- The Phantom of the Opera has an interesting opening. It starts with the candle and the elegant gold looking writing. Because there is a use of a candle at the start, we immediately knows that this film is based in the early days where electricity was at is minimum and the revolution of technology had only just started. We know the film is set in the early 1900’s because of the writing in the top left which is hard to see, but you can just about see it.
- At the beginning of the film, the scene is only in black and white and looks retro. This shows the age of the place the film is being shot at. The use of the black and white lighting creates a mysterious effect and makes the scene look old fashioned and unknown. In this scene there is a use of under lighting which creates a tense atmosphere and builds tension within the scene.
- When the chandelier is shown, the whole atmosphere and lighting changes. Everything starts to come to life and colour starts to change from black and white to actual colour how you would see it with the naked eye we know this as high-key lighting. This is when more filler lights are used and looks more realistic to our eyes. When this happens, everything starts to run smoothly and there is nothing rough going on. It was as if the whole place had a massive makeover. It makes the mood of the film change dramatically and gives it a more joyful and magical setting.
- By making the atmosphere of the film change from dull to completely bright and exciting, slightly makes the audience shocked and amazed of the chandelier and what the impact of the chandelier has to the film.
- Straight away as soon as the opening begins, we know that the film is going to be girlish. This is because of the close up of the long hair and the pink girlish font that appears on the screen. Not only do we know that it is girlish straight away, but we also know it is going to be a girlish film because of the song that is played. Due to stereotyping, we'd expect a girl to listen to the song that is playing in the background of the opening sequence.
- At the start, it blurs from the blonde hair to the girl combing her hair. From this it cuts between shots of a girl riding her bicycle, to the POV (point of view) of the girl riding the bike and then a medium shot is shown of the leg being shaved then it cuts back to the girl riding the bike. There's also several close-ups. Such as the girl putting the necklace on. Us as an audience also get a sense of the girls personality as clean and that she looks after herself very well because of the props such as all the make up and the elegant slow way of putting the necklace on and shaving the legs.
- Because of the colours of pink and red, we know straight away as an audience that the film is going to be a romance. We also get the indication that it is going to be a romantic film because of the use of props (mis-en-scene).There are props such as roses in the opening sequence which could suggest romance and love. This is not the only indication that we get it's going to be a romantic film. We also get shown a picture in the girls room of a guy, meaning there's some connection between the girl and the guy in the picture. The girl (Elle) also blows a kiss to the picture.
- Throughout the whole opening sequence, there are no bold dark colours that are used in the sequence. This can make the audience excited and create a happy atmosphere. The use of the colours such as silver and pink makes it look positive. I also think that the music helps with the positive mood of the opening sequence. The lyrics "perfect day" makes it also positive as if nothing is going to go wrong in the sequence and creates a warm welcoming atmosphere.
Constantine Opening:
- This is the opening sequence to the film Constantine. At the very start when the kettle is boiling, we know that the film is set in Los Angeles. This is because of the text that is shown on the screen. We are given no time or no date of the setting which makes the audience look at the props and apartment or house the woman is walking in. While the woman is walking there is no sound apart from the natural sound. All of a sudden, the woman falls and panics when she opens the door.
- Once the woman opens the door, there is a reverse shot of the woman and the demonfied woman on the ceiling who is looking at the woman who fell to the floor. The shot does a pull focus onto the demon on the ceiling. When the reverse shot happens, it jump cuts between the demons movement and the womans reaction with really tense music. The tense music creates a tense scene between what is being shown on the screen and the audience. After the cutting between the woman and the demon, the woman screams and the screamed was echoed and it cuts to a hallway and the stairs. This shows the volume of the womans scream.
- After the scene of the woman seeing the demon on the ceiling and after the screen, a yellow cab appears outside of the building where the incident has happened. We know that it's a cab because it says"cab co" on the yellow vehicle. Once the cab stops, a hand and a cigarette shows out of the window of the cab. The cigarette is dropped in slow motion which may suggest the cigarette is important in this film. The door then opens with a overhead of a man and then cuts to a birds eye view of the car and the man outside of the apartments.
- The look of the character John Constatine is shown in neat clothing which shows us that he is professional and well tidy. Once John has spoken to the man, a POV shot is used to go down the hallway of the apartment, but keeps cutting between a track and the POV. While John is walking down the hallway of the aparments, music starts to play. The music sounds holy and religious which could relate to the demonfied woman.
- There are many close ups in this opening, such as the keychain type thing John is holding and the cigarette which is placed on the wood.
- We know that is type of film is a mystery horror because of what us as an audience is shown in the opening such as the demon, scream and spooky music that is used in the sequence.
- There are special effects used when the demon comes out of the woman and forms into the mirror.
- We are shown some of the personalities of the characters. The guy in the car shows that he wants to be cool and professional like John as he tries to make his own version of John's line, which he says to the demon. We also get a sense of humour when John puts his middle finger up to the demon in the mirror.
- Here is another opening sequence that I have decided to analyse. The title for this film is called "Children of Men". At the start of the opening sequence, you cannot see any of the picture and you can only hear the audio. The audio at the start sounds like the news, we know the woman's voice sounds like a news reporter and says the words "The world was stunned today" meaning that not one person is viewing or hearing what is being said.
- After the audio at the start of the opening sequence, we can straight away see who the main character is or the main point of interest. We are introduced to the first character who is played by Clive Owen. We know that this character is a point of interest because all of other actors in the scene are frozen and hooked onto the TV screen and this man is moving about like he is not bothered about anything that is going on around him.
- After Clive Owen walks up to the counter where he goes to order the coffee, the camera changes to a POV looking at the TV screen. As soon as we see the TV screen, we can almost automatically know that the film that we're watching is set in the future. This is because of the "2009-2027" that is shown on the screen. Not only do we know that it is set in the future because of things that are shown, but we also know that we're ahead of technology because of how advanced the screen is. After Clive has finished ordering the coffee, he starts to walk outside, and you can see that London has complete changed and there're completely different vehicles and technology.
- Clive is followed with the camera which seems to have a handheld shot to it. This give us the audience a sense of reality, like as if we're actually in the film itself. The colouring that is used in the opening sequence is quite dull and dark, and there's a lot of use of grey's and black which and suggest the depressed mood of the surrounds and atmosphere of the area. Once Clive has walked outside, he casually adds some alcohol to his drink. This makes us aware that the character is relaxed and careless. After this an explosion comes from the shop where he just left. This gives the audience the chance to question why that explosion occurred. Another odd thing that I realised, was that there was no children in the opening sequence or younger people. This makes the audience wonder what is actually going on in the film.
