1 . How is the character established through
misé-en-scene, actions, body language, camerawork?
2 . How is the plot established through a variety of
means?
3 . How is setting/context created?
4 . Which genre does this belong to? How do we know?
5 . Which questions are the audience left with?
6
. Is this an effective
opening sequence?
Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope
1. Darth Vader/Princess Leia: When Darth Vader appears it is
instantly clear he is high up in the hierarchy with the storm troopers. They
stand to attention when he enters and from his body language of looking at the
deceased soldiers of both his and the rebel men on the floor with his hands on
his hips he shows no care for his own men neither the rebels, he knows his
importance and power above the rest as it is a very then proceeds to walk
leading the other soldiers. The camera is at a long shot when Vader enters to
show the audience his full attire of full black body armour and his cape, it
all adds to make him look more menacing and threatening, also another thing
that tells the audience he is the enemy and more important than the rest is
that the music becomes very dramatic as he enters the scene. Later in the scene
his strength is shown holding a man off the ground by his neck with one hand,
he interrogates the man in an almost non aggressive tone but while slowly
crushing his neck, this manages to make Vader seem powerful but cold hearted
and merciless and when the man denies Vader they have done anything and that
they are innocent Vader simply crushes his neck and throws the man down as if
it meant nothing increasing his menacing image, he then commands his troops to
find what they are looking for fully showing the audience he is the one in
charge. Leia's attire makes her instantly seem the opposite of Vader, while
Vader wears black body armour and a black cape which adds to make him seem more
threatening, Leia has simple plain white robes which try to tell the audience
she is one of the good characters through her clothing's colour compared to
Vaders. She appears to be the damsel in distress having the rebels try to
protect her following the stereotype,
2. At the opening there is a
long credit scene in which through writing the audience is narrated on recent
events, we are shown who the bad guys and good guys from the attires they wear.
Apart from this the only narration we are given in the opening is the opening credits.
3. We can tell the context/ setting from the
location of the scene. The establishing shot is of space and two spaceships
chasing one another, the rest of the scene we see is from the inside of the
rebel ship and we can tell this as it is the one that gets capture and of
course full of rebel soldiers inside.
4. We know it is from the
sci-fi and action genre from the scenes in space the futuristic weapons and
spaceships and the fact there are machines such as R2D2 and C3PO. It is shown
it is of the action genre also with the shootout scene that comes very early,
also the first scene after the establishing shot is the two spaceships shooting
at each over while one pursues the other.
5. What are on the plans? Who
is Darth Vader and Princess Leia? Where have R2D2 and C3PO fled?
6. Yes because it grips the audience
almost instantly with the choice of soundtrack as the narration comes in then
straight into the action scene, it makes the audience want to continue watching
to see what is going to happen next.
Children of men
1. The main protagonist is
shown first when he enters a cafe called "caf fine" while there news
on the TV of the youngest person alive who has been killed, he is shown to be uncompassionate
as all people around him look on in sadness and while he shows no care about
it, he also slightly nudges a woman out his way in order to get a coffee. The
fact he remains emotionless standing out from the rest makes him be represented
as a cruel person. After exiting the cafe he is then shown pouring some alcohol
into his coffee telling us he could be alcoholic.
2. We are given no narration
at all in the opening except that the date is London, 16th November 2027
3. We can tell the setting
from the scene telling us it is London, 16th November 2027. We can also see
some iconic London features such a red busses and taxis
4. We can assume this is from
the drama genre as it opens with a tragedy of a celebrity being murdered then
shortly after a bomb is set off in the cafe the protagonist was just in.
5. What has happened, how is
the youngest man 18? What happened to the world? Who is the man? Why was a bomb
set off in the cafe?
6. I think it is an effective
opening as it manages to make the audience curious and want to find out more
about what is supposed to be going on, also the bomb at the end also grips the
audience effectively making them want to see more.
Kes
1. The protagonist is
established as young at first we can easily tell from the high pitch of his
voice when we only see the room in dark, his home is not well kept so the
audience can assume he is middle class to low class, he is however shown to be
enthusiastic about things as unlike stereotypes of lazy children he actually
gets himself up and gets dressed after of course going back to sleep for a
while and then proceeds to run into the garden.
2. We don't actually learn
much of the plot at all in the opening scene only we have found their is a bad
relationship between the boy and the man through the verbal and in end physical
violence they have for each over, after running into the garden and discovering
his bike is no longer there the audience is shown Kes running through town
clearly trying to get to somewhere or someone as fast as he can.
3. The setting is created
when we can see Kes as he runs through his home town, it looks all rather poor
and not well kept but also old which wouldn't be that surprising given the
movie is too very old.
4. It is of the drama genre
and we can maybe pick this out by having a convention like conflict between
family members between Kes and whoever the man was but other than that in the
opening there is not anything that really shows what genre it is.
5. Who was the man? Where are
Kes's parents? What is he running to?
6. I personally find the
start of the opening a bit slow and dull but after Kes actually gets up it is a
pretty good opening having him run to something unknown to the audience with
the theme song in the background makes the audience want to continue watching
to see what it is, so I like the opening but just find the start of it a bit
boring.
