Opening Sequence of Halloween

Opening Sequence of Halloween (1978)

Halloween is a 1978 American independent horror film set in the fictional suburban town of Haddonfield, Illinois, USA on the October holiday Halloween. A psychotic murderer institutionalized since childhood escapes on a mindless rampage while doctor chases him through the streets.

The sequence starts of with a pitch black screen with the fade of Compass International Pictures and non-diegetic music to imply the fear and panic of the film. The titles fades through three main colours of Orange, Yellow and Red, this is an implication of fire, these editing ideas all imply thoughts of death (from the black background) and hell (from the 'fire' like titles) create the horror genre that the director, John Carpenter originally wanted. Within the next few slides their are titles of the cast and workers behind the film with the same fire effects to link in with the genre, to the left of the screen was a lit up face of a pumpkin and the titles were to the right. It starts to then forward track/ zoom in onto the pumpkin, the pumpkin could of been used to implicate the holiday.

    From this point, a sound bridge is used to create tension into the start of the film. The sound bridge consisted of a children's Halloween Song, this has been used to kick start the scary theme of the film. From the pitch- black screen we open up to a head-on view on the house, forward tracking is used towards the house and the hand held camera movement is used to create the point of view of the psychopath going to look through a window, to see a man and a woman. As the psychopath returns to the front of the house a bedroom light turns off, whilst that happened a non-diegetic screech is used to imply a sense of suspense as if something was going to happen. The psychopath then walks into the house and grabs a sharp knife from a draw. He stalks his way up the stairs and whilst walking the clock chimes and the light changes from light to dark, this could of been used to signify that the woman's time has come to an end and that the psychopath has become a monster from an innocent man. Before entering the bedroom this mysterious man picks up a clown mask this is used to indicate the thought of a devil in human skin, also the camera is filmed at a high angle to give the connotation of a full-grown man. From this point before the killing the victim shouts out the psychopaths name this could suggest the murderer is the woman's brother, and to make matters worse the bed was messy after the man left the home this indicates a sense of passion between the two characters which the psycho may not of liked, which leads to connotation of a strong bond within the family and he feels that she has betrayed that love an trust.
    Next scene we see the psycho walks outside into the front garden where a car pulls up in front of him with two people inside, the people then get out and repeat the name this indicates they may be family members, parents?? Then they remove the mask of the psycho which shows the 'transformation' of a devil into a innocent man. The director then uses a crane shot to establish the scene and also it reveals the psycho's true figure, the figure of a young child.  

Analysis of the Opening Sequence of Se7en

Pre-Opening Sequence: Se7en


The opening sequence starts with a close up of a book being opened and slightly to the right is the titles of "NEW LINE CINEMA". The titles are displayed in a scratchy kind of font this is used to be a connotation to the theme of the film which is a psychological thriller. Also there is a creepy type of non diegetic music which creates a eerie atmosphere leading the audience on to continue to watch the opening of the film and to make it feel like you were being watched. The book may be a symbol of the antagonists knowledge on how he does his work. It then dips into black which symbolizes death and mystery which creates questions for the audience to guess what the film is about, and again the scratchy titles are used to create the scary feel to the sequence. We then see the killers finger tips being shaven off these reveals the connotation of his manipulative nature to how he knows that if their are no prints at the crime scenes the killer cannot be traced. After we then see some sort of notebook, this prop could of been used to show that the killer keeps track of what he does and how he does the psychopathic jobs. Through the sequence their is changes in the pictures of different photos of people but they seem blurry which is a connotation of not everything is what it seems which links in to the eerie music. The main title of the film "Se7en" is repeated shown in its scratchy context and it moves like it played on the old film reals this could symbolize the date of the film it was created and give the film that scary, unsettled feel.
The movie begins with the medium close up shot of William Somerset (played by Morgan Freeman) from behind, first off we see the 'pure', dull colour scheme which indicates an image of his lifestyle. After making a coffee he pours it down the drain this shows a stereotypical view on a man living alone, we can also see this by the colour scheme and how women usually brighten up the place and children create mess and clutter, but we can see a few toys on his living room side?. We also see that everything in his house is organised, this creates the stereotype of cleanliness of a 'alone' single man.

Preliminary Task

Premlininary Task: Through the Looking Glass

In my preliminary filming task my role was to direct the segment of film we created in my group, this consists of Michael Cartledge, Abbey Evans and Jack McKnight. We used a range of different camera shots but chosen three specific shots to include; the 180 degree rule, match on action and eye line match.
   The 180 degree rule is a guideline that editors use regarding the on-sceen spatial relationship between two characters. I incorporated it in my work by how the actors in my video, displayed a conversation over top secret transfer over a memory stick containing significant information.
   Match on action or 'Cut out Action' is a component of seamless editing where is a point of action (like handling something to someone) is shot from different angles and cut at the point of action creating a match. I incorporated it in my work by how we use a close up on the handing over of the memory stick emphasising the significance of the item.
   Eye line match is editing from the camera to show the view points of the characters used. E.g. people having a conversation and putting a camera in their line of sight so its like we see what they see. I incorporated it in my work by how we used shots, from our characters eye line, to specify their view of the conversation talking about the memory stick.
In my opinion I think the overall filmmaking process went well in my group because our film turned out probably better than we expected. I found it interesting how directors use so many camera shots and angles to create a film, and we found it easy to change each shot/ angle but the downsides to the process was that the actors occasionally looked at the camera whilst we were recording and also the background noise was loud from the college. An upside to the process was that we were confident and seemed to know what we were doing.
Adobe premiere was very interesting to learn about because there was so much techniques to use and make your film look professional for transitions, I learned that you could dissolve, etc clips of your film to create suspense and a change in scene (one to another). For sound, we used a program called Incompetech to include music in the background and another program called Garage Band to include simple noises such as dog barking, sirens, etc. We used the titles bar to add text into our film to educate people what the film is called and who has made it. Through the overall editing I have learned a great deal, been as though I've never done it before, and I feel I will become greater with this technique through the course.

Analysis of the Opening Sequence of 'The Dark Knight Rises'

Director- Christopher Nolan

Starring- Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine

Pre- Opening Sequence:

The film begins with the titles; Warner Bros, DC Comics, and Regeny logo. Each of the logos have a dark colour scheme, showing the dark theme of the movie. There are also a metallic texture, which would represent the industry that Gotham City is built from. We then appear to see a slow zoom as ice breaks into the shape of the Batman logo/symbol, this shows that Batman is re-emerging from the depths in which Bruce Wayne gave up on being Batman.
     Next part of the scene we see Comissioner Gordon's speech, this leads up to a sound bridge as the video appears to show a portrait of Harvey Dent with the Commissioner in front of it (Harvey was a character from the original Dark Knight film), the scene then fades to black which suggests a passage of time between the two films.
     Then it shows a CIA agent from a low angle shot, suggesting a sense of power. The agent is also wearing casual clothing and combat trousers, the soldiers around him are fully equipped with the uniform, which is also suggesting he is ranked higher than them. We then see some prisoners in a car with bags on their heads, which is similar with how captured terrorists are seen in the present day. Incidental music is used to build background and to create suspense, which then leads to the talk of a mysterious 'masked man' who the agent calls 'Bane', with only the name, the audience is kept in the dark of the character.
     From this scene we see an aerial shot of a plane, which establishes a new scene's location, the CIA agent seems to want to find out about Bane, as the prisoners are told to be his henchman, he pretends to kill one of the prisoners to scare the others into talking yet one of the other prisoners speaks out and questions him. The voice of the prisoner had been heavily edited to suggest that he was Bane. Bane then shows intelligence by knowing that his fellow prisoners have not been killed. The camera then changes to a forward tracking into Bane's back, ready for the reveal. The agent questions him and Bane refers to himself as 'We', showing that he speaks for what he calls 'All The People'. Then we see a low angle shot on Bane's reveal, this is used to create tension and to show the dominance of this mysterious 'Masked Man', the CIA Agent who is knelt down below Bane is viewed in a high angle shot to show his submission towards him.
     Next we see an extreme longshot which is used to re-establish the scene in the mountain area, which gives the feeling of something else is going to happen; a new and much larger plane appears in the background. From this point, non diegetic/ dramatic music is used to show a beginning of action and a thrilling moment in the film, which also uses quick editing to emphasise the speed of the action from when bane gets revealed to when the plane crashes. Next we see the a blood transfusion Bane plans between two characters, this shows as well as his masculinity he has alot of brains to pull of schemes he plans to do. As well as that, we can see Bane's great leadership by how his henchman shows loyalty and willing to do anything by taking a dive for him to make his plane crash more realistic. Next an extreme longshot is used from the Bane plane to show the symbolise the end of the action and also to establish the scenery, then forward momentum is used to show a change in scene from a city to a bridge to Wayne Manor.