Inspirational/Creative Opening Sequence Analysis

Watchmen Opening Scene

Watchmen begins with one of the most important characters, comedian, watching television. It uses the television to show the current events at the time and hint to what the film will be based around; he then switches to a music channel to begin the music as if the audience is really there. The next shot is from the villain’s perspective moving towards the door to show someone else is going to enter- to keep the idea of the audience being there it muffles the music to show what the character hears.

The room also sets the scene for most of the movie by using a large window for the wall, allowing the audience to view the city that the film I set in.

Once the villain breaks the door, it begins using the effects slow motion; this is the beginning of the fight scene. Through the fight it shows things round the room like pictures, this is to sow the characters past giving a slight insight on him and to make references to the story and comics. It also continues to use slow motion to add detail and focus the audience on things such as the bullet and the characters getting hit.

The fight comes to an end and this gives the characters a chance to speak, this is important as it creates one of the more known quotes, “it’s a joke, it’s all a joke, mother forgive me”. It then shows a drop of his blood fall on his badge- this is one of the most famous scenes and some of the covers for the film.

The scene ends with him getting thrown out the window to his death and as the characters life ends the music finishes.

Overall this beginning shows us that the film is going to be violent by the use of guns and fighting, it begins fairly dark showing that the majority of the film is going to be dark.

Iron Man Opening Scene

The film begins with an establishing shot of the desert that Tony Stark and some troops are driving down. It begins in silence with just the airy background sound but once the vehicles are viewed in the next shot, which seems to be a wide shot from in front, the music begins. This music is used throughout the trilogy of iron man film as a sort of theme tune/track making it a great time to use it.

The music continues normally while different shots are used of the vehicles, these shots mainly consist of low angles and tracking shots. The camera then shoots inside of the vehicle, staring by showing that the music is coming from a stereo showing we can hear what the characters can hear. Stark is first to speak, he begins by trying to make jokes to the soldiers showing the nature of the character- he is meant to be a type of person that makes a lot of jokes and cheesy catch phrases to make him seem clever. Now that the analog as started the music lowers in volume so that the audience can hear what they are saying. They talk for a bit and the camera switches between close ups of the characters to show they’re speaking and their expressions and reactions to the jokes.

At the end of the analog they’re about to take a photo when another vehicle explodes in front of them (they use this time for the explosion so that the viewer does not expect it).

Overall this opening shows that this film will contain action and be slightly humorous, it shows what the main character (tony stark) will be like through the film and shows the type of music through the film will be fast and loud ACDC tracks.

Shaun of the Dead

The opening to this film uses the song Ghost Town by The Specials, which is ironic and well suited to the zombie based comedy. It begins with people doing normal things that people would do on a daily basis except they’re tired and almost zombie like in movement- as to show what is coming up. This background cast of characters is used well as later on you actually see the same people as zombies, for example the cashier that you see (Mary), is later the zombie in Shaun and Ed’s back garden. Towards the end of the sequence Shaun is first introduced, he too is zombie like because he has just awoken and is yawning.

The opening is good as it uses multiple wide shots to show that the film is set in an average British town, also showing the type of people there. The music used in this opening is also put to good use to show the film will be comical- setting the feel for it.

Horror Analysis

In the horror analysis, our group had to use Microsoft PowerPoint to create a slideshow of research on horror films, such as age ratings of this type of genre and sub genres of horror, for example slasher.

The History of Horror Genre

Horror films are made to confront people’s fears and nightmares. They use these features, creatures and irrational thoughts to make people scared so the viewer can get a thrill. Horrors are known to begin with George Melies’ short films in the 1890’s (particularly Le Manoir du diable).  Japan then took an interest in the category in 1898.


Possibly one of the greatest known horrors Frankenstein was next made; it was originally released in 1910, but along with other great known movies (such as Bram stoker’s novel- Dracula) it was remade. In fact, a lot of the well-known movies and characters that the newer generation will know today were made originally in the 1900’s.

Zombies are one of the most known parts of horror films; which is obvious- the living dead rose to eat the flesh of humans is bound to be remembered. But originally this was not the story; the idea of zombies came from multiple cultures, in particularly the Haitian religions and other African versions of Voodoo.  It was around 1930 that it became an idea used to make people frightened of the living dead in novels and movies such as The Magic (1929) and white zombie (1932).

Although one of the most remembered, the living dead are not the only categories in horror. Other sub-genres also began appearing during the 1900’s. Possibly one of the most known of these is slasher, arriving properly in 1960 with Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom and Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (rated the top in IMDB’s top rated horror’s), this subgenre is a horror section that slightly mixes with thriller, creating films commonly about murderers seeking out a group of characters one by one.

The 1970’s and 80’s was a huge part of horrors releasing some of the most iconic movies in the genre; this includes shivering tales such as The Exorcist (1973), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Jaws (1975), Carrie (1976 and re-released in 2013), The Omen (1976 and re-released in 2006), Halloween (1978), Dawn of The Dead (1978 and re-released in 2004), Alien (1979), Friday the 13^th (1980), the shining (1980), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and Child’s Play (1988). This series of long living films created multiple chain reactions of sequels, re-releases, copies and even prequels; needless to say the past generations of horror films have influenced new films in numerous ways.

The sub-genre slasher continued through 1990 releasing sequels of films from the previous years, but this was wearing it out as the last 20 years was filled with this style of gory horrors. This did not help seen as so computer generated imagery was making a huge advance improving special effects for other genres; this meant that genres like sci-fi and fantasy made a huge leap forwards taking the audience of horror.

The 21^st century made an improvement on the genre, it started to use features from the previous century. It even introduced the living dead back to our cinemas with films like the Resident Evil franchise (adapted into films from 2002 onwards), I Am Legend (2007) and Zombie Land (2009) which shows another style of horror films- comedy horror. Ghosts have also been reintroduced with films such as paranormal activity (2007); and even though these features have been brought back, slasher has also stayed along side with continuous rereleases of previous films.



I Am Legend (2007)

Zombie Land (2009)

IMDB's top rated horror films

Vice's 'Investigating the Haitian Zombie'

Vsauce's 'Why Are Things Creepy?'

Nine Frame Analysis

In this task I looked at consecutive shots in a section of a film (Taken) and looked at the angles to find out how they are used to portray the emotions of the characters and show their actions effectively.

The first shot- is a medium shot of her picking up the phone to start the scene.

The second is of Neeson on the other end, it uses a zooming shot to draw attention to him as he is talking.

After that it switches between the two characters as they speak to show who is talking, it uses a mix between medium and close shots to show what the characters are doing and there expressions.

Once she reaches the bathroom it uses mostly close up shots to show her confusion and shock at what the men are doing in the other room.

During this it also uses wide shots to show what she can see

When Neeson realises what is happening he walks away to a brief case, the camera uses slight pan shots to follow him and show what he doing.

When the men walk into the hall it uses close ups of their legs so that it shows they’re near without revealing the identity of them.

Finally once she is under the bed, it uses mostly close ups to add tension, showing their expressions- including her crying and him in disbelief and shock.

Prelim Evaluation

 For the prelim task, our group had to make a sixty second film that contained a character opening a door, walking through the room and sitting down opposite another that they would have to have a conversation with. It had to contain multiple shots; in particularly a shot reverse shot, which had to follow the 180-degree rule.

The plot was of a man named David who had made a deal with the mafia and needed to pay it back leading to his kidnapping. We used two characters- David who spends his time in the clip tied to a chair, and a fierce mafia member who was not to be laughed at.

I think our group clip was good as it had a plot that could influence multiple camera angles and shots. For instance, we wanted to make it mysterious about who the camera was watching which made us use shots such as close ups of things like the villains feet walking through halls and wide shots of him from behind so his face was not revealed. The villain was meant to be feared so we used a low angle to create this feel.

Overall I think we have made a reasonable amount of progress as we successfully included multiple shots and the key shot reverse shot that was needed. We completed the task in the given time although it would have been better if we were allowed a longer video.