Opening 10 (my genre) Resident Evil

Information: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120804/?ref_=nv_sr_2

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWUT4CXWcwQ

Ratings: 6.7/10 IMDB 33% Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/resident_evil/

Release Date: 15 March 2002 (USA)

Genre: Action, Fantasy, Horror

Age Rating: R

Director: Paul W.S. Anderson

Writers: Paul W.S. Anderson

Stars: Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Ryan McCluskey

Budget: $33,000,000

Gross: $102,441,078

Synopsis: A special military unit fights a powerful, out-of-control supercomputer and hundreds of scientists who have mutated into flesh-eating creatures after a laboratory accident.

Opening Length: 1:15

Idents:

Screen Gems – Normal

Text: In order

SCREEN GEMS PRESENT – White text, black background, Left and centred.

CONSTANTIN FILM PRESENT – White text, black background, Centred and centred.

DAVIS FILMS PRESENT – White text, black background, Right and centred.

RESIDENT EVIL – Futuristic font, grey text, Red background., Fades away to black screen.

Sound:

After the Ident mysterious sounding music starts playing. After the First text the intro starts with a lot of sci-fi sounds as text pops up on the screen, the text is read through a VO telling the narrative of the movie. The mysterious music keeps playing until the title comes up then the music changes to more sci-fi. All the sounds used are non-diegetic.

Editing:

The text fades in and out in the start, the text used in the VO sequence looks like its being typed to fit with the sci-fi looking background and Fantasy genre.

Opening 8 (my Genre) Dead Snow

Information: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1278340/?ref_=nv_sr_2

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R19KagZyU40

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dead_snow/?search=dead%20snow

Rating: 6.4/10 IMDB 67% Rotten Tomatoes

Release Date: 9 January 2009 (Norway)

Genre: Comedy, Horror

Age Rating: Not Rated

Director: Tommy Wirkola

Writers: Tommy Wirkola, Stig Frode Henriksen

Stars: Jeppe Beck Laursen, Charlotte Frogner, Jenny Skavlan

Budget: $800,000

Gross: $1,937,920

Production Co: Euforia Film, Barentsfilm AS, FilmCamp, Miho Film, News on Request (NOR), Yellow Bastard Production

Synopsis: A ski vacation turns horrific for a group of medical students, as they find themselves confronted by an unimaginable menace: Nazi zombies.
Intro Length: 2:50

Idents:

Euforia – Normal

Text:

In this movie there are no actors names in the start of the movie and no title sequence. The titles that pop up are:

YELLOW BASTARD PRODUCTION NEWS ON REQUEST & EUFORIA FILM – white bold text.

PRESENTERER EN MIHO FILM PRODUCTION - The Miho Film is red and bold while the rest is white and bold.

EN TOMMY WIRKOLA FILM – The Tommy Wirkola is bold and red while the rest is bold and white.

That’s the only text that appears. The movie starts of with a camera tilting down to the snowy mountains at night. 2 min and 46 seconds in the main title appears, DEAD SNOW. The color used is red but not full red as some parts are darker red and some lighter this clearly identify the bloody gore genre. The background that the text is on is the full moon in a dark blue sky.

Editing:

The only editing used in the intro is cuts. The pace of the cuts increase as the music gets more intense. The text on screen fades away, instead of cuts away.

Sound:

Throughout the opening sequence the music that is played is Edvard Grieg “In the hall of the mountain king”, this is fitting seeing as Edvard Greig is Norwegian and so is the movie. The music is contrapuntal as you wouldn’t expect to classical music in a sequence with zombies. The music is paused for a while when the woman is looking in to the forest. When the shot reverse shot is used all you hear is diegetic off-screen birds, until the zombie jump scar happens then the music starts playing again.

Evaluation:
The jump scare really builds tension as the camera focuses at something in the dark shadowy forest. It cuts back and forth to the actor and the establishing long shot of the forest. The reason for this is because the target audience expect to see zombies but nothing is happening so it rapidly builds tension and supports the horror genre. The fact that all you see in the opening is shadows running through a snowy forest also supports the genre and keeps the TA engaged. 

Opening 7 (zombie genre) Zombieland

Information: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1156398/

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1-jFLlHLPw

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zombieland/

Rating: 7.7/10 IMDB 89% Rotten Tomatoes

Behind the scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb0VFNeMTL8

Release Date: 2 October 2009 (USA)

Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Horror

Age Rating: R

Director: Ruben Fleischer

Writers: Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick

Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin

Budget: $23,600,000

Gross: 102,391,540

Production Co: Columbia Pictures, Relativity Media, Pariah

Synopsis: A shy student trying to reach his family in Ohio, a gun-toting tough guy trying to find the last Twinkie, and a pair of sisters trying to get to an amusement park join forces to travel across a zombie-filled America.

Length of title sequence: 1:44 min

Idents:

Columbia – Normal

Text: In order (starts 3:10 in)(3D text, interacts with the clip)

COLUMBIA PICTIRES PRESENTS – Red text, low angle zombie throws man off tower.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH RELATIVITY MEDIA – Red text, Medium shot of zombie.

A PARIAH PRODUCTION – Red Text, Woman running from zombie.

WOODY HARRELSON – Red text, homeless man being eaten.

JESSE EISENBERG – Red text, long shot man running from zombies.

EMMA STONE – Red text, same shot as Jesse Eisenberg.

AND ABIGAIL BRESLIN – Red text, medium shot riot police fighting zombies.

ZOMIELAND – Red text, Italic, medium shot of many breaking glass along with the.

CASTING BY JOHN PAPSIDERA CSA – Red text, Long shot man running from zombie,

COSTUME DESIGNER MAGALIGUIDASCI – Red text, same shot,

MUSIC BY DAVID SARDY – Red text, same shot,

EDITED BY PETER AMUNDSON ALAN BAUMGARTEN, ACE – Red Text, zombie tackling worker,

PRODUCTION DESIGNER MAHER AHMAD – Red text, father and son running from zombies,

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY MICHAEL BONVILLAIN, ACS – Red text, fireman running from zombie,

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS EZRA SWERDLOW PAUL WERNICK RHETT REESE RYAN KAVANAUGH – Red text, same shot as before,

PRODUCED BY GAVIN POLONE – Red text, Man shooting AK-47 at zombies.

WRITTEN BY RHETT REESE & PAUL WERNICK – Red text, same shot as before.

DIRECTED BY RUBEN FLEISCHER – Red text, low angle of zombie hitting window.

Editing:

After the ident it fades to black, then it fades in to the American flag. It slowly zooms out to a POV handheld camera of the congress. This is when you see the first zombie, which establishes the genre. The next transition zooms out so you see the world on fire and it zooms back in. In the opening scene there is only cuts used except at the end where it fades out. In the title sequence there are only fades used which looks smooth along with the slow motion of zombies running.

Mise-en-scene:

Throughout the title sequence you see zombies. The slow motion captious the horror made from the costumes and well done make up. The props used also back up the genre such as the AK-47, and burning car. All the zombies have blood dripping from their mouths and have cuts and bruises.

Sound:

At the start you hear a VO establishing the narrative. The American national anthem is played put sounds rusty. This suggest the end of the world as well as the diegetic on-screen sound of zombies grunting and screaming. When the zombie burbs it emphasises the comedy genre of the movie. The VO also says the name of the movie Zombieland. When the title sequence is playing rock music is playing as people fight zombies in slow motion. There is no diegetic sound as the only thing you hear is the music. At the end a zombie crashes into a car window when this happens you hear the diegetic sound of the glass breaking as well as a church bell.

Conclusion
Having looked at the order of the titles I expected the idents and company names to appear first (which they did) followed up by the names of the actors. I expect the title of the movie to appear least but here it appears in the middle with the caster, musician, costume designer, etc after the title. I think I will follow the same order I think, bar having the movie title appear in the middle

Opening 4 John Wick

John Wick Opening

Information: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2911666/

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AUmvWm5ZDQ

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/john_wick/

Behind the Scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hN-IG4Epk8

Release Date: 24 October 2014 (USA)

Genre: Action Thriller

Rating: R

Director: Chad Stahelski, Devid Leitch

Writers: Derek Kolstad

Stars: Keanu Reeves, Willem Defoe, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen

Budget: $20,000,000

Gross: $78,739,897

Production Co: Thunder Road Pictures, 87Eleven, MJW Films, DefyNite Films, Company Films, Heayi Brothers Media, Poquito Productions, Rocket Science VFX, Unbelievable Entertainment

Synopsis: An ex-hitman comes out of retirement to track down the gangsters that took everything from him.

John Wick is the first John wick movie, it more or less came out of the blue as there wasn’t a lot of marketing for it. It is very well made action movie from my point of view. It made a profit of over $50,000,000 and because of its positive feedback John Wick 2 is in production. The only information so far is that Keanu Reaves will be in it (Info from IMDb)

Opening (Length 2:06Min)

Summit Entertainment Intro

Thunder Road Intro

0:34 Summit Entertainment Presents, in big bold letters and grey colour to fit with the action genre. Non-diegetic helicopter sound

0:37 Thunder Road Pictures Present, same font and colour as Summit entertainment.  Non-Diegetic helicopter sound continue. Radio broadcaster starts talking non-Diegetic.

0:42 87Eleven Productions same font. Non- diegetic Helicopter sound getting louder. Radio broadcaster talking about the weather to be specific “Thunder and rain last night”

0:45 Definite films same font. Non- diegetic helicopter sounds like it fly’s by.

0:52 fade in to an establishing wide shot of a used old warehouse. It is dark and poorly lit, in the background you can see a big city lit up. The Non-diegetic radio broadcaster is still talking about the weather. You can hear a faint car sound.

 0:58 the camera slowly zooms in as a car drives in to shot and crashes. As the car drives into shot you can hear the diegetic car engin as well as the raido broudcast still on. As the car crashes you can hear the metal crunsh and the tiers squick. Non-diegetic soft slow music starts to play.

1:04 – 1:14 the camera cuts to a low angle medium shot of a man falling out of the car. There is a diegetic sound of the car door opening. The camera tilts down to the man falling down to his knees. His face has cuts and bruises. He is wearing a black suit which fits with the black SUV. He grunts when he tries to stand up and you can hear his feet shuffle as he tries to stand up. He is holding his stomach and has a bloody hand. His facial expression tells the audience he is in pain. The Non-Diegetic music gets a bit more intense but is still soft.

1:17 there is a cut to a close up of his hand. His whole left hand is bloody but you can make out that he his wearing a wedding ring. His other hand is holding on to his stomach. The bloody hand backs up the genre which is action, thriller. There is diegetic sound of his suit scraping along the concrete as he struggles trying to stand. There is the faint noise of the non-diegetic radio broadcaster. Talking about what a good day its going to be.

 1:20 It cuts to a long shot of the man falling over. The non-diegetic sound of the radio is still playing, you can her the diegetic sound of him grunting and his suit against the concrete.

1:25 there is another close up of both his hands resting against his stomach. Both his hands are bloody along with his suit. The radio broadcast can not be hear any more.

1:27 It cuts to another close up where you see his face. He is breathing heavily and looks as if he is in pain. You can see the cut he has on his nose and side of his face.

1:29 there is another cut to a close up of him taking out his phone.

1:31 it cuts to a medium shot of him looking down at his phone.

1:33 There is a close up of his phone as he presses play on a video. His iPhone screen is bloody from him pressing play. The video is of a peaceful view of the ocean and a woman. The Diegetic sound of the waves are heard. There is a continuity shot back to his face and the phone. You can hear the woman talking in the video and calling the man John. The Audience now know the injured man is John Wick. The video is peaceful but his phone is bloody and he is dying.

1:49 There is a medium shot of John slowly laying down on the ground. He closes his eyes and sighs. The sound is still playing from the video. He drops his phone and releases his breath, making the audience think he is dying, again linking back to the genre.

2:00 There is a cut to an establishing shot where you can see the crashed car and John lying dead on the floor not to far away from the car. The cars emergence lights are flickering as the camera zooms out the non-diegetic music gets more intense until the cut at 2:06.

There are clear signs that connote John Wick being an action genre. The blood anchors the action genre and the video clip signifies that the movie takes place in America, it does this through the accent. 

Opening 3 Love Actually

Love Actually Opening

Information: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314331/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eCb8w8SRAk

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/love_actually/

Release Date: 14 November 2003 (USA)

Rating: R

Director: Richard Curtis

Writers: Richard Curtis

Stars: Hugh Grant, Martine McCutcheon, Liam Neeson

Budget: $45,000,000

Gross: $246,942,017

Production Co: Universal Pictures, StudionCanal, Working Title, DNA Films

Synopsis: Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.

The movie starts off with the Universal intro, then studio canal and finally working title.

It fades in to a tracking shot of a woman walking towards a man. There is non-diegetic music that starts to play. The woman is wearing a large backpack indicating she’s been away for a while. When they meet he hugs her and you can see relief in his face as he strokes her hair and kisses her. It is a medium close up and they are the only thing that’s in focus.

It then cuts to the camera zooming in and out to kids running and hugging a woman. It is in slow motion so the audience can see the emotion. The camera stops zooming when the little girls face is in focus. You can see real happiness as the girl smiles when hugging.

There is another cut to two old people hugging and kissing it is also in slow-motion and a medium close up so the audience can see the happiness and relief in the people’s faces.

It cuts again to a mother picking her daughter up and kissing her. The Non-diegetic slow music is still playing. A voice over is heard of a man talking. The VO tells the audience that the footage is from Heathrow airport.

As the voice over and music play the camera cuts again to medium shot of a mother and daughter hugging. It cuts again to more people hugging. As the voice over talks about how love is all around, that love can be mothers and daughters, father and sons, friends, etc. A video of those couples hugging appear.  After a bunch of clips at the Heathrow airport at 1:53 the VO says “Love Actually Is all around” the words come up on screen and the words fade except Love actually. The word love turns red.

The video fades to black and all you see is Love Actually. The non-Diegetic music stops as well as the VO. The words fade as a medium close up of a man is shown dancing to Diegetic of screen music. He then starts singing wet wet wets “Love is all around”. It cuts to a long shot of the chorus singing as well as the man singing. The audience know they are in a studio by looking at the props used. This is when all the music becomes Diegetic.

It cuts again to a long medium shot of the producer, and other people working at the studio. There is a continuity edit of the singer and the producer. When it cuts back to the producer it’s a medium shot and you can see he is disappointed. The continuity shot continuous as they talk about the origin wet wet wet song. Whenever the music is playing you see the actors names pop up with one letter being red witch fits with the Christmas and love genre.

You can see the producers face is filled with joy when the singer sings the write word for the third time. It cuts to the singer signing as the camera slowly moves away from the singer to a long high angle shot of the singer and chorus. The continuity shots continue as the song goes on and everyone is dancing. It the cuts at 4:02. 

The music signifies the genre and the voice over anchors the rom-com genre when he says the name of the movie. The accent anchors where the movie is set, and the airport is an iconic sign of Britain.