Forrest Gump Film Analysis (1994)

From what we can see in the opening of the film, you can tell that it is a comedy/drama. You cant really tell from the intro that it is a comedy. This is because there is only one continuous follow shot following a feather, including sad, non-diegetic music. When we have a look at the way that the titles we can see that they use a bold, white font to show all of the characters, directors and producers. This follows most of the general comedy films as they normally have this sort of title. It also follows the general rule of when the titles come up.
At the beginning you get the first title: Paramount Pictures. This is then followed by the producers, then the director. After the director it was then followed by the main actors, then back to the producers and the director. This follows the general rule of thumb of titles as most films with long intro's you will see a lot of titles in this order.

when we have a look at the narrative of the film we can see that on this one long intro we can see that they use one, long continuous shot with the titles appearing. I feel that this was done because they wanted to show all of the titles of a slow video so that the viewers attention would be brought to the titles and not to the background. This means that people would see the directors and producers name instead of them not being recognised at the end when everyone is leaving.

when we have a look at the setting/ mise en scene of the clip we can see that that they wanted to have an establishing shot of the town/city that they were in and how it really fit the time period that they were in in 1994. One of the most creative things i thought about about was when you first see Forrest's shoes at the beginning and how dirty they are. This was done because they wanted to show how much he has been through in his life and all of things that he has achieved. This goes well with how smart the rest of his cloths are, smart, clean and tidy. Again they used mise really well when they showed his bag. Again this had everything that he had done in his life e.g. the football, ping pong paddle and badge. It sort of sums up how much that the main character has achieved in his life and everything that he has done. Finally the last thing we see before the diegetic speech comes in of just him on the bench. This was done because they wanted to use the bench to represent his popularity. at the beginning of the film there was no-one. Just like during his flashbacks of him being at home by himself, then when he got on the bus and at first he had no-one to talk to. Then one person came along and he started to talk about how he had a friend, and as more and more people started to sit on the bench the more his life progressed and the more popular he was in his flashbacks. This is then backed up because at the end when his only friend Jenny died and he took his son to the bus, it was just him sitting alone on the tree stump. They used him sitting places to represent his life and popularity and i thought that this was used very well.
When we have a look at the feather and what that is meant to represent, you can tell that when the feather is flying down it is representing his life and age, and that he has done everything he wants to in life. This is then backed up because at the end when the feather falls out of his sons book you can see that the feather flying back up into the air representing his life just beginning. this was a really smart way to represent his life and everything he has done in it.
When we have a look at the music that was played in the film, there was a lot of sad non-diegetic music playing at the beginning. Again this was done because they wanted to draw the attention of the viewer to the beginning and the credits as well as the feather (as it would be used again later on in the film) and it just eases the audience into the film, better than if they were to have played some heavy music. It gives the audience a general feel of what the film is going to be like.
From this we can see what made this opening successful and what we should try to copy when it comes to us re-creating an opening. From this opening i think i would like to copy the amount and style of the titles and when they appear. I think that it was efficient when it comes the style of genre.

Skyfall (2012) Film Analysis

Skyfall (2012) Film Opening Title Sequence

From what we can see from the film opening we can see that the film is a mix of action and adventure. We can see this because of the following things: daggers were falling out of the sky, there were guns shown and multiple hints of death throughout the clip. A great example of this is when James Bond was in the water, and you could see a skull forming in the water. This was done because they wanted to hint the general way that the film was going and what was probably going to happen. This is a big giveaway to what the genre is.

When we have a look at the narrative of the film opening we can see that they use camera angles very well to tell their story. So the first great shot that we see them use is a long shot of the main character in the water. this creates the effect that the main character is drowning and is close to death. This is backed up by the hand pulling him down. This is effective in showing the films genre as it signifies death and that is the main factor in an action film. A second thing that was done in the intro was to make James Bond falling through the sand into a skull. Again this is a real big hint into a large skull in the sand. Again this connotes death, literally.

When we have a look at the the main character himself we can see that he is wearing all black. The director probably wanted this because black represents death, and as he is wearing it, it shows that he is dead. Also you would wear a black, smart suit if you were attending a funeral. This followed by him being dragged into a skull really shows the representation of death. We can link death to themes as well. As death is a theme and it has been shown multiple times throughout the short intro it really does show death. When we have a look at setting we can see that at the beginning nearly all of the shots are under water. This 

could have been done because they want to represent the coldness and darkness that deep water has, and then use it to represent the agent himself. This is effective because it really does give us an idea of that the agent is like and what his emotions are like. however when we look to the end of the sequence it changes from the traditional underwater scene, and then has effects like graves, and knifes falling out of the sky. Again this was done to connote that someone big is going to die in the film. This was then followed by a few final scenes of blood coming out from above the water. When we have a look at the music that they are playing we can see that at the beginning it starts off slow and steady. However as the intro progresses it starts to get loader, faster and has a lot more bass in. This was done because they want to show how the film is going to progress, start off slow then get a lot more violent until the end when someone dies.
Overall this will help us when creating our own film opening because we know what made this successful and the things we should incorporate into our own opening.

Similarities and Differences in Film Openings

Film one: Shaun Of The Dead
Similarities:

So when we have a look at the intro to Shaun Of The Dead compared to other into's we have seen we can see that it has the production companies names first. They were Universal Studio's, Studiocanal and Working Title Studio's.

It also had the name of the film at the end of the credits during the film introduction. This is the same as most of the films.

Differences:
It doesn't have the director's name on the title at the beginning, when we compare this to a film like Forrest Gump which does.

Film two: Back To The Future 1985
Similarities:
When we have a look at Back To The Future we can see that it has a lot of titles at the beginning of the film such as the director, the film name and the main actor.

Differences:
The differences of this film is that it has the title of the film at the beginning after the director and the production companies.

Film three: Fast And Furious 7
Similarities:
At the begining it has the name of the production companies and then after a little bit of dialogue the actors and some other names appeared as titles in the scene.

Differences:
The difference between this scene is the long wait for the rest of the titles from when the film started.

The difference between Film trailers and Film openings

Trailer
Trailers are short clips to entice people to come and see the film. these are normally two or so minuets long and you can get a good idea of what the film is about and what is going to happen in it. A film trailer doesn't run in chronological order as well. this means that the clips are all from different parts of the film, this is because they are showing you the best bits of the film to try to get you to go and see it. A great example of this is the Pirates of the Caribbean film On Stranger Tides. You can see the clips jumping around and not making much sense.

Film opening
Film openings are the beginning of a film. these again are the first two minuets that are used to help draw the audience to watch the film. You would see some titles at the beginning of the film as well. a great example of this is Forrest Gump. As you can see from the video below multiple titles appear including the production company names, the director and the name of the film. this is one great way to tell the difference between the two.