Film Opening Deconstruction - 'Love Actually'

The film opens with the 'Universal' logo accompanied with the sound you would expect from the company, this is followed by a black screen from which the 'studio canal' logo appears - it starts with a small letterbox shape which expands to reveal the logo, there is also the company signature sound to go with this. Then, the 'Working Title' logo appears at 0:43, with no sound. This goes to black and we have our first shot, a tracking shot following a man, there is also light music at this point which reflects the expected happy, romantic comedy of which you would expect from a Richard Curtis film. 'Universal Picture and Studio canal present' is then displayed on screen (during the shot of the man). At 0:54 'a working title production' appears as a man goes up and hugs his, assumed, friend or family. This is followed by 'In Association with DNA Films' and it becomes clear to us that this scene is in a busy place, perhaps arrivals at an airport since it is so crowded and there are many people greeting one another.

At 1:05 it cuts to a mother carrying her bags who greets and hugs her children, which then cuts to two old women also hugging and then another mother lifting her child, this shot has been slowed down to perhaps emphasise the love in their relationship, and this being a moment that she has been dreaming of since she went away, in this way, slowing it down perhaps creates the feeling of her finally having that dream come true. Also at this point there is a non-diegetic narrator who confirms our expectations of these touching scenes being in an airport, 'Whenever I get gloomy about the state of the world, I think about the arrival bay at Heathrow Airport', meanwhile we are shown a mother and her child hugging and another lady running up and embracing. During this narration we are shown, repeatedly, people happily greeting and embracing each other, 'It seems to me that love is everywhere', it is clear to see from all this embracing that this is reflected. The narrator then goes on to say that 'often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there' as we see father and son, mother and daughter and two old guys hugging as he says 'old friends'. The constant repetition of people's touching moments captured, emphasises the fact that this film is about love. 

This continues at 1:38 where we are shown a man and a women kissing as they greet each other, while the narrator goes on to say 'when the planes hit the twin towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls were messages hate or revenge' in this way, we are already given the ideas that the film will perhaps be in search for this love and although we are not shown the main characters or protagonist in the first scene, we already have ideas about what the film is about and perhaps creates some enigma as we wish to know who the person narrating it is and how will they find love? At 1:50 the narrator says 'If you look for it you'll find that love actually is all around' while these words are being spoken, they appear on screen in a white typeface, apart from 'is' which is in red, connoting love. We then see a group of the three hugging which fades to black, leaving the words 'love actually', 'love' being now in red', actually then fades and 'love' is left alone at 2:00 minutes.

Film Opening Deconstruction - 'Forrest Gump'

The opening scene begins with the 'paramount logo', there is no sound at this point until the 'paramount' logo fades to black, to then reveal the blue sky and a feather. This feather acts as a McGuffin* for the narrative as it can be seen to have connotations of hope and freedom, which becomes apparent with the continuation of the plot. The music begins at 0:12 minutes  which already gives us a sense that the film may be quite uplifting since it has a happy tone; and a white typeface appears over the shot with 'paramount pictures presents'. This then changes to 'a Steve Tisch/ Wendy Finerman production', at this point the camera beings to track the feather as it fall through the sky. It is perhaps a clever way of revealing the setting, as we being to see the types of building, therefore helping us to the conclusion that is, firstly, set in America. 'a Robert Zemickis Film' is then shown which then goes to the main actor 'Tom Hanks in', at 0:27, then the title of the film is displayed 'Forrest Gump'.

All at this time the camera is tracking the feather, what makes this impressive is the fact that this is all one shot! From 0:38 to around 0:53 minutes the rest of the main actors are displayed. At this time, the camera follows the feather back up to the sky after it reveals the first park of the main opening scene in the park. At 0:57 it has 'Casting by Ellen Lewis' and later ' Co-Producer Charles Newirth', thus far the opening scene follows our 'normal' conventions of a film opening. At 1:05 the camera tracks the feather back down to the buildings and then shows 'Executive Producer Joel Sill', ' Visual Effects Supervisor Ken Ralston', the camera carries on tracking down to the park. 'Costume Designed by Joanna Johnston' and 'Music by Alan Silvestri' is shown and at 1:24, Forrest is revealved as the camera follows the feather as  it gets nearer to the ground - we do not know that Forrest is the protagonist yet.

At 1:27 'Edited by Arthur Schmidt' is displayed while the feather goes down to the road where we can see a woman crossing the road, and we can see people talking by a car; 'Production Designer Rick Carter' is shown as the feather falls onto a mans shoulder, who is centre in shot, however we know this is not the protagonist since it only touches his sholder and moves on. Then, at 1:38 'Director of Photography Don Burgess' and after this 'Based on the Novel by Winston Groom'; 'Screenplay by Eric Roth', 'Produced by Wendy Finerman Steve Tisch Steve Starkey', are displayed consequtively  up to 1:54 minutes. 

There is a close-up shot of Forrest's feet at this point, which creates an enigma since he appears to be wearing a suit, from the neatness of his trousers but he is wearing muddy, old nike shoes on his feet - How did they get so muddy? We are still following the feather, which sits touching his foot, until Forrest picks up the feather and we track up his body. 'Directed by Robert Zemeckis' appears on screen as this happens, the second appearance of this name, empahsising his importance in creating the film. At 2:06 we have a medium close-up of Forrest as he admires his newly found feather, meanwhile the music fades, reducing it to just piano keys. At 2:14 Forrest opens his suitcase to store this feather, before doing so he moves a box of chocolates with a neatly ties ribbon on top, this creates a certain enigma behind why he has got them? and perhaps who are they for? As he opens his suitcase we get a little insight into his character, he picks up a 'Curious George' book, which in turn perhaps signifies Forrest's child-like nature, and places the feather into the back page, and closes the suitcase. The significance of this feather is not yet explicitly shown, however it does help us to come up with connotations of peace, freedom and hope, which already gives us someting to look forward to in the rest of the film. At 2:34 we have a close-up of Forrest which cuts to a wide-shot and the music comes to an end, leaving us with the sounds of the approaching bus. As the bus shows up it have '1981' written on the side, so we now know the time period. 

In this way the opening scene to 'Forrest Gump' follow the conventions of what we would expect from a film opeing as we get to be intorduced into the protagonist, we learn the time period and setting, and we also are given a sense of enigma through the muddy trainers and significance of the feather.

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Film Opening Deconstruction - 'Inglourious Basterds'

This opening starts with a black screen which then appears the logo of 'Universal Pictures' at around 10 seconds, however at this point there is no sound, which is unusual since we are so used to the drums and trumpets of it's usual theme tune. The 'Universal Pictures' logo is also not our normal expectations, since it is an older version, this perhaps is Tarantino informing us that the film is not set in the modern day and hence it already presents the time in which the film is set; thus conforming to film conventions of which we would expect from a film opening.

At around 15 seconds, 'Weinstein Company' logo then appears with still no sound. This then transitions to 'Universal Pictures and Weinstein Company Presents' at around 20 seconds and at this point the music, that seems very French-like, begins.




'A Band Apart' and 'A Zehnte Bablesberg Film GBMH Production' which again fade to black, for five seconds and the director: Quentin Tarantino, appears on screen at about 35 seconds.





There is a crescendo in the music and the main title of the film is displayed.  It becomes perhaps clear to us here that the context of the film is WWII and even the typeface signifies a sense of mischief since it is not written in a neat fashion.

The first of the main actors is then given the entire screen at 45 seconds, and the rest of the main characters are shown until about 1.05 minutes.

Interestingly they display 'Melanie Laurent as Shoshana' whereas they did not express the character names of the other actors, perhaps this is because she is often mistaken.



Next, their is a change in typeface to a white, round-shape letters to display the co-stars who in share the screen with their fellow actors, since they do not play such a main role.

At 1:30 minutes there is again a change in typeface to display 'Guest Starring', these are perhaps worthy of some notability since they are shown one at a time.





There is a fade to black at this point for about 30 seconds, the music ending in this time. We then get some visuals at 2 minutes. The scene open with an establishing shot/wide shot of idyllic, rural France - you can tell it is rural France when you have mise en scene which includes cows. There is also the sound of chopping wood, which after no sound make us focus on it more; this sounds is diegetic, although it is enhanced in editing.

At 2:08 minutes there is a tilt up to a low angle of Monsieur La Petit chopping wood, this shot creates a feeling of empowerment for him, although this feeling of empowerment perhaps shifts later on. There is a cut to  a mid-shot of his daughter, who we already can deduce that she does not have much power as she is level with the audience in a mid-shot, there is also a rumble in the music and 'fur elise' music which build tension and hence enigma*. This shot cut to a medium close-up which in urn enables Tarantino to re-focus the camera on to the approaching figures. The guitar strums in the 'fur elise' music connote Spanish bull fighting and the fact that the girl pull back the sheet to reveal the ambiguous men approaching, could signify these men as being the violent bull, who were willing to charge at the girl behind the sheet.

At around 2:30 minutes we hear 'papa' followed by a shot of, now we know, papa, interestingly still in a low angle shot, this may be because he still does not know of what lay ahead and hence still has authority and power. There is then a close up of the daughters, which cuts to a three-up and medium close-up as the daughters respond to their father's commands of telling them to go into the house at 2.40 minutes.

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Final Cut - Preliminary Task - MAGC Productions - 'Blind Date'

Post-Production - Preliminary Task

Converting Footage
After production we were all keen to see what we had filmed, not knowing we would have to wait to convert all our footage. However, after we had finally converted all the footage we were able to get onto the infamous final cut pro. 

Editing
The interface did look intimidating at first but once we start using the basic tools e.g. the razor blade, it was surprisingly easy. We faced some difficulties when we came to adding music because we had the music on a CD, which rather inconveniently could not be placed into the mac, since it had no CD slot; despite this we managed to transfer the music onto a USB stick and eventually onto final cut. For parts of our footage we wanted it to be slowed down to create a sense of time standing still, we worked out that in order  to do this we would have to make the duration of the clip longer - this worked really well.

The only thing that got truly annoying during editing was having multiple layers on the timeline, since when we were cutting other layers, sound would come out from, what seemed like, nowhere and we would have to try and work out where it was coming from. Also, once we had cut some of the shots out, we had forgotten to include the sound, this made it much harder to actually see where the sound had irrupted from. However, once we had sorted out all the layers and made the timeline more clear, it was much easier.

During editing we also wanted to make sure that the background noise was not overriding the actual dialogue and so we managed to make it quieter at points. As well as this we wanted at some points for the music to be louder. For example, at the beginning when Guinevere walks into the room, there is a record scratch, which we wanted to be louder in order to create an effect of astonishment and discomfort for all of whom were in the restaurant and the viewer. Another point in which we wanted the sound to override the dialogue was when Guinevere is talking so much that Edward completely zones out. 




We wanted the music to blur out Guinevere's dialogue so it would create the impression that Edward is no longer listening to her, but is listening to the more interesting music in the background of the restaurant.

After we had edited all of our footage we started letter-boxing. This was rather easy however it was frustrating that we had to apply the letter box to each individual shot. We also had to re-frame a lot of our shots in order to make sure that nothing was cut out of frame. We also needed to make sure that we had the same framing for each shot type, for example we made sure that when we go back to the two-shot that it was still the same framing, so the shots would not jump around.

Effects and Filters 
Luckily we had enough time before our deadline to have a go at some colour grading. We decided to make our shots have more red in them, to create the feeling of love and a first date, however, since it is a disastrous first date we added more blue to create a feeling of foreboding. We made a template to do this, so that we could use the same settings, similar to the framing, so our shots would not look jolted or have any dramatic difference between them. We also adjusted the light levels in each shot, in order to make sure that no shot was over exposed, or one being brighter than another.

Exporting 
Finally the time had come to complete our preliminary task, by simply converting it to QuickTime so that it was compatible for YouTube.