Our pitch

Last lesson our group had to pitch our movie opening idea to the rest of our class, my group consists of me (sound), Will Whales (editing), and James Flower (filming).
Our opening idea is to have a British gangster film, with it going against the conventions of a gangster film by  having them as young "chavs" instead. part of the reason to do this is because it is easier to film it like this as we have more accessible actors and props for this age group and plot. our opening is going to be shot in twilight, using car lights to provide extra light, and we are going to have a character thrown in the boot of a car, then see the car driving off, having shots of inside the car and having shots showing the car driving past.

Opening sequence analysis

For our final project our group are planning on creating an opening for a British gangster film, so for my deconstruction of an opening sequence i have decided to analyse the opening sequence of the film Snatch.

The very first scene of the film shows CCTV screens showing four disguised men breaking into a diamond business disguised as Jewish rabbis, this opening scene immediately sets the criminal aspect to the film as it is showing the thieves on CCTV screens, connoting that a crime is about to be committed. whilst this sequence is playing the casts names are appearing on the screens.

After this sequence the film cuts to becoming incredibly fast paced, with the characters pulling out guns and storming the office, the non diegetic sound in this part of the opening is a very fitting fast paced drum beat which greatens the tense feelings of the viewer, the editing of the scene is also fast paced and uses effects such as the image rotating and spinning to add tension, which could easily look unimpressive and over the top, however works very well.

 

The sequence continues to show the title "snatch" imposed on top of an outrageously large diamond, when the image of the diamond rotates into another person holding it, this bit of editing is incredibly clever and works very well, a different non diegetic soundtrack starts at this point and is considerably more funky and upbeat than the soundtrack before,creating a more fun element to the opening.

From here onward the opening goes through the characters, establishing who's who, what they do and how their stories intertwine, with each character having a freeze-frame with their name over the top, the fast paced, flowing editing style here makes the viewer incredibly captivated to find out what happens to each of the characters.

 

In my opinion this is an incredibly good and inventive way of making a title sequence. With the sequence finishing with the same shot of the diamond.