Monday 16 December 2013

127 Hours Opening Sequence, Thriller Research Task.

127 Hours (Danny Boyle, 2010)


127 Hours is an adventure drama thriller starring James Franco, Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara.
In the opening scene, it starts of with having one picture in the left hand side of the screen, a title credit then appears telling the audience the production company etc. After the credits disappears of screen another 2 pictures appear and it turn out to be a 3 way split screen.
The 3 ways split screen then changes into a normal slit screen with two pictures. On the left and one on the right. In the gap between the pictures. more credits appear for the audience.
In the opening sequence of this film, it consists of lots of split screens, and 3 way split screens which all appear with different clips from the film.
Once we have had a few split screens, it goes to a normal image scene where they show a character in a car. This gives the audience a slight clue as to how the film is going to play out.
The scene takes place in a house or flat which is in darkness, except from one room where the character is. This was taken with  a long shot as it was done from a distance and we can't really see the character that well. The dialogue then starts in this scene, which is the male character talking on the phone to someone. We don't really hear the conversation as it is from a distance and we are not focusing on the dialogue.
This scene that changes to another scene that doesn't have any resemblance to each other. The scene becomes bright and it is done from the back of a fridge. The next few scenes don't have any link or connection to each other whatsoever, they are just short clips that are in the film.
The split screens then appear again and vary from normal two way split screens to a three way split screen. They do this for around 50-60 seconds before they move on again.
One of the three way split scenes has a character in the middle with a credit to the left side, this is showing the audience who it is and what they look like. It also suggests to the audience that the man is the main character as the rest of the credit names shown didn't have a picture of the character.
We then move on to a normal image scene of a character in a car, where the camera does a close up of the man's face so the audience can see his emotions and facial expressions. We can clearly see that the character is confused as to what is happening outside on the road by his car or whatever else is happening.
The credits all seem to appear with the scenes; so when it is a relevant scene, the credits of certain people pop up.
Dialogue starts up again and consists of the character in the car talking into a hand geld camera. It appears to the audience that he is recording what he is doing.

The sound is very upbeat. To me, the sound doesn't resemble anything as it is not a dramatic tension grabbing sound, it is simply an upbeat track that seems to match the characters actions and personality.

The editing in this opening sequence takes place between every split screen and three way split screen. The editing makes the split screens move smoothly and change often. Without the editing, the split screens couldn't happen as they wouldn't work.

The camera work in this opening sequence is very minimal as there is so much more editing. The only camera work that takes place is when the normal image scenes take place but they are all steady shots with no movement. In this film, that is good as there is no need for movement otherwise it would become confusing.

The mise-en-scene consists of lighting, setting and props. The lighting starts of quite dark and dull and then the lighting gradually changes depending on what it is showing. The opening sequence mainly consists of dark and dull lighting as it matched the setting. The setting, again, changes. It starts of in a house or flat, then moves to a fridge. I then changes to a car and at outside setting. It is not all set in one place. This is good as it gives the film variety, it is not boring. The only prop we have in this opening sequence is the hand help camera that we can see one of the characters using to film himself.

Overall, this opening sequence is good as it isn't like other films, It gives that variety of how credits and pictures are shown and I like that. I can look into the way this film shows its credits so I can have an idea for when I do my own opening sequence and credits. This opening sequence has given me an idea as to how I can display my credits and what makes the film look good.

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