General opening of films – key forms and conventions

• The ident of production company usually begins the opening scene, with the visual image ident and signature music ident.

• Through media languages -use of mise-en-scene (e.g. costume), editing to change pace (e.g. slow-motion), sound (e.g. characters accent), and camera shots (usually establishing shot e.g. New York in F.R.I.E.N.D.S.)

• Titles and credits • All of these help establish the genre, set the scene and introduce the

audience to key characters, location and potential narrators. Others like to open the film through enigma coding so to intrigue the audience.

Titles and creditsThe amount of credits in the opening scene varies with each film. Some only mention the key actors, others include lots of people involved in the making of the film such as directors, producers, photographers, costume designers, music directors and so on. Titles and credits are incorporate in different ways and in different fonts depending on the genre of the film.

Some merge credits into the image such as ‘Angus thongs and perfect snogging’, others involve them into the action, or others freeze the film onto a still image.

Some incorporate them into animated or graphic sequences such as ‘Catch me if you can’.

Some incorporate them into the setting such as ‘The notebook’.

Some have simple font on a blank (usually black) screen separating the action such as ‘Batman’.

Warm Bodies – A romantic zombie comedy• Visual and music ident of production companies - ‘Summit Entertainment’

and ‘Mandeville films’.• However the visual ident is edited to match the genre of the film.

• Credits of production companies are merged into the film, written in a scripted orange font, which disappears with the use of animation, some which look like a blood splatter and fire. I only watched up to 4 min’s but eventually the music credits, producers and actors credits come up too. It’s a very long opening.

Original ident

Ident used in warm bodies – darker colours and sketchy patterns to create an eerie effect.

•The first image seen is a close up of the narrators eye and then we see both his eyes until we see his whole body. This creates an air of mystery.

• It is narrated by the main character and the film includes many voice over's as that is how the zombies can express themselves.

• They used a variety of camera angles and also used a camera shake to reflect his typical zombie walk.

• The zombies movement was edited to slow-motion.• Mise-en-scene – untidy setting, zombie make-up, flashing lights.• Music – steady beat but jolly to reflect that it is also a comedy.• They showed flash-backs by having the image in sepia, inside a camera roll with a camera

roll sound effect, more up-beat music with singing, and at a normal pace to show contrast from before.

• The context of the narrators dialogue is funny which reflects it’s comedy genre. This is portrayed through the use of repetition, rhetorical questions

Normal Flashback

• We don’t know why the main character is a zombie so this is enigma coding, which pulls the audience in as they want to find out his story.

• The majority of the sound is the narrators voice, with grunting from the zombies, and scary sounds such as a sudden scream. This could be a sound effect, but it definitely makes the audience jump reflecting it’s horror part genre.

• When the narrator imagines, brighter colours and a faster pace are used, but he contrasts by staying a zombie. These images are transitioned back into reality by the camera angle going around in a circle over his shoulder.

• Other times he imagines the image is merged faint into the background and fades out with overlapping newsreaders voices to show it’s not real.

Shaun of the dead - Parody• The credits included are the production company and the title. These are

merged into the picture of the film in white font.

• The music is upbeat and a bit unusual conveying the comedy genre. It gets louder at the end to show a clear finale of the opening, where it then runs into a sequence of sounds and actions.

• This is a parody film, therefore the zombie movement is synchronised and is in time with the music. This is funny to watch as they are purposely mocking Dawn of the dead.

• The scenes change through transitions of dissolve and sliding the screen, for example: when a car goes by the setting has changed. This is good continuity editing as it flows well.

• The scene is set through the use of a street sign.• When we meet the main character we only see his legs and his shadow, and

then as the camera moves up his body, we hear zombie sounds. However once we reach his face we see he is only yawning and is a normal person. This is a teaser, and relates to enigma coding.

• The use of mise-en-scene helps introduce the main character and what he is like. This is done through a messy house and clothes, and the use of props - x box. We don’t actually hear him speak, and his name is introduced through his costume:

Zombie land• I found the way they included credits into the film very clever. This is because

some of them are merged into the action, as if they were objects. For example the ‘Columbia Pictures’ is merged into the film as the building sign, and title is smashed through as if it is an actual object.

• The credits are in red like blood symbolising the horror genre. There are a lot of credits included.

• The use of editing to slow motion and no speech, only dramatic music creates striking effect to intrigue the audience.

• We have no idea of the story line as there is just a lot of action – this is enigma coding and pulls the audience in as they will want to know what the film is about. The introduction finishes with the directors name as they are of high importance. It also comes to a clear ending through the use of a big action (smash on a car) and a clear finish to the music.