The Lodger

 The Lodger 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYNWniPA8yo

The opening title sequence "The Lodger" is about a small family living an extremely normal life in a small cottage. The plot twist of this opening sequence is suggested that the mother is a murder/ psychopath. 

The opening sequence starts with a pleonastic sound of carrots being cut by the mother, with the background noise of the children playing a board game. In this opening sequence there is no music being played or non diegetic sound, this creates the theme of tension and realism. We hear pleonastic sound of the mother loud footsteps as she walks over to the fridge. This diegetic sound adds a creepy and mysterious tone to this opening scene. The opening sequence opens with a point view wide shot of the cottage and quickly cuts to an outside shot letting the audience look into the house from the outside of the widow. The camera cuts inside the house to a close up of the mother cutting a carrot and then swiftly moves to a close up of the mothers face. The camera moves again to a wide shot allowing the audience to get a view of the whole family and the kitchen. The camera then focuses on the fridge while the boy is out of focus. When looking closely at the fridge the audience can just about see a bloody hand at the back of the fridge, giving the idea that the mother is hiding something or there is something not right with this family. As the opening sequence progresses the camera cuts to a shot of the mother standing the up and the father sitting down. The camera is acting as if its the fathers eyes creating an eye line view. This shot shows the mothers power and that she knows more than the father. The camera then cuts to eye line match view of the mother looking down at the father. The camera then cuts to the father doing a shot reverse shot of the mother and father looking at each other. 

Creating ideas

BBC opening title sequence idea 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-59297187- link 

For my BBC opening title sequence idea, I will be using the article "My hunt for the worlds most wanted hackers". This news article is about a cyber reporter called Joe Tidy going on the hunt for the worlds most wanted hackers, which are mainly based in Russia. 

My opening sequence idea will start off with a man sitting in a small isolated room surrounded with many computers. The room would be dark with the only light coming from the numerous computers around. The man would be tall, skinny and typing away on the computers. After a few moments of non diegetic low suspense music there would be a gigantic bang. This bang would be the diegetic sound of the door being kicked down. As the door gets kicked down a squat teams quickly and suddenly rush into the room grabbing the man and arresting him. This would happen very quickly and the original sound would pick up become fast and loud suspense music. The camera would cut out of the room and begin following the man getting put into the police car in a montage editing way. The sound would change to a Russian song with a fast beat. The lighting would become overwhelming, with blue, white and red flooding into the montage. As this is happening the title of the movie would appear across the scene for a few moments. The scene would then fade out into a black screen and the words one month earlier would appear. The black screen would then cut to a busy office in London where Joe Tidy would be working on trying to find the most wanted hackers. The camera would then follow Joe into a clear glass room overlooking London. A posh important man would walk into the office and take a seat. A shot reverse shot technique would be used here as we watch and hear the two man have a conversation. The conversation would consist of Joe telling the man he has a very strong lead on one of the most wanted hackers in Russia. The man urges Joe to go to Russia as soon as possible and follow the lead. The opening sequence would end with the two men deciding the Joe will be leaving to Russia. 

Documentaries opening title sequence idea

For this opening title idea, I created the idea based off the documentary " American murder: the family next door". The reason behind this opening sequence is to show a stenotype middle class happy family, however the movie does not end like that. This opening sequence would trick the viewer and make them not suspect what is going to happen.

My opening sequence idea will start off with an establishing shot of a house in an American suburb. The camera would then cut to a mum and her two young daughters coming out of the car which is parked in the drive way. The camera follows the mum as she takes the groceries into her house with the two girls following. This tracking shot continues to follow the mum and daughters as they enter the house and walk into the kitchen. The sound over this shot would be up beat happy non diegetic music and no dialogue would be spoken. There would be diegetic sound of the car engine, keys, footsteps, the shopping bags and the door closing. Once the camera has followed the girls and the mum into the kitchen and stopped moving, the mum says the dialogue “ come on girls, lets get dinner ready for when dad gets back”. The camera then cuts to the next scene. The camera is looking out of the widow as another car pulls into the driveway. The front door opens and the dad comes walking in. The girls run and jump onto him and the mum goes to kiss him on the cheek. The scene then cuts to the family at a round table having a big home cooked meal. The families conversation is basic family chat, like “how was your day”. The music is still happy and up beat. The camera moves away from the table changing from a mid shot to a medium long shot, as this happens the title “ American Murder: the family next door appears in big black writing. 

      Belstone pictures  

Belstone pictures is an British independent film development, finance and production company of international film content. 

Belstone Pictures was founded in 2012 when the ex Hurtwood house student Finn Cardigan Bruce decided he wanted to created his own company. Finn Cardigan had experiences in media and finance before starting Belstone pictures. 

Belstone pictures as made and produced 3 movies called Tucked, Tank 432 and Making tracks. All three of these movies are different genres meaning that Belstone pictures don't stick to one genre. 

Tank 432 was the first movie made by Belstone pictures and is a horror/thriller directed by Nick Gillespie.

Tank 432 was released on the 22nd of august 2016 and is rated 4.5 out of 10. Tank 432 wasn't highly liked by the public and got negative reviews, however it still bought attention to Belstone pictures. 

Tucked was the second film that Belstone pictures made and produced which came out on the 21 of July 2018 and was directed by Jamie Patterson. Tucked turned out to do much better than Tank 432 and got many positive reviews. The genre of tucked is drama/comedy and mainly applied to the LGBQ community. Tucked was nominated for mainly awards including British Independent Film Award. 

Making tracks is the third and most recent movie that Belstone pictures created and was directed by Jamie Patterson again. Making tacks is a comedy staring April Pearson who is a well known British actress from skins. Making tracks did well when it came out with a rating of 5.8 out of 10 of IMBd. 

Belstone pictures is currently preparing to release another film called Pauls doors dealt lunch break. 

 

Comparison between No time to die and Black widow

No time to die and Black widow both share the same genre of action, thriller and spy, however Black widow also has the genre of science fiction and superhero. Both these movies are extremely well known and get a ton of attention from the public.

Both films have A listed celebrities as the main characters. Daniel Craig, who plays James Bond made $25 million dollars upfront from No time to die and may be eligible for more money depending on how good the returns are from the box office. After 15 years of Daniel Craig being James Bond and 5 movies later, he has made approximately 110 million overall. Scarlett johansson, who plays Black widow final pay was never officially confirmed due to the lawsuit however a Disney spokesperson said that she made 15 million upfront and 20 million dollars overall for her first solo marvel movie.Scarlett Johansson has been apart of the marvel world for 11 years appearing in 9 movies and has made approximately 165 million dollars. The budget for no time to die was 250 million dollars and black widow was 200 million. However Bonds marketing budget was 100 million dollars while Black Widows (not technically released) was estimated to be roughly 150 million dollars.

Both films used IMAX cameras. Black widow had 22 minutes of footage filmed on IMAX cameras, whereas no time to die had 40 minutes shot on IMAX cameras. IMAX cameras are extremely expensive to buy so you can only rent them for around 16,000 dollars a week.  

No time to die was originally meant to be released on the 3rd of April 2020 in the UK and the 8th of April 2020 in US however got postponed three times before finally going to cinemas on the 30th of September 2021. Black widow release date was originally the 1st of May 2020, This date also got postponed three times before coming out in Cinemas and Disney + on the 9th of July 2021. Both films had to delay their first release date due to corona virus as they wanted to ensure a theatrical release. However when Disney finally released Back widow they opted to put the film in the cinemas as well as on Disney + so that fans had the option of watching it comfortably at home. James bond fans did not have this option as No time to die was only released to big screens to ensure the audience watch it the way its meant to be watched. 

                                                    

Black widow has made 378.30 million dollars from gross revenue since it was released 4 months ago and no time to die has made 121.20 million dollars since its release date 2 weeks ago. From black widows audience 48% watched the movie in theatre and 52% watched it at home on Disney +. Both these films made it in the top 10 ranking for most box office domestic in 2021.

No time to die and Black widow both put a lot of money into marketing, and both were successful in getting tons of attention from the public before the films were released. As both movies come from huge franchise the public were already highly aware and excited about these movies coming out, however the marketing also drew the attention of the wider public who have may not have been fans. As both films were largely delayed they had to somehow keep the public interest in the movies. They successfully achieved this by releasing multiple trailers. Black Widow had 4 official trailers and No time to die also 4. 

Both movies had many product placements in from known and high end brands. Both Black Widow and No Time To Die shared the same product placement of David Clark headsets. These headsets are used by the military and aerospace and can cost from 300 to 400 pounds. No time to die also had product placement from Aston Martin and Land rovers. Aston Martin is often associated with James Bond as they cars always make a big appearance in Bond films. Land rovers also always make a appearance in a bond film even though they are not as connected to James Bond as other brands.No time to die had the longest exposure time for Land rovers out of all the five movies. Black Widow also had a product placements from a well know high end car brand, BMW. This is the first appearance from BMW in a marvel film. Both films also had product placement from motorcycles. Black widow used CCM motorcycle and triumph motorcycle. All of these product placements help fund the movie and can sometimes help bring extra attention from the public. 

 

Dead mans shoes

Dead Mans Shoes - Directed by Shane Meadows 

slow 

fade\dissolve 

older brother 

late 70s early 80s 

song supporting happy childhood

Editing- cross cutting between original looking video footage and shot images of brothers walking, slow past

Camera- scenic wide estateblitching journey, long distance, depth of field,  walking right to left tells us they are returning,

Sound - non diegetic, tone/mood is nostalgic and reminiscing. Melancholy. Country folk. 

mis en scene - country side, one dressed for country other not, army duffle bag? no talking that we can see. 

Relationship has distance, 

happy family 

poor, not alot of money but lots of love 

still distance 

Audience not making a massive connection to the characters 

back home 

A-B journey 

fade to black when scene ends

long journey but knows it well, shows maybe he hasn't been home in a while but still knows how way  

Guardians of the galaxy

 Guardians of the galaxy evaluation 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STBZJwtVmAs

The scene starts with Groot in the right-hand side of the frame trying to plug some wires together to make the speaker work. Groot is in full focus, whilst a strange alien like monster is blurred out in the far left-hand side of the frame. Even though the monster isn't in focus and the full attention is on groot, we still acknowledge the monster presents. When Groot is able to plug in the speaker, upbeat fun music begins to play. We can already tell that the music and scene isn't going to be parallel sound and that the music is non-diegetic.The titles for Guardians of the galaxy then appear and the whole scene freezes. After a few seconds of complete freeze frame the camera pans 90 degrees and ends up facing the side of Groot. As the lyrics from the song begin to play Groot starts walking and dancing towards the camera. The camera is in front of Groot and as he walks forwards the camera moves backwards, making the scenery behind Groot bigger. As the scene goes on, we see explosions, lasers and the monster breathing out some sort of purple fire. Groot seems completely unaware of this as he is simply just walking around happy and vibing to the music, which pulls the audience full attention away from the fight. The contrast between the fun non diegetic sound of music and the diegetic sound of fighting creates a synchronous effect. The editing is fast and the scene is mainly made of one long shot. The titles are made nice, clear and neon blue for the audience, as there is already so much happening in this scene it makes it easier for the audience to be able to read them. The mis en scene of the colours are bright and playful. We can already tell by the setting and colours that is this isn't a realistic movie set on earth, which makes the genre clear that it will be a sci-fi and most likely set in space. I feel like this opening sequences makes the audience excited for the movie as it has tones of comedy as well as action. 

The Shinning v Seven

The Shinning v Seven 

 opening titles sequences 

- create interest 

- genre

- titles 

- introduce characters 

- setting ( time/place ) 

- narrative 

The Shinning opening title sequence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a-MS-lB8gM

- visuals are everyday and boring

- dull, long journey of a car going on shot after shot

- juxtaposition between the visuals and sound

- music makes you uncomfortable and unsettling. 

- the music is foreshadowing 

- music sets the genre

- opening sequences are often a simply A - B, this shows that 

- music comes in straight away, very low this puts you in a low mood as its not very ear pleasing and puts you on edge. Camera adds to this as its twists. Physical effects the audience and makes them feel uneasy 

-  bird eye view extra high, makes you look to feel the high. camera follows the road and sound gets stranger.

- movement in the titles, bright and in your face. 

- feel nervous for the car and people in it even though we don't know them

- point where u expected to cut into the car, he takes you out again. 

- the meaning of the journey is to show how isolated they are, it is showing how far away from help they are. 

- the sound starts to ramp up, all different sounds come in such as walling and screaming, but every shot is still stunning

- echo in the back. like a scream. 

- changes weather, shows more isolation

- lands on setting at the end

Seven opening title sequence 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k2gsEI34CE

- steady and low beat throughout, intense in a low key way, sharp noises over it. 

- close up images throughout

- haven't met a character physically but we have seen a lot of character development ( getting you interested ) 

- key words, intercourse, god, fantasticing and the pen high lighting drawing you to words, when you made these words to the images your seeing it gets dark 

- this person is creating scarp books

- dark room, photography developing pictures, makes you wonder why they have to do it alone 

- writing close together and lots of words, shows a typical type of mind

200 on the shining 

200 on seven 

compare and contrast the two 

750 overall 

The Shinning vs Seven 

The genre in the Shinning is established by the music as the shots are simple and of beautiful scenery. The music in the opening title is unsettling and uncomfortable, this is because it is in a minor key and uses heavy brass. The music is also very low which puts you in a low mood as its not pleasing to the ear which makes you on edge. As the opening title goes on the music begins to ramp up, all different sounds come in such as walling and screaming. There is also an echo placed in the music which sounds like a high pitched scream, which is creepy and shows the genre of horror. The immediate dark music is foreshadowing the rest of the movie. There is a juxtaposition created during this opening title from the visuals and sounds. At the beginning of the scene the camera focuses on a lake with a slim isolated island in it, as the camera moves towards this it twists and turns. This physical effects the audience and adds to the uneasy feeling. The camera then goes into an extra high bird eye view, while following the curvy round road, this makes us feel unsteady and slightly nauseous. The titles in this scene are big and blue, drawing all your attention to them. The narrative from this opening title is focused on someone or a few people driving in their car to a location up in the mountains. This creates the idea of isolation as they are driving further and further away from sociality. Even though we don’t physically met any characters I believe that the people in the car are the characters and we can already tell a lot about them without needing meeting them. I think this opening title sets up the idea that something bad is/will happen and makes the audience feel intrigued to what that will be. 

The genre in seven is shown through both music and visuals. The sound and visuals are parallel and work together to create the horror and triller theme. The sound in this title scene consists of non-diegetic and diegetic and is almost indescribable because it sounds so tortured. The sound makes the already sinister imagery of this scene go from being uncomfortable to undoubtedly tense, making the audience have goosebumps. The constantly changing pitch in the diegetic sound, such as creaking and clicking, builds suspense for the audience. The use of the camera adds to the horror and triller genre as it uses close up to focus on the disturbing images that are portrayed in this opening tittle. The cuts between shots can be very drastic and fast even though the shot its self is very still, this is done to excite the audience as it is spontaneous. The images also fade and over lap each other to keep the audience engaged. The tittles also engage the audience as there is a black screen forcing the audience to read them. Event though we don’t physically met any characters, we still get character development from the person behind all the writing and pictures. We can tell he is obsessive and controlling by the way he writes in his note pad. This opening title is dark and suspicious creating the theme / idea that the person behind it is a stalker, murder or a physio. This is creating the idea that who ever is behind it will later go on and do something terrible. 

The Shinning and Seven are both classed as psychological trillers / horrors and both movies show this successfully their opening sequences. They both the show the genre through music and sound. The Shinning and Seven both use uncomfortable, unsettling and tense music which represents the basic horror movie sound. This is successfully done in both opening tittles as it lets the audience know that something horrific will happen later on in the movie. The sound used in both these opening titles play a big role, as there is no dialogue the music is used to tell us what dialogue does not. This is why the sound is so successfully effective in both opening titles as it has to tell us how to feel without using words. 

The first significant difference between the opening title sequences from the Shinning and Seven is the shot types and editing. The shots used in the Shinning are held for a long period of time and all different types of camera techniques are used, whereas in Seven all of the shots are up close. The shots from seven create an erratic and rapid sequence of shots making the audience feel engaged. However the shots from the shining allow the audience to feel uneasy and endanger due to the use of heights and curvy thin roads.