City of God - Opening Analysis

The movie begins in a fast pace. There are lots of shots and the camera moves quickly, the music staccato and upbeat. Along with the drumlike music are lots of sound effects to help create a busy atmosphere. However, contradicting the lively music is the sound of a knife being sharpened, it's interesting to see how different the atmosphere is between this movie and Delicatessen, purely by the manipulation of music. In Delicatessen, the atmosphere is one of tension and forboding, yet in City of God, the sharpening of the knife along with the jumpy pace of the camera seems natural, joyous. There are chracters dancing and clearly at ease. There are chickens being slaughtered. The camera focuses on one chicken in particular, which manages to escape, but a group of boys notice, and eventually the characters aim to recapture it. The people are all shown in a low angle shots, making them appear intimidating and of high status.

Delicatessen - Opening Analysis

The scene begins with a misty, barron landscape. We then see a restaurant from the outside, and the camera slowly zooms toward the inside of the building. The music used sets an uneasy feeling to the film, we can hear what sounds like wind getting louder and louder. The use of music helps build up to something negative we think is going to happen. We are then shown a butcher in a kitchen sharpening his knife. The only diagetic sound is the rough cleaning of his knife, it is truly a skin crawling sound effect, and gives the scene a voilent feel. After a moment the camera continues to zoom forward, this time landing on a pipe on the wall, as this happens, the sharpening of the knife increases in volume and clarity, obviously this how the knife is heard where the pipe is placed. The tension grows. We are then shown a man on the other side of the pipe. He is listening to the loud sharpening of the knife. The man shown here is smothered in blood and bandages, we can tell from his body language and facial expression that he is scared.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avuovbgoyxU&feature=youtu.be - link to opening of film.

Opening Scenes to 3 Movies of my choice

Twilight

Twilight begins with a black screen, nothing but audio is heard. There is music playing, quiet and symphonic, with high pitched notes being elongated, this immediately unnerves the audience. We then hear a woman's voice, she utters one, morose line, and the first frame appears. As the first scene is shown there are birdcalls added to the music, this matches the forest shown. The camera swoops over the forest in a high angle shot to expose a deer. From this angle, the deer looks very vulnerable, especially seeing as it is alone and the music playing foreshadows something negative is about to happen. The woman continues talking as a closer shot of the deer is displayed on the screen, it's back to us. We now get the impression that the deer and the woman speaking are related in the movie's story. As the woman stops talking the camera starts to move jerkily as if from someone's view point. In the next shot the camera zooms down from the forrest canopy and our previous assumption is confirmed as the camera chaces after the deer. The music reaches it's climax now and the scene is one of complete suspence. The visual and audio is all fastpaced until the music quietens suddenly as a person jumps out from behind the brush in slowmotion catching the deer.
The screen whites out, and reappears just as quickly showing the glaring sun. The camera zooms down to reveal a girl in a compltely new location, the music still playing quietly. Because the music continues into the next scene and the shot used is the exact same one used before on the deer, we know for a fact that the two are connected. The girl continues speaking, the camera zooming up to show us a close up of her face, this enables us to link the emotion in her face with her thoughts. As the voiceover mentions she'll miss her her mother and stepdad, the scene changes to one of them all, obviously saying goodbyes and packing to go somewhere. As the car pulls away from the driveway the music used throughout the film thus far fades away and is replaced by a slightly outdated song, it concludes of a guitar and tenor singer. The next shot following this is a back view of the woman's head, hair flowing in an open-windowed fast moving car, the scenery visible is arid, she is still in the same location as before. Then a plane taking off is featured, and we are shown two more shots of the landscape, before the camera zooms over some mountain tops, displaying the words 'SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS' and the screen whites out, reappearing with the word 'twilight' and a helicopter view of a completely different landscape, there are still mountains but they are covered with snow and shrubbery and the whole warmness in terms of lighting used in the previous scene is deduced, everything now appears greyer. This is a dramatic change in scenery. And very similar to the first scene showed in the film, the one with the deer.
A bridge is shown with a single car driving over it as the girl continues talking. The movie is taking to a fastpace now. Her mental thoughts give us information on her location, linking to what we see on-screen. She is shown to be sitting in the car with her dad, Charlie, and small talk it made between them. The scene then skips to one of them arriving at what is to be her new home. The music and voiceover continues. As her father begins to talk, everything non-diegetic haults, and the scene plays out with him simply introducing her to her new bedroom. As Charlie leaves her to unpack, her voiceover begins again. We are told her thoughts and feelings whenever she can't voice them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1R1zf0ZUiE - link to opening of film.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

The Nightmare Before Christmas begins with a blank screen with creepy music in the background, text pops up on the screen, reading 'TOUCHSTONE PICTURES PRESENTS' along with the symphonies in the background climbing in volume and pitch till 'TIM BURTON'S THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS' appears. The music calms as the scene begins, a high angle shot rotates cloc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pna8Nns688 - link to opening of film.

Pride and Prejudice


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU5iB1Ph20w - link to opening of film.

Children of Men - Opening Scene Screen Shots Analysis

In this scene, we see a group of people, all adults and ranged from police officers, to businessmen to someone in casual wear. They appear to be in some kind of shop, as you can see rows of sandwiches being refrigerated on a shelf, and a television in the corner ceiling. All of the peoples' eyes are trained on the same thing; something important. However, them man centre of the frame (him being centre signals he is most important) is completely turned away so we can't see his face, resolutely ignoring whatever the people around him are watching. This immediately makes him stand out from the group, symbolising his abnormality. Also the lighting in this scene is rather dim, this perhaps means that the genre is  of a darker kind. 

This shot is mainly to tell us that this part of the movie is set in the future. We see text at the bottom of the screen dating the scene and telling us where it is set. The background supports this information because we see futuristic cars being driven on the road, and though contradicting, old wagons which are only really used in england. The wagons, like most of the objects in the scene, have a slight grimy appearance to them. This could tell us that London is going through a rough time. The buildings are fairly ordinary, but electronic advertisements are shown on the walls. People are walking around, going about their own ways, which tells us this is just your ordinary London street. The light in the sky tells us that is is either dawn or dusk.

We can see cars and a typical London bus on the street, this initially gives us the impression that the man is on a London road. A huge amount of smoke is emanating from one of the buildings. We know there has been a sudden explosion. The several people we can see in this scene are all ducking and running from the explosion, which means it is in the midst of happening. Also the man closest to the screen has spilled his coffee in reaction to the sound. The people are obviously shocked. The man who has spilled his coffee is perhaps the protagonist because the angle in which the camera has been placed almost makes it look like we are seeing the scene from his point of view.

Obviously the main focus in this image is the televsion screen. Although surrounding it are props such as plates and coffee making essential, and that tells us that maybe this shot is taken in a coffee shop. The screen reads 'BREAKING NEWS', and in the upper right coner there is a picture of a child, below the child's face is 'BABY DIEGO 2009-2027'. This information links together as it is shown on the same television screen and we sum up that 'baby diego' has passed away and this is shocking news. At first thought we think that maybe his death is so important because he was famous for one reason or another, which links us to the background image on the television screen. We can assume this is the grown up Diego, pictured so people can relate to the image, or perhaps this is a clip showing the moments righ before his death. Of course we can only assume the adult is Diego, as much clues aren't given.

The most interesting thing in this frame is the mix of old and new cars on the road. This tells us that perhaps the society shown is very mixed. The lighting is overcast, either it is dawn or sunset. Both times of day are used to the effect that something is about to happen. The characters displayed look like they are going about their usual buisness. Nothing is really out of the norm in this frame.

This shot is very shocking. The smoke immediately tells us there has been a sort of catastrophe, whether that be fire or explosion. We can see only one character in this frame, a woman looking up at the sky, her body at a strange tilt, this can mean she is in distress or maybe mad. She is holding what appears to be a human arm, this knolwedge tells us there was most likely an explosion strong enough to harm others but not kill everyone in it.

The fridge and wallpaper displaying words like 'cappucino' and 'caffiene' tell us this scene is set in a type of coffee shop. The store is crowded with people, though none look like how you would when usually just purchasing food from a store, especially one such as a coffee shop which are reknowned to be a place to relax. The people are all middle-aged and above, this may mean that they're situated area is not for children, or that there simply are no children. Their expressions range from shock, appauled and distress. Their eyes are all trained at the same thing. At the very back of the shop we see a television screen, seeing as most shops own several televisions, we can assume they are watching a television screen.

This frame shows several people, mainly just average citizens and a pair of police officers. We see a London bus on the road, which tells us the scene is most probably set in London. We can see a small patch of the sky between the buildings. The sky is of a pale orange colour, and this ties to old wives tales such as, 'red sky at night shephard's delight, red sky in the morning, shephard's warning', and from the lightness of the sky we can estimate this scene is set at dawn. The weather itself has purely foreshadowed danger.

The mid shot on the man in the centre of the frame tells us instantly he is the main focus. His back is to us, which makes us as an audience curious, and enables the man to appear secretive. He could also be the protagonist.

Understanding The Media Is Vital To Modern Life

In this day and age, society is almost completely consumed by media. Large and small buisness' alike generally have their own websites and/or facebook pages. We as a people use things like television, radio, magazines and the internet to get by in life, whether they be used as a method to communicate with others with day-to-day conversations or a way to promote products (for example) if involved in buisness.
Quintessentially, to get by nowadays both career-wise and simply to relate to other people we must understand the way things are disrtibuted to an audience.
Purposes of media include entertainment, informing and educating, and using media technology to distribute and to gain from has become such a vitality in the recent world. Media is a way for people to relate to others. It enables our societies to convey their thoughts and ideas, feelings and information.
The more we use and understand media, the bigger chance it has to manipulate us.
We are ridiculously dependant on media. It is drummed into our lives through social sites such as faceboook and twitter, through online shopping, phones, advertisement on television and billboards. Yes, media has made it possible to communicate and be informed all around the planet easily, but it is inevitably taking over the way we view things.
Buisnesses use all kinds of devices to soak their product into our everyday lives, and this is all mainly advertisement shown on television, billboards, the internet, newspapers and magazines.
A truly great thing about media is that it us useful to everyone. There is something for a person of any age, gender or culture. It informs us of important issues like wars and impending natural disasters.
A bad thing about media is that it perhaps controls and influences the public too much. Of course there are negative effects, for example, models being shown in a cigarette ad is both encouraging and influencing the young and naive to smoke and be unaturally thin - two things that are definitely not positive.

We must understand the media. Without acknowledging the importance of the media in modern life we'd find it hard to get ahead in more or less anything because it's become such a dependant thing. I feel that like everything, media has it good points and bad points, but I believe it depends souly on how you interpret and use it.