CF: Opening sequence Analysis

"Law Abiding Citizen"  (Grey, 2009)

• This film is clearly a thriller, but one would not be able to make this conclusion solely based on the beginning of the opening, but the latter events of the opening make it clearto the audience that this film is almost a typical thriller. 

• The start of the opening does not meet many (or any) of the typical conventions held by a thriller movie, there is happy music being played via the radio, as opposed to the conventional thriller music which would be part of the score, and would normally build suspense, and therefore would also build fear for the audience. 
• However, as soon as the burglars enter the house, the persona of the scene immediately turns into that of a thriller; this is made to be rather obvious by fulfilling the audience’s expectations of a thriller film, such as a rapid build of suspense.
• This ‘rapid build of suspense’ takes place when the female character is slammed into the glass shelving unit, or more drastically, when she is stabbed, this leaves the audience wondering “is she okay, or is she seriously harmed?”. 
• The text, to start, does not conform to characteristics of a thriller in terms of the protagonist character, who is shown to be playful and looks rather harmless when sitting next to (what can be inferred to be) his daughter. 
• Unlike other typical thriller films, where the protagonists are often shown to be skilled in combat, but the protagonist here is defenseless when the crooks attack him and his family. 
• So, in this aspect of how the film both conforms and disagrees with classic conventions and characteristics of a thriller film, you could infer that the creators of the film are simply trying to amplify the fact that the events in the film are happening to ordinary people, which creates a sense of realism, which naturally builds any suspense or fright that the audience have, this effect simply proves that the film is a thriller movie, and although it may have some unexpected events that do not correspond with other movies in the same genre, it is definitely a thriller movie.
• Mise en scene is used in this seen to describe the emotions of the characters, which personally, I think is done to not only reinforce the idea that this film is a thriller, but also adds to the story. The characters are shown to be wearing very casual clothes, this would imply that they are ordinary people and are not supernatural, famous or rich. 
• The mother and daughter are shown to be wearing almost matching jumpers, many viewers would see this as ‘cute’ and therefore would create more sympathy for the characters when the audience sees the taking of their lives. This relates to the story, as much of the future events in the film are about the man avenging the death of his family, thus there is a motive. 
• A major theme of this film opening is shock, in that there is a very large contrast between the chilled out family time which then suddenly becomes a time of desperation and manic, in that they are being robbed and harmed by burglars. The picture below shows how young, harmless and innocent the girl is, this allows the audience to relate to her father's anger when she is taken by the burglars at the end of the opening scene.

• The director may be doing this to strongly implement the full story into the heads of the viewers, as many films can be slated by both critics and normal movie-goers for not fully explaining the doings from the characters in a movie. The camera shots and composition mainly consist of close ups and eyeline matches, here, camera shots are being used in the same as mise en scene, in that it is being used to convey emotion. 
• Obvious examples of this include the scene where the criminals inflict pain upon the defenceless family, while the lady is shown to have a look of pain and fright upon her face, the male looks very scared and in pain after being stabbed, but as soon as his family is shown to be attacked, he loses this look and a look of aggression, anger and bravery becomes clear on his face, the significance of this, is that is shows the audience the man’s love for his family, which is all relevant to the future events in the film, which as I previously stated, are about avenging the death of his wife and child. 
• As per many thriller movies, this opening uses sound for a number of reasons, with the most important being to add to the build of suspense. One of the most dominant sounds in the opening sequence is the shouting and cursing of the criminals, this makes their presence in the scene greater and more domineering, as they have taken control of the environment (in this case, it is a house). 
• It is very conventional for thriller movies to use violins in certain dramatic sequences, often songs from the score of the movie may be played in some of the more important scenes such as the opening, at these times, there is very little noise, and basically all that the audience can hear may be these violin sounds played in what seems to be a minor scale, these sounds are generally sad, which corresponds to one of the themes in this scene, which is death, which is brought on by the murder of the male’s seemingly innocent family. 
• Non-Verbal language is another factor used by the actors to represent their character, the protagonist, as I previously stated is shown to be playful, this is represented by his facial expression when sitting with his daughter, he is laughing which conveys him to be innocent and light-hearted, which is juxtaposed with the immediate aggressive non-verbal language of the criminals which consists of them simply attacking this family, thus showing the audience that they are ‘bad guys’.

• The picture above is another example of non-verbal language, the female character displayed in the picture has no dialogue at this point, yet the actor is conveying an extreme sense of fright by using a facial expression.

“Shooter” (Fuqua, 2007)

• The structure of the narrative in this movie is not conventional of thriller movies (or thriller conspiracy movies in this case), but the same structure is not rare in other movies of the same genre. The movie starts with an event on which many of the latter events are related to, but these events are not directly after, but several years down the line. 
• The audience are shown in relevance to the protagonist’s journey over a number years, starting with a drastic event, the audience are then shown how the protagonist is, after a few years down the line. Specifically, he is shown to be living a more isolated life, thus implying that he may have been emotionally scarred, which shows the extent to which he shared a friendship with the other soldier at the first minute of the film.
• The major themes in the narrative in the opening of the film is hardship and comradery, the two men are shown to have all odds stacked up against them, which is a recurring theme in this film, which mainly consist of the protagonist being framed by the government, thus there is no one that can really help him but himself, this is a conventional theme in conspiracy thrillers.
• There are several forms of alienation employed in this sequence. The most effective in this scene is how the two lone soldiers are fighting against what is almost a small army. Naturally, this causes the audience to see them as an ‘underdog’ in this battle, which therefore makes the viewers, want them to be the victors in this battle. 
• Essentially, the director is alienating the audience into figuring out who the protagonists are, and who the enemies or ‘bad guys’ are. Tension is created by the director by the use of music, the sounds used in the music are similar to that of “Law abiding citizen” in terms of instruments, but more major scale sounds are used, which are generally heard to be more optimistic. 
• The persona of the scene is heroic due to this music, which creates suspense as the audience may begin to want these protagonists to prevail and survive due to their heroic state, thus the viewers will be kept on the edge of their seats by the sheer suspense of the situation. 

• The picture above is a wide angle (almost panoramic) shot of the environment that they are in, it suggests how big the enemy is that they are up against, compared to the size of their force (of just two men). It shows how big the area is, and how little they are in comparison, which makes it look more unlikely that they would win the battle that takes place in this scene, this simply amplifies the heroic persona that the protagonist has.
• Social groups are not generally conveyed in this scene, as it is a scene consisting of soldiers. However, much can be inferred of the character’s social groups. The two American soldiers both have similar appearance (excluding their costume which is of a military nature), they both have short sharp haircuts, and both look physically capable judging by their physiques. 
• But the giveaway that they are of a similar or the same social group is conveyed through dialogue, their talk of home shows them to be close, thus implying that they have spent a lot of time together which makes it clear that they are amongst a mutual social group (even if it does consist of mainly colleagues).
• There are a number of ideological discourses conveyed throughout the scene, firstly, the dominant discourse conveyed is that the American soldiers are physically fit, and good looking men, which is a discourse created by the American film industry, there are also challenging ideologies conveyed though, such as that of the enemy that they are fighting. 
• The opposition in the battle are soldiers in a country which looks quite secluded (such as that in the scene), there is a discourse that such countries that do not have a large population or are not economically successful will not have expensive technologies, especially in battle, but this is challenged by the large amount of advanced weapons that they utilize throughout the scene as well as the helicopter, despite of whether or not this ideology is valid in real life, this is used in the film to make the opposition look more powerful, thus lowering the odds of the two lone soldiers winning the battle, which makes them look more heroic when they survive the fight.

• The picture above shows the unity of the two characters, they are both very physically close to each other, but the way in which they look to be relaxed in each other's company despite the possibly life-taking situation, shows that they have a close relationship, which is later confirmed in the film.

“No country for old men” (Coen bros., 2007)

• The target audience of this film clearly consists of a more mature audience, a film that will not be seen by many small children, and gives parents, adults and other older people the chance to see a film that is not glorified by ‘Hollywood’, and instead conveys a real persona of grit. 
• As a British male teenager, I interpret the film in a way that may be unique, many teenagers to more troubled cultures in Britain may be able to relate to the film, in that a large theme is violence and drug culture, these are both present in British culture, these teenagers may see this and relate to it on a personal scale.
• The protagonists are portrayed by Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem, who at the time of release of the film were not exactly the biggest stars in the film industry. The film also features Tommy Lee-Jones who is a much bigger star, the reason that the casting team may have cast Jones in the supporting role, is to reel in movie-goers who may just go to see the film, because of the fact that Jones is in it. 
• Due to the relatively low nature of this film ($25 million), two actors who were not massively famous were hired to portray the roles of the main characters, this is because there is a correlation between how much an actor may want to be paid for a film, and how famous they are. The film was produced by Paramount Vantage; which is the speciality film division of paramount pictures (Viacom is it’s parent company).
• Vantage purchases, produces, distributes and markets films with a more “art-house” feel. This means that although the film was dealt with by an industrial company, it gives off a persona that would match that of an independent film. 
• As part of prints & advertising number of strategies were use to market the film, in Britain, the radio station XFM ran daily drive time on-air promotions across it’s London, Manchester and Scotland stations. They sent one of their team into the streets, styled as the character Moss. Listeners (consumers) could listen to the clues and had to find the man on the streets who was holding the briefcase of cash that can be seen in the movie, if they could find him, they would win a large cash sum. 
• Other typical methods were used to market the film, such as trailers which were shown on YouTube and over the internet, but due to the relatively low budget of this film, their was little TV advertising, and the television advertising that did take place was not broadcast at peak times due to the astronomically large amounts of money that it would cost.
• The institutional context of a relatively low budget is evident in the movie itself, a lot of isolated locations are used, this naturally implies that there was little money to create any actual scenery of environment, thus the audience naturally gains the idea that the film is more independent than industrial.  Something that shows the independent persona of this film is,  the picture below which shows how the producers decided to use an already existing location, as oposed to what other movies would do, which would be creating a set, which would clearly be more expensive, and would be a concept which would more likely be seen in a ultra-high budget Hollywood blockbuster.

• The picture displayed above, shows how isolated the environment of the film really is, this is conventional of thriller and horror movies as it implies that no one can help the main characters from the trouble that they have got them selves into, this applies to this film, as the protagonists cannot simply go to the police, as their own activities are also illegal.
• Another major aspect of "No country for old men" is that use of symbolic images. The image below, shows the criminal washing his hands of the blood of the man who he just killed, you can also see that he has escaped his handcuffs which represent authority. The fact that hey has broken away from his handcuffs shows that he is a "loose cannon" as their is nothing to stop him for carrying on committing crimes, this is a recurring theme in the movie, as one of the thoughts that the audience will continue to have throughout watching the film is "why has he not been subdued by the authorities?".