Collateral Opening - Focussing on Editing

Airport

• Straight cuts 
• Slow-motion shot of Cruz's character walking through an airport
• Another character is introduced, but he doesn't have slow-mo shots, so Cruz must be more important as his screen time is longer
• Shallow depth of field, viewer focusses in on Cruz
• Very low-speed editing
• Extreme close up before...

• The characters bump into each other, suddenly we have a shot of them side by side, more surprising 
• They drop the bags, match on action
• Over the shoulder shot, sticks to 180˚ rule
• Match on action as bags are picked up, other character says 'enjoy LA', which shows Cruz's location, and it is clear the bags were swapped so he could get something he couldn't take on the plane with him. Camera tilts up to Cruz
• POV shot over Cruz's shoulder, very shallow depth of field with focus on Cruz

cross cutting to...

Taxi Stop

• Montage begins of the taxis in the building, shots of close ups on people repairing cars, frequently using shallow depth of field and changes of focus within the frame
• High speed editing to show busy lifestyle of workers

• Camera tilts up to Jamie Foxx's character, he is doing a crossword and is distant from the other taxi drivers. This close up builds intimacy, shows he is important. Suddenly low-speed editing.
• When he gets in the car he wipes down the steering wheel (match on action) and switching buttons on and off to show they are working (match on action). This hows he is very meticulous is his ways
• He gets out ID from his bag and a photo of a potential holiday destination, we can tell this is his motive for working in this job (continuity editing, high speed).
• In the final shot of the opening, the taxi reverses in a the bottom on the screen, then the camera tilts down. Using a shallow depth of field, the camera changes focus to Foxx reversing the car, as he drives away and out of the building.

Already we can tell so much about the two characters from this opening. Cruz seems to be on a mission and is working with others to carry it out, but it must be high-calibre as it is so organised and the two characters in the airports are so well dressed. It seems as if the switching of bags is a deal, connoting something dodgy, dangerous or illegal. 

Foxx's character keeps to himself, he sits doing crosswords while the other cab drivers are fixing their engines and milling around. He is very methodical and focused when he gets in the car, he likes things to be clean and in check. From the photo of an island he puts in his fold-down mirror, which he looks at longingly, it shows that that is the motivation for getting through his job, and that he probably doesn't like it very much.

Children of Men Opening- Focussing on Camerawork

The opening to this dystopian thriller is set in London in 2027, in a world were no one can get pregnant anymore, so the human race has no future.

• Sound bridge of a news report, discussing the death of the youngest person on earth
• We cut to a shot looking down on a crowd in a café, looking up towards a TV screen- shows their vulnerability and makes them appear to be smaller. Maintains that shot for the entrance of a focal character, who appears by the counter having walked through the crowd in the café.
• It cuts to a POV shot looking up at the TV with the news report- personal, emotional, we know this is big news.
• A low-speed long shot begins and follows the character out of the café into the streets of London.
• As he walks and turns left the camera pans towards the right so we can see a future London in 2027- gives us a chance to see his world, his POV.
• Camera then pans right and follows him down the street a little way behind him. Same long shot. He puts down his coffee briefly on a ledge on the street so he can put sugar in the cup. The camera dollys round him so we can see the street behind him. Still the same shot.
• A bomb goes off in the street behind him- sudden as it has all been very slow-paced up till here. In that same shot, the camera moves in to the blast, which we presume is from the café- this shows the unpredictability of this future world, moves in to the damage before the character gets to see what he luckily narrowly escaped.

The Dark Knight Opening, 0:53-2:10

This Christopher Nolan film is another from a collection of thriller film openings that is really tense and exciting. Also known as the bank robbery scene, we see a group of men robbing a bank all in masks sent on a mission by the Joker, and at the end of the scene the Joker is revealed to in fact be one of the masked men. He escapes with the cash, while the rest of the men lie dead in the bank after they all conspire against each other. From this we get a sense of the capabilities of the mysterious character, and the darker and more edgy tone of Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy.

The opening shot begins with a synchronous, non-diegetic boom in the soundtrack as the music begins. The crane shot begins as a long shot that tracks over buildings and slowly moves into a focus central building. This establishing shot which moves in to the action builds anticipation in the viewer. One of the windows in the building is then broken from the inside using a gun, and it cuts to a close up of a man who broke the window.  We see that he is wearing a mask that resembles a rather creepy and mysterious clown. It then cuts to a pan of the same man by the window and another masked man with him, preparing equipment in bags. There is very low-key lighting, just light from outside, so this backlit frame raises the question of what they are trying to hide, their identity and/or their actions.

The next shot is of a man standing on a corner of a street in New York, which is a closed shot as his position is clearly composed, but the city still goes on behind him. The shot is backlit so we see this repeated image of silhouettes and hidden identity. The man holds a mask in his hand, and the camera moves in towards the mask, again with the image of a clown on it. It is implies therefore that the men seen so far are all working together for this mission, and that the clown mask, showing this evil, villainy imagery is a recurring theme in either this scene or indeed the whole film. It also nods to the clown image of the Joker, who is later revealed to be this man standing on the street. The camera tilts up slightly as a car pulls in, and the man puts on the mask before her gets in the car, showing that he wishes to conceal his identity from the people he is also going to work with.  

The scene cross-cuts to the men in the building who broke the window, and the camera is behind them showing another backlit image. The men then get on a zip wire which they constructed by shooting the end of the wire out of the window onto the roof of the neighbouring building. The camera looks up to the masked man as he puts the carabiner on the wire, showing his character’s power. There is then a rolling shot of them leaving the building via the zip wire, and as they leave the window the camera follows them and suddenly tilts down toward the roads beneath them. This shows their isolation from normality, and the secret nature of their mission. The film’s high production value is clearly visible through their elaborate crane shots and stunt men to get the shot of the men dangling from the zip wire.

We see the view from inside the car that pulled up on the street with two men in the front seats, also masked, and one in the back seat. As the camera is inside the car, we feel as if we are with the men, and getting insight into what they are saying. The shot itself is weighted towards the guy in the backseat who is closest to the camera, showing his importance in the story. It cuts to a close-up on a man in the passenger seat, loading a gun in his lap. The shallow depth of field shows the uncertainty and dangerous nature of the mission, and the light from outside the car emphasises the shadows of the menacing mask. To further the plot, there is another mid-shot of the two men who landed on the roof via the zip wire, and they discuss who the Joker is, and how he is known for wearing makeup to scare people. This highlights the Joker’s mysterious character, and that they have no idea that he is one of the masked men on the mission with him.

The final shot before they enter the bank is a mid-shot that is very long which pans from left where the three men exit the car, to the right where they run in towards a building, which is then shown to be the bank. As they use a shallow depth of field it allows the camera to focus on the masked man on the left hand side of the frame who gets out of the back of the car. The overall weighting of shots from then on and subtle focus toward this character (Joker) implies that he is more important than the rest of the men whom he is working with.

The soundtrack in this opening sequence is a constant pulse that builds anticipation and creates a sense of urgency. It allows the freedom of fading out the pulsing, especially when the Joker is shown on the street, and to use effects like synchronous booms to emphasise dramatic moments, like the Joker’s first appearance and the dramatic tilt of the camera out of the window onto the street below. 

Drive Opening Credits

Drive (2011), a film directed by Nicholas Winding Refn, is a crime thriller starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan. The opening of this thriller really enticing, tense, yet relatively simplistic in style; we see a short view into Driver's lifestyle (Gosling) while building tension because it is quite slow speed, and set at night.

Throughout the film is an electronic, 80s pop style soundtrack, which reflects the time period in which it is set and is also slightly contrapuntal to the setting, as the film is a thriller and yet the music is quite upbeat. This slightly ironic tone is also reflected in the title text, a pink cursif that stands out against the dark shots of the city. However, the audience are likely to associate this style of electronic pop and bright pink text with a drama with potential romantic elements.

The first shot is a long crane shot that pan over the skyline at night, which establishes the setting and immediately creates an urban, busy atmosphere. The shot fades into a mid-shot of Driver in the driver's seat of a car, with a shallow depth of field so we can se the blue lights of the city outside the window in the distance. It cuts to another over the shoulder shot, with very cool low-key lighting from in the car and warm light from outside shining in. In a series of shots we get a sense of the character's isolation, and that Driver is very separate from normal life in the city just from the barely-there lighting inside the car and lots of lights trying to shine in. This may also reflect something about his character- maybe it shows that he tends not to let many people into his life. Driver also wears a reflective jacket so that light can bounce of his jacket, again reiterating the theme of boundaries and isolation.

Cut to a crane shot, which is synchronous to the change in mood in the music, panning across a highway with warm lighting, and then dissolves slowly into another mid-shot of Driver in the car. This connotes time passing and that he is on either a journey to somewhere or that driving is a large part of his lifestyle.

We change scene and mood as we see a mid-shot pan of a car pulling into a space in a garage with raw striplights, contrasting with the light from outside. The camera cuts to an over the shoulder POV shot of Driver walking towards a lift with a spotlight above the doors. Out of the lift walks a girl dressed in white and red, symboling innocence and love, who is later revealed to be his love in interest in the film (Carey Mulligan), and orange light shines out of the lift into the garage. We get the sense from this choice of lighting that the girl may be a warm, kind character, juxtaposing with the dark light from the garage. We then see another POV shot out of the lift looking into the garage, and we see the girl walking away. Viewers will know at this point that both characters are not familiar with each other, but it is implies they live in the same building. This again shows that if he does not know her but they are in such close proximity, he must not be home very often, or works at night, emphasising his mysterious character.

The next series of continuous shots show Driver returning to his apartment. The first shot of this sequence shows him walking in via the corridor outside, and another warm spotlight shines through, but there is little/no light in his apartment which connotes trouble and danger. As he walks round the apartment we see the only way it is lit is from the outside through a large window. This further emphasises the theme of detachment from others and his solitary lifestyle. 

My favourite parts of the media

Hi! My name is Francesca and this is my media blog.

It is fair to say that as a sixteen year old with a television and internet access that the media affects my life greatly. Though much of it is negative, there are so many parts that have had a huge impact on me.

I watch quite a bit of youtube when I can, I think that it's becoming a much bigger part of the media that young people are constantly observing. Many content creators get numbers of views that TV production companies could only dream of, and I think mainstream media underestimates the dedication of many youtubers and the affect they can have on their viewers. Some people that have really influenced my own work are:

• Casey Neistat
• The Michalaks
• Hazel Hayes
• Will Darbyshire

If I'm watching TV you'll usually find me glued to Friends- all of the actors were brilliant on the show and had great comedic timing, all supported by an amazing team of writers who produced hilarious scripts. I also love shows like The Apprentice, Great British Bake Off, and murder mysteries like Endeavour. At the moment I'm also watching the new ITV series Victoria.

I love films- I love making films, watching films, and being that person who occasionally adds an annoying comment like 'I like that camera angle' when watching films. I love that films can make me laugh or cry in so many different ways; if it's sentimental, if it's hilarious, if it has a moving soundtrack. Many different aspects can make me love a film, and here are some of my favourites:

• The Grand Budapest Hotel- Wes Anderson's style is iconic and genius
• Inception- Visually stunning, gripping plot, and scrambled my mind
• Hot Fuzz- Entertaining and very clever, I particularly enjoy the editing style
• Marie Antoinette- Beautifully shot in Versailles- I love Sophia Coppola's style and soundtracks too
• About Time- such an underrated Richard Curtis film: disguised as a time travel movie but really has a strong message about life. Accompanied by a great soundtrack, this movie is very moving and sentimental for me.

I cannot wait to get started on this course and look deeper into an industry that is such a huge part of my life.