Analysis of film openings in chosen genre

The Dark Knight 

Genre This film is obviously under the genre of action, this is shown straight from the start where we see a glass  window of a building smash and a character holding a gun-shaped item. It also shown through the violence of the bank robbery later in the opening which portrays the stereotypical 'stealing money from a bank' theme that runs through many action film - a genre stereotype.

Sound - The sound in this film is a combination of non-diegetic and diegetic sounds. The diegetic sounds are shown throughout the entire opening with the talking f the character as well as he sound of the car, window smash and gun shots. The use of this and non-diegetic (the tense music played in the entrance shot at the beginning of the opening) allow a sense of verisimilitude to come into the film, as well as the build of tension to tell the viewer what the rest of the film i going to be like.

Lighting -   In terms of lighting, there is a constant use of low-key lighting. This suggests the idea of the film being an action as, from the use of the clown masks (shown to the right) which is a stereotypical image of a 'bad' character, which shows why the film might be in low-key lighting as the film is currently being portrayed from the antagonistic point of view.

Themes - Although we are unsure on the storyline of the film, we are presented with themes of action and violence, as at least 5 characters are shown to die in the opening alone. This portrays the idea of the film being an action and sets the audience up for the theme of the rest of the film (action, violence and death)

Titles - In terms of titles, there are no titles used at all during this opening (except the obvious production titles) there are no actors / cast / director or even film name tiles that come up during the film. The titles of the film comes at the end very end of film, this allows the opening to go straight into the action and allows the film to build tension and action straight away.

Quantum of Solace





Genre - This film is obviously in the genre of action (our chosen genre) because of the generic car chase scene and gun shots straight off the start of the opening. This is iconography of a stereotypical action film and portrays to the viewer what type of film they're going to watch for the rest of the movie.
Sound - The sound in this clip are a combination of diegetic car engine roars and gun shots as well as the non-diegetic sound of tense, build-up music. This combination of the non-diegetic music, which builds up the tension and notifies the audience that something is about to happen, as well as notifying the  audience that the film is of James Bond by playing stereotypical James Bond music. In combination to this, the non-diegetic sound adds to the verisimilitude of the opening by making the audience feel as though they are really there because of the sound of what's going on. This all -in-all adds a better feel to the film and will create an all-over better looking or sounding film.
Lighting - The lighting used throughout this film opening is high-level and quite bright, this is then contrasted when the car chase is taken into a dark tunnel where the lighting becomes low-key and dark. This shows the audience what the film is going to be like throughout the rest of the film; jumping from good characters (the light) and bad characters (dark).
Camera shots / editing - The editing and camera shots used throughout this opening are very fast changing and uses mainly close ups and mid-shots. This builds the idea of an action film in the viewer's head as the constant fast editing (with no build up of slow editing to start) shows how the film has jumped straight into the action and tells the viewer what kind of film they are about to watch. Similarly the use of close ups and mid-shots create a protagonist character and tell the audience who they are to be looking at.
Themes - Although we are not sure of the storyline of the film straight away, we are straight away presented with the genre of the film (action)shown through the use of a generic car chase, gun shots and 'good' and 'bad' characters. Similarly, we are also met with a protagonist of the film as the caera tracks and follows his car.
 Titles - In terms of titles, this type of film
is an unordinary film to analyse as it does it's titles in a certain way (the same way all the James Bond films do the titles). There is a 2-3 minute opening with no titles, then after this there is a couple minutes where there are only titles of the film and no storyline to the film (with a title song). Although I could take the title order from this opening as well as the aesthetics of the titles, there is nothing else I should use from these titles as it is a very unconventional way of doing titles and is a Bond-only style.