Gummo [Harmoney Korrine]: Set up the character and let us know some of his personality as well as his cultural background and how that could go on to influence the rest of the film. The music as well was very well chosen, in its jovial, the music reminded me of stereotypical hill-billies which worked well as a backdrop for the character set up. There was also something very sinister about the type of text they decided to use in the opening.
Paris Texas [Wim Wenders]: Was picturesque and intriguing through the unfolding scenes as it plagued the audience with questions about this silent character in the desert.
The Full Monty [Peter Cattaneo]: The opening to this film was used almost as a background story in order to show the stark contrast to then and now. The opening few scenes set up some of the themes that the film would be addressing such as Gender stereotypes and unemployment as well as setting up key characters and how they interact with one and other.
Se7evn [David Fincher]: The opening built up the anticipation, so that even if you didn't know anything about the film you already had a sense of foreboding about what was to come next, and once you have watched the film you realise that the opening has a lot of clues to the plot.
The Hunger [Tony Scott]: The very beginning was done like a music video, and the use of monkies and lab equipment was a form of foreshadowing to the plot of the film
Lost Highway [David Lynch]: Very simple whereby the titles whizzed towards us like an oncoming car and were the undeniable yellow or road paint.
Europa [Lars Von Treier]: The hypnotic voice over and the shot of a close up train track soothed your mind and was used a tool to deposit the audience into the film-scape.
These openings were a range of experimental and mainstream, each had a different technique to their styling, it was either to directly tell something to the audience or suggest/foreshadow the events of the film, or even to put the audience in the right frame of mind for the films genre. These clips allowed me to consider what I would do for the major project opening sequence. I had to be clear about what I wanted to show and understand what kind of viewing I would be giving the audience, and that it was okay to step out of a linear/related audio/visual tone and theme for the set up.
We then did an exercise to think of what opening sequence we would use for our major project. Some people already had something they had planned to do in mind, I just made mine up:
I wanted to have a shot of an oscillating music box placed on a stereotypical stage actresses' make up station. The music box would either be a Carousel or a circus tent with the curtains opened up. As this music maker spun one way the titles would spin the other way. In terms of audio I wanted to either have the expected delicate music box sound or the circus theme or heavy metal (Inspired by the opening of Michael Haneke's Funny Games). Which ever sound I had would end with a woman's long and piercing scream (This is how the major project starts according to the first draft of the script). At this the music box would stop turning and so would the titles. An additional thought of showing this sequence with an overlayed mirror effect occurred to me, kind of like how clogs interlock and move in varying directions. This effect would symbolise the characters two minds/states. There's a strange beauty about the idea and imagery that I had that I really liked and it feels like a short story within a story which I guess in a way os what an opening sequence can be.
Lastly we looked at graphic matching and how it can be used to foreshadow and mirror we looked at some clips from Fish Tank [Andrea Arnold] Walkabout and Don't Look Now [Nick Roeg] and finally The Graduate [Mike Nichols] the montage/graphic matching scene followed the seduction one that we looked at in the last session.
My favourite was the Don't Look Now [Nick Roeg] I thought that the graphic matches were very smooth and even caused a sense of unedgeness just watching it which was interesting.
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