Thursday 9 September 2010

Opening two minutes of a feature film

"American Beauty" - Lester Burham 

In the opening two minutes of this film, it shows what Lester's life is like. He gets up, has a shower and gets ready for work.
It shows how he is unhappy with his life, he has a wife and a daughter in a typical American suburban neighbourhood.
He believes that his wife is unhappy even though she seems to be all smiles. He also believes that his daughter is an average teenager unhappy with her life, he doesn't think that will change.
Lester is the voice over of this film and he says that he is going to die within the year. He doesn't seem that bothered with that.
His wife seems to be the more successful of the two of them, this is shown when she is driving the car to work and school. This could be inferred to mean that she is the one in this relationship that wears the trousers.

"Jerry Maguire" - Jerry Maguire

In the opening two minutes of this film it shows Jerry's life. It first shows athletes and what their sport is with Jerry being the voice over. He believes that these athletes will become famous and he'll be their agent.
He seems to be a very proactive guy. He is always busy. He says he's the man behind the scenes, he helps get all the sport players to where they are. He always seems to get what he wants, he badgers people into getting what her wants also. He seems a very happy person but towards the end of the clip it begins to show what might be wrong with his life. He says that he might be getting a bit tired of it.
It shows two sports players one who was arrested and he had to sort it out to the media and another sports player who wouldn't sign an autograph for a young boy and this seems to make Jerry think about his job a bit.

Comparison

Compared to Lester Burham Jerry Maguire seems to be happier on the outside than Lester even though you may think that on the inside they feel the same.
Lester talks about his family, whereas Jerry talks about his job and mentions nothing about his family which might mean that his job means more to him than his family if he has one.
On the outside Jerry Maguire seems to have it all compared to Lester, Lester doesn't seem to enthused to go to work when all Jerry thinks about is his job.

"Early Doors" - Ken

In the opening of this TV show it shows the bartender Ken. He's singing which could mean that he is happy with his life. He's singing whilst he's filling up an expensive brandy bottle with cheap brandy. This shows that he is quite cheap and cons people into buying the expensive brandy when in fact it is the cheap brandy in the wrong bottle.
Even when he is doing the undesirable jobs such as cleaning the toilet he still keeps singing just a loud and cheerful if not louder.
When a customer enters the pub he still sings even though he is not alone anymore this shows that he is comfortable with his personality and doesn't care what this guy thinks of him.

Comparison

Compared to the two American characters Ken seems to be happier than them even more so than Jerry Maguire, as Ken seems to be content with his life and the other two don't seem to be.

Opening Sequences


"London to Brighton" 
In this opening sequence it shows what could be a mother and daughter, the mother is beaten up and they are in the bathroom which is small and run down. It has graffiti all over the walls, the mother leaves the daughter in the bathroom when she goes to buy food. The daughter is really scared of someone. They seem to be running away from someone, when the mother comes back she tells the daughter she has to go to work. The mother seems to be a prostitute. The opening for this films is very fast and the story started quickly.

"The Graduate" 
This opening is very different to the other openings we have studied. It shows Dustin Hoffman's character on a plane and him getting off the plane. There isn't much happening in this opening. They show the credits during this part of the film so there is something happening during the opening and the audience might not get bored. It also shows that the character is a dull character.


"Napoleon Dynamite" 
This opening is original as the cast and crews names are written on different objects such as, a burger with the directors name on in ketchup, a student card with John Heder's name on. Even the title of the film was on a card with the characters picture on it.  I thought this was very innovative and was good.

I think I might do the opening sequence of "Tormented" or another film.

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