Hello, this is my blog for my AS Media coursework, detailing the research + planning, production and evaluation process of creating a two-minute film opening
The voice-overs, however I also showed the characters both while they were on and off-screen while the sound was playing
POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCES
The voice-over is again another convention I have seen especially in rom-coms and teen films
Love Actually
Richard Curtis, 2003
BBFC 15 rating, MPAA R rating
Length: 2'49/7'00
LEAD ACTORS: Ensemble cast (but arguably Hugh Grant has the biggest star power here) GENRE:Romantic comedy (adult, Christmas-themed)
PRODUCTION COMPANIES:Working Title
DISTRIBUTOR:Universal Pictures
BUDGET: $40m BOX OFFICE: $62.7m (UK), $59.7m (US) $247m (worldwide) (The Grant Rule, despite this being a big hit, doesn't apply here, this is quite a gem for British cinema, and maybe a touch too alien with its Britishness, and taking the mickey out of the USA)
TRAILER:
NARRATIVE, EXPOSITION:
We get the love is all around, we are at a high, we are at Todorov's equilibrium of love being all around, the love will be challenged throughout the film and the characters we follow will find it again. At the end every character has a new equilibrium. We are at the same location the film will end on, so that is also further symbolising the equilibrium.
GENRE:
Unconventional not to have the main characters who are in love, but it fits due to the ensemble cast, we are not following one couple or love triangle.
SOUNDTRACK:
Voice-over narration. His status as Prime Minister in the film is signified, as well Non-diegetic incidental music is also added.
REPRESENTATION:
Are people living in poverty going to be in that airport, the victims of war as in the bad state Hugh Grant's prime minister describes.
The film received critical acclaim, with a 94% 'Certified Fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[5] The film, with a budget of US$30 million, grossed a worldwide total of US$130,549,455.[2] In December 2002, the film was chosen by the American Film Institute as one of the ten best movies of the year. The film received a B+ CinemaScore from American audiences.[6] Almost universally praised, with an Academy Award-nominated screenplay, About a Boy was determined by the Washington Post to be "that rare romantic comedy that dares to choose messiness over closure, prickly independence over fetishised coupledom, and honesty over typical Hollywood endings."[7]Rolling Stone wrote, "The acid comedy of Grant's performance carries the film [and he] gives this pleasing heartbreaker the touch of gravity it needs".[8]
Roger Ebert observed that "the Cary Grant department is understaffed, and Hugh Grant shows here that he is more than a star, he is a resource."[9] The film earned Grant his third Golden-Globe nomination, while the London Film Critics Circle named Grant its Best British Actor and GQ honoured him as one of the magazine's men of the year 2006.[10] "His performance can only be described as revelatory," wrote critic Ann Hornaday, adding that "Grant lends the shoals layer upon layer of desire, terror, ambivalence and self-awareness."[7]
The New York Observer concluded: "[The film] gets most of its laughs from the evolved expertise of Hugh Grant in playing characters that audiences enjoy seeing taken down a peg or two as a punishment for philandering and womanising and simply being too handsome for words-and with an English accent besides. In the end, the film comes over as a messy delight, thanks to the skill, generosity and good-sport, punching-bag panache of Mr. Grant's performance."[11]About a Boy also marked a notable change in Grant's boyish look. Now 41, he had lost weight and also abandoned his trademark floppy hair. Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman took note of Grant's maturation in his review, saying he looked noticeably older and that it "looked good on him."[12]He added that Grant's "pillowy cheeks are flatter and a bit drawn, and the eyes that used to peer with 'love me' cuteness now betray a shark's casual cunning. Everything about him is leaner and spikier (including his hair, which has been shorn and moussed into a Eurochic bed-head mess), but it's not just his surface that's more virile; the nervousness is gone, too. Hugh Grant has grown up, holding on to his lightness and witty cynicism but losing the stuttering sherry-club mannerisms that were once his signature. In doing so, he has blossomed into the rare actor who can play a silver-tongued sleaze with a hidden inner decency."[12]
TRAILER:
IDENTS:
Universal ident and StudioCanal, the first lasting 25 secs and the second 15 secs, connotes the primary superior status of Universal as the distributor. Both have their signature sounds.
The third ident, Working Title, has an audio bridge. This connotes their status as a subsidiary.
TITLES:
The actor's name appears over the
character he is playing
The letters are all lower-case, is this a subtle signifier of the theme of childhood?
THE OPENING SHOT:
High angle and tracking shot of the protagonist.
NARRATIVE, EXPOSITION:
We get introduced to the two ventral characters, we have a binary opposition of age and also of wealth.
MISE-EN-SCENE:
The table signifies his wealth and intellectual capital, with a big book, and his shady character elements are hinted at with an ashtray, they are not anchoring him as a smoker because it might spoil the romantic image.
EDITING:
long takes.
GENRE SIGNIFIERS:
The romance side of the film isn't signified, other than that we have a carefree male who rejects long-term romantic commitments in favour of short-term flings, which is anchored through the fact he ignores the calls of his liaisons. This equilibrium will be disrupted as he will eventually find a woman he has real emotional feelings for.
REPRESENTATION:
NORMATIVE OR COUNTER-HEGEMONIC?
This is quite a stereotypical and narrow reperesentaion of the UK, focusing mainly on English, RP people as the normal characters, pandering to an International and especially US audience, typical for Working Title.
SOUNDTRACK:
Incidental music, more typical for adult rom-coms than teen rom-coms where we have a soundtrack of a song with lyrics?.
TRANSITION TO MAIN FILM:
At 3'30 as the incidental music bridges into the next scene, and the relationship between Will and Marcus is foreshadowed with the baby.
The cool hand , realised it reflects some parts of teen culture
The representation of teenagers in general in my film opening was quite tame in comparison with here, I was constrained in terms of representing nicotine and drug consumption, plus none of my actors smoked, so it would have been not possible for them either.
My main female characters went against the gender stereotype of lavish lipstick, with their even being a binary with black lipstick.
IDENTS: Universal Pictures with their signature sound.
Gramercy Pictures ident, reflects their status that they are shown while Alphaville and Detour Filmproduction are not included.
TITLES: All the titles are white serif, with all lower-case apart from capital letters, no words are fully upper-case. First three titles are white on balk Gramercy Pictures Presents An Alphaville Production, In Association with Detour Filmproduction Dazed and Confused THE OPENING SHOT: We get a tracking shot NARRATIVE, EXPOSITION: We close-in on inside the car, with an extreme-close-up of a cigarette being licked. We are then introduced to the multiple students in groups EDITING: All the different groups are shot in a single take, the camera remains static after the opening tracking shot. GENRE SIGNIFIERS AGE: We only get teenagers in this opening, and they are smoking, rebelling against laws. GENDER: Lipstick in second shot, promotes traditional gender image of beauty, women's body is for display. SOUNDTRACK: UGC Soundtrack on Spotify, including the songs excluded from the official so
The convention of the protagonist getting out of bed and seeing their room was one I saw in many other film opening examples especially with tweens and teenagers, and I started my film opening like that as well
POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCE
THIS IS ENGLAND
Shane Meadows, 2006
PRODUCTION COMPANIES:Warp Films, FilmFour Productions
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 93% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 89 reviews.[10]Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 86/100, based on 23 reviews — indicating "universal acclaim".[11] This made it the tenth best reviewed film of the year.[12]
The film appeared on several US critics' top ten lists of 2007; it was third on the list by Newsweek's David Ansen, seventh on the list by The Oregonian's Marc Mohan, and ninth on the list by Los Angeles Times' Kevin Crust.[13]
In Britain, director Gillies Mackinnon rated the film the best of the year[14] and David M. Thompson, critic and film-maker, rated it third.[15] The film was ranked fourteenth in The Guardian's list of 2007's Best Films[16] and fifteenth in Empire's Movies of the Year.
Shane Meadow's and Warp's (critical) breakthrough, having an autobiographical story set in 80s with an a working-class orphan of a Falklands soldier.
The film starts with theopening credits putting the film into historical context with three minutes of historical footage, starting with the cultural figure from children's television Roland Rat, followed by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the royal wedding between Princess Diana and Prince Charles, as well as several protests. It ends with images of the Falklands War, with mutilated bodies and covered up corpses of soldiers.
The exact date is immediately given as July 1983.
After the camera has zoomed out of a close up of a portrait photo, this shot displays a routine of the young boy getting up for school, in a medium long-shot. The mis-en-scene features a stereotypicalimage attributed towards young males, that of a football team poster. The boy is naked except for his underpants, which canconnote a maybe more relaxed upbringing than if he was wearing pyjamas, which would suggest a bit more of a stricter, traditional and middle or upper-class background. The fact that the mis-en-scene of the room is pretty bare and does not have a lot of objects, hints further at a poorer and working class background, as otherwise parents would like to spoil their children if they could afford to. The boy is looking at a portrait photo. With the images of Falkland soldiers falling in battle and the date given, one can connote from this that the by has a lost a close relative in the war, most likely his father or older brother. This kind of portrait lying on surfaces on home being a stereotypical image of a lost loved one. The audience thereby feels sympathy for the young boy's loss, a feeling which is added by the colorless nature of his room, which can be seen as a metaphor for how his life feels.
This is anextreme long shotof amoving subject, giving a feeling of distance the young protagonist. He is walking towards a shop Him walking pass a group of boys his ages signifies his status as an outsider. The fact that the boys start picking on him for no reason creates antipathy for the other characters. However the boy's usage of swearwords soon after this shows a side that is not just a victim. The swearing of both the protagonist and the other boys signifies the rough nature of the area.
...
Through a medium-close-up the boy is shown to be reading a comic. The boy is shown to be enjoying a typically childish thing to do with an undertone of innocence, this child-friendly atmosphere is increased by the comics in the background. The boy's status as an outsider is increased to that of a rebel by not listening to the shop owner's request to buy the comic.
This is a two-shot where vulnerability is expressed with use of the naturally taller height of the shop owner. Due to height differences the shop owner is in medium long-shot (down to the knees) and the boy in medium shot (down to the waist). The Indian shop owner is a common clichéin urban England. The boy has just been having his first pleasure of the day, but it is snatched away from him. There is repetition in the boy's usage of swearwords.
The long-shot shows images of youth culture, with the cliché of graffiti on walls. Sitting under The bridge connotes an area outside the main world, whichsignifies rebellion and a resistance to mainstream society, a form of counterculture.the hight of the skinhead right shows his status as the leader and a proactive character as he rises to help the suffering protagonist. This creates great sympathy for him as he is the first character to help the protagonist in his day of misery. In portrayal of the skinheads we have two positive representations, the one of a kind helping person displayed in the young male standing and the black man with a hat. Skinheads have a reputation of being Nazis. The two skinheads towards the left don't care much for the boy's predicament, and their skinhead look is even more extreme, so they appeal to the stereotypical expectations of street youths, sitting together and laughing everything off, despite it being obvious that the boy is suffering.
Medium longshot, immediate exposition of the protagonist, no narrative enigma (very brief the snow blocks some of her). Very little information is withheld, she's English, she's RP/middle-class connotations, she's a spinster. Sexuality not known yet, could be that she prefers women but highly unlikely. In background too couples. This creates a binary opposition, forever single/happy together. The whole plot of the film is to get her married to "Mr Right", and in the context of the whole.
SHOT 2
Disolving transition into an extreme longshot of the snowy landscape a
SHOT 3
Panning shot to reveal cottage-like home. To signify her feeling of discomfort, dreaded anticipation of returning home?
SHOT 4
A woman is answering the door. This is counter-hegemonic in terms of patriarchic. However they seem to soon break the Bechdel Test by talking about a man.
SHOT 5
This is both a high and a dutch (also known as canted) angle, we still see no father or other male figure near the door, can be read as non-normative and counter hegemonic. Wealth is signified, along with the RP-accent this anchors a middle class family.
I had a track covered by an independent musician that
was assigned to a record label owned by main company, so
just like with Duffy I had horizontal integration,
but very limited, more like the Arctic Monkeys in Warp's Le
Donk + Scor-Zay-Zee and Submarine. but arguably
even less so.
My film ended up being a 12 and PG-13, so I'm not
taking the same risk as an 18-rated film.
POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCE:
As I've seen in Warp Films, the danger of my film being
rated 18 can even increase my limited commercial success along
with the major setback of an indie and no A-List stars, however even
without an A-Lister and an actor who has some recognition in the US
(I would eventually choose Rachel Weisz), if one has a genre
that can appeal to a certain audience it can be successful, as
the Krays are culturally recognisable in the UK, and the gangster genre
will be more appealing in the USA in, the violence and possible
blood having similar appeal to that of horror. This can increase
digital streaming interest for teens.
TITLE
Director, 2009
PRODUCTION COMPANIES:Working Title, UK Film Council, Aramid Entertainment
Notice how a lot of the praise is on the double performance of Tom Hardy.
TRAILERS:
...
The opening sequence after idents and titles and before we cut to the main title has been made available on YouTube by STUDIOCANAL Australia.
INST
the-numbers.com graph highlights the downside of working-class characters in a UK set film
One of the production companies is Amazon Instant Video. An example of convergence with the film cycle step exhibition being challenged. The distributors providers/exhibitors are now also becoming producers. This is can be seen as vertical integration
The opening sequence after idents and titles and before we cut to the main title has been made available on YouTube by STUDIOCANAL Australia.
SYNPNOSIS
A clear exposition of the setting, 1960s London, and the narrative, the Krays brothers. The two twins are introduced as a rising force in the criminal underworld, however their differences aren't anchored in the opening sequence, but by the time of the opening sequence it is shown who we are meant to follow as the protagonist.
IDENTS
20 seconds you get the Studiocanal. Universal is the distributor but we don't get their ident. A look at the Universal UK YouTube channel shows that the conglomerate owned by Comcast didn't show that much interest in this film, which its box office shows. However, Working Title had much more belief in it than for example The Program, a film which flopped both internationally and in the UK with only a UK box office of 500km, which was not on their YouTube channel along with Grimsby from their most recent films.
Working Title started with promoting their films on YouTube with behind the scenes footage in 2013 with the adaptation of the hit musical Les Miserables. The Program and Grimsby aren't shown here, signifies not their lower importance.
TITLES:
There are very few titles, the rest were shown at the end credits. These only include the distributing and production companies as separate white on black captions
STUDIOCANALPRESENTS
IN ASSOCIATION WITHANTON CAPITAL ENTERTAINMENT
&AMAZON PRIME INSTANT VIDEO
A WORKING TITLEPRODUCTION
LEGEND
MISE-EN-SCENE: There is use of CGI for the city. The car is
glamorised, it shines, it's not clear whether it has been
editing. . There are multiple people in the background.
REPRESENTATIONS: When a text today represents (it
can never truly show what the past was like, just like any media
representation) an historical time period, it can be difficult to judge whether
there has been
But nevertheless, the constant repetition of 'able-bodied',
caucasian, heterosexual etc. characters in the media creates a normative effect on society.
SEXUALITY: Through the line "My Reggie", the left
Kray is signified as heterosexual, and so is the narrator, immediately
showing that there are more heterosexual characters.
Ronnie's homosexuality is not signified. AGE: The classic image of the gangster is The
Godfather, age is status there.
SOCIAL CLASS: These are working
class lads who rose up in the crime world. Is this a somewhat different
representation of class than is typical for Working Title? REGIONAL IDENTITY: This is closely linked with class and status, and the expectation of
GENDER: Bechdel Test? Decision to
focus not just on symbols of male power but have it narrated by a female
character
NARRATIVE, GENRE, EXPOSITION: From this line we expect
The Krays aren't clearly morally anchored heroes as the film
will show, however we will see that Ronnie has a more sensitive side. So here
he is called: "Bloodthirsty" and the smoke like a fire breathing
dragon seems to anchor he is the more malicious twin, and then Reggie
is called different. So this sets up an apparent
THE CENTRAL PROTAGONIST?: As
we transition to the main film, we follow Reggie as he asserts his
authority, meets his love interest.
In this opening sequence this is signified by the narrative
This two-shot that could signify closeness is made to look cold
by them not looking at each other.
SOUND: We get an audio
bridge of the non-diegetic incidental music
from the Working Title ident to the opening shot. We then get
diegetic
The track of the closing credits is foreshadowed
by this line:
Believe me when I say, It took a lot of love for
me to hate him the way I do.
This track also intertextuality references a Led Zeppelin song of the time period, also called Whole Lotta Love.
*Screenshot of Spotify*
This track is an example of horizontal
integration, Duffy is contracted with
