Research into films similar to my opening sequence

Research into films similar to my opening sequence

1.Drive – BBC three:

Plot: This is about a driver in Los Angeles who works for the Hollywood cinema industry during the day and for criminals at night. He is a driver for hit men.

The opening sequence of Drive is a getaway scene with the main character picking up a hit man. The main character is driving a car and wearing dark clothing with a nice watch on his wrist and chewing a stick in his mouth. The lighting is dark a gloomy but there is a small amount of light from nearby street lamps to show what is happening. The actors used are just normal looking men to try and make it seem like nothing dodgy is going on and the setting is a warehouse and then a normal town but at night so it’s fairly empty to add to the suspense and tension. The props used are a car, black gloves that the driver is wearing which is usually associated with crime and danger, a watch so he can time how long the men take and a walkie talkie which he has tuned in with the polices radios to see when the message will go through about the shooting. As the sequence starts, there is non-diegetic sound used which is a dark and mysterious tone of music, indicting something bad is going to occur. This is overlapped by diegetic sounds of the news on the radio in the car and police sirens. The police sirens indicate danger and the radio in the car signifies how the driver of the hit men may be listening to it whilst waiting or to hear if there is a news report about the incident in which he is responsible of driving the men involved in it and therefore to see how long he had before he needs to drive away. There are a few camera shots and editing techniques also used. There is firstly an establishing shot to show the city. There are then mostly close-up shots of the driver’s face and then eye-line match to show what he is looking at. Then there is a further close-up shot of what he is doing. These are to show his emotions and to make it look more suspicious like no one can see what he is doing because they don’t want to get caught. There are cuts between the driver and the warehouse in which the hit men have gone into to show that he keeps looking back to see when they come out so they can make a quick getaway. There is wide – shots when the warehouse is shown to display the size of it and then door roughly in the middle which the men come in and out from.

2.Identity Thief (2013):

Plot: Florida resident Diana (Melissa McCarthy) has a luxurious lifestyle as the queen of retail, buying whatever strikes her fancy -- and it's all free, thanks to Sandy Patterson (Jason Bateman), a guy from Denver whose identity she stole.

This is a comedy film so is quite different from the film we will be making. However, the main story line is not too dissimilar. One of the main characters is a woman who steals other people’s identities and takes their money by copying their credit cards. In our film, the main character is a man and will create a new identity in order to steal other people’s things. The opening sequence starts with diagetic sound of a phone ringing and then shows a man in an office, wearing a suit, answering the phone and then the voice of a woman on the other end. The woman explains how she is from the ‘fraud protection department’ and that someone has attempted to steal the man’s identity. The tone of the woman’s voice and the way she is speaking makes the audience believe that she is in an office taking and making calls to various people. However, there is a cut to a woman sitting in a shopping centre on her mobile wearing quite casual but over-the-top clothing who is actually the woman on the phone. This immediately tells us that the woman is danger as if she was really from a fraud protection department we would expect her to be in a working environment and dressed for work. The lighting is bright and cheerful indicating the movie will be fairly light-hearted, funny and upbeat. The non-diagetic music that comes on as the title of the film appears also makes the film appear to be humorous and it doesn’t seem to match the main characters characteristics as it says “bad girls” which, if we didn’t know the true personality of this character, we would not expect from her. As the film then cuts to the next scene, the lighting gets slightly darker indicating something bad is happening in this scene. The medium shots and slight panning done by the camera too show the woman in her home is used to try to capture the normality of her house by letting the audience see some of the décor she has. However, we see the true reality as there is a cut to a close-up of a machine that the woman puts a pin code into followed by more close-up shots of many fake identifications in the form of driver’s licences placed on a string hanging up in her house, a credit card coming out of the machine and then the card being placed on top of a pile of many other stolen credit cards. The close-up shots of these items indicate to the audience what she is actually doing and the crime she is committing as well as the equipment she is using to fake other people’s identities. The next scene of the woman entering a bar, we have a fade out shot of the woman as she holds up the stolen card to the bartender and the card is seen clearly whilst the woman fades out slightly, telling the audience she will be using the card and for awful purposes. Overall, this opening sequence is used to indicate who the main characters are, establish their roles and to set the scene for the plot of the rest of the film.  Although this is quite different to our thriller film, we will be incorporating some aspects into our opening sequence. The main aspect will be the plot of fake identities as the man in our film will have a fake identity as an FBI agent. However, we will also be using the close-up shots of the equipment being used for the crime in our film as, like in this, it signifies the crime and the action being carried out to the audience. 

3.Intruders – BBC two (season 1 episode 1):

Plot: Paranormal mystery thriller following a secret society devoted to chasing immortality by seeking refuge in the bodies of others.

There is a scene near the start of this episode that shows a man watching a woman in her house late at night. There diegetic sound of rain and a quiet, low toned non-diegetic sound to signify tension. The sound increases as the man at the door grabs the woman’s throat and shouts at her. This is to symbolise danger. As the man walks up the stairs and into the boy’s room, the sound gets even louder, building up to the gun shot as he kills the boy and then the sound decreases again. The change in sound symbolises the increase and build-up of tension until the act. The lighting is dark however there is a dark border around the main picture which is slightly brighter so you can see what is happening. This implies that this is a dangerous and violent scene. The actors used a man, woman and teenage boy. The man looks normal but is dressed in a suit and wearing black gloves. The gloves indicate danger and threat. The woman is dressed in normal, casual clothing to imply she is a regular woman that may or may not know about or be involved in something suspicious. There are props used such as an FBI badge and a gun which add to the overall scene. The setting is an ordinary house but we don’t see the area it is in because of the darkness, adding to the mystery. There are a range of camera shots used. Firstly a wide shot to show the house and the woman sitting inside. Then a medium shot of the woman inside the house sitting down which opens into a wide shot as we see her walking up to the door and the furniture around her, showing she’s in a regular home. The camera pans round as she does this as well as it comes slightly forward to track as she walks to the door. There is a cut to the window to get closer to the action and a close-up as the man slams his badge against it. The low angle shot indicates the woman’s power and then there is a cut to an eye-line match as we see the woman and then the man at the door that she is looking at. The action then becomes quicker as the man pushes the woman to the ground and the roles are reversed using a low angle shot to show the man is now in power and has more authority.