VODCAST 1: General Film Opening Conventions

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1ST 5 SHOTS OF FILM 3: Bridget Jones's Diary

Bridget Jones's Diary

Sharon Maguire (2001)

BBFC 15, MPAA R

Film Opening Length: 0

Budget: $25m
UK/US/World Box Office: $60.2m, $71.5m, $282m
Theatrical Distrinution in 

Production Companies: Working Title Films, Studiocanal, Little Bird
Distributors: Universal Pictures, Miramax Films

LINKS:
IMDB, RottenTomatoes (Tomatometer 81%, Audience 81%), BoxOfficeMojo, Wiki


Trailer for 'Bridget Jones's Diary':
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SHOT 1

The opening shot of this film opening is a medium long shot of the main protagonist (it is clear that she is the main protagonist since she is the first character shown). You can denote that it is snowing and the protagonist is holding a piece of luggage to connote that she is going somewhere for Christmas or New Year's Eve/Day (setting denoted from the snow - winter time - christmas time). The lighting is bleak to connote Bridget's life and how she feels when she goes to see her mother. You can also denote that there is a black taxi in the background which further denotes the setting (London) to the audience. A female diegetic voiceover appears in this shot, establishing the first person narrative; this voiceover provides anchorage of who this character in the shot is. She is saying: 

"It all began on New Years day... on my 32nd year of being single. Once again, I found myself on my own and going to my mother's annual turkey curry buffet. Every year, she tries to fix me up with some busy-haired, middle-aged bore and I feared this year would be no exception."

This voiceover doesn't provide any narrative enigma (Roland Barthes) in the film opening at all but instead provides the audience with exposition (her age, where she is from - her accent tells us that, that she is single and where she is going) immediately into the film. This character is heading to her mother's annual turkey curry buffet on New Years Day. The fact that the bags she is carrying are not feminine and that she is carrying all her luggage provides binary opposition (Levi-Strauss) to the stereotypical girl.

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SHOT 2

The next shot is an extreme long shot of the village where Bridget Jones has just arrived at to go to her mother's house. There are multiple signifiers here which connote that the village is stereotypically British white middle class in the A-C1 class range, such as the religious cross, the church, the red telephone box, the red poppies on the cross etc. These signifiers are used to attract an international audience because they are very familiar and stereotypically British. The signifiers like the church in the background and the cross signify that the village is also quite religious.

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SHOT 3

This shot is a crane shot, following where the character is going. This connotes that the film is not a low budget film but instead, a high budget film (A Working Title film). You can denote that the house in this shot is very big and the garden is very decorated which connotes that the people who own this house (Bridget's parents) are very wealthy. You can denote that in the garden, there are two bushes which are decorated as two swans touching nose to nose (two swans together connote love), this connotes that the family (most presumably the mother) is obsessed with love. As you hear from what the main protagonist says in her voiceover at the start of the film opening, you know that her mother always goes on at her about finding a man.

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SHOT 4

This shot immediately tells the audience that there is a completely different atmosphere in the mother's house to how Bridget is in her own life, from the drastic, immediate change in non-diegetic sound to what can be denoted as an upbeat song. This non-diegetic music also reveals to the audience that this is not just a film in the romance genre but also in the comedy genre - therefore rom-com). This shot says to the audience that whenever the main protagonist sees her mother, it is always a fake kind of happy and an act. She hates how her mother sets her up all the time for a date. 

SHOT 5

There is a sort of dutch angle here which connotes that this house is an uncomfortable, uneasy place for the main protagonist. Also, this dutch angle connotes that she found the hug and kiss from her mother uncomfortable. The furniture and objects in this shot are old fashioned and very ordered to connote that this house is dominated by the mother; this tells the audience immediately what the mother's personality is like. Also, the inside of the house connotes wealth. The father living there may have had no say in any of the design or furniture of this house. The mother's clothing is stereotypical of an old, traditional person. 

1ST 5 SHOTS OF FILM 2: Wild Child

Wild Child

Nick Moore (2015)

BBFC 12, MPAA PG-13

Film Opening Length: 0

Budget: $20m
UK/US/World Box Office: £5.1m, $19.7k, $22m
Theatrical Distrinution in 

Production Companies: Working Title Films, Relativity Media, Studiocanal
Distributors: Universal Pictures

LINKS:
IMDB, RottenTomatoes (Tomatometer 42%, Audience 62%), BoxOfficeMojo, Wiki


Trailer for 'Wild Child':
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SHOT 1
Immediately when the film idents finish, non diegetic music/sound starts playing which is peaceful, romantic and tranquil to connote the vibe of the early morning rising as the main protagonist wakes up calmly. 

The opening shot is an extreme long shot of the sea, there is high key lighting to connote that the film is upbeat, happy and perhaps comedic; also it connotes that it is the dawn of a new day, creating a beautiful, light atmosphere. The first title is shown in white, sans serif font to connote the contemporary, modern, girly, upbeat, comedic feel/genre of the film.
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SHOT 2
The calm, peaceful, tranquil non diegetic music changes when we are fully zoomed in on the main protagonist in a close up shot, when a realisation hits her and she says "shit", then bratty, girly, rocky non diegetic music starts playing.



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SHOT 3
This medium shot shows the actions/movements of the main protagonist rushing out of bed. Also, we can see some signifiers in this shot that connote the film is about a very stereotypical modern day girly girl: the pink pillow, pink top, the blonde long hair, the bed colour and the lamp. The long blonde hair and clothes connote that this character may somewhat be the 'dumb blonde girly girl' who is bitchy and mean. 


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SHOT 4

This is a long shot of the main protagonist's bedroom with lots of signifiers in the room that connote a stereotypical teenage girly girl. The title font for the film is in sans serif font. The font attracts the target audience of females who like glamour (the silver gems on the word 'wild' connotes this) and the prominent background colour of gold connotes the rich, posh, glamorous side of the film/main female protagonist. The film title font perfectly connotes what the main protagonist's personality and life is like. 


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SHOT 5
This is an 'dirty' over the shoulder shot which shows what the character is looking at. It is a calendar full of events. The main event there is portrayed through an explosion drawing and lots of arrows pointing towards this explosion to connote that this event is completely horrific and the equivalent of an explosion/torpedo to the main protagonist. Her reaction from looking at this connotes that it is that day with the explosion drawing on. Also, the colours (lilacs, purples, pinks, light blues) and fonts of all these decorations reinforce and further connote that this main protagonist is very stereotypically girly. 
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Order of Titles
1. Universal Pictures Presents
2. In Association With Studiocanal
3. A Working Title Production
4. Director's name then film
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Immediately when the film idents finish, non diegetic music/sound starts playing which is peaceful, romantic and tranquil to connote the vibe of the early morning rising as the main protagonist wakes up calmly. This non diegetic sound changes when we are fully zoomed in on the main protagonist in a close up shot, when a realisation hits her and she says "shit", then bratty, girly, rocky non diegetic music starts playing.

Opening EG5: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

David Fincher (2011)

BBFC 18, MPAA R

Film Opening Length: 

Budget: $90m
UK/US/World Box Office: $18.4m, $102.5m, $232.6m

Production Companies: Scott Rudin Productions, Yellow Bird
Distributors: Universal Pictures

LINKS:
IMDB, RottenTomatoes (Tomatometer 86%, Audience 86%), BoxOfficeMojo, Wiki

Trailer for 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo':
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POSSIBLE INFLUENCE FOR MY FILM
I like the narrative of this film and would like to make a narrative very similar to this. I like the idea of a strong female character getting full on revenge over something so horrible as rape. The main protagonist, Lisabeth Salander, in this film does exactly this, she has been through so much trauma and horrible abuse that when anyone abuses her she wants to get full on revenge on them by abusing them also or killing them. In my film opening, I want to make the killer female just like in this film, so that she can abuse and kill men/women that have abused her. I would also make the victims predominantly male because I disagree with how the character of the ‘scream queen’ in slasher horror films is normally always a female. Also, the fact that the killer would be female, would be countertypical to the slasher horror genre norm of the killer being male.

COMPANIES/IDENTS
There are two film idents shown at the start of this film, they are Columbia Pictures (a Sony Company) and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures. Sony Pictures is one of the 'big six' conglomerates. Over these idents of this film, non-diegetic music starts playing which can be connoted as very eerie, spooky and child-like. This immediately connotes the genre of the film and sets the atmosphere of the film. This music carries on playing in the film opening until the dialogue has finished between the two characters in the film opening then new non-diegetic music starts playing in the second half of the film opening which is very very different. This new music is in the music genre of rock and is very fast and loud to perhaps connote the action, crime nature of the film.

IDENTIFYING ANY PROTAGONISTS

Finally, we get to a character. Being the first character shown would usually connote that this character is the main protagonist, but in this case it isn't like that. 

This first character shown is an old male who is on the phone with another old male. 

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This shot of the second character shown is a high angled close up over the shoulder shot. This type of shot connotes that there is some sort of threat and that this character feels weak/is weak. It makes the audience feel threatened and uncomfortable.

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OPENING SHOT

The opening shot is an extreme long shot of what you can denote as a big lake and forest area in the distance, to establish the location/setting to the audience. There is snow which connotes that it is winter or that this location is somewhere in the northern part of the world. This shot opens in with a fade in. This shot is also a panning shot, this is used to further help the audience establish the location/setting. 

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TITLES
There are no titles shown until the very end of this film opening. The title sequence accompanies an entire visual sequence and non-diegetic music which heavily connotes the dark genre of the film. There are 19 titles in this title sequence. 

The first title shown is 'Columbia Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Presents'. This is stereotypically the first title you will see in film openings - (main production company/ies presents). 

Order of Titles:
1. Columbia Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Present
2. A Scott-Rudin Yellow Bird Production
3. A David Fincher Film
4. Two Main Actors
5. Main Title: The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo
6. 10 actors names
7. Casting by
8. Costume Designer
9. Co Producers
10. Sound Design by
11. Music by
12. Editors
13. Production Designer
14. Director of Photography
15. Executive Producers
16. Produced by
17. Based on the book by, Originally Published by
18. Screenplay by
19. Directed by

MISE-EN-SCENE FOR EXPOSITION
NARRATIVE
Barthes’ narrative enigma can be applied in this film opening. 

SOUND/GENRE SIGNIFICATION 

Over the film idents of this film, non-diegetic music starts playing which can be connoted as very eerie, spooky and child-like. This immediately connotes the genre of the film and sets the atmosphere of the film. This music carries on playing in the film opening until the dialogue has finished between the two characters in the film opening then new non-diegetic music starts playing in the second half of the film opening which is very very different. This new music is in the music genre of rock and is very fast and loud to perhaps connote the action, crime nature of the film.

SHOT VARIETY

There is a lot of use of extreme long shots in this film opening because the director wants the setting to be clearly established to the audience. 

The second shot is of a house connoting that the shots are cutting closer to finally get to someone as you can see in the next shot. So, there are two shots until we finally get to shot of a character.

1ST 5 SHOTS OF FILM 1: We Are Your Friends

We Are Your Friends

Max Joseph (2015)

BBFC 15, MPAA R

Film Opening Length: 0

Budget: $2m
UK/US/World Box Office: $835k, $3.5m, $11.1m
Theatrical Distrinution in 

Production Companies: Working Title Films, Studiocanal, Anton Capital Entertainment, Rat-Pac Dune Entertainment
Distributors: Studiocanal, Warner Bros.

LINKS:
IMDB, RottenTomatoes (Tomatometer 40%, Audience 42%), BoxOfficeMojo, Wiki


Trailer for 'We Are Your Friends':
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SHOT 1
The opening shot is a medium close up of the male protagonist from behind. Since he is wearing headphones this connotes that he is listening to some sort of music/making music on a computer in front of him. His face is not shown to give a sense of narrative enigma.





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SHOT 2
You can denote that this is an extreme close up shot of a DJ software that the male protagonist is looking at on the computer screen. He is changing the pitch/amp length here. 

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SHOT 3These first few shots connote that the film is going to be about the male protagonist becoming a DJ or his life as a DJ. This is because in these early opening shots, it is clear that he is only a bedroom DJ who is not famous yet. You can denote that there is marijuana, a pot of pills, a notebook and a pair of headphones in the corner connoting the that he is in the class E (student) and that he is a stereotypical young adult with no academic aspirations but instead wanting to just get into the music industry. 


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SHOT 4
Another extreme close up shot of the DJ software on the computer screen. Protagonist is adjusting yet another thing on the software (changing shape of frequency wave). 




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SHOT 5








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MICRODRAMA Exercise: Evaluation

Richard and I were under pressure for filming this. We filmed the entire thing on one evening. We had to come up with a narrative that was based around Todorov's narrative theory and Barthes' narrative enigma theory. Also, we had to include Propp's 7 character archetype theory, so we had many different characters:

PROPP'S SEVEN CHARACTER ARCHETYPES
1. The Hero - (Evie) Is the protagonist and goes on a mission to save the dog - succeeds.
2. The Villain - (Richard) struggles against the hero
In here our villain (or antagonist) struggles to get the dog back from the heroine. He succeeds at first, but ultimately fails when the hero and the helper come to save the dog.
3. The Prize - (Alfie, the dog) The hero deserves it throughout the story.
4. The False Hero - (Evie's 'sister') She tries to take all the credit for saving the dog and says the dog is hers.

5. The Dispatcher - (Fred)
6. The Donor - (Fred) Gives the map (magical object) to the hero.
7. The Helper - (Fred) He helps the hero find/save the dog.
In terms of stereotypes the prize is usually a helpless princess. Also a young girl facing up to a sinister adult man (villain) is a common convention of the horror genre.

TODOROV’S FIVE-PART NARRATIVE STRUCTURE
1 . A state of equilibrium at the outset
- The young female protagonist is coming home from school, which is the normal routine for her
2 . A disruption of the equilibrium by some action
- The stray dog suddenly appears at the outset, and this happy state is disrupted by the villain stealing the dog
3. A recognition that there has been a disruption
- The girl soon realizes and the dog has gone missing, and deduces from the writing on the map that someone must have taken it.
4. An attempt to repair the disruption
- Dispatched by the father/donor, the heroine goes with her father to save the dog from an unknown thief
5. A reinstatement of the equilibrium
- After having saved the dog, and a clash with the step-sister, the heroine has regained her dog and the text ends with a happy family dinner (for most of the family), restoring the order of things.

BARTHES’ NARRATIVE ENIGMA THEORY
We included Barthes' narrative enigma in the opening of the short film. So, when we see the main protagonist, Evie, walking home from school, she hasn't provided any dialogue to provide exposition for the audience, so the audience is wondering who this girl is, what she is doing and where she's from etc... The clothes she is wearing do give some exposition to the audience about the age of her and the gender she is.

After this exercise, Richard and I learned:

1. How to include different narrative theories in a short film. (Propp's 7 recurring character archetypes, Todorov's 5-part narrative theory, Barthes' narrative Enigma).

2. How to think under pressure, as producers would who have to make TV programs 3 times week e.g. Eastenders.

3. Enforcing continuity editing, 180 degree rule, match on action shots, shot reverse shots and just achieving general verisimilitude throughout the short film.

4. More editing skills such as adding transitions (ellipsis), using special effects, using coloured filters. We did make some other cuts that had special effects on, just to experiment with what other effects would look like.

MICRODRAMA Exercise: EG and RD

Microdrama Exercise:
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For this short micro drama, our task was to use the narrative theories played down by Vladimir Propp, Levi-Strauss, Barthes and Todorov.
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To start with we have an establishing long shot of a detached house (connotes wealth).There is a Mercedes car parked at the front to connote wealth again and middle class-upper class (A-C1). There are little bits of shaky camera movements here but this can create verisimilitude. There is also diegetic/ambient sounds coming from the road in front of the house, of cars driving by which also creates a sense of realism.

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The second shot is a worms eye view with a very shallow point of focus which gives a sense of narrative enigma (Barthes theory) of when the girl walks into the shot.
She is wearing jeans rolled up which connotes some femininity. 
She could have been on the phone speaking to someone to give the audience an idea of who she is, where she is from, how old she is and where she's just come from. But since we have no vocal evidence of any of this, this creates a sense of narrative enigma. 
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The next scene is of the girl walking into the house through the door, no shaky camera movements, long shot and there is already a sense of continuity editing. I have taken the continuity editing approach for this scene and the next approaching few scenes of the girl getting into her bedroom to sit at her desk.



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This shot is finally when she has sat down already, she has got her laptop out (MacBook pro) which connotes that she is modern and that there is wealth in the family she is in. Also the setting is connoted from this (modern day) so therefore verisimilitude is created through the realistic objects (MacBook pro) in that setting.  There are many signifiers in this shot such as the Pulp Fiction poster of Uma Thurman on the left. This connotes that this girl is not the norm stereotype of a teenage girl. Relating to the Uses and Gratifications theory, this girl must see Uma Thurman as an role model (identifying with her). There is still continuity editing here leading on to her typing on the laptop as soon as she opens it. 
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Normally, in TV, overuse of electronic noises (diegetic sounds) are always used when there is an electronic object to represent a stereotype of electronic objects. 







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There is a huge contrast here between the shots in lighting (more yellow lighting). Also there is a fade cut to connote that there is a large gap in time and that there is a new scene completely different to the first few. There is now discontinuity editing because the shots are very cut up providing a large contrast. There is diegetic sound of barks from outside connoting to the audience there is a dog outside or something at the door.
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There is immediately a huge contrast between this scene and the last. The lighting is very dark in this shot and this connotes the dark vibe of this scene. The voice connotes that this is the stereotypical villain with a german accent also wearing all black. There is a prominent binary opposition here between the villain and dog since the dog is white to connote innocence and purity. Narrative enigma is created here because the audience can't see the face of the person speaking.

The narrative is:

Evie coming home from school, a normal day, then starts studying/working in her room.

She hears a scratching at the door, so she leaves her room and goes to the front door to see what the sound was.

She opens the front door and sees a small, white dog on her doorstep and she is shocked. She decides to keep him as a pet.

We then see the villain speaking in a german accent saying how he knows Evie has the dog now and he is going to come and steal it from her. 

There is an ellipsis in time to Evie showing her sister the dog she found, the sister is so jealous because she wants to keep him.

We then go back to the villain, who has arrived at Evie's house and is holding a map in his hands as if he's just found where her house is. He finds that the door happens to be open, so he sneaks in and picks the dog up and takes him away. 

Another ellipsis in time, Fred comes back home and as he is walking up the steps outside the door he sees a map left on the steps and picks it up and shows Evie once he is inside, therefore making Fred the donor. 

Evie sees that there is a place on the map circled and she thinks it must be where the dog has been taken so she asks Fred to come with her to find him therefore making Fred the helper also.

PROPP'S SEVEN CHARACTERS

1. The Hero - (Evie) Is the protagonist and goes on a mission to save the dog - succeeds.

2. The Villain - (Richard) struggles against the hero
In here our villain (or antagonist) struggles to get the dog back from the heroine. He succeeds at first, but ultimately fails when the hero and the helper come to save the dog.

3. The Prize - (Alfie, the dog) The hero deserves it throughout the story.

4. The False Hero - (Evie's 'sister') She tries to take all the credit for saving the dog and says the dog is hers.

5. The Dispatcher - (Fred)

6. The Donor  - (Fred) Gives the map (magical object) to the hero.

7. The Helper - (Fred) He helps the hero find/save the dog.

In terms of stereotypes the prize is usually a helpless princess. Also a young girl facing up to a sinister adult man (villain) is a common convention of the horror genre. 

TODOROV’S FIVE-PART NARRATIVE THEORY

1.    A state of equilibrium at the outset
- The young female protagonist is coming home from school, which is the normal routine for her

2.    A disruption of the equilibrium by some action
- The stray dog suddenly appears at the outset, and this happy state is disrupted by  the villain stealing the dog

3.    A recognition that there has been a disruption
- The girl soon realizes and the dog has gone missing, and deduces from the writing on the map that someone must have taken it.

4.    An attempt to repair the disruption
- Dispatched by the father/donor, the heroine goes with her father to save the dog from an unknown thief

5.    A reinstatement of the equilibrium
- After having saved the dog, and a clash with the step-sister, the heroine has regained her dog and the text ends with a happy family dinner (for most of the family), restoring the order of things.