Opening scene analysis: Boyhood

Boyhood

Director: Richard Linklater 
Production company: IFC Productions Detour Filmproduction
Distributor:IFC Films (US) Universal Pictures (International)
Domestic box office: $25,352,281
Year: 2014

Titles:

The titles appear right at the beginning of the film stating the production company and the name of the film. The font has a child like feel to it, because of its resemblance to drawing with chalk, this can also be seen through the way in which it appears on the screen- looks to be written across the shot.

Sound:

Yellow by Coldplay is the first thing and sound presented to the audience, after the first ten seconds into the song the opening shot is finally shown. The song continues until the next scene where it is then faded out. The choice of song reflects pensive connotations which contrasts with the imagery of youth and innocence.

Mise-en-scene:

The mise-en-scene is that of circa 2003, in an american kindergarden, this is seen through the school building and the swing set seen in the background. The song and the clothing fits in with the mise-en-scene also.

Shot types:

The opening shot is a point of view and worms eye view shot of the sky and clouds, this is the background for which the titles are displayed. 

The next shot is an extreme close up of the protagonists face which then zooms out to a mid shot, this shot brings to the audiences attention who this character is by zooming out from him instead of zooming in to him. The fact the shot first shows the boys eyes gives the audience connotations of dreaming, the symbolism of his dreaming eyes intertwines with the whole feel of the movie being one innocence, growing up and the future.

The following shot is one long tracking shot that films the protagonist's mother from a long shot to a medium close up. This tracking shot gives the audience a sense of the pace of life for this boy once people are with him compared to the laid back dreaming pace he had before. The tracking shot stops as the next scene shows the two characters together in a car. The end of that shot signifies the end of the opening.

Opening scene annalysis

500 Days of summer

Director: Marc Webb
Production company: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures, FilmFlex
Domestic box office: $32,391,374
Year: 2009

The film opens with a birds eye view of an engaged\married couples hand. This gives immediate genre indication to it being one of a romantic film, this is solidified by the prompt use of a voiceover telling the audience the nature of the story. The sad whimsical music also sets the scene, giving the audience an indication to wether the love story is a happy one or not. 

 

The second shot is an animation of numbers in brackets going down as the tree turns from brown to green, this gives connotation that the lower the number the newer, thus nicer it is.

The architectural drawing of the buildings adds to the mise-en-scene as the film is set in a city and the main character being interested in architecture as the audience finds out later on in the film.

The next shot along with the voiceover gives the audience a large insight to the exposition as it explains who the protagonist is and back story to his life. This shot is a medium long shot which zooms into a medium shot. The reflection of how much the audience knows about the character is shortly seen through the camera zooming in - as we find out more we get closer to him. The fact that the length of take is long gives the audience chance to dwell on the characters.

These medium long shots zooming into medium shots are also used when the audience gets introduced to the protagonists younger past selfs. In this shot the we can get more insight to the character as the props in his bedroom tell us about the boy, along with the information being solidified by the voice, "this belief stemmed from early exposure to sad british punk music"- this is seen through the posters and t-shirt.

When the 'girl' is introduced the same shot types are used showing continuity, however she is faced away from the camera suggesting a sense of mystery. This shot is set back in present day and in the same work environment as the 'guy'. The music and tone of voice continues in the same sound reassuring the audience that it is still the introduction.

The shot of the female protagonist in her childhood is an over the shoulder shot focusing on the reflection in the mirror as the camera zooms in to reveal more about the character visually as the narrator tells the audience audibly. The fact that the girl loved that could easily cut off her hair and "feel nothing" gives the audience exposition but also shows a sense of mystery.

This next shot is a medium shot of the male protagonist that pans across to an extreme long shot of the female character, The music changes at this point from less melancholy to a more hopeful tune as the audience is informed that this is the point in which the two characters meet.

The last shot before the titles is a medium close up tracking shot, of the character Summer, she looks calm and content giving the viewer peaceful connotations. The introduction to the characters ends with the words "this is not a love story", this is said with a blank background to emphasise the words. This may give negative connotations as the beginning shot of the engaged couples hands is being contrasted therefore the audience may feel let down. However the music changes from the instrumental song to a much happier song. as the titles are displayed.

After the character introduction the feel of the film completely changes because of the music and the happy home videos of the actors, acting as a background to the titles.

It is also edited so that the videos fit together showing each side of the two characters along with the titles of the cast and crew. This also gives the audience the sense that they understand them on a deeper level because they have witnessed the characters' personal childhoods through the home videos.

The home videos are shown in chronological order as the audience gets to witness the characters growing up this continues on until the song comes to a close ending the list of titles. This is a clear ending to the film opening.

Prelim

Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Continuity editing- editing to make the video, run smoothly to ensure there are no gaps in the audio or visual aspects.

Shot reverse shot- filming a scene of dialog between two people which is first shot with a character as the main subject with an over the shoulder shot of the other character, then shot again the other way round so that it can be edited to show both reactions and both dialog.

Firstly we needed to shoot somebody (me) walking into the room, therefore the first shot is a long shot. We decided to do this from a long way away to set the mood of the conversation, it also allows the audience to focus on the character and their body language. An urgent and smug feel was trying to be portrayed as the conversation being gossip would soon be revealed.

We then filmed the character going downstairs and entering the room the continuity of the long shots expressing anticipation was displayed. 
When the character enters approaches the door there is a pause between the shot of them entering the room.
Improvements could be made to this being a smoother transition for easier viewing and to reflect the importance of the information the character was about to reveal. Furthermore improvements could be made by ensuring the part when I sat down was in shot, to ensure the viewer could see the character and their facial and body language.
The 180° rule was kept in place so that the viewer would not be confused and it would not take away from the feel of the scene. For the shot reverse shot we shot the scene twice one from one shoulder, the other from the opposite side, this is because we only used one camera. Also because we filmed it twice the dialog didn't completely match up making editing slightly more difficult. My movement when filming over my shoulder was a problem since it could distract the audience away from the other characters facial expressions etc. For a good composition for the shot, we tried to film it so that the characters were a central shot when focusing on them both in particular and also ensured that the shot reverse shot was filmed at the same height for continuity.

What I've learnt from using DLSRs 

From filming this premium I have learnt how different settings effect the over all finish of the video.

White balance- this adjusts the light and colour of the scene when shooting, it's important for maintaining a natural light. It combats the blue colour when filming in natural light and orange colour when filming in artificial light. For a room with both a white balance of around 400 should be used. We were filming in a classroom with both artificial and natural lighting thus we needed a white balance of around 400.

ISO- this is important for ensuring the right tone of light for the image. The lower the ISO the less sensitive it is to light, therefore if there is little light the higher ISO you need to use, for instance in a light area you may only need an ISO of around 100 and a darker area an ISO of around 800 is needed. However the more sensitive you make the camera to light it has more noise, therefore you need a balance.

Lenses- using a smaller lens number gives a wider field of view. Also when focusing its best to use manual or else the recording will show the camera trying to focus on automatic.