Opening Sequences: Titles

These are the titles that appear in the beginning of the film 'The Sixth Sense' in order.

Hollywood Pictures: The first distribution company.
Spyglass Pictures: The second distribution company.
The two titles above appear again but in the form of text - 'Hollywood Pictures and Spyglass Pictures Present'

Production Company:
'A Kennedy/Marshall/Barry Mendel production'
The main actors name, the most important member of the cast:
'Bruce Willis'

Title of film:
'The Sixth Sense'
The secondary actors and actresses names whom are some of the more important members:
'Toni Collette'
'Olivia Williams'
'Haley Joel Osment'
'Donnie Walburgh'
The supporting cast then appear on screen, these are the least important members of the main cast:
'Glenn Fitzgerald
Mischa Borton'
'Trevor Morgan
Bruce Norris'
The post-production team
(This section of the crew gradually moves to the most important members of the 'behind the scenes' crew)
'Casting by Avy Kaufman'
'Costume Design Joanna Johnston'
'Music by James Newton Howard'
'Edited by Andrew Mondshein'
'Production Designer Larry Fulton'
'Director of Photography Tak Fujimoto, A.S.C.'
'Executive Producer Sam Mercer'
'Produced by Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy and Barry Mendel'
'Written and Directed by M.Night Shyamalan'

Peer Assesments

Spiderwick Chronicles

Sixth Sense, Shayamalan, 1999, US.

SOUND
A majority of this clip is The sound gives off a very ghostly and creepy feel making the audience tense and freaked out getting us prepared for the thriller. The music is very classical and orchestral giving it a slightly older feel to go with the ghostly theme of the film. The music reaches a climax as the title comes onto the screen, the change in dynamics and pitch grab the audience into the story even more.

EDITING
The pace of all editing within this clip are slow and purposeful, again adding to the tense and chilling atmosphere already provided. The woman in the shot is tracked and a crane shots are also used. The usual zoom and cuts are used but again as slow and not noticeable.

CINEMATOGRAPHY
The first example is the big close up on the light bulb as it is turned on. Another example of creating tension through cinematography is when it feels like someone is watching her from behind the wine racks because of where the camera has been purposefully placed.

MISE EN SCENE
The first 2 minutes of the clip is just dedicated to the opening credits. The solid black background and silver text give a cold, harsh feeling to the film. This could possibly also relate to silver in general and the colour of a knife? The first part of the clip we see is a lightbulb slowly turning on and a pair of high heeled shoes walking down stairs which shows us this character is a woman. When we fully see her, she does not seem to fit into her gloomy and damp surroundings as she is dressed elegant and smartly. This tells us about her personality also and how she maybe an outsider as to where she is. This character seems to have a vulnerability about her as she gets the wine bottle, giving the audience an emotional connection with her. As she stands alone in the room, her shadow appears on the wall next to her, making us think theres someone in there watching her.

Wallander (Firewall, 7/12/08, BBC1)

Dark, slow chilling music gives threatening and tense feelings. A fade into dark water makes us feel like we're in a scary place.
Overhead panning and master shot filmed in a helicopter gives us a view of the surroundings which are desolate and deserted making us feel alone, iscolated and threatened. We see the car and people walking quickly away, this makes us instantly think that something bad has happened there.

We are cut to the back of 2 feminine heads. This keeps the audience as to guessing who these people are and what they have done. We track the two, as we assume, women down the road before cutting to inside the car.

We now see that this is a taxi because of the license in the front seat. However, this is and the windscreen are splattered in blood, making us assume he has been killed or injured.

One of the girls hair is black and red and she is wearing a leather jacket making her seem more authoritative and dangerous than the other girl. She seems to be the leader. We now see the girls faces which are both emotionless and plain but covered in blood making us realise they did have something to do with the murder.We are then given a sharp cut to one of the girls holding a bloody knife in her hand, we then see their faces for the first time. The girl in the leather is towards the front of the shot with the other girl behind again showing her strength and power over the other.

There is a cut to the taxi again and the bloody hand on the steering wheel. This gives us another indication he has in fact been brutally beaten or murdered.

It cuts to an extreme close up of the supposedly dead mans face which is completely battered and beaten. However, when his eye twitches, we realise all is not what is may seem and he is in fact alive.
It then shows us a keyring of the dead man and what we guess is his son. This could mean the girls had something to do with the son and plotted revenge this way.

The next shot is of a bloody knife in the main girls hand finally giving us the confirmation that both of them carried out the attack. She drops it suddenly, possibly getting rid of all evidence. As the titles come up, they are bright colours and wording, completely contrasting what we have just witnessed in the first few minutes of the TV programme. This maybe to confuse the audience or give off a different image for the entire programme that we have yet to see because of the short first section.

Brick Analysis

Brick
US, 2005, Johnson.

The opening sequence to the film ‘Brick’ leaves the audience asking many questions throughout. To begin with it is intriguing because of the soundtrack starting the film off with. It feels almost like a heartbeat alongside the main western music playing. The music reverberates leaving echoes and has a very thin texture with chimes give a ghostly, solemn feel to it. If you listen closely enough, there is also the sound of running water in the background, possibly giving clues to the audience as to where this is set. This is all played during the opening credits for the cast and crew. The first shot we as an audience see it the floor that then tracks upwards to a man, gender suggested by the masculine shoes and figure, crouching yet we cannot see his face, the audience ask questions like ‘who is he?’ ‘where is he?’. There is a cut to the mans face yet still not showing us fully what he looks like. A focus pull is used in this shot, finally revealing a majority of his face to us. The characters eyes are fixated on something, making us want to know what he is looking at. We then have a match on action and master shot, showing the sewer with the dead body of a girl lying face down in the water. The only light in the shot is at the top of the frame giving a dark and dingy feel to this clip. There is also juxtaposition used; the girl is in white with blonde hair showing innocence and giving the audience a feel that she does not belong there and so something must have happened to her, this makes us think about whether the man in the frame is evil because of the fact he is the only person around the dead body. ‘Did he kill her?’ ‘whats their relationship?’. The two characters positioning, however, suggests that they do not know eachother because of the distance between them, ‘do they know eachother?’ ‘why is he there?’. There is a fast cut of the mans face, making the audience ask many questions. It then cuts to her legs, showing her smart clothing suggesting she was a clever and neat person. There is a slow track into her legs that this is an eyeline match, suggesting that this is what the man in currently concentrating on. We then cut back to him and track towards him, giving the audience a closer, intense relationship with him. It shows shot reverse shot being used also. We cut back to her face but we are not able to see it properly because of the blonde hair covering it which also is bright in contrast to the rest of her surroundings again, showing innocence and the fact that she is so out of place. The haunting music continues to play as we track even further into the male character. We are then shown the girls arm and bright blue bracelets which take centre screen, again showing the contrast in colours. The shot cuts to the bracelets again but in brighter, cheerier surroundings. Her arm is now bright white in colour again and its completely different to previous shots. This shows the change in time, also because she seems to be moving we assume we are going back in time to see her alive. She is putting something in a locker which adds to the audiences questions – ‘what is it?’ ‘why is she putting that in there?’ ‘Where is she?’. However, because there is lockers in this shot, we think that it is a school. The title appears on a solid black background in bright white, this could go alongside with the contrast of the girls bright white clothes and the dirty sewage water. As the image fades, it could show how the girls life has faded and gone. It then goes back to the lockers showing ‘two days previous’. This shows us the track back in time. As the camera slowly pans to floor level, we see the same pair of legs as the mans at the sewers going towards the locker the girl was previously at showing that it was his locker and her note to him that falls out. A long shot and master shot shows he is alone as he reads the message. We are given an eyeline match as we see from the mans point of view what her note says allowing the audience to be involved in their story. We then have a slow cut showing the meeting address of the two characters.

http://youtu.be/lX8tMfXJugM

Momento Opening Sequence

Trailer VS Opening Sequence

I have chosen the film 'Nowhere Boy' to base my comparison on.
This trailer begins as a fade into a cinema scene containing diegetic sound of applause, it zooms into the main characters, focussing on their reactions to the film they are all watching. The cuts at the very start of the trailer are very smooth and steady. As the pace of the trailer increases after the flash of the cinema, the non diegetic soundtrack begins and the cuts become faster and sharper. They slow down slightly when allowing some comedic lines to be spoken to get the audience more involved in the action happening. In the middle, high tension moments, particularly between John and his Aunt is broken down by the upbeat soundtrack playing. The trailer is completely based around John who's life revolves around music, hence the theme throughout the trailer. There are many heated moments that are, again, contradicted by the diegetic sound playing.

The opening of this film simply Johns home and his daily routine. The cuts and camera movements are slow and purposeful. The opening is a far slower pace than the advert because it doesn't need to attract people in the way the advert did. It displays the cast and crew of the film and the title as it gets into the beginning of the story. However, storyline is barely introduced at this point so we, as an audience have no idea what is happening as yet.