera shots used are medium close ups of the two characters faces, a medium two shot and over the shoulder shots of each other. These are used to show the constant conversation between the two characters and the way they respond to each other. Another shot used is a close-up of the gun on the table. With this shot only being used once it makes it stand out, and shows that the gun is symbolic for the violence in the film.
The couple are immediately shown to be two small-time criminals, as they are sat talking about robbing liquor stores. They aren't shown to be very clever, as they call the waitress garcon, meaning boy. They are also shown to be quite arrogant as they order the waitress around. This shows the audience the types of characters they are and that the film will have a crime theme. The couple are also sat in a diner. This suggests that the film is set in America. We here the woman call the man is 'Pumpkin' and the woman is known as 'Honey bunny'. These are unusual names for criminal characters in films, this gives a sense of humour to it as it doesn’t portray stereotypical gangsters.
The couple are not shown to be very well off as they are eating in a road-side cafe and are not smartly dressed, despite the fact they steal money. The couple also swear a lot, which shows their aggressive attitude.
At the end of the scene the couple stand up, waving guns around in the air, holding up the diner. Honey bunny shouts to the people in the diner, and the scene freezes half way through her sentence, with her voice playing over the frozen screen. Followed by upbeat music while credits play. Ending the opening scene here leaves the film in suspense.

LOCK STOCK & TWO SMOKING BARRELS - Film opening

L.A. CONFIDENTIAL - Film opening

The film starts with non-digetic music which immediately gives off an 80’s jazzy theme, the music that is played is uplifting which attracts the audience, the voice over which is played by a familiar actor named Danny DeVito welcomes the audience in a subtle and welcoming tone introducing the viewers to Los Angeles metaphorically known as ‘Paradise’ also advertising its content and ‘homey’ atmosphere. However this mood changes while the film progresses. Danny mentions how it’s all part of selling an image he also uses an ironic attitude whilst talking about how ‘L.A police forces are the best in the world’.
Moving on, we are shown a close up of a few post cards with one of Los Angeles overlapping the rest; the camera steadily zooms into the post card while we hear a voice over simultaneously. We are then shown recordings of people having fun by the beach, the scenery of L.A, and famous faces of actors and actresses such as Marilyn Monroe; these clips are either shown in black and white film or poorly developed quality to tell the audience the time in which this movie is set. Throughout the clips the voice over goes on but soon changes its style from comforting to devious, this method is successful in getting the attention of the audience as they believe they are getting an insight of ‘trouble in paradise’, as he says.
The clips continue showing us a different side to L.A, issue such as cocaine and prostitution occur and the uplifting music still takes place with the voice over, this degrades the negative mood by using the same tone used for the positive topics at the start.

There is then an establishing low angle shot of a well presented house with several men in suits approaching the front door in the distance and we then hear another digetic sound of the door bell ringing the and cut then to a point of view shot of an officer as the door swings open this makes the audience feel more involved in the situation.
A low mid-shot connotes to show us a bulldog groaning as the police officers state the reason for the characters arrest.
The next few shots are of tabloid head lines which is useful since it shows the audience the aftermath of the actions they just witnessed.
A turning shot first reveals the location from a window then shows us the character to which the voice of the voice-over belongs. We can hear the diagetic sound of the old fashioned type-writer and see the framed magazine covers hung on the background wall, both of which tell the viewers the profession of this character.
The character goes on talking and there is a reverse cut to a close-up plus zooming out motion showing the words he’s saying printed onto the magazine, this happens twice; once for each time he says ‘Hush’. This is rarely used in thriller conventions however it’s a unique and appealing method to draw the audience.

Preliminary Task, AHMED, PART 1

Day 1: Planning and Filming of Preliminary Task

During the time that work was set to commence on my preliminary task, two of the members of my group were away on a trip, so I was assigned, by my teacher, Mr. Hull, to work with Rez, a member of another group.
Prior to this (the previous lesson, in fact), we were shown famous examples of storyboards by our teacher, Ms. Sellars. The storyboards shown were ones by artist J. Todd Anderson, and they were used during the production of Joel and Ethan Coen’s “No Country for Old Men.” These storyboard were shown to us, I believe, in order for us to get an idea as to how we should produce the storyboards for our own pieces, both the preliminary task, and the opening of our fiction film.
We were also shown, by Mr. Hull, examples of scripts. We were shown two in total. The first was the script for Juno, written by Diablo Cody, and the second was a mock-up script penned by Mr. Hull himself. The scripts were shown to us, I believe, in order for us to get an idea as to how we should write our own scripts for our own pieces. I, myself, had had experience writing scripts in the past, but I still felt that this was an enriching and rewarding exercise.
We were then given storyboarding sheets. The descriptions were written by me, and the drawings themselves were drawn by Rez. Both the drawings and the descriptions were simple, but I feel that they were effective and were put to good use considering what they were going to be used for.
Originally, our script for the preliminary task was going to be very minimalistic, with two short, simple lines of dialogue (“Hello,” and “Goodbye.”) This notion was quickly rejected by Mr. Hull. I feel, in retrospect, that this was the right decision. The reason being is that not only would our initial idea have been extremely pretentious, but it would have also been pointless, and would have made no sense whatsoever and would not have been interesting in the least bit, both to make and to watch. The decision we came to was that we should try to make the story told within the preliminary task be simple, but be interesting enough to be watchable.*
We initially handwrote our script, and after giving both the handwritten draft of the script and the storyboard to Mr. Hull for approval, we typed up the script using one of the Macs which is situated in our classroom. We used Courier New 12 Point (the industry standard). The decision to format the script in this was, I feel, a good, worthwhile exercise, if only to maintain a certain level of professionalism.
Then, came the filming of the preliminary task. We used a Sony HD Camera. This camera, I feel, was superior to the XM2 (the other camera that was available to use). The main reason is, I feel, the camera gave the final product the look and feel that it was shot on film, rather than on digital video.
The first day’s filming of the preliminary task took the better part of an hour to complete. We filmed in a corridor and a single classroom, which was just across the way from our Media room. We adhered to the shots described in our storyboards very closely. We used long shots, handheld point of view shots, and over the shoulder shots, all of which were depicted in the storyboard. Although some of the takes we filmed were ruined by passersby and flubbed lines, I feel that this only added to the overall experience of making the preliminary task, which was a very insightful and rewarding one.
Once we had completed filming, Mr. Hull, Rez, and myself viewed the rushes. Although we were happy with ninety percent of what had been shot, there were still some shots that we felt needed to be redone, especially one of the over the shoulder shots, which was shot in such a way that it broke the 180 degree rule, and, therefore, was useless to us. We decided that, since we had another lesson the next day to get the task done, that we would simple redo the over the shoulder shot so that it adhered to the 180 degree rule, and then begin editing the task.

Preliminary Task, AHMED, PART 2

Day 2: Re-filming of Preliminary Task

As was previously stated, the original intention of the next day’s lesson was to re-film the over the shoulder shot so that it would adhere to the 180 degree rule, and then begin our editing. However, our intentions changed when Nancy was assigned to work with us. We decided, right away, that we would completely refilm the preliminary task. This was because we wanted to use Nancy’s inclusion to our advantage, and we felt that the more people had, the better the task would be.
The script was rewritten that day. It was done in order to include Nancy’s input and ideas. We also decided that we would include more diverse shots (including two shots and rethought out over the shoulder shots) in order to make this version of the task much more interesting, stylistic and entertaining than the original version. We also decided to add an element of comedy in to the task, as we thought that it would be more entertaining and much more watchable.
We began filming shortly after the script was rewritten. We shot in the same corridor as before and in our own Media classroom. However, unlike the previous day’s filming, we shot this version of the preliminary task in a non-linear (out of script order) fashion. For instance, we first began our filming with a two shot of Nancy and Rez, which incorporated their characters’ entire dialogue with one another.

Following this, we preceded to shot in script order. We began in the corridor and made our way through the sequences in the script, filming almost nonstop. As with the previous day’s filming, we used long shots, handheld point of view shots, and over the shoulder shots, all of which were depicted in the storyboard. Also, as was the same with the previous day’s filming, some of the takes we filmed were ruined by passersby and flubbed lines, but I feel that this only added to the overall experience of re-filming the preliminary task, which was even more insightful and rewarding than the previous shoot.

After the re-filming of the task had been completed, we viewed the rushes. I, myself, thought that the footage shot on the second day was superior in almost every way to the first day’s footage, and I would have to say that Mr. Hull, Rez, and Nancy agreed with me on this. The second day’s filming was a success, and it was clear that the editing process (which would begin next lesson) would be just as successful.