FILM OPENINGS – GENRE SPECIFIC ANALYSIS

For research into film openings I looked at two films in which i could base the film around, this where both noir films one which was quite old fashioned and one which is quite new, the first of these films is The Last Seduction and the second being Brick. The where obviously the same specific genre as the film I am looking to do. Brick is a newer film in comparison to The last seduction, so therefore I concentrated more on that then the other one.
The film The Last Seduction and the start has a title sequence where the actors and company producers are displayed this is about a minute long with a dark background and white writing as the titles, this is accomplished with digetic music in the background. The film cuts into the narrative as a shot of a demon stone statue overlooking a city, which i believe is new york, the digetic background music is carried on into the narrative of the start of the music this is a typical start of a noir film. During the introduction the staff behind the film are shown in the bottom left in white type. It then cuts to a scene in an office, with a woman giving the order this being a emergent idea which is also typical of a noir film. The woman is first at mysterious to her as at first you can not see her face as it is blocked and then she comes into the light to be able to see her face. She speaks with a powerful and commanding voice, and takes control of other men in the room. There is then a a cutaway to a man with  briefcase, making what seems to be a deal of drugs for cash. Then it is cut back away to the woman and another emergent idea of her being in control with cash. The man then looks to be ripped of and the two man with the gun are powerful over him which is another residual idea showing that noir films are based of digetic music with emergent and residual ideas.



The second film we looked at was Brick for a specific analysis, this is a much newer film which was produced in 2005 so you would expect there to be more emergent ideas. The opening scene of this film attracts the attention of the viewers really quickly as it introduces a character, and begins telling the story. It is clear that he has just killed the girl on the floor as he on the floor next to the girl staring at her. It introduces the themes in the film as quite dark and has a 'noir' feeling about it. This film is aimed at a younger audience than most in this style of film. You can tell this is aimed at teenagers as the main characters in it are at college which would attract more people the same age.