Opening Sequence Analysis

This is the opening sequence of train spotting and I have chosen to analyse it as, like our own opening sequence, it involves running. The scene begins with some quite upbeat non-diegetic music to create an exciting fast pace and makes you feel like the characters. There is also narration in the background to give the viewer more of an insight as to what the film is about. It begins with two men being chased and the camera is infront of them so you can see their emotions and what they are feeling as they are running. There are also a lot of close ups on the men's feet so the viewer can see how fast they are running and also to again create a fast paced feeling. The camera also cuts to a point of view shot from one of the men so the viewer is put into their shoes and can see what he can see. The man then looks though a car wind screen into the camera and smiles which takes him out of the scene and makes it more unrealistic as he is looking into the camera. His name also comes up which introduces the character and this happens in the rest of the scene for the rest of the characters. This is an easy way of introducing characters but in my opinion it takes the realism out of the scene. After Renton's name comes up a shot of him smoking is cut to and this establishes him as a drug user as he passes out from it. The mise-en-scene used is quite grubby as in the clothes and where they live so this gives quite a bleak feeling, as our opening sequence does. This contrasts to the music which makes everything seem very happy when underneath it probably isn't. The lighting is natural which is also what our own opening sequence will be. The editing used is very fast paced as lots of cut shots are used which creates excitement along with the sound and cinematography. This opening sequence is similar to our own as it begins with someone running and so raises the same enigma as ours, why are they running? This is useful as we can use some of the techniques that they have used to create a realistic feeling of running and involving the viewer. A different scene is also cut to after the running which gives a possible insight as to why he is running, which is what our opening sequence does. It also establishes the main character, as our opening sequence will.

Representations

The representations and stereotypes we are going to be using in our opening are the naive, vulnerable girl, the aggressive boy and the scary bleak woods with no escape. These are dominant representations and we are going to be using these so that people watching the film are able to relate to it more and so that the film seems more realistic. But also in our opening pushes her boyfriend down a hill which makes her more dominant and creates an alternative representation. This is because she isn't standing in the corner crying as women are usually presented in films. This keeps the viewer entertained as the film shows different representation to usual films. 

For example in this clip from King Kong the woman is represented as very helpless and all she does in this scene is scream and get thrown about which is the typical representation that women are weak and helpless. The woman in indiana jones and the temple of doom is also very helpless and screams a lot and is dominated by the man which is what happens in most films. 

 

This scene from Lara Croft Tomb Raider shows the woman as very dominating and this is a very extreme stereotype which is the complete opposite of how women are usually represented in films. Our woman isn't as dominating or extreme as this stereotype but in the end she does dominate the man as she ends up killing him so this is similar to our own girl.

Box Office Figures

These are some of the box office figures for films similar to our own:

The Blair Witch Project - Total Worldwide Gross - $248,639,09

- Cost to make - $60,000

Memento - Total Worldwide Gross - $25,544,867

- Cost to make - $9 million

The Machinist - Total Worldwide Gross - $8,203,253

- Cost to make - $5,000,000

Shrooms - Total Worldwide Gross - $4,910,682

- Cost to make - $4,500,000

All of these films which link in some way to our film made profit. Particularly the blair witch project, which like our film was shot with a handheld camera and so cost the least to make, but ended up making the most profit. Memento which is also similar to our film as it has the same narrative structure also made a lot of profit. This was probably because it had something different that nobody had seen before in the narrative structure which is why we chose to use it in our film. I think our genre is very popular with the public as these statistics show and some of them for example the blair witch project don't cost a lot to make but can make companies a lot of profit. But films like shrooms for example didn't make a lot of profit as I believe people would have been quite confused by it, particularly at the end and it wasn't very well known so people wouldn't have told people to go and see it.

Target Audience

the age group which our film is going to be aimed at is quite young people, roughly around the age of 16-25. It will also be aimed at all gender and races but younger people as I think they will be able to relate to our film more. This is because the main characters in our film are around the same age and so they will have the same problems as other young people. We have also chosen to aim our film at 16-25 year olds because according to the 2005 BFI handbook, 41.5% of regular cinemagoers are between the ages of 15-34 and so as more people around this age go to the cinema more people would come to see our film so it has a higher appeal.