Whilst in the middle of our productions of film opening, I watched this children's film based on Daniel Handlers (aka Lemony Snicket) strange book series and thought that it's opening went directly against many of the things we have learnt about creating a good film opening. I think this adds to the overall quirkiness of the film from 2004 and has also made me think a lot about just what makes a good opening and whether certain norms are actually necessary, despite that fact that it is not from our genre.
The film begins with very happy, chirpy music, leading into an animation. Not only does this initially cast doubt among the audience, but when the title of the film first appears as The Littlest Elf, and not what the films title actually is, it begins to make people question either why the film makers are showing them this (if it's significant) or if they are actually watching the correct film! I think this cleverly sets up the unsettled feel that runs throughout most of the film without being too obvious.
Lemony Snicket's A series of Unfortunate Events Opening (0:00 - 0:50) Please ignore Analysis!
Character - Girl, around age 18, looking slightly scruffy and messed up. She has no idea who she is except for the fact that she can not speak and communicates through writing. Name idea: Ariadne Russo? Accent however, evident in her voice over (or thoughts), giving the audience a clue as to where she's from. She may not realise her accent? As she has never spoken.
There has been an off screen inciting incident - pressure ball theory leading to her breaking. No parents, has suffered some kind emotional trauma that made her forget and stop speaking. See's a person that stirs her memories whilst she is following the blank map, and she feels as if something will happen to him? They may have been involved in another incident that caused her trauma, and in some respects, amnesia and caused him to disappear.
He knows who she is, he is the only vague memory she has and she doesn't truly know him. She has the map but doesn't know where it came from (but it really came from him). A single number on the map stirs this feeble memory, a number that relates to how many days she knew him. Perhaps he wrote them down? A house number or maybe coordinates for a place?
Setting outside a train station (changed due to restraints on filming), still retains the idea crowds and urban setting that contrasts to her personality, yet is also a little gritty. She is waiting, debating whether or not to board the train to her next destination
Guys names: Liam? Isaac?
The last line spoken of the film would be said by the main protagonist (Ariadne?) who has not uttered a single word throughout the entire film. She says the boys name.
Inglorius Bastards, a film directed by Quentin Tarantino, begins as many older films conventionally did - with the credits. Even just this staement here and that fact that they are set to older music imeadiately establishes the idea that the film will not be set modern day, establishing setting and even the tone of the film in the first minute. The visuals play a key aspect here, working well with the soundtrack as it develops.
The screen is entirely black and white for the credited opening, white font on a black background. The font itself is reflective of the mood of the film, with the names of the principle actors being written in it first in a clear, serif style. When the main title of the film is introduced in a different, scripted font, the music bulids to a small crescenedo, drawing the audiences attention to it. It then returns to the normal font, continuing on with the credit roll on the quieter moments of the music. The actors are listed of in an order of importance and also of fame, with only a new star being singles out by another musical crescendo. Throughout all this, the audience is constantly left wondering when the main narrative will begin, creating a sense of enigma.
But what is enigma? A dictionary definition: A person or thing that is mysterious, puzzling, or difficult to understand or a riddle or paradox. In filmic terms, enigma is the way in which you keep your audience hooked. There is enough mystery in the scene or indeed film to keep them questioning and wanting to know the answers. This film succesfully does by using the plain opening credits simply as a way of increasing anticipation. The audience gradually grows to want the credits to be gone and the narative to start. It also poses the question of how the setting and actors introduced will fit into the story and if the credits have reflected the film well enough. When the film does eventually reach the screen, the audience is presented with mainly long shots of typical everyday actions of the characters they are seeing - the hanging of washing, the choopping of wood. Instantly, the setting and time framing a fully established, and the sound of the constantly chopping wood builds some kind of suspense, mimicking the sound of a heartbeart.
After seeing the film Warm Bodies, I thought that it's style of opening was one that could be very interesting to look at and so I decided to include it as one of my studied film openings. The premise of this film, based on the amazing novel by Isaac Marion, explores the life of a zombie, known simply as "R" the only remaining fragment of his real name. Therefore, in the novel, a great deal of the first few chapters are purely introverted thoughts coming from R's narration. This could have been a disaster to translate to screen, but the clever use of voice over provides a witty and strangely thought provoking introduction to the unusual film.
One of the things I find most interesting about this particular use of voice over is the way in which it captures the idea of immediate thought, rather than reminiscence or indeed explanation. This could have easily appeared too descriptive or monotonous, but the dialogues constant switching between mild humour and serious thought kept me hooked throughout the entire beginning. The images on screen also reflect everything that is being said by R, or contrast to it respectively. An example of this is when we see the abandoned airport transformed by a flashback in time to see living people at Christmas. Whilst R is thinking of what it was like when everyone could communicate, the people in the flashback are doing the exact opposite: everyone is in their own world influenced by technology, interaction at its minimum. In this scene, the audience is already presented with this strange contrast of ideas and what the idea of connecting with people really means. Is it as R believes it, present and physical, or as we perceive it, through long distance connectivity? However, whilst posing these deep conundrums, the lighthearted, gentle music in the background lightens the mood, completely contrasting again to the dark lighting and miserable, destroyed mise en scene. It also connotes to me some kind of innocence or even naivety, similar to that in Forrest Gump, yet here it is far more subtle and presented in a less 'childish' way.
Along with this, many of the camera angles used are quite static and focus slowly on the mindless shuffling of the zombies and R, reflecting I think, the lack of life in them. This is juxtaposed next to the faster, sweeping movement of the camera as it circles into the living flashback, connoting the idea of busy, flowing life. The colours used in this scene are also far brighter than the dull greys scene on the zombie ridden airport, similar to the warm lighting.
Addressing the subject of works of literature being adapted into film is quite tricky. Often, much of the book is sacrificed in its transition to screen and for obvious reasons. However, sometimes this does effectively narrow the storyline completely, as smaller back stories not key to the main narrative are cut. I think in some adaptations, this can be a downfall of the film - some of the charm that fills the book is removed for the purposes of fast past storyline to keep the audiences attention. It always falls into the hands of the script writers, deciding what to include and what to miss out, as many a time, smaller key moments have been cut to fit in those of pure action (an example of this is the Destruction of the Burrow scene in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince) that are sometimes invented for the film. In the case of Warm Bodies, they have captured the feel of the novel nearly perfectly. Director Jonathan Levine, although lightening its mood, has kept the story exact to the sentiments shared by Isaac Marion in the novel, with the exception of the latter part of the film where the storyline changes. Of course, as a reader who enjoyed the novel immensely, I would have liked to see some of the character development worked on. But of course, the scope of the film will not often include all that the writers deem to be unnecessary. But, in the case of this film, I think the filmmakers have produced something that is one of the most faithful representations of (non-Young Adult) literature I have seen in a while.
Whilst thinking of ideas that we are developing for our main task, our group decided to brainstorm a few of the ideas and develop them, particularly look at the conventions of both narrative and technique. We began to consider some key camera shots to emphasise the themes of the storyline we were thinking of, such as a focus on smaller aspects of the main characters appearance to increase the sense of enigma and contrast long shots with close shots to reference confusion. We were particularly concerned with the idea of creating enough mystery and suspense without confusing the audience, yet also had to be careful of showing the audience too much. From this, we moved on to the ideas of the McGuffin and voice overs. We had an idea of a non-labelled map, the McGuffin, which our main character would carry. This was symbolic of the girls state of mind and also presented a mystery that needed to be solved. The voice over was merely a spur of the moment idea which later on in development came to be a little more important.
Following this, we began to develop the character we had in mind, thinking of a key theme: isolation. This lead to us thinking of the kind of clothing she would wear, dark and earthy tones to reflect how she stands out from the crowds. She is a strange juxtaposition in a busy setting, and we thought the perfect setting for this would be the London underground, as it can appear to be very cinematic. The lighting is light but muffled, the trains create loud, passing sounds and the platforms are often busy.
However, this was put to rest a few days later as we enquired about filming on location in the Underground, and realised that the financial limitations of our production would make it quite impossible to film there. We began reworking some of our main ideas after this, and started drafting a synopsis and pitch for our idea...
