Pulp Fiction Opening Analysis

Pulp Fiction is a film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino and distributed by Mirimax studios. The film was released in May of 1994 and grossed $8.5 million at the box office.

 

 

The opening sequence for pulp fiction is one of the most crucial scenes for the film. The two characters within the opening sequence, Pumpkin and Honey Bunny, are not major roles within the movie as a whole. This leads to the question why is this scene first and not Vincent and joules, the two main characters within the production? The reason for putting this famous scene first is almost like a taster for the audience of the environment in which the film they are about to whiteness and the style of film. The scene is designed by Tarantino to be almost tong in cheek by the way the characters speak so openly and fondly of committing robberies for financial gain. This black sense of humour is placed so openly within the first scene to almost warn the viewer that this is the style of the movie and if you don’t enjoy it the film will not be enjoyed. Even the names of the characters “Honey Bunny “ and “Pumpkin” are designed to be humorous because these are two serious criminals in which commit serious crimes yet their names are silly and comical for their serious occupation. The main gag within this scene is in the last moments when Honey Bunny goes from being sensitive towards the “little girl” that was on the other end of the phone that was given to the bank manager to in the scene when they agree to rob the restaurant they are in and she says “Any of you F*****g pricks move, and I’ll electrocute every mother f*****g last one of you”

  

          

Fight club Analysis

Fight club is a film based on the novel "fight club" by Chuck Palahniuk. The film was released October 15th 1999 and at the box office grossed $100.9 million. It was distributed by 20th century FOX who have distributed other high grossing films such as Die Hard , I Robot and Avatar , the highest grossing motion picture of all time.

 

 

The scene starts out with a zoom from the opening title credits with a focus on the sights of a pistol. Then it continues gaining focus on the extreme close up shot of the man above. There is a silence and then a narrator (non digetic) says "People are always asking me if I know Tyler Durden" in a subtle and calm voice which contrasts with the image of a man in distress.

 



 

Then there is a clear cut to a close up shot of the same scene from another angle which establishes the scenario the character is in. There is a clear digetic voice in the scene saying "This is it" we know its not a voice over because it comes from the left side of the screen where the gun is, and it holds more re verb then the voice over suggesting that the environment is a building with a vast amount of space for re-verb to be on a voice. 

 

 

 

 Then the diagetic voice says "would you like to say a few words to mark the occasion?" To which the character in the shot replies but the audience cannot work out what he's saying due to the muffling of the gun in his mouth. The shot only lasts a couple of seconds but due to the tilt it suggests to the audience that the unknown person holding the gun is the most powerful because he looks down on his victim. This gives an air of anticipation for the audience because they want to see who this person is and who the victim is.  The fact that he's speak with a gun in  his mouth may be a clue to his personality that he may not be afraid of death due to the calmness of himself in the situation.

 

Then the scene cuts to an eye line shot of the , from what we have seen, protagonist and he says when the gun is pulled away "I cannot think of anything)". The non digetic over voice says "for a second I totally forget about Tyler's whole controlled demolition thing and wonder how clean that gun is" this clear connection shows the audience that this character is a crucial part of this film. The hint towards " controlled demolition thing" establishes the hostile environment the main character is dealing with. Suttle hints in the opening sequence help suggest to the audience what has happened to reach this piont in the character's life.

 

Then we hear the voice over say "we have front row seats for this theatre of mass destruction" as the camera ,using cgi, looks at gentleman ,who is holding the gun, from the other side of the glass then it swings scaling the building down into the street. This establishes the environment that they are in ( a major city at night). This is essential for an opening scene to establish the environment the film will be set it because if the audience may feel less encouraged to to watch the full film because they dot know where its taking place thus they cannot empathise with the characters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



What are the statistics?

From looking at http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/ The vast majority of the list are forms of action films.  The highest grossing being Marvell's Avengers which grossed $1,511.8 Million. This suggests that the making of an action film may have more interest in the general public due to the fact that the highest grossing thus most watched films are action. In more research I will be analysing other introduction sequences of high grossing films to find any correlations which may be the key to great opening sequences which I can put in mine.

BIG CHANGE!

We have discussed our options and after some inspiration from looking at past a level projects we have decided to change from making a comdey film opening to an action / crime film opening.
The films I will be analysing their openings are

Fight club

Pulp fiction

scarface

007 Goldeneye

The firm

I will be analysing them on their ability to esablish the environment , the charchters and the scinario.

Reserch into opening sequences

Me and David have decided to collaborate again to produce our next task of making an opening sequence for a film idea of our own. After looking at the statistics from http://boxofficemojo.com/ we realised that action movies are the highest grossing then the next is comedies. We felt that with our budget that an action movie may be hard so a comedy may be more suited.

One of the production companies we love the style of is Film 4 Productions with films may high grossing films under their belt. Film 4 have a style all of their own in which me and David will try and replicate with our own devices in our opening sequence.

Films which I will be evaluating there opening scenes are :

-Hot fuzz
-Shaun of The Dead
-Four Lions
-The Inbetweeners movie
-Kevin and perry go large ( not a film 4 production but is similar in style)

the prisoner reprisal summary.

This piece was an example of what happens when timekeeping is lacking. We did not make a schedule in which to keep by so when we came to filming we were not organised and what made this even worse was the rain that came over Durham that week that made us change out whole production by setting it all indoors. Yet the biggest mistake of all was our last minute choice to ditch the script and make it a parody of our last production and make the script off the top of our heads. Since we hadn't written the script as a comedy/spoof the changes we made were not funny. It obscured the storyline as well so the audience didn't know what was going on. One of our downfalls was my idea to have me walking in the background, which rewind the continuity, this was supposed to be suttle and the audience was not supposed to notice really but in actual fact it was very visible and it drew the audience's attention.

Yet on the other hand taking away the story and dialogue I am immensely impressed with the shots I have taken. The over the shoulder shot in the hallway looks great. Also the first scene of the handheld shot looks great but it does go on for too long and the audience gets bored of more that a minute of dialogue.

In conclusion the big lesson I have learnt keep to the initial script and storyboard. Massive changes last minute may have flaws that are not considered at the time of making them. In my next production I will keep to the initail script ad storyboard and another thing I will need more people so someone can operate the cam so I can get some good two shots.

My final peice about continuity

http://player.vimeo.com/video/5443393...

I am very disappointed with this piece. Due to many disruptions in our initial schedule this was made in a rush and the effects are clearly shown. There is a lack of overall clarity in the story. We didnt keep to the script. But I'm pround of the overall shots we took.

More analysis to come

The script for the prisoner 2

Script:

After The Title Sequence finishes, we can see the footage from a Handheld Camera of the main Protagonist, Marcus. The footage on the Camera follows out as:

MARCUS: “ Hello Followers, I have been studying the unexplained death of my late father. There are no records whatsoever to say of his existence on this planet yet I know clearly in my heart that I had a strong father figure, no silhouette, no ghost, a loving and cherished figure. I’ll be damned to the ends of the earth is his name is squandered, and for what purpose,”

 “My goal is to uncover the secrets that the government has kept from us; I know the story of my father’s death”

At this point the focus has returned to the point of view of the handheld camera.

“we will fight, we will regain what we have lost and stand taller than ever before who will join me, Who will fight to keep the rights that we so deserve, who will fight, For Freedom, We are not machines, we are not cattle we are Human, Our Time Starts Now”

The end of the transmission can be seen from a computer screen, the camera pans and reveals that one of the Numbers Is watching the footage, Number 2:

NUMER 2: *From Number 2’s Point of view, a phone can be seen ringing, Number 2’s Pick it up and places it to his ear* “Yes, Sir”

*The camera focus changes the scene back to Marcus who we can see from a long shot, closing down the camera he used to record his broadcast.

MARCUS: *Sigh* *Marcus begins preparing himself by attaching items to himself* (e.g. Guns Etc.)

*Marcus walks out of the building he recorder in, he heads out onto a flat plain where he sees Number 2 walking up*

*At this point the camera changes from tracking Marcus going down the stairs, seeing number 2, to now being a fair distance out recording a  monologue between the two*

MARCUS: Lets skip the introductions, I know who you are.

NUMBER 2: I assumed you would

MARCUS: *Chuckle* It’s funny to think, one of us isn’t going to survive this.

NUMBER 2: Hmm, You think you have a chance; you have the same arrogance as your father…

MARCUS: You killed my father in cold blood, Arrogance is no factor, and you knew nothing about my father…

NUMBER 2: We know more than you think…

Marcus: Well I’m not giving you the same satisfaction.* Marcus Raises his gun quickly and shoots straight at number 2, the bullet impacts*

NUMBER 2: *After briefly recoiling, Number 2 begins approaching Marcus.*

MARCUS: *Marcus begins to get frustrated and at the end fires a bullet that grazes number 2’s face*

Number 2: Number two shakes looks forward toward Marcus and his face repairs.

*A Chase scene begins and Number 2 Is constantly hot on Marcus’s Trail.*

The camera uses a series of both still shots and moving shots that follow either Marcus or Number 2, at one point an over the shoulder shot is used.

The film cuts to black when they encounter each other face to face.

 

 

THE RAIN FALLS DOWN ON THIS HUMDRUM TOWN.

Due to unforeseen weather problems we are unable to film in the rain due to our camera may get some long term damage. So me and David have had to sit down and decide that we are changing the setting to inside a hallway. Its not ideal but to get this piece in by the deadline we will have to make cuts.

The storyboard for the prisoner 2

The prisoner 2 schedule.

The script is finished and is going to be posted as soon as possible. The storyboard is made all I need to do is scan it and make it into a video which should be on by sunday night. Filming will start on monday and should be done by wednesday(fingers crossed).

This has been a learning curve for my film making experience so next time I will carefully plan when me and david ( and other actors ) are free so we are not dashing at the last minute to get all the filming done. But the film will be done as planed before the deadline.

The Prisoner (2) Reprisal.

New task! We have been given the task to create a video containing elements such as: the 180 degree rule , action match , continuety focus and shot reverse shot.

So me and David have joined together again to make the prisoner 2.

more updates on the way

opening sequence idea

Opening title idea

Fresh Prince of Cwmbran

The inspiration is from the gouldie lookin chain song seen above

 

 

 

The program name is a slight parody the fresh prince of Bel-air but location and name could be changed. Another Idea I had was "alan in sunderland" (instead of Alice in wonderland).

 

The series would be a comedy based around this ,self proclaimed, godfather of cwmbran and how he thinks he rules the streets of Cambrian. But in actual fact he is a teenager, of the age of 16 - 19 , who still lives at home with his parents, has no jobs , and one follower called cai who clings onto his every word. The comedy would drive from the contrast between who he thinks he is and actually who he is.

 

The opening sequence may include the song above but would start off with the main charchter being waked up by his mum. Then he would throw back the sheets  and roll over putting his face into the cushion. The next scene would show him putting on a lightly coloured kappa tracksuit ( to show a thirst for gangster life of what he's seen on the television). Then an over the shoulder shot of him putting his cap on sideways in the mirror. Them the camera would move to looking up at him putting on a thick gold necklace in a mirror. The next shot would be a long shot of him going out of the front gate of his large detached house's gate slamming it shut , with attitude. Then the camera would be on a dolly following him strutting down a country path, as he walks his mate cai would run and catch up with him and start walking alongside then the name of the show would fade in. Then the writers name.

 

 

A video of my storyboard to come.

Media Opening Sequences

 

Only Fools And Horses

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr-A-rE8QhY

The opening sequence of only fools and horses starts off with an establishing picture of a marketplace showing the viewer the atmosphere and background of the characters lives they are about to witness. Then you see the name of the show partially wipe into the picture and wipe out. This is quite common in comedies to show the name of the show first, then the name and then the actors which is what is present in the only fools and horses opening sequence.

In the sequence throughout what is going on in the foreground there are still images fading into each other of a dirty, traditional market town. This essentially is to give the viewer the atmosphere of the lifestyles of the main characters but the lack of movement in the pictures may suggest a lack of movement in the lives of the characters from their everyday routine.

The theme music in this title is a classic that anyone alive during this era will know the tune and will be able to hum along. This is due to the simple nature of the wording and actual tune in the background that is played that is catchy and easy for the viewer to remember.    

The Fresh Prince Of Bell Air

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBe0VCso0qs

The opening sequence of the fresh prince of bell air is one of the main reasons the show was as popular as it was. Millions of viewers would go quiet to hear the opening sequence of the fresh price due to its upbeat, catchy theme song and the amusing scenes that accompany it.

The into starts with Will Smith (The fresh prince) in a kings throne spinning around with a backdrop of graffiti. This scene sums up the full television series in which a “fresh”, street, common young man goes to live with is rich uncle in Dell Air. The throne represents the lifestyle he leads now but the backdrop shows a background of “streetlife” and the spinning may be representing a lack of stableness between the two extremes.

Another use of this opening title is to show the audience the essential background knowledge of the main character. The opening scene shows how will went from being a basketball street wise young man  being sent to live with his rich relatives. So when jokes are being made within the show the audience can connect with the main character and feel involved.

The whole show revolves around the contrast between Will’s street life background and the life he now leads in Bell Air. The opening sequence catches this in essence by the use of the theme song and the scenes that accompany it its catches the essence of this perfectly. For example one of the lines in the theme song  “ drinking orange juice out of a champagne glass, is this what the people of bell air live like, hum this might be alright”.

 

Red Dwarf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCjvPFpuR28&feature=relmfu

The opening scene starts off with the very recognisable establishing shot of the red dwarf ship. This is also to show the audience that the program they are about to watch is set in the future, may be unrealistic and they are based in a spaceship.

The opening sequence is only thirty seconds long but it fits in about ten clips from the show showing all the characters and main locations within the program. All the clips that are shown are very fast pace with allot of movement to show the very active, fast pace nature of the program.

As very common with comedies the name of the show is shown first and then the writer.          

The Simpsons (animated)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rb82TUYoa88#!

The opening scene for the Simpsons, as seen in the link, has never really been changed. The swoop into Springfield, the POV shot of Bart writing lines on the blackboard and the always funny gag of homer getting hit by the car and into the living room remains. Over the last 20 years the opening sequence has been re-mastered but the crucial element that made the series famous are still there. This connects viewers old and new to the show.

 

An example of a opening sequence that not really fit for purpose, but is great.

The tomorrow people.

( not a comedy but an example of how a title sequence doesn’t always fit the program but can still work)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xez4o1ujOPI

A hit TV show, watched by thousands yet the into makes no sense or resemblance to the show whatsoever. There are a few links to the futuristic world that the characters live in but that’s about it. There are many questions I would have about this opening sequence. Why does the name of the show keep on fading in many times? Why are there zooms into random objects such as a stop motion hand? A foetus? Some scaffolding framing a some people by a volcano?  I would understand if the hand was an essential part of the program but it’s not. It’s only featured in the opening sequence. Yet the strange thing is everyone who remembers the tomorrow people remembers the intro with the futuristic theme tune and the random stop motion hand. This may bear no resemblance to the actual program yet it’s a very remember able and gives the audience these questions listed above and makes the viewer want to view on to see what the show is all about.  

The Prisoner

https://vimeo.com/51274165

51274165 On the whole I'm very pleased looking at my finished piece. The clip is smooth and well rounded due to the editing and the music fits in great.I love the running scene (of David smith) the way the camera angles mixed with establishing shots and him running adds a great effect of a commotion or urgency. The only disappointing aspect of my piece is the volume of the speaking. This could be controlled if we had microphones, this may be an option for next time but it wasn't a great problem that couldn't even be fixed with more time to edit the video.

We intended to have my charter to be vanished or melted away when David clicks his fingers (using after effects) but once we'd filmed all the scenes we forgot to have a shot without my charter in the frame so We could not add that but I would have been a cool effect

This is my original storyboard for the prisoner. I'm not a great artist so the sketchings were only really to inspire me when filming . Due to issues with camera angles and obstructions many scenes had to be altered and as we analysed our settings more scenes prevailed that were not originally intended. 

the video and more analysis is to come!

An analysis of the my past work

Alright,

I have put two new videos on "angles of life" and "camera angles".

For "angles of life " I used windows movie maker which gave some good effects and was very simple to use. Yet for projects it's not that great the actual technical side of it there is simply more effects and more tools to edit my products on adobe premier pro (which I used in "camera angles" ) If you watch them both clearly "camera angles " looks more professional and smooth .

With "camera angles" the only criticism I Have is that the cameras and equipment I have available are not the greatest. For example om a few of the shots in high budget films mechanical arms would move the camera but I'm just moving my hand and it's hard to keep a steady rate. That's my only real criticism I was quite impressed with my work.

7H3 PRI50NER

Alright

Just finished filming my next project named "the prisoner". We were given a script and we had to film and interpret how we think it should be shown. I've got storyboards ready to be put on they will be on the blog very soon.

All in all the filming went great but there was a few issues with trying to keep to the storyboard due to a lack of filming locations and some shots may have been changed because the cameras we are using don't work best in low light so alterations had to be made. Altogether I'm rather proud the work me an David smith did. We are in the process of editing at the moment but it should come out great.

This is my video showing different camera movements. I was most impressed with the handheld tracking shot. I walked with the tripod attached to the camera to give an effective Steadicam. Yet the shot I was least impressed with was the tilt (vertical) . This is because I need to learn how to tilt the camera at a constant speed.

Angles of life

Playing around with different camera angles. With more time I could have gotten better shots but I'm still happy with the result.my favourite shot is of the basketball hoop and the light in the background that has came out well. Song - The headmaster ritual by the smiths   https://vimeo.com/49327824

Given a task of creating an advert so I created an advert for Adidas. Not great but I tired to use different camera angles and different effects on movie maker .

The main idea for this is to show that Adidas makes the wearer feel like the star or their idol that wears it. Once they put on an Adidas garment they  feel they are "adored " because of Adidas's prestigious name they know their not just wearing a hoodie or a smart pair of trainers but aswell their wearing a peice of history.

Superhero genre pitch

THE OUTCASTS

 PITCH.

 

Let me set the scene, it’s the year 3500 in New York. Hovercrafts roam the skies the streets are no longer the place of transport. They are merely a place of high sky silver skyscrapers thousands of stories high and between them lies forbidden “footpaths “,( because no one walks in the year 3500 why would you when you can simply beam thousands of kilometres without breaking a sweat) so the only mere life form that lives there is the outcasts of society. They live in wasteland or near the small ancient statue of a blue woman on the outskirt of town.

In one of the man made shelters next to the ancient statue lies a young boy around the age of 18-23 lying staring at the sky named Davey Jones kicked out of his apartment  as a young boy because he didn’t comply with the regulations of the new government in New York “kemtech”, they control  the town’s electricity it’s electronic appliances all the automobiles. Davy believed that kemtech run too much of his life and he saw them as an enemy but he didn’t know why he just had a gut feeling. But zemtech  didn’t care about helping all Americans make their life easier it was a scam all by the planet zong  just so they could take over America and the galaxy. Kemtech already has most of Europe in its grasp but no one had noticed or batted an eyelid at their movements.  But why was Davey told?  Because he was visited by Starman who told him of the planet Zong and their plans to rid the galaxy of humans and all other life forms apart from the rapoids who will reign supreme. Starman had escaped the planet mars just before   the rapoids had taken it. But why did he visit Davey? Because Starman knew of the future his life form had already invented time machines and he’d seen the day that Davey lead the army that would destroy the planet zong and all the evil rapoids.

 But there was one problem Starman knew he couldn’t take on the rapoids himself and he knew Davey was the only one with the willpower, strength and determination to take on the rapoids. But after being homeless for more than 4 years most of that was gone he was a young scruffy boy who barely had the willpower to get up for water on a morning . So Starman has to help him regain his stong abilities by going forward in time and showing him the day that kemtech destroy the human world. This regains his courage and he gains a team of “outcasts “ from the streets and him and Starman make superhero suits for them all (which have a super power built in by Starmans un natural ability but everyone has a different specialiy)   and they make a team called the outcasts consisting of “Starman” (is the thinker he knows how to destroy the rapoids) ( “The genie”(can summon lightning)  “Davy Jones” (leads the team)   “Galactic Girl” ( can seduce the gaurds and take them out ) and “ The big unit” ( Can smash through anything ). Using their superpowers they can destroy the evil rapoids.

 

Soundtrack may include tracks from David bowie, AC/DC , joy division and many more (if we can get copyright)  

First blog

Alright People Just starting uo my blog and this is my first post. More videos and pictures coming.