JS: Analysing Opening Sequences

American Psycho (Harron, 2000)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-yoMEZXnbQ

Narrative

1. The film uses the protagonist to drive the narrative forward. This allows the audience to follow his views within the movie's opening sequence.
2. The audience is positioned with Phil Bateman in relation to the narrative. This gives the protagonist prevalence in the opening sequence.
3. Through dialogue, the audience can identify who the character is and have a greater understanding of Phil Bateman's personality. There is no sense of alienation between the protagonist and the audience watching.
4. The major theme evident is self-obsession. The camera is focused upon the protagonist throughout the opening, as it follows his routine. There is the use of a close-up as well as mid-shots in the scene. This further reinstates that Phil Bateman is the focus at the beginning of the movie.
5. The tension in the scene is heightened through sound. The music is classical, which creates the sense that all is calm, however, this creates antithesis when compared with the dialogue in the scene, which has connotations of fear and anxiety. When these two sounds combine, the audience feel neither relaxed or in a state of equilibrium and therefore tension is created and maintained throughout the opening.

Genre

1. American Psycho is a psychological thriller because the film contains suspense, and has an apparent 'ordinary citizen' as the character who drives the narrative and also the feeling of mystery and enigma.
2. The generic expectations of the audience are that the protagonist will be a tormented individual, who takes pleasure from killing others, due to the name of the movie 'American Psycho'. These expectations are challenged to an extent in the opening sequence. The protagonist demonstates a feeling of relaxation and normality through mid-shots, revealing the character's exercise routines in a seemingly regular lifestyle. Conversely, through mise-en scene and the costumes used, the audience can infer that there is something 'not right' about the individual, as he follows a rigorous regime wearing just his underwear and also, the ice pack over his eyes. This suggests to the audience that he is covering his true persona - as he wears his 'mask of sanity'.
3. The films conforms to the characteristics of the genre. The film is influenced by the psychological genre like many thrillers. The film also has many sub-genres e.g horror and political. However, the film does not conform to what you would expect a generic thriller to have - frequent action. Ironically, the opening still manages to captivate the audience thorugh suspense and drama, despite no action being evident. 

Drive (Refn, 2011)


Film Language

1. The use of low-key lighting connotes danger and fear, as the audience can infer that the protagonist has a dark side to him. Furthermore, the character blocking further conveys meaning. Gosling's character portrayed is placed by the window, where the audience can only see his face through a reflection. This adds to the feeling of mystery and enigma, while it also represents a convention of noir.
2. The opening sequence has just one shot, with a slow pan movement. The slow movement conveys the feeling that there is tension, as the audience anticipates there to be frequent action as this is their generic expectation. The shot is also from a low-angle, which allows the audience to view the protagonist as something significant, as the audience look up to him.
3. The non-diegetic sound is represented as a heartbeat. This has connotations of fear ( as the beat increases). The increased beat in comparison to the cutting rate further adds tension, because unlike a stereotypical thriller opening, this opening does not have frequent action or a fast cutting rate. These opposites in pace heighten tension because there is a lack of rhythm in the opening.
4. Through dialogue, the audience can recognise that the character shown has antagonistic qualites. Viewers can infer that the character has partaken in criminal activities, so despite the character given prevalence early on in the film, the audience are not certain about if the character is on the side of good or evil.
5. Refn has purposely hidden the face of the protagonist, meaning that the audience can not see his facial expressions. This again adds an element of mystery to the character shown, to leave the audience indecisive abouth whether the character represents good or evil; two binary opposites.

Media audiences

1. The target audience for this film is for the core audience - 12-29 year olds. However, the film has an 18 certificate rating, so the film instituion would aim to market this film for a more mature film audience. Usually thriller films target the core audience and for this film, this is no different.
2. The audience would probably develop a dominant hegemonic position when reading this film opening. The audience would probably recognise that this film is supposed to be an action/thriller that has the purpose of building suspense. The viewers should recognise this because the opening has many conventions of a thriller, for example, enigma, a resouceful hero and literary devices such as tension. However, a possible audience reading could be an aberrant reading. An audience could interpret this film to be a horror, because of the low-key lighting and suspense created.
3. As a British teenager, I can understand that the film is supposed to be a thriller with elements of action. I have adopted a dominant hegemonic reading for this film as I understand its intentions. Due to my age, I have seen multiple films , including tentpoles and low-budget movies, that release thriller/action films for people of my age group, therefore, I have an increased chance of understanding a film's dominant hegemonic reading. It is also argued that because of my gender (male), a thriller film is usually targeted for teenage boys and as a result, I have an increased chance of having a dominant hegemonic reading rather than an aberrant, negotiated or oppositional position. Somebody of a different age/gender is more likely to have a different reading.

Batman: The Dark Knight (Nolan, 2008)


Institutional Context

1. This movie contains multiple bankable stars in this film including Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman. This is important because people would be more likely to see the film due to famous actors that star in the movie. 
2. This film is a tentpole movie which was produced by Legendary Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros Pictures. These are industrial institutions, hence the film's $185 million budget.
3. Viral marketing was used to help promote the film. '42 Entertainment' utilised the Joker's infamous catchphrase 'Why so serious?' as its tagline online. This then led to the creation of 'whysoserious.com', where there was a scavenging hunt for the film's first teaser trailer. This then led to the development of more online sites to market the film, including 'Rory's Death Kiss' where fans presented photos of themselves wearing a Joker costume (the film's antagonist). These strategies proved to be highly successful, as the film grossed over $1 billion from the box-office worldwide. More modern strategies were used, however, traditional forms of advertising, including billboards, posters and trailers were still all used to contribute to the movie's financial success. 
4. The film opening contains some special effects, which is expected from an action/thriller film. This represents high production values, although most of the effects are used later in the movie, where it is easier to identify that this film has been produced by an industrial institution .

Representation and Ideology

1. A social group represented in the clip are anti-heroes. As a 'mob', a group of men partake in robbing a bank while they also show they are all capable of murder. This social group is stereotypical in many superhero movies as they are naturally represented as antagonistic, due to their morally wrong actions. 
2. 'The Dark Knight' conforms to the characteristics of the thriller genre. The film contains frequent action, while in the opening, literary devices including suspense and red herrings are used. The movie also has mny sub-genres that include action, drama and political, while it is the audience's generic expectations that Batman will be a resourceful hero accustomed to danger, although his other persona - Bruce Wayne- appears to just be an ordinary wealthy citizen. 
3. In the opening, the money in the bank is a key symbol. For the criminals, this symbolises power and as a result, their greed for it represents them as evil and antagonistic.