Film Opening Timed Analysis - The Bourne Identity

Textual Analysis of 'The Bourne Identity' Opening:

0:28-0:31 - We get an upwards shot from under the water up towards the body of a man floating in the water. There are flashes of lightning and a flashing blue light too.

0:32-0:34 - We see a shot of a fishing trawler out on the oceans, there is another flash of lightning.

0:35-0:41 - We see inside the ship in a small room. A group of men are sat around a table playing cards. They can be heard talking and laughing.

0:42-1:04 - The camera cuts between shots of the sea, inside the boat and then the upward shot of the man in the ocean. When we see inside the boat again, the camera follows the man's hands when he is dealing the cards. 

1:05-1:12 - A tracking shot on the deck of the boat following a man as he exits the interior of the boat and comes onto the deck. He stumbles as he comes out.

1:13-1:23 - Wide angle shot of the man walking across the deck of the ship. As he throws the crate of slops overboard it cuts to a close up of him on the other side. He looks out to sea and squints.

1:23-1:24 - Shot from the deck of the boat out to the sea. We see the man floating for a split second thanks to the light from the lightning.

1:25-1:31 - The camera changes between shots out to sea and the man on the deck of the ship. There is only light from the lightning.

1:32-1:34 - Short shot close up to the body of the man who is floating in the water. There are several flashes of lightning.

1:35-1:38 - The film title comes onto the screen before promptly disappearing. 

1:39-1:44 - Birds eye view shot of the fishermen pulling the man onto the boat.

1:45-1:58 - On the deck of the ship. Several close ups of different sailors as they check to see if the man is still alive. There are several different angles and perspectives used throughout this sequence. 

1:59-2:25 - Several different angled shots as the men are coming down the stairs with the man and as they clear the table in order to put the man on it. There are lots of jump cuts.

2:26-2:29 - Shaky-Cam of the man (Jason Bourne) as he lays on the table.

2:29-2:33 - A close up shot as the doctor begins to cut open Bourne's wetsuit.

Editing:

- All the camera shots are edited together well, there are lots of quick angle changes too.

- Put in a sequence so as to show the events unfolding.

- Shots are sometimes dark. Lighting is sometimes just from the lightning. 

Sound:

- When the film begins there is slow music in the background as well as the sound of the waves crashing against the side of the boat.

- Sounds of the wind and of the thunder/lightning.

- Hear the men playing cards, laughing and talking.

- The slow music plays throughout.

- The music picks up as the titles flash onto the screen and we hear the commotion as Bourne is taken onto the ship and below decks.

By Alex Jones

Film opening Analysis -Skyfall

 0:00 - 0:12 - tracking shot of Bond as he walks around a corner and along a corridor into the street. Mid shot.

0:12 - 0:16 - panning shot that spins around bond as he looks around then get into the car that arrives for him.  Camera stays in place and tracks the car as it leaves until 0:19
0:19 - 0:24 - Mid shot from bond's side of the car, which is focus on the driver. This reveals who it is who is picking him up
0:24 - 0:26 - shot from the dashboard of their car which shows the car they are pursuing in front of them
0:26 - 0:29 - Long shot from behind the head of M showing the MI6 headquarters that bond is talking to through a headset.
0:29 - 0:31 - Shot from the other side of the car showing Bond talking to headquarters through his headset. 180 Degree rule used.
0:31 - 0:33 - Shot from behind the seats where Bond and Miss Moneypenny are sitting. The car they are pursuing is still in front and they follow it around the corner
0:33 - 0:36 - shot of an official at headquarters talking to M, the boss. Mid shot.
0:36 - 0:38 - Close up shot of M as she gets up and walks out of shot.
0:38 - 0:40 - Shot from behind the seats of the car again as they pursue their target around another corner.
0:40 - Close up of the car's wing mirror as it smashes against a wall.
0:41 - 0:44 - Shot of Bond as he makes a joke about not needing the wing mirror. Shot from Moneypenny's side of the car.
0:44 - 0:50 - Shot from bond's side of the car of Moneypenny. Quick cut to show the other wing mirror being smashed then back to her to make the same joke he did.

0:50 - 0:53 - static shot  that pans around the corner to follow the cars as they go down a narrow road
0:53 - 0:55 - shot of bond in the car from Moneypenny's side
0:55 - 0:59 - Shot from the side of the street as the cars pass. Also shows three men getting onto motorcross biker and revving up
0:59 - 1:01 - Shot facing the inside of the car with the camera on the bonnet as they crash through a fruit stall.
1:01 - 1:05 - two consecutive shots of bond then Miss Moneypenny as they react to crashing through the stall.
1:05 - shot tracking their car from the side as a large 4x4 pulls up to the side of them.
1:06 - 1:08 - shot taken  from a low angle from  the car shows the 4x4 ramming them.
1:08 - very short shot showing their door being buckled inside as they are rammed.
1:08 - 1:11 - shot from in front of the cars as the 4x4 goes for another ram.
1:11 - 1:15 - two consective panning shots taken from within the crowds on the streets that follow the two cars.

1:15 - 1:16 - two consecutive shots showing the driver of the 4x4 from a high angle and bond from a low angle.
1:16 - 1:18 shot from a across the courtyard as they swerve across it.
1:18 - 1:20 - shots showing Bond pull Monnypenny's steering wheel as he pulls it to swerve into a car.
1:20 - 1:24 shots from the point of view of their car as they crash into the other car.
1:24 - 1:26 - tracking shot from behind as the car flips, then a shot from the floor as it goes into the air.
1:26 - 1:31 - Four consecutive shots showing the car they rammed slide along the ground and their car crashing into a fruit stall.
1:31 - 1:35 A long shot followed by a mid shot of the enemy car as it rolls back onto its wheels after the crash. In the second shot, you see a gun poke out of the window and start firing at Bond and Moneypenny.
1:35 - 1:38 - A shot from outside the from of Bond's window screen showing the bullets hitting it then a shot tracking bond from over his shoulder as he runs across the street firing at his enemies.
1:38 - 1:45 - Several consecutive shots showing bond firing at the man with the gun and him firing back. The shots on bond track him from a mid shot perspective as he runs behind cover.

1:45 - 1:51 - Shot of bond watching the motorcycles driving past, followed by shots of the enemy firing and the motorcyclists going down.
1:51 - 2:02 - Several shots which show bond's reaction to this in close up perspective, then a shot of the enemy stealing one of the motorbikes followed by tracking shots of bond chasing him and firing at him until he finds a motorbike and gets on it to give pursuit.
2:02 - 2:06 - Long shot from inside the car that tracks bond as he starts to drive away through the crowds in pursuit of the enemy
2:06 - 2:17 - Several midshots of Miss Moneypenny from both over her shoulder and facing her from outside the car window screen. She breaks the cracked window screen and starts driving in pursuit of Bond. She is also seen from a mid shot perspective as she puts on an earpiece and begins to talk to the MI6 main command.

                                                                   
           
                                                                    By Reece Hack

Main Task - Shot List

             Programme - Carrera                                                                        Director - Reece Hack
             Date - 04/03/2016                                                                                Cinematography - Alex Jones

By Reece Hack

Costume and props

 

This is the costume for the antagonist character in our Film opening piece. 

We decided that we wanted the costume to be mostly black and look menacing, so we opted for black jogging bottoms, a plain black t shirt and black work boots. We felt that boots would be more threatening than trainers as they are much larger in appearance and add to your height, which was especially important as our actor wasn't very tall.

Also, we knew that we needed a weapon for our protagonist character, which we originally wrote to be a gun. However, we decided that a gun would be impractical, as we would either have to pay a lot for a realistic looking gun, which would look good in the scene but cause issues regarding having a gun that looks like a real gun in our college car park, or we could buy a cheap gun that doesn't look good and will not be as effective in our piece. Because of this issue, we decided to opt for a machete, as we could find one for cheap that doesn't look real from close up, but from the distance we were shooting from looks real enough.

 

As we wanted the machete to be initially concealed then pulled out by the antagonist, we decided to add a long coat to his costume behind which he could conceal the machete.

We also felt part of his face should be concealed to keep his identity a secret, as he is intended to be a mysterious character, so we added a grey hooded scarf to the costume, which covers the bottom half of his face and his hair.

Our costume for our protagonist was much simpler and took less time to decide on.

 Here is her costume. We wanted to a portray her as a normal person, who was wearing everyday casual clothes when she was presumably kidnapped and mysteriously left in a car park. We contacted our actress prior to shooting and told her to wear casual clothes, specifically a t shirt, jeans and any casual shoes she felt like wearing, of which she chose casual boots.

We felt that not setting an exact costume for our protagonist would create a sense of realism in our piece, as these are the actual clothes of our actress, which she could be wearing if she got into this situation.

By Reece Hack

Preliminary Task and evaluation

Overall I would say that this Preliminary task was fairly successful, considering it was one of our first video pieces.

Firstly, I feel we responded well to the task, which is to create a short piece involving two people meeting and talking. We displayed all the shots included in the criteria, such as over the shoulder shots, match on action and use of the 180 degree rule. We also added some of our own shots including a panning shot and some long shots.

I also feel that the script of this Preliminary was an effective use of the task prompt. We based our piece around a mysterious woman who is being interrogated by an agency official for known reasons, which I feel was effective at creating an interesting premise and drawing in the audience for if we were to potentially make more pieces based upon these characters.

However, there are some things that I feel we could have done better. 

For example, I feel that I could have directed a wider variation of shots; some extreme close ups, high angle shots and a tracking shot I feel could have made the piece more visually interesting.

We could have also planned earlier on in production regarding the location of the piece; while the Harlow College Photography studio we used was effective, if we had looked at location earlier, we could have gotten a location to shoot at with less in the background and some brick walls, which I feel would have added a much more tense and gritty atmosphere to the piece.

Main Task Synopsis

Synopsis of 'Carrera':

 A woman (Gabby Edwards) wakes up in a car park with no memory of who she is or how she got there. Trying to take in her surroundings, an ominous figure clad in black (Reece Hack) approaches wielding a machete. Using nothing but her wits, the woman escapes and begins to unravel the secret as to why she was left behind, with only the clothes on her back and a foreboding message written on her hand, "Carrera".

 Defined Frame Studios' first foray into the Action/Thriller genre looks to be a box office hit. Reece Hack adapts Alex Jones' original screenplay to the big screen.

By Alex Jones and Jack Nicholls