Three film opening comparisons

SIN CITY

The film opens with the opening titles telling you who produced the films. 'Trouble maker studios is written in black with a background of fire. You hear a gun shot with a shell falling to the ground. This helps set the tone of the film before you even see any sequence on screen. Its very dark and grim. The flames disperse and you hear the sound of busy passing traffic and Jazz music begins to play. The film starts with a black and white bleak scene on top of a balcony. A women dressed in a long red dress [ the only colour in the opening, along with her red lipstick] walks to the edge of the balconly, leaning ono the side. You then hear a man with a husky voice who begins to do a voice over. ' she shivers in the wind like the last leaf on a dying tree' This is the opening line. He carries a serious tone, he builds up imagry and its strange because no one speaks in metaphores and similies. After some speech a man walks over to her, he's wearing a sharp suit with slicked back hair. He offers her a cigarette and they both smoke together. she says ' are you as bored of that crowd as i am.' indicating that they are at some kind of party together. 'ive watched you for days, you're all a man could ever want' He says. This gives us a little background information, but not enough to really know what is going on just yet. Rain starts to fall as they embrace. The scene turns into animated monochrome effect. The voice over returns saying ' i tell her i love her' and she is shot in the back instantly after. At first, we don't know who it is. Until the you see the gun in his hand. Which confuses the audience of why he would kill someone he loves. The final thing the voice over says is, 'i'll cash her cheque in the morning' This brings up a whole new motive. The camera then pans out and gives an establishing shot of the city.

This is obviously a film with complete neo - noir conventions. The voice overs, the confusion, the props and costume. The black and white setting. These are just a few. The opening of the titles straight away gives the impression that this film will be some sort of crime thriller. The sound of the gun shot gives us this impression. The dialogue is the typical hard boiled noir character. Confusing, with a lot of imagery. The sort of dialogue we really have to listen to to understand. Not like evrery day language. It gives a little background information, but not enough to know if it is the start or ending of a film. But as most noirs/neo noirs start at the end we can only presume we'd have to watch on and see how that situation had arisen. As the rain falls, and the scene changes to a fake monochrome effect. This makes it seem as if it's not real. A dream of some sort perhaps? It's one of those conventions where it becomes confusing and we don't really know whats happening. The sound, and mise- en - scene is very important to this opening scene. The music, an old, slow, jazz tune. Is very noir themed. It sets a seedy type of scene where anything can happen. The mise- en - scene is more than important. It tells us what kind of film it is. The womans red dress against the bleak black and white background makes us think this is important. Because she is the only person who has any type of real colour. As its red, it could stand for lust, romance or danger. [typical of noir/neo noir themes] The cigarette they smoke together also is very noir, the smoke lingers in the air and its a very typical convention. It gives the charecters a cool edge. A careless edge. The rain is another typical convention. It adds drama to the scene. The one thing about this film is they have made everything more over the top, as if they are telling you, without stating it is a neo noir. For example the cigarette smoke is very visable. The rain is thicker, they both look very fake. Because they want the audience to see it and to get the picture of the neo noir feel.

Dark Knight

The dark knight is a thriller film. The titles are very dark too. The 'warner brothers' symbol is in a dark navy colour surrounded by darkness. Which is then evaporated into blue smoke. Which fades into the current day. There is eerie music playing in the background. With slight violins to give it a frightening touch. It sounds as if a clock is ticking, to show the essence of time, and how it is running out. There is an establishing shot to show where the film starts. The music cross fades into the starting sequence. There is then about five cut away shots to see men in different locations, weraring clown masks. We never see their faces in the sequence. They have big guns and bags and are approaching a bank. It pretty much speaks for itself. They are about to rob a bank. They all travel in from different locations. They cut to the different men in different locations as they are speaking. ' So why do they call him a joker' The film is based on batman and the joker so straight away they are talking of one of the main charecters. They break into the bank shooting passers by and getting into the safe. Then all the men with masks start to betray each other by shooting them after they have done one of their tasks of getting into the bank. They say they were all promised money, thus they want it for themselves. A bus crashes into a building as they bundle the money in the truck the last surviving robbers are shot by the last robber there. He takes off his mask and reveals himself as the joker.

This film is set in the day time, modern area of New York. But dark events are happening. The sound throughout the scene stays very eerie. Though the pace gets quicker, this represents the rush of time and how they are under pressure to rob the bank before they get caught. The mis-en-scene is pretty dark. The masks have a frightening film as you don't know who these people are and why they are doing this task. All you know is that they are doing it for the joker. They have typical conventions like a big bank safe and the equipment to get into it. The guns they use to kill off each other and the by standers. The shots are very simple but effective. Establishing shots, close ups and high and low angle shots. The close up is used in one particular point that makes the most effect. This is when the joker reveals himself. The shot stays on him for a good 3 or 4 seconds which is important because up till this point the shots have all been snappy and quick to keep the pace up. As the shot stays on him, we know he is going to be an important charecter in the film. The high and low angle shot is used in a particular place too. There is a bank owner who tries to get his own back on the robber with his shot gun. The first angle you see him in is a low angle shot to make him seem heroic and brave. By the end of the scene he is on the floor with dynamite in his mouth, in which the joker put in, and they use a high angle shot to show his feeble and afraid body. This is important. This shows how if you mess with the joker there will be hell to pay.