Introduction to themes

             Today, in lesson we looked at three varied movie openings, looking directly at the media related themes of each movie. Each with quite contrasting genres we commented on exactly why we think the producers decided to include each aspect. Below are photographs of my groups comments on each movie and a brief insight to the movies. I have also included links to each you tube clip we looked at. My comments are in blue pen on the post-it notes.

 Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

The girl with the dragon tattoo is anAction thriller with some aspects of Gothic drama, crime and mystery. Released in 2011, and starring highly acclaimed actors such as Daniel Craig the movie achieved many awards such as an Oscar award for the best achievement in film editing. The opening uses a lot of dark, metallic colours and the music has a strong beat and would fall into the metal genre(Led Zeppelin-Immigrant song). The colour-some fire added huge effect along with the portrayal of blood using ink, this also contributed with the semantic field of tattoos presented in the movie title.

 Juno

Juno is a Drama comedy and also a coming of age film. Released in 2007, Juno also won an Oscar for the writing and the original screenplay of this movie. The opening to Juno really stands out mainly due to the editing techniques being used. It shows 'Juno' walking down a street although the background is cartoon, this is done by using video filters on live action. Juno is a girl faced with an unexpected pregnancy. This humorous opening is a signifier to the viewers that this is a light hearted comedy as the actor in this opening scene doesn't seem too emotionally phrased and seems to just be acting like its any other day in her life which portrays the fact that movie isn't going to be highly serious. The simple use of one tracking shot to film this opening suggests that the film wont be too fast paced or high action.
The music used in the opening was feel good and could be placed into the folk genre(Barry Louis Polisar- All I want is you). It prepares the audience for the movie.

 Pulp Fiction

Pulp fiction is a very popular high action comedy starring John Travoltra, a worldwide publicized actor. Released in 1994 it achieved 70 awards& a further 47 nominations. This movie opening is dialogue heavy and contains a high amount of strong language, straight off we can tell this movie is about crime and action and will be very fast paced. What's significant is how at the end of the opening the music suddenly kicks in as the action begins, before hand all sound is diagetic in this scene. The music is almost retro and has a fast paced feel and strong beat which successfully accompanies the retro diner which the characters are in. The use of the gun and the genre of conversation in the very first section provides the viewer straight away with knowledge about gun use and violence in the rest of the movie. The effective camera angles show clearly the characters emotions which allows the viewer to feel entirely engaged in the duos conversation. The action filled and serious start would attractive the viewer from the very beginning as the characters are speaking of a secret plan which the audience would feel like they were a part of it, raising their excitement for what's next to come.