Film Opening Research: "Batman Begins"

Institution Information.

• Batman Begins (2005)
• Director: Christopher Nolan.
• Production Companies: Warner Bros, DC Comics, Syncopy.
• Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures.
• Rated PG - 13
• Opening Weekend (USA) $48,745,440 (19 June 2005)

   Target Audience.

      As with my last case study, this film was made with an existing audience in mind, Batman has decades of material and a dedicated fan base that this film was primarily appealing to with use of the already existing iconic formula for a Batman reboot. The primary target audience of Batman fans is stereotypically perceived as young to teenage males (13-17) so the secondary audience would naturally fall to the same age bracket of potential new fans. The secondary audience would also appeal to fans of the action, action-adventure and superhero genres and the audience pleasures from that would have been the a substantial part in the pre-production and production of the film. In this opening we see a fight scene by the first two minutes which taps into audience pleasures to reassure the audience that this will be a film they like.

Title and Credit Analysis.

   With so many reincarnations of Batman under the belt, the pressure to present something clean and modern would have been substantial to bring into the immediate foreground of the opening and after the DC comics logo which stands for the primary audience of the existing comic fans, the new batman logo is revealed as a colony of bats thins and thickens accordingly. With nothing but the sound of the bats as this title appears centring the focus on the vigilante that will be the main protagonists that the film will follow, a technique that in itself works on the audience pleasures of the conventions of a super-hero film.
The darkness throughout the title sequence works on the darkness of the "gritty realism" that this Batman franchise reinstated itself with, thus laying out the tone of the film to come.

Camera and Editing Analysis.

       The juxtaposition of the dark flutter of wings in the cloud of bats forms into the fast panning of the flowers in Wayne manor's gardens immediately brings the innocence of the time of this scene implied through the setting and lighting in the mese en scene - typically in this instance bright and the flower props also connote purity. As the main protagonist awakes as a grown man - the preferred reading of this is that we can immediately see that this has changed through the greyer lighting and simple mud and grass prison surroundings - similarly presented as down the shots of Bruce Wayne down the well within the flashbacks. The range of the different shot styles within these first three minutes successfully upholds the flow of what's happening and sets up a strong foundation through this to hold the narrative. It is through the jump cut in editing that establishes the knowledge that the man in the flower gown is Batman.

Film Opening Research: "Divergent"

Institution Information.

• Divergent (2014)
• Director: Neil Burger.
• Production Companies: Summit Entertainment, Red Wagon Entertainment.
• Distributed by Lionsgate.
• Rated PG-13.
• Opening weekend: $54,607,747 (USA) (21 March 2014)

Target Audience.

This film was ultimately made for the existing fan base of the book as the primary audience, never the less as is common in book to film adaptions the promotion needs to attract new fans  in order to be successful on opening weekend so is secondarily targeted more generally to teenage 13-18 girls maybe also for fans of the dystopian genre which would in-store an expectation of a futuristic world that has some kind of advanced technology (Immediately addressed with the animation and typography of the production companies, director and film title) as well as sufficient action to tap into the audiences pleasures of the genre.  

Title and Credit Analysis.

To expand on the dystopian genre expectations and the codes and conventions that come with it the typography and animation of the first few titles shown on screen are successfully representing these expectations due to the advanced connotations of how they are presented. The titles for the production companies and the director coming before the title with this separate opening screen before the action actually starts draws attention of importance on to them and then the title kick starts the legitimate narrative content and brings the list of cast starting with the start that ties Shailene Woodley and the rest of the cast together to signify their relevance to each other. 
    The fading in and out of the text accompanied by the calm and peaceful soundtrack opposes the typical expectations of a dystopian film and therefore would keep the secondary audience questioning and interested. The calm content tones to the soundtrack and the subtle presentation of the titles may signify a calm before the storm impression on the audience, establishing a sense of foreboding on the assumption that the people watching the film no a little bit more about what to expect due to the promotion, genre codes etc. whilst also setting up something of the narrative that the civilisation being presented is reasonably content. 

Camera and Editing. 

The film starts with an establishing shot over a plane of grass, however as the scene progresses with the track of the camera zooming into the completely fenced in city, presenting the audience with the first signs of an unstable society represented through the details of the setting of the mese en scene as the camera carries through semi-demolished building that, as the establishment settles, presents itself as fully functional and peaceful and yet with the introduction of the separation in the costumes, introducing the details of the five factions. The introduction of the outside of this dystopian Chicago before the details of the main films setting presents both as completely undisturbed with the exception of each other; giving the imprecation that the characters they will be introduced to as being completely alone in whatever is to follow.
    The cutting onto a different long shot throughout this title sequence adequately presents the size of the city and details of how the film is implying it has broken down by this time. The slow movement of the camera gives time for the audience to gather these preferred readings but also the direct cuts straight to another shot creates a skim over of the main setting and gets to the point of the apprehension over how perfect the civilisation  really is that the director has created so far into that of the people - although the rise in music creates a tone of tranquility adding to the overall impression for the audience that something bad will be inevitable. 

Preliminary Film Evaluation.

Preliminary Film Evaluation.

In terms of the finished material, the task of following the 180 degree rule, having a shot/ reverse shot and creating a match on action were all successfully achieved  with a range of different shot types with it, the non-diagetic sound and dialogue were finished to be adequately professional. However, the cutting in the mid section over the lines of dialogue was fairly choppy and could be a lot smoother, probably being the main improvement that’s needed to improve the quality of the final film but the stability on the match on action shot could also be steadier – this being a problem, however, that could be best solved with better equipment that wasn't available to us.

Needless to say areas such as the detail in mese en scene were incredibly lax, but maintaining the consideration that this was our first attempt at construction a few minutes of film and that we were constricted on time for pre-production and production these details are not too stressed as improvements more than something to consider for my next work. 

                                                                                                                         - L.H

Preliminary Film Group Work Evaluation

For the first filming assignment set the preliminary film in my last blog was bound to have problems and faults but it produced the opportunity to test Media knowledge and procedures within a group which was one of the main advantages over the task due to shared workload and multiple viewpoints on the project. The disagreements that might have been possible in this scenario did not arise to be a problem this time but was undoubtedly one of the potential problems before work on the film started.

Preliminary Film

Our Media group was set a continuity task in which we had to involve a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down opposite another character with whom she/he exchanges a few lines of dialogue. We had to involve a match on action, shot/reverse shot as well as following the 180 degree rule.