6. Research: Film Openings - 9 Frame (James O'Rourke)

9 Frame Analysis - James O'Rourke 6124

Research: Film Openings- Institutional 

Film 1: 'Batman' (1989, Burton)

-The use of having the distribution company at the start of the opening it encourages people to see the film because if the audience notices a well-known distributor then they are more likely to see the film. -The text for the institutional titles and the main title are in a normal font, but in the yellow colour, this hints the batman logo and colours, the yellow text also juxtaposes with the dark background, emphasising the title of the film and the people who have been involved in the production process of making this film.
-The Batman theme is heard playing throughout of the opening, suggesting it's debut and orchestration specifically for this film.
-Throughout the opening the soundtrack has periods of builds and fades/slows, coupled with the different transitions within the images (so with fast paced build of the soundtrack the images transition speeds up and this is the opposite for the slow paced sections of the soundtrack).
-For the visuals, there really isn't much to show as it is just a dark transition of the logo, close up, until the very end when it shows the full Batman logo.
-The build ups create a sort of action, intense atmosphere which gets people to start to look forward to the film.
-The main title of the film and other titles are centred in the frame, it tries to emphasise the main title and the people involved in making this film happen.
-In this opening there is 27 institutional titles which suggests to us as the audience that this is a big budget film which has had a lot of effort put into the making of this film due to the large number of institutional titles.
-For this opening it only has one camera transition, which is like a panning shot of a close-up of the Batman logo, this gets the audience to wonder what the film is about, thus getting people wanting to know what more of the narrative is, therefore they sit and watch the rest of the film to know what the narrative is.
- Orchestral sound is used heavily through the opening for this film, especially when the batman theme was specifically composed for the film, makes the film more memorable for the audience.

Film 2: 'Blade 2' (2002. Del Toro)

- For Blade 2 the institutional line is quite sparse, with only 4 institutional titles throughout the opening, this could be because the film makers want people to focus more on the voice over and the visuals more than the text, to get people to be excited for the rest of the film, plus it fills in the narrative for people who cannot remember the events of the first film or to fill in the narrative for people who may not have seen the first film.
- Throughout the opening the main theme for blade plays while also having Blade's voice over for the majority of the opening, which fills in the narrative for the audience.
- Other pieces of audio are really just sound effects which enhance the experience to make it sound more realistic for the audience.
- The Visuals as mainly made up of scenes from the pervious film, thus allowing the audience to familiarise themselves with the narrative of the film.
- Other visuals include the use of different weapons (props) which suggests that he is getting ready for a battle, resulting in the audience deducing that this is a action film, coupled with a pinch of horror, due to the bloody clips and the voice over.
-The main title for this film is in the centre of the frame this shows the title of the film clearly, a grabs the audience's attention onto the man title.
-This uses a mixture of moving and still images which help to show the narrative and characterisation.
- The use of gram negative filters on some scenes within the opening create a sense of horror for the audience.
- The use of many props within the opening helps to set the genre for the rest of the film resulting in the audience thinking that this is an action film.

General sense from film openings- what the audience experiences in general, what ideas they are given. 

From film openings the audience can get a sense of the idea of what the film would be about without having to see the whole film to the end to get the sense of narrative. Also the audience can check to see which production companies are involved to see whether any well-known companies have been used to make this film happen. Moreover the audience can see who actually is directing it, because a well-known director can get people to watch the rest of the film, plus not question what is happening (in this section of the film), as people would be sort of familiar with their work. Finally the audience can see who is actually starring in this film, this can form opinions for many viewers, as different actors/actresses are right for specific roles. Film openings establish quite a few things for the audience. It can establish:
- Location of film
- Characters
- Narrative of the film
- Title, Credits
- Genre
- Tone/Atmosphere