Questionnaire

Analysis of the Opening Sequence of 'Halloween' 1978

Director: John Carpenter

Starring: Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis

Opening Sequence

The movie starts with a black screen, we hear non-diegetic creepy, intense music, which implies fear. We then see a red title of Compass International Pictures followed by the titles and cast, all in red, yellow, and orange, the connotations of these colours being of fire and hell. A pumpkin is shown which emphasises the 'Halloween' and horror genre. We then see titles telling us the place of what we are about to see, so that the audience gets a sense of setting.

We then hear a sound bridge between the titles and the point of view shot we then see, the sound bridge is a song being sung by children, possibly to suggest the childish nature of the character whose point of view we are seeing through. The point of view shot tracks forward towards a house, with hand  held movement, which reinstates the fact that it is a person's point of view. We see a pumpkin on the porch, reminding us of the Halloween setting. The camera then tracks horizontally left  around the side of the house, we see a young boy and girl exchanging words and kisses, followed by the camera tracking back to the front of the house and tilting up. A light upstairs ceases to be and a non-diegetic screech is heard, the sound is uncomfortable, perhaps to show the uncomfortable mental state of the character whose point of view we are watching.

The character then goes into the house and picks up a knife from a draw, as they pass from the light of the kitchen into the darkness of the living room, there is a sense of them passing from innocence, into a psychotic state of mind. We hear a clock chime as the boy leaves, putting his shirt on, suggesting the couple have just engaged in passionate acts, the clock chiming suggests time running out for the girl.

The character we are following slowly creeps up the stairs and finds a clown mask, they put it on, this could be a metaphor for them wanting to hide something, possibly a side of them that they don't want people to see, a more demonic personality. We are shown the mask by only being allowed to see through eye holes on the camera, which obscures the scene to the audience, giving it a sense of mystery.

As our character approaches the girl, we see that she is nude (reinforcing the passionate acts between the boy and girl). She spins round and says "Michael!" showing that she knows him well enough to recognise him with a mask on, thus it must be a close relationship, a sister perhaps. Michael then proceeds to stab the girl, possibly angered that she allowed somebody other than him to love her. After she has died, Michael runs back outside to a car pulling up and a man and woman get out, saying his name, these are his and the girl's parents. They are wearing a suit a fur coat, showing that they are quite well off and are a modern family for the time.

As the father pulls the mask off of Michael's face, we cut to a close up of Michael's face which zooms out to a crane shot of the house, with non-diegetic, incidental music gradually building to a crescendo in the background.

Analysis of the Opening Sequence of 'Just Like Heaven' 2008

Director: Mark Waters

Starring: Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo

Opening Sequence

The movie starts with the Dreamworks logo and the incidental music over the top of it (not the expected sounds that would accompany the logo), the music is upbeat and happy. The camera then tilts down through the clouds and more titles begin to fade in and then fade back out, they are in bold bright colours (pink, blue, yellow, green and red) to match the happiness of the music. The camera continues to spiral down into a heavenly garden, a sort of 'garden of eden'. Reese Witherspoon is sitting in the center, she is wearing an outfit that makes her look angelic and peaceful, almost like the protagonist in a fairy tale. There are some dissolves to different camera angles, showing a passage of time, as if she could just be sitting there for hours.


We then see an out of context plastic chair and the lyrics to the song say "like a dream" as an arm reaches in and the music cuts as the protagonist is woken up from her dream state. Reese Witherspoon is a stereotypical protagonist for a romantic comedy; an innocent looking, blonde, white, blue eyed girl, with a homely feel. She aspires to get further in her job, we can tell this as she has been working for over 24 hours and says that she won't get intern if she doesn't carry on. Elizabeth is over worked, there is a sequence where she walks down a corridor and everybody is throwing work at her, this emphasises her busy life. Upbeat music begins again as a montage of doctor duties (some comical, some average) start quickly cutting between each other, again to emphasise her busy life and how she has nothing but the hospital in her life. We then see Reese Witherspoon on the phone to her sister who is her opposite in life, a housewife with kids. After this, we see our protagonist speak to a black man who is her senior, he tells her that he likes her attitude and that  she doesn't "kiss his ass" (for comedy effect), and she is promoted. As she is about to leave she is called back by a nurse to help.

Thunder, a storm is coming, pathetic fallacy suggests that sadness follows. As she drives home happy about her promotion, she sees a bright light come towards her as a lorry crashes into her car, the bright light bringing connotations of heaven, again. This sets the mood of 'fate' in the movie as she would not have been hit by the lorry if she had left when she was going to.

Analysis of the Opening Sequence of 'The Dark Knight Rises' 2012

Director- Christopher Nolan

Starring- Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Anne Hathaway.

Opening Sequence

The film begins with the titles; the Warner Bros, DC comics, and Regency logo. These logo have a dark colour scheme, showing the dark mood of the movie. They are also of a metallic texture, representing the industry that Gotham City is built from.
We then see a slow zoom as ice breaks into the shape of the Bat-Symbol, this shows how Batman is reemerging from his metaphorical 'cryo-sleep' in which Bruce Wayne gave up on being Batman.
We then hear Commissioner Gordon speaking, there is a sound bridge as the video appears to show the commissioner in front a picture of Harvey Dent (a character who met his demise at the end of the last film), the scene then fades to black, suggesting a passage of time.

We then see a CIA agent from a low angle shot (suggesting the agent's power). The agent is wearing casual clothes and combat trousers while the soldiers around him are fully uniformed, this shows he is ranked higher than them. We then see some prisoners in a car, these prisoners have bags on their heads, much like how captured terrorists are seen today. Incidental music builds in he background, as does the suspense. There is talk of a "masked man", who the agent calls Bane, with only a name, the audience is kept in the dark of the mystery character.

After this we see an aerial shot of the plane to establish a new scene's location, the CIA agent seems to want to find out about Bane rather urgently, as the prisoners are told to be his henchmen, he pretends to kill one of them, to scare the other prisoners, yet one of the prisoners speaks out and questions it, the voice has been heavily edited so you can tell that it is Bane. Bane realising that the other prisoner has not been killed shows that he is intelligent. The camera then tracks forward into Bane's back, ready to reveal him. The agent questions him and Bane refers to himself as "We", showing that he speaks for all of his people. The next shot shows a low angle show as Bane's face is revealed, mask and all, then a high angle shot showing the agent's reaction, this shows how Bane has taken the agent's dominance, and made him submissive. We then cut to an extreme long shot, reestablishing the place, as another plane approaches.

Dramatic music starts as the as the action begins, there is a lot of quick editing to emphasize the speed and urgency, we see Bane do a blood transfusion which, again, shows his brains as well as his brawn. As Bane tells one of his henchmen to stay behind and sacrifice themselves, we learn that he has a cult-like leadership over his people, they obey him utterly. The starting sequence then ends, with a cut to the Gotham skyline.