Analysing two film openings

Up:🎈

There is no use of credits or even the film’s title, it’s more about how Pixar has used a very special opening that outlines the entire background of the main character before the story even begins. It is a much more visual and entertaining opening that could connote the childish target audience, represent the more passive audience they are, and finally the animated and adventure-like genre this movie is all about. 

 It very cleverly introduces the audience to the main character, but also creates a relationship between the two, making the audience feel like they’ve known him for years. This is effective as the audience can’t help but empathize with Carl– the main character, taking them too, on his emotional journey. Due to its animated nature and its unusual opening sequence, it is difficult to analyze as it does not have a specific location or plot. Despite the premise of the film appearing to be targeted solely towards children, its life values and heart-wrenching relationships also give a much wider range of audiences including the parent, pleasure. (wider TA)

The lighting plays a large role in the opening scene as it dictates the mood of the characters to the audience. As there is no dialogue for the first five minutes, it is important that the audience is kept focused by the mise en scene, music, and camera/editing techniques. On the surface, Up seems like a very simplistic film aimed at young children and easily understood, shown by the slow-paced editing and the everyday situations that take place in chronological order. A very basic color coordination scheme is used, as shown by the bright colors when the characters are happy, and oppositely, the dark colors when the characters are sad. The story of Carl and Ellie to children may just come across as a fun story with a sad ending, however, to the older audience their story is more significant as it allows them to immediately connect and understand him, evoking emotion for his great loss. A very light-hearted, upbeat non-diegetic soundtrack is played in the background, creating a positive, cheery atmosphere making the film enjoyable and causing the audience to warm to the characters. The fast-paced music obviously represents the happiness of the couple and like the lighting; the slower-paced music represents their unhappiness. Again this appeals to children as they are easily able to read the character's emotions; however, it also helps to set the scene and the mood, evoking emotion from the range of audience audiences.

The editing is also very simple and it is demonstrated when the number of different shot types slows down during the devastation to emphasize the drastic effect it has had on the main character and the tense moment. The fast-paced editing towards the beginning suggests that the couple is happy and that time goes quickly when they are together, creating a noticeable juxtaposition after her wife (Ellie) dies. Many different camera angles are used for different effects, allowing the audience to see the surroundings and the character’s emotions. Objective shots are used in important locations to the characters, such as under the tree, and this is made obvious to the audience as the editing pace slows down and so more time is spent in those certain locations. Close up shots are used effectively in order to clearly portray the character's emotions to the younger audience, evoking emotion from them too.

Fight club:🥊

They use about 20 titles in the opening scene and it portrays the characters, the film’s name, and cast members as well as its directors. 

The use of the neon, saturated color used for the title, contrasted by the black and low key lighting background connotes the thriller and action genre maybe as it represents the neon and light banner fight club signs and could symbolize power and strength.  The cold colors in this opening sequence are dominant, especially blue. This supports Gledhill’s theory on relaxing the audience into the film and piquing their interest. We then also see an extreme close-up of a human body and a human’s veins, nerves, and organs. These ones are all in blueish grey color which connotes to most of us an unhealthy body. Also, the film’s starting from the inside of the character’s body shows us that the actions and decisions the character will take throughout the movie will affect him internally. The camera then takes the audience on a journey inside of the character’s body which connotes that the audience will be in close contact with the character’s internal state thus, mental fortitude. There is a simple mise-en-scene in this opening sequence. In the beginning, the audience is only shown the internal body of a person microscopically presented. While traveling through the body the audience is shown blue thunderbolts. The thunderbolts connote a to a confusion of the mind and breaking of mental fortitude. In this opening sequence, we see the opposite of the Propp Narrative Theory. Propp tells us that every narrative character is a variation or combination of the characters from fairy tales. These characters are; the villain, the princess, the princess’ father, the hero, the helper, the donor (helps the hero by giving objects), the false hero, and the dispatcher (sends the hero on missions). However, in this opening sequence, we see a coward and fearful character whose mental state is broken. This, therefore, breaks down Propp’s theory and piques the audience’s interest by distressing them on how this character is going to cope with the situations he is going through.

The editing of this opening sequence is quite monotonous. There are many cuts used to create continuity and all the names of the cast, from behind the scenes to the others, are coming onto the screen with the same blue flashlight and dissolving in the same way. Then after all the cast is done we are having a black screen, however, as the camera still tilts the audience feels like coming out of a surface. Then we see an extreme close-up of a human body, which the audience believes belongs to the protagonist. The skin gets blurry before a new group of names appears,  this becomes so monotone that when the audience sees blurriness they expect a cast to be named. However, the last part goes blurry again and it breaks down the monotone editing showing Edward Norton and his fearful face which was pointed at a gun. In the end, it fades out and it gives a sense of the audience being taken back to the beginning of everything.

In terms of the TA, stereotypically, this film is aimed at older teenagers/adults ranging from 18-25 and this film is rated 18.  It is aimed primarily at males because stereotypically they are the gender who associates with fighting recreationally. However, there is a possibility of a large female following due to the fact Brad Pitt has a major role in the film and there could be a female gaze.

In terms of an enigma code, the sound could be suggested as being one. Firstly, the audience is presented with classical music, which connotes everything is on track and the protagonist’s mind is clear(equilibrium). However, we then hear the classical music changes into an electronic song by The Dust Brothers. This creates a more chaotic atmosphere and turns the mindset we have to a confused and broken mental fortitude of the protagonist. Finally, the song is reduced to the minimum and the audience barely hears it and then we hear the character speak, “People are always asking me if I know Tyler Durden”. This creates the mystery of Tyler Durden and connotes to the audience that the role of antagonist belongs to this Durden person.