BLOG NO.4: Film opening research of 2 films

• First film-Bird box (2018)

• Director: Susanne Bier

• Film studio: Blue grass film, Netflix

• Staring: Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, John Malkovich

• Link: on Netflix

Analytical summary of scenes:

The establishing shot and birds-eye view reveals where the story mainly takes place, which is on a life less river. The birds-eye view is not an angle that the audience can normally see, and this puts a bit of pressure on them as they watch. This is an usage of Barthes's theory of symbolic code, where if nothing live on the river surface can be seen, it acts as a symbol for a prohibited and threatful area to the audience which makes them doubtful. Editing makes the cool color tone unsaturated which foreshadows mystery and danger to the audience that may take place later on in the story, and this is an effective way to build suspense.

Depressing music mix with sounds from the radio creates a worrying emotion and hints that somebody may need to be rescued. This involves the usage of Barthes's Hermeneutic code, as not enough information has been given in this part of the film to tell the audience who exactly is in danger. This hooks and intrigues the audience's attention by making them think what may have happened before which caused this, and this is an element which adds on to the film to make it a lot more thrilled to watch. L-cut blends from the title into the women talking, which helps the audience to enjoy the film by keeping their visual continuality.

The second scene of the film opening starts unordinary with an extreme slow zoom-out from the close-up shot on the women's face which creates tension back to the over-the-shoulder shot over the non-replying children as she's talking non-stop. This is a very long cut, and no establishing shot is given any time soon to present their surroundings which makes the audience feel uncomfortable. Thus, from the analysis of semantic code, the audience can connotate that her speech is unusual, urgent, and extremely important to the children.

Here, the back ground music is high pitched with a failing tone, and also has wind, whistle, and hallucinating sound effects. These sounds are not what we're used to hear everyday, so this is an usage of Barthes's theory of Proairetic code which creates and stresses tension to the audience and act as a hint of supernatural forces happening all around the characters which makes it hard to experience for us.

The Point-of-view shot along with desperate breathing sounds of the women looking out from inside of the cloth really pulls the audience into the story, and the back and forth jump cuts between the POV to the unusually-angled and placed ghost shots makes the film very stressful and nervous for the audience to watch. These allows the audience to experience through the women's perspective, and through semantic code, overall, it presents them perfectly with her anxious and worrying emotion.

What I've learned and how have it influenced my ideas?

From watching 'Bird Box', I've especially noticed how color grading and different kinds of sound usages like failing tone, whistle, and hallucination effect the mood and the atmosphere of a movie. And as 'Bird Box' is a thriller, it allows me to think critically about which of the above elements can be referred and used in my own thriller opening to generate the desired creep for my audience to feel.

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• Second film-The Adventure of TINTIN (2011)

• Director: Steven Spielberg

• Film studio: Paramount/Columbia Pictures, originated from Herge's comics

• Voice Cast: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig

• Link: on Bilibili

Analytical summary of scenes

The establishing shot involves a combination of pan, tilt, and ped from the paint pallet to the over-the-hip shot. Throughout the camera movement, the crowded people shown in the back ground along with sounds of people talking suggests that the characters are in a market place, and the elegant back ground music used Barthes' semantic code, where the audience can connotate the atmosphere of the market to be calm and peaceful. This makes the audience to relax while watching this scene, which goes well with the friendly conversation between the two characters.

Soon after, a series of hand-held shots combined along with some fast paced cuts are used to inform the audience about an incident of robbery. This involves Barthes' action code, where every movement of the robber has been designed to reflect his consummate skill of pick-pocketing, and the back ground music has changed ever so slightly that it is a bit more live to go with the action. With these features combined, the audience are brought in action with the robber, and this helps them to better identify the robber's advanced skill.

Here, the protagonist asks his most intimate buddy-Snowy, if he'd run off to chase cats again. And in a nearby scene, the protagonist had received a warning from a stranger. This is where some of the first few foreshadowing takes place in the story. It creates a sense of hint and dramatic tension for the audience, and as an effect, this also increases their anticipation. Later on, when Snowy had actually chased cats, it resulted in one of the most significant clue appearing (The paper draft), and the 'boat' that the protagonist bought had actually lead him to a series of dangers and adventures.

Here, racking focus is applied from the protagonist on to the boat. When the focus is on the protagonist, action code has shown that when he noticed the boat behind him, he is instantly attracted to it. And then when the focus racks on to the boat, it’s stunning details have been reflected clearly to the audience which allows them to connotate that the boat is intriguing to people due to it's absolutely beautiful style. This in addition also makes the audience to think that there can be interesting things happening related to this boat later on in the story.

What I've learned and how have it influenced my ideas?

From watching 'The adventure of TINTIN', I've especially noticed how the usage of mise-en-scene like props can influence the effects of a story. I believe that the reason why as an animated film, 'The adventure of TINTIN' is successful because of how realistic it is, and this is achieved with the help of excellent thoughts and practice on elements of mise-en-scene throughout the whole film. Even though my own film is not animated, from watching this movie, I've understand that it's similarly crucial for props and mise-en-scene elements to be applied in my own film opening to create the wanted effect.