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
I created a fictional identity of the musician behind the soundtrack of my film, James Riley, who was an Indie romantic artist, which fitted an outside teenager looking for love, similar to how Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys recorded and sung the soundtrack behind Warp's Submarine
It is not always the case, but most films will have a number of tracks.
Even if their isn't an official soundtrack made for the film, you will find playlists on the two main music streaming sites Spotify and YouTube, in the case of Baby Driver there was already a playlist on Spotify created.
For my film opening I have chosen the tracks I Want Candy and I Keep Forgetting.
While these are not mainstream songs and are also covers, they still carry with them some pop identiy.
When I played the I Want Candy track to a girl above in my year, she reacted by saying: "Of course, who doesn't know that song"
However big hit films will feature songs from the top charts, which is included in the trailer
It can be that the personality/image of the singer will correlate with the genre themes of the film, like for Suicide Squad which deals with a bunch of misfits, you have artists who have all been hedonistic and/or damaged to some extent
for Bridget Jones's Baby you have romantic Ed Sheeran.
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.
Production companies: New Line Cinema, The Safran Company, Evergreen Media Group
Distributor: Warner Bros Pictures
Budget: $20m
Worldwide (US + International)
The UK
Critical Success:
Trailer
THE SHOT
Before the opening shot we get a black. We have voiceovers, all American, denoting the location of the film, USA (not the south). We have the female. Although we don't know. We have a binary opposition already, an unsure female character assured by a male character, ancient stereotype?The first shot exposes a central character, the antagonist. It is more usual that we have a protagonist (as Shawn in This Is England), but in a sense one of the protagonists has already been introduced before through the voiceover. Binary opposition, real life human
The camera zooms out slowly to a close-up. Rule of thirds isn't applied, further anchors this is something abnormal, the monster lurking in the corner of your eye. The eye is looking at the audience, viewers empathise with the feeling of surveillance the dummy will give all the characters throughout the film.
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
