Production Log: 11th Sep; Research

Date: 11th September Wednesday 2013

Today we discussed what our movie opening scene preparation would consist of.

Research, Planning, Construct, Evaluation

RESEARCH: ART OF THE TITLE

We then went on to analyze a movie opening and a tv show opening. We used "Art of the Title" (http://www.artofthetitle.com/) which is a blog that analyses movie openings. Art of the Title is an internet blog that shows the opening sequence of movies. It previews them in extremely high quality, and below it describes features, analyses it.

Pacific Rim-(Guillermo Del Toro, 2013)

The choice of font reflects the genre, the font looks like letters seen on a research centre computer from the 80s. The letters are masculine and bold, light grey against black, which creates a high contrast very action like theme. The letters look as if they are made of steel because there is texture. The letters appear and disappear as if they were turning sideways, concealing themselves like spies. To the top left hand side there are lines and shapes that, again, look like they belong on an FBI screen on a database.

The repeated use of close-ups creates an enigma; the audience is left to guess what they are watching. Many shots go from being out of focus, to an extremely high focus whilst going around the object. Shots also go from focusing from something close to something further away, to represent how all of these objects are in the same place, a part of a collection

The music goes straight into percussion, playing machine like sounds every now and then from the correlation between the images and the music. However, there are moments when wind instruments come in, which creates a slightly more "classy" approach to action movies, not a blunt and violent filter towards action.

The objects consist of body suits and electronic armer. At a certain point, the camera focuses on a mask that looks like a beetle’s smooth but slightly rough outer shell. Next, on an assumed-to-be mask that has shark and human-like teeth, something associated with the bad guys rather than the good. Many of the body suits are shot from a hero shot, creating the feeling that the viewers are seeing something rare, something that not many people have the chance to view. It also shows an engine of a suit being turned on, and heat and light waves moving. The details of this technology are the main focus, as it immediately tells the viewer that whoever owns this collection is wealthy and very powerful. However, they have something to be afraid of, something to protect themselves against.

When the two robots are shown in a freeze shot fighting, the viewer automatically know there is a good and bad, side that are keen on taking the power over something. Every superhero has an emblem that people associate with them, we are to assume we see one when a spider-like emblem is shown.   Later when colour is introduced, it is blue and red (or shades of pink) only. Colours that are associated against each other, hot and cold.