Analyzing Opening Scene

Opening scenes

Opening scenes are a huge part of a movie, they grab the audiences attention into watching the movie. There's different elements and techniques in opening scenes and here's about it.

Key features of an opening scene

Opening scenes consist of features and elements that makes them opening scenes and here are some key features of an opening scene.

• Establishing Setting

Establishing setting, it draws audience in and give them an insight into where the film is set. It gives clues into the plot and narrative of the story while giving context about character and further details about the film.

• Mise-en-scene 

Mise en scene is everything that is captured in a frame is put in the movie for a reason, it is very important in the opening scene. How the character looks and what they wear tells the viewer muchs more about how the movie will be in terms of visuals.

• Character placement

Character placement represents different status and class or the relationship between the characters in the film.

• Representing genre

In representing genre audiences csn tell what sort of film they're about to watch, to find what kind of genre is in a film you can use the conventions for each type of genres.

• Cinematography

Cinematography is how you present the footage because it is an important part of opening scenes. How it appears visually to the audience can tell a lot about the movie. Some films have to be aesthetically pleasing and have a plot and narrative basic that audiences will want to watch.

These are the key features ina opening scene and some details about each one of them.

Purpose and reason of an opening scene

Opening scenes are the first very few shots in a movie which can tell you a lot about the movie before even having the opportunity to watch that movie. Opening scenes gives meanings and narrative to a story, that opening scene can be the reason why you do watch the movie and it can also be the reason why you don't watch the movie. Different opening scenes have a variety of ways to express their narrative and stories, and they are multiple types of opening scenes but here five of them, Prologue, Inciting incident, Day in the life, Cold open or teaser and flash forward. They all have a purpose and reasons for being used in an opening scene. Opening scenes can help you find the genre of the film they'res multiple ways to find that throught genre conventions but sometimes you only need the opening scene to be able to tell what time of genre the film is. Opening scenes are very important in a film and they serve a good purpose for the film and the audience.

Similarities in an opening scene

To show my understanding of opening scenes I will be putting the informations about similarities in an opening scene. The genre that I shoose to make these similarities are, Romance, Comedy, and Horror.

Visual elements

In any opening scenes you do want the scenes and shots to be as visual as it can and to draw you audience into it. In Romance, Comedy, and Horror they all start with shots that would make your eyes wow so you, the audience can want to watch the film based on its visuals.

Auditory elements

Movies consist audio, some movies don't but for most of the movies they do consist od auditory elements. In genres all the audio are different but they also share their similarities. In romance, Comedy, and Horror in the opening seen you should expect music that would set the tone of the movie and put you on a mood to watch it. This is one the similarities between these three genres.

Character developement

I would say they are very much similarities between these three genre, romance, comedy, and horror. By the end of the opening scene in these genre you are likely to find the important characters of the film that will help set up the story and you are most likely to meet your main character and form an connection with them. This is something that these three genres have in common in character developement.

Plot introduction

Introducing the plot is something that usually happens in the opening scene of a movie and it really gives you an idea of what to expect in the movie. Romance, Comedy, and horror has their on way of introducting the plot in their films. They also have ways in common to introduce their plot, it might be by using a prologue, inciting incident, day in the life, cold open, flash forward but these are the common ways that they all can introduce the plot of their story.

Representation

Movies have ways of representing themselves to an audience or a viewer and in these three genres which are romance, comedy, and horror they all represent their films differently but they also do it similarly. They all have to have a great representation because its what audiences are going to look for and it what's going to make the audience want to watch or pay full attention to the film. These three movies have their own similar ways to represent a film.

In all of my researches I learn and studied a lot about opening scenes, I am now able to teach and imform someone else about opening scenes.

Sources: The 5 types of opening scenes: An analysis of 80 films, Main feature of an opening scene, 5 essential types of powerful opening scenes.

Sources

MasterClass. (2021, August 25). What is mise en scène in film? - 2022. MasterClass. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-mise-en-scene-in-film

Top 3 Films

 Top 3 Films

While researching and learning about film's opening we got assigned to pick our 3 top films and talk about their opening scene analyze and learn from them. This is one my assignments for blog and research. I picked 3 top films, which are Mean girls, Like a boss, and Girls trip. Let's learn about their opening scenes.

Mean Girls

https://youtu.be/rekn_T5ZAfw

Summary

 Mean girls was released in April 2004, written by Rosalind Wiseman and directed by Mark Waters. This movie is about a teenage girl who was raised by her scientist parents in Africa who then moved to the suburbs in Illinois. Her name is Cady and when she moved, she got to experience going to public school and all the things that happened outside of her life. By being the new girl she somehow got into the main friend group at school which everyone considerers to be the cool students who were called "The Plastics" Cady begins to pick up everything and realizes how her new friend group are and how they move.

Opening scene

The opening scene of the movies is what grabs audiences attention into watching it and since its the opening scene it is one of the most important scenes in the movie. The opening scene was 4 minutes and 55 seconds long. In the opening scene it gives us some background detail about the main character that could help up get a jump start into the movie. The opening scene then proceeds to go into her first day of school where it seems to be very different for her, where she doesn't make any new friends and gets yelled by her teachers which is something she says had never happened to her. By the end of the opening scene she ends up eating lunch in the bathroom and it continued to where she got home and her parents asked about her day she rushes inside in an upseting mood. This is how the opening scene of mean girls played out.

Connection

The opening scene of mean girls connects to the movie because at first it teaches us about the character and where they've been and what they're doing now which made us up to speed on where the movie will pick up from. At school she seems to be getting it off from the start which is what happens in the movie but she eventually got better. In the opening scene she did not have any friends and had to eat her lunch in the bathroom but in the movie she did make multiple new friends who she could eat her lunch with. The opening scene of mean girls connects to the movie by letting the viewer know about background details and giving expectetions and prediction on how the movie will be.

Like a Boss

https://youtu.be/JgTRe4Lb1Ww

Summary

Like a boss is  2020 comedy film written by Sam Pitman and Adam Cole-Kelly and directed by Miguel Arteta. This movie is about two best friends, Mia and Mel who run their own cosmetics company. Their company got to a point where it would be hard for them financially and they are thinking about selling the business. This cosmetics business get the best of them and it puts their lifelong friendship to a sturdy situation. By the end of the movies they eventually got their business back into action and their friendship continued. 

Opening scene

In every movie must come an opening scene to get the audience to want to watch the movie, let's analyze and learn about Like a boss's opening scene. It started off with a picture of a house while someone was talking in the background which is known as a J-cut, the conversation between the two characters continued on the phone which then proceedes to them getting up and going to the same bathroom which might be a surprise to some audiences. They conversation they were having was pretty funny which makes the viewer want to hear more and learn more about what happended in the conversation. The opening scene ended there following some pictures and detailed memories about the two characters. Over all the opening scene of the movie Like a boss lated 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

Connection

In this movies the opening scene gave us two best friends who were having conversations then proceeds to background information about them through memory pictures. This opening scene connects with the movie because it let us know details about the characters and what they do. The opening scene lets us know that they are lifelong friends which in the movie they are and seems to go into details in the movies, they are both business woman who work together the opening scene showed that by editing cosmetics products during the sequence.

Girl's trip

https://youtu.be/LwIqXtivAV0

Summary

Girl's trip, directed by Malcom D. Lee and published in 2017 is about four great lifelong friends who after years grew apart. One of them had a chance for a vacation and planned a trip for all to reunite and instead be a girls trip, they got to catch up and again be friends but something happens during the trip where they all had a huge argument and went their separate ways. They were lifelong friends after all and by the end of the movie their friendship stayed and grew stronger. 

Opening scene

The opening scene of Girls trip, lets analyze it. The scene started with a voiceover then to the characters dancing at an event. The voice over was giving information about the friend group, how they met, what they do and their overall friendship. It gives throwback videos and pictures of their friend group then comes back to the present on what their friend group is doing now and how they all moved on. It gives funny moments of them from the past and them now which makes the audience wanting more of the characters friendships and their personalities. The scene gets to a part after introducing all the characters where it describes how their friendship slowly went away. The opening scene lasted 3 minutes 30 seconds, introducing the characters and giving us some information and details about their past and their present.

Connection

The  plot of the story is how friends can grow apart and reunite to the strongest bond. The opening scene connects to the story because it gives us information on how the friend group was in the beginning and how it slowly started to shift. With the opening scene we now know that the movie is about a friend group who likely will reunited because in the end of the opening scene it describes how one of the characters started missing one other which gives us a prediction that the friend group will be back together.

Compare and Contrast

The three opening scenes have great sequences that would grab audiences attention into watching the movie. I will be comparing and contrasting the different opening scenes in the three movies.

Visual elements

• In mean girls you can tell that the movie is not so new because of the lightning the shots, and the mise-en-scene compared to like a boss and a girls trip that they are new movies and their lightning is much more light and colored.
• They all had different settings, mean girl was mostly in a school, girls trip in a vacation spot and like a boss at a company
• Mean girl has the clothes that would now be considered old and the other two movies have the now fashion look
• Mean girl is a PG 13 movie and like a boss and a girls trip are both r rated but they all are comedy.
• Mean girls opening scene gave us flashbacks and background details on how the movie is about to start.
• Like a boss opening scene made us think that it was all about cosmetics because all the edits in the opening scene were about it.
• A girls trip was about how their friendship was at the beginning, giving us details and information on the characters and to the present on where and what they are now doing.

Auditory elements

• The sounds from mean girl was a voiceover  for the opening scene and little diologues in the scene.
• Like a boss was just conversations between two characters
• A girls trip was one of the main characters who was giving us background information and knowlege.
• They are all different conversations and different sounds.
• They're music were all different from each other since they all mostly had different topics and different sequence.

Character

• In the movies some had one main character and others had multiple
• Mean girls had one main character with three other important characters with her.
• Like a boss had 2 main characters
• A girls trip had multiple
• In mean girls the most important one was the main on because the story was about her and her journey with friends. She seemed to be the most important character since the story was about her.
• Like a boss had 2 characters that were business parters and best friends they were both important to the movies plot and story but I think of them did play a bigger role in the overall movie.
• A girls trip did have multiple characters but one of them was doing the voice over has if she was the one telling us the story so I think she is the important one in the movie.

Representation

• In mean girl it did give the vibe that the new kid usually ends up sad about moving schools and everything seems to go wrong at school for them to usually eat lunch in the bathroom. The stereotype was that the new girls always gets upset or something always goes wrong when their new to a school.
• Like a boss, I didn't get any stereotype vibes because it was just two best friends who happends to know each other for quite some times and who own a business together.
• A girls trip give off the stereotype that even if you guys are firends for a while it always drifts apart because the opening scene had one out of the friend group doing the voice over and giving us details and catching us up about everything that happended to them losing each other.

This is the finish product of my top 3 films and I learned a lot from opening scenes while analying and going into details about these 3 opening scenes.

Film opening

Techniques

This is the start of the 2nd quarter and we are learning and talking about film opening. Opening scenes are sequences meant to grab the readers attention. During class we learned about the different techniques and here some of the different techniques used.

Technique 1- Enter the villain

-This technique is mostly used in action films, when the villain is the first to appear in the opening scene.

Technique 2- Over the hero

-In this technique the main character is usually introduced and the audience can kind of tell the key plot, or meaning from just the opening scene.

Technique 3- Establish relationships

-Establish relationship is usually used in drama and give connections between relationship in the opening scene.

Technique 4- Plot catalyst

-This technique gives a motivational mood and might be they key motivation for the movie.

Technique 5- Follow genre

-By establishing the tone of the opening scene we call this technique follow the genre. You are able to tell the genre or tone of the film by end of opening scene.

Technique 6- Flip genre/Irbid

-In this technique they use, Flashbacks, Flashforward, Dreams, Metaphors, Bookends, Red herrings, MacGuffins.

5 types of opening scenes

We learn that they are different openings scenes and that they all have different purposes, here five types of opening scenes.

1- Prologue

A montage or scene that communicates an important backstory that occurred before the events in the film. They are 2 types of prologue's: prologue montage with voiceover and prologue scene without voiceover.

• Prologue with voiceover

A prologue with voiceover is usually used in fantasy films and dumps a ton of exposition on audience at once.

• Prologue without voiceover

A prologue without voiceover is sometimes a flashback scene that reveals something important from the past, can catch us up with backstory and build sympathy for a character.

2- Inciting incident

An opening scene with an inciting incident sets the story into motion, it could be anything like a weeding, a funeral, or apocalypse. Everything is set up efficiently and is communicated visually. Can be incredibly tense, have elements of mystery and surprise.

3- Day in the life

A day in the life introduces us to the main character, there's two parts in a day in the life and they are exciting day in the life and uneventful day in the life.

• Exciting day in the life

This gives us something exciting to look forward to, they're usually multiple or the main characters in an exciting situation where it will make us viewers think about whether they will die or will they make it out alive.

• Uneventful day in the life

In this opening scene there's always something fresh or unusual about the setting, situation, dialogue, or characters. Establish the tone and genre of the movie and illustrate the overall theme of the film.

4- Cold open/ Teaser

Cold open can also be called a teaser, they are most common in horror movies, crime thrillers, and action flicks. They tend to grab the audience's attention and establish genre elements before the act. It almost never involve the film's main character, an event that has something to do with the story but gives important context.

5- Flashforward

Gives us something happening in the present of the film then goes to the past so the movie can start. Often has a voiceover narration, but not always can also be known as a prologue.

Sources

8 types of opening scenes to make your screenplay stand out. Creative Screenwriting. (n.d.). Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/8-types-of-opening-scenes-to-make-your-screenplay-stand-out/

Types of Genre

GENRES

 Over the course of these few weeks we've talked and learned about movie genre and the different type of movies, how they are composed and the means of which it does. Genre indicates certain types of movies that changes overtimes, they are convenient terms that develop informally. There are many different types of genre such as, comedy, romance, drama, action, horror etc. 

 

What is an genre

Within the different genres and type of movies changing over time, we've learned about these types of genres and here's some background about them. 

• Romantic Comedy- Romantic comedy changes over time. Two romantically related characters, and their connection is fostered or tested by the film's shenanigan premises.
• Sci-fi- Dates back to the early 20th century and brings technology advancements in society on how they can be good or bad. Sci-fi is pure predictions.
• Crime-Detective- Investigation of a crime, it goes all the way back to 1600s. Gives audiences the ability to process emotions.
• Comedy- Genre of fiction that was created of works to be humorous and to give laughter. 

While learning about different types of genre I was able to make a PowerPoint, take a look at what I was able to create through my understanding and knowledge of genres.

I now know the differences between other genres and can identify the different types of genres.

Sources

Fear, David. “50 Greatest Romantic Comedies of All Time.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 12 June 2021, https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-lists/50-greatest-romantic-comedies-of-all-time-790068/.

Hellerman, Jason. “Mastering the Comedy Genre in Movies and TV [w/ Examples].” No Film School, No Film School, 21 June 2019, https://nofilmschool.com/comedy-genre-examples-film-and-tv.

Mise-en-Scene

Mise-en-scene

Throughout our learning of media studies we've gain an understanding of mise-en-scene. Mise-en-scene is the overall look and feel of a movie, the sum of everything a movies it. It is the most important in all films and has these components that all goes into creating a movie such as, lightning, composition, designs, kinesis, costumes, settings, etc. Mise-en-scene means literally staging or putting on an action. It's mostly used to help describe the aspects that goes into cinematography and the designs of a film. Mise-en-scene is the a whole when it comes to creating a movie.

Mise-en-scene itself

Mise-en-scene is a French word and it literally means "staging or putting on an action or scene" It affects how we feel and think of the characters in the story. Mise-en-scene allows us the viewer to experience some type of time and place, it contains two major visual components that are design and composition. Let's look at the research I've made based on these to major visual components.

 

-Design: The process by which the setting is determined. Design is the look of the setting, props, lightning, and actors which are the main components of design. Design helps express a movie's vision and create a convincing sense of time, space, and mood. In design there's someone that specifically does it and its called a movie designer.

        *A movie designer is is both an artist and an execute, it is responsible for all designs that has to go into a movie. The are mostly in charge of costumes, makeups, art, hairstyles, clothing's, etc.

-Composition: The organization, distribution, balance, and general relationship of actors, and object. It is part of the process of visualizing, and planning the look of a movie. As a filmmaker visualize and plan each shot they must remember these two aspects of compositions, framing, and kinesis.

        *Framing is what we see on the screen.

        * Kinesis is what moves on the screen.

Application

With the information I've learned from mise-en-scene, I was able to create mini photography project for my media studies class. For my mini photography project, I used the components that went into mise-en-scene, for example the props that I used, the lightnings, the shots they were all able to connect through mise-en-scene to create my setting. 

Reflect

After all, I've learn three new things from mise-en-scene, already knew two things fromit  and now left with one question. I've learned that Mise-en-scene is needed in all types of film, that it is the most important in films, and that it contains two major visual components. I knew mise-en-scene was a French word but now, I also knew that it affected how audiences think about characters and the story. Now I'm left with the question, "What is the terms of having a established movie through mise-en-scene?"

Sources

StudioBinder, et al. “Mise-En-Scene and the Directors the Mastered It.” StudioBinder, 1 Feb. 2021, https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/mise-en-scen.

Film Chapter 5 Flashcards | Quizlet. https://quizlet.com/517482895/film-chapter-5-flash-cards/.

Filmdaft.com, https://filmdaft.com/mise-en-scene-explained-an-illustrated-guide/. 

Cinematography

While learning about media studies, I've learned that all movies are a motion of picture composed with techniques and concepts connecting us to stories, in other words, I learned about cinematography. All movies contains motion of pictures that uses different types of shots, angles, and movements to create a certain scene. When I learned about cinematography I was be able to understand the movies that pervade our world.

What is cinematography?

Cinematography involves techniques that compose multiple different scenes, to create a movie. It comprise all-on screen visual elements and you will find that they're are different things that go through it. shots, angles, and movements.

-Shots- Unbroken span of action captured by an uninterrupted run of motion picture camera. They're are multiple different shot types which are defined by how close the camera is to the subject that's being filmed. Camera shots are based on what they are trying to show the viewers. There are over many different types of camera shots: Close-up, Medium shot, full shot, extreme wide-out, mid-shot etc.

-Angles- The specific location where the movie camera or video is placed to take a shot. Scenes can be shot from variety of angles instantly to get the exact shot wanted. They are the different places the shots are taken, and how the shots are taken. Some different type of shots are, eye level shot, low angle shot, high angle shot, ground level shot, etc.

-Movements- The way a camera shifts to visually narrate and shape a viewer's perspective of a scene. Movements happens when the camera moves and the way it moves, if the camera moves up and down the movement will be vertical and if the camera moves left to right the movements will be horizontal. Here are some examples of camera movements, zoom, tilt, dolly, truck, pan etc.

Understanding

From what I've learn from cinematography I was able to identify shot types and angles.

Reflect

I am now able to identify the different types of shots in a film and determine how they are created

Source

“Film.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/art/motion-picture.

MasterClass. “Film 101: What Is Cinematography and What Does a Cinematographer Do? - 2022.” MasterClass, MasterClass, 1 Oct. 2021, https://www.masterclass.com/articles/film-101-what-is-cinematography-and-what-does-a-cinematographer-do.

Filmmaking 101: Camera Shot Types | B&H Explora. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/video/tips-and-solutions/filmmaking-101-camera-shot-types.