For our opening we would show a cold, British street. We chose this to juxtapose the humour of having the character scared by Hoovers. The street will be empty to show that it is just one mans fears and that is strange.
My group went to a small country side street at the early hours to make the scene look as strange and realistic as possible. This will be our location for the majority of the first scene.
Here are some photos from that filming day:
These show a very normal environment which shows the oddity of the situation. It also shows an open space to show the smallness of the Hoover to emphasize the ridiculous comedy.
Hot Fuzz
Opening timing: 1:46
Hot Fuzz is a satirical idea of mainstream America Cop, movies mixing in the stereotypes of the police force and the realism of the hard work and dedication behind that, it explores modern cops films as well as the distention of the mind always in of criminal justices. It is nicely rapped up in a comedic idea of the stereotypes of the West country and small towns imagine of the 'perfect life', the beautiful and skills using foreshadowing, always using tiny details which the audience will see more of after more viewings. The climax is action packed, and has the height of hilarity that will have the audience really laughing all the way thought. The climax has an underlining feelings of the exception of modern life and peoples thrust to have a more exciting life, that they will even go to violent means to get this. A very enjoyable and delightful movie, that I would show others maybe a few more times.
The Opening itself.
I enjoy this opening because of it's shots and fast paced opening.It uses a series of panned and tilted shots, as well as Close ups on Nichols face, gives the audience a sense of who the character was and his motivation.
It shows Nichols Angle fixation on being with the police force by showing him do excellent in his academic studies, while the shots give the impression of a usual action movie, having a lot of close ups and cuts. The editing is sweetly accompanied by the sound of fast paced music, a mix of guitar and smooth jazz really set the tone of fast paced and quick line delivery, as well as some diegetic sound sounds to add simple realism; which fit nicely in to the films gaps in the music score.
The most interesting thing about this opening, is the story of his police career, is a very boring story, made exciting by the quick way of his delivery and the juxtaposition of the flashing images of dramatic violent work he has to do.
What I like most about the opening is it's simple sets up the character and the story, which expresses his enjoyment of his work, the determination in his voice as he riddles off his life. Ever second is like a racing heart beat, which is a contrast as the rest of Hot Fuzz is a satire of modern testosterone fulled actions police films, which ignore the realism.
The opening is humorous, exciting and sets the tone for the film. It's shot well and the acting is on point.When I come on to develop and make my film I will use this films editing and character establishing as an example.
Now I'm looking at some openings made by people doing Media studies, which I have found on Youtube, these have all been made by people my age.
The Masksman
(Warning this contains some strong Language and Violence)
This opening is for an action thriller, this is shown by the tight editing and dramatic music in the background.
At the start of this it shows the ending of the opening, which trills the audiences, which is a guy in the gang having to kill his friend, this ends with a gun shot. Then is go back 20 minutes to show why this happened.
This shows a gang being followed by a masksman and his subordinate, giving evidence that the film will be conflict between these two groups.
The shots are all on the outside, which could be problematic for the sound quality, however they editing software makes it all work, the music is dramatic instrumental which adds a serious effect, it gives evidence that the scenes are getting more violent. A favorite part of this opening was how the music and title were edited together, the music became a large action piece, while the title was edited, in a silver large text which let the audience know what scale the film was going to be.
Good points of the opening:
.Music,
.Editing,
.Gives a good idea of the plot
Points I'd work on:
.The acting,
.A clearer idea of what they wanted to say in the film
The Edge
This opening was very interesting to me, not only was the camera and editing was superb, the camera used having a greenish tint making it lot surreal and foreshadowing something amazing. The second thing which was important in this opening to me was the fact in had no dialogue or diegetic sounds. The opening has a simple structure of a young boy being chased by two older men in suits, this intermediately gives the audience a lot of questions and builds up the drama. This opening was fantastic and the editing was done almost professional. The colour and setting choices were also well thought out, the contrasting blacks and whites made the film simple but also gave an illusion of being against the authority of the system, which is also implied where the main protagonist escaping the men in the suits.
Good points:
The music, electronic music really fitted with the pace and feeling on the movie.
The sharp well thought out editing which made the story easy to follow.
The simplicity on the story
The suspense of the story it being so unknown that the audience is incline to find out more.
I don't have any negative points about this opening, it has been done really well and I hope that I can make something like it myself.
