I watched seven opening sequenced made by past students and analysed them, one successful and one not as successful, explaining the positives, negatives and what mark they received.
South Paw
The location for South Paw is suitable for British Social Realism films, quite run down, set in alley ways etc. The music was appropriate for the film, it was upbeat whilst he was running, and not as upbeat in other shots, correlating with the actions well. Although a weakness for this film is that although the overall idea is good, it becomes very boring to watch as nearly all of the shots are of him running. Also, long shots are overused in this shot, there are no closeups so as an audience we do not know exactly how he is feeling because we have not been shown his facial expressions only. Another critisism is the graphics, they are shown on a black background, this stops the film from running smoothly and so the graphics should be added to the shots as it runs.
I gave Southpaw 31 but the actual mark was 34, because although the idea and characters were portrayed well, it wasn't interesting to watch and the shots were not varied enough.
Fast Life
The characters are represented well as they are wearing tracksuits and hoodies, connoting they are in a gang. I also think the music was appropriate to the story line, it set the mood, but it was too loud so the dialogue could not be clearly heard. Also, the shots are too long, making the audience lose interest very quickly.
My score: 26 Actual score: 32
Damaged Goods
The graphics were appropriate, it exaggerated the girlishness to the film that the others did not have. The music in this film was suited to the film because it was also girly to go with the female character and the dark lighting set the mood, although both of these things were done well, there are some weaknesses to them. The music was not edited to the beat of her actions, so it didn't have the full effect it could have. Also, although the lighting set the right atmosphere, at times it was difficult to see what was happening in the shots.
My score: 50 Actual score: 57
Suffocation
This film had a variety of different shots, the close ups were especially effective as we were able to clearly see the characters facial expressions which not a lot of the other films had. Although, the film started off really interesting to watch, then towards the end it goes downhill, the last shot is of the woman starring at a bottle, leaving the audience feeling confused.
My score: 36 Actual score: 42
Bridges
I like the idea of the music playing when the character has his headphones on then stopping when he takes them off as we get a sense of his point of view. Some weaknesses were that the story line is not clear, as an audience we are left feeling really confused as to what is happening, also the characters are also not represented well, we do not know the type of character they are.
My mark: 25 Actual mark: 29
Drained
This film represented the characters really well with the angles and shots they chose, giving the audience a clear idea of their roles, i also really liked the different location they used, to film in a laundry company is really unique and stands out from the rest of the films which are mostly set on the streets, in houses and alleys. A weakness of this film is that although the film doesn't get marked on grading, the boss did not look old enough to come across as threatening to the audience, so it did not have the full impact on the audience that it could have if an older actor was used.
My mark: 50 Actual mark: 58
Maze
The music was very appropriate for the film, I liked that they chose the song 'We're Over' which is actually related to the storyline of her running away from an abusive relationship which other films did not do, it gives the audience a clearer idea of the storyline and what the character is going through. A weakness of this is that it can be quite distracting for the audience as it was too loud.
My mark: 54 Actual mark: 56
I then further analysed two films, one successful and one not as successful, I have explained what I liked about the film and what I would improve.
South Paw
The location for South Paw is suitable for British Social Realism films, quite run down, set in alley ways etc. The music was appropriate for the film, it was upbeat whilst he was running, and not as upbeat in other shots, correlating with the actions well. Although a weakness for this film is that although the overall idea is good, it becomes very boring to watch as nearly all of the shots are of him running. Also, long shots are overused in this shot, there are no closeups so as an audience we do not know exactly how he is feeling because we have not been shown his facial expressions only. Another critisism is the graphics, they are shown on a black background, this stops the film from running smoothly and so the graphics should be added to the shots as it runs.
I gave Southpaw 31 but the actual mark was 34, because although the idea and characters were portrayed well, it wasn't interesting to watch and the shots were not varied enough.
Fast Life
The characters are represented well as they are wearing tracksuits and hoodies, connoting they are in a gang. I also think the music was appropriate to the story line, it set the mood, but it was too loud so the dialogue could not be clearly heard. Also, the shots are too long, making the audience lose interest very quickly.
My score: 26 Actual score: 32
Damaged Goods
The graphics were appropriate, it exaggerated the girlishness to the film that the others did not have. The music in this film was suited to the film because it was also girly to go with the female character and the dark lighting set the mood, although both of these things were done well, there are some weaknesses to them. The music was not edited to the beat of her actions, so it didn't have the full effect it could have. Also, although the lighting set the right atmosphere, at times it was difficult to see what was happening in the shots.
My score: 50 Actual score: 57
Suffocation
This film had a variety of different shots, the close ups were especially effective as we were able to clearly see the characters facial expressions which not a lot of the other films had. Although, the film started off really interesting to watch, then towards the end it goes downhill, the last shot is of the woman starring at a bottle, leaving the audience feeling confused.
My score: 36 Actual score: 42
Bridges
I like the idea of the music playing when the character has his headphones on then stopping when he takes them off as we get a sense of his point of view. Some weaknesses were that the story line is not clear, as an audience we are left feeling really confused as to what is happening, also the characters are also not represented well, we do not know the type of character they are.
My mark: 25 Actual mark: 29
Drained
This film represented the characters really well with the angles and shots they chose, giving the audience a clear idea of their roles, i also really liked the different location they used, to film in a laundry company is really unique and stands out from the rest of the films which are mostly set on the streets, in houses and alleys. A weakness of this film is that although the film doesn't get marked on grading, the boss did not look old enough to come across as threatening to the audience, so it did not have the full impact on the audience that it could have if an older actor was used.
My mark: 50 Actual mark: 58
Maze
The music was very appropriate for the film, I liked that they chose the song 'We're Over' which is actually related to the storyline of her running away from an abusive relationship which other films did not do, it gives the audience a clearer idea of the storyline and what the character is going through. A weakness of this is that it can be quite distracting for the audience as it was too loud.
My mark: 54 Actual mark: 56
I then further analysed two films, one successful and one not as successful, I have explained what I liked about the film and what I would improve.
Drained 58/60
The first shot in 'Drained' is an establishing shot is of a laundry company, this is a very different location to other British Social Realism's where your first view normally gives the audience a hint to the type of storyline and characters that will be involved, for example, if an alley way was shown, this would connote the film will include gangs and violence. But this does not give much away of the characters and the storyline that will follow from this shot. I think this is successful because it is a very unique location to have the first shot of which keeps us as an audience curious of what will happen.
The first view of Joe that we see is from a low angle, making him look more intimidating to the audience, connoting that he has authority and power over the character shown in the previous shot. Although the shot was successful, his facial expression does not make him look intimidating or powerful, damaging the effect that the shot should have on the audience.
At 0:41, there is a close up of a clock, this then transitions into a close up of a washing machine, I found this shot really clever because they go into one another smoothly without a jump. This also introduces the title of the film, showing the link between the name of the film 'Drained' and the laundry setting again.
At 1:55 there is a high angle of this character, making her look younger and more vulnerable. I feel this shot was really appropriate because it is followed by a two shot denoting her being aggressively grabbed on the arm by the authoritative character previously showed. This choice of order is really effective because we see the relationship between the two characters and the power that he has over her because she looked so much more smaller and innocent than him. I feel that the two shot is not as successful as it could be because we can only see his facial expression not hers. This takes away the empathy we should feel for the character because we can not see how she is reacting to his actions.
Fast Life 32/60
This film was not as successful as Drained, there are a number of improvements I would make to it.
| I think this shot is successful because it sets the location well, we can see the area is a busy everyday high road, a typical location of a British Social Realism. Although I feel 10 seconds for this one shot was too long, the audience will not stay interested. Also, this one shot was enough to make the audience familiar with the location, they did not need the bus stop times (0:09) or the car (0:21) these shots were irrelevant and did not add anything to the film. |
At 1:04 we are introduced to two other characters in the alley, again, their clothing represents who they are well, but the long shot takes away the impacts of their characters. In the following shot they are shown chasing him, so to make them look more threatening, they should have been introduced with close ups on their facial expressions so that the audience feels more worried by what they are going to do, instead of them looking exactly like the previous character.
At 1:29 the title of the film is introduced, I don't think this worked well at all. The title should have been added to one of the shots, not played on a black background as it interrupts the whole film. Also, the typography does not represent the film in any way at all, I would change this so it fits with the film.
In this shot, I liked the idea of seeing the fridge from his point of view, but the shot is again shown for too long and the audience loses interest in just looking at an empty fridge.
Overall, this film was not that interesting to watch, most of the shots were shown for too long, the camera language was shakey and the characters were not well represented.
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