Research: Film Deconstructions

To further my understanding and kowledge and to help me to pitch my final product. I have analysed the first four minutes of four different films, these films are ranged in terms of genre, year, director and certificate.

Hot Fuzz

Certificate:15
Year:2007
Director:Edgar Wright
Genre:Action comedy

The film starts off with non diegetic sirens and police cars to set the scene for the film as it is about the life of a policeman. Then it starts with the main actor (Simon Pegg) walking towards the camera which is inside a desk. As he is walking you can hear the diegetic footsteps become louder as he comes closer. And he stops at a close up and reveals his badge showing that he is a police constable. Then flashes on to a dolly shot of him walking forward. He is inside a police headquarters and in the background is non diegetic music with non diegetic narrating on top of it. Then shows a montage of his life and shows what the narrative is saying. Included in the montage are zoom ins, zoom outs, close ups and jump shots to make the montage more effective. There are also parallel shots where the actor drives the car sides to the side and the camera closes up on his face. Followed by the same actor skidding a bicycle to the side and the camera closes up on his face again. There is also a short first person shot at the end of the montage. When the montage ends it shows two people having a conversation with a shot reverse shot effect with a diegetic conversation between them. Included is a quick pan shot of the surrounding area before coming back to the original shot reverse shot conversation. Overall i believe the start of this film is effective and would succeed in anchoring the viewers in to watching it due to the fact that there is all this action in the first two minutes. I believe that people would be intrigued to find out what will become of the policeman and how he will cope with going away from his local area.

Witchcraft

Certificate:18

year:1988

Director: Andrew Flemming

Genre:Horror

At the start of the film it cuts straight to a shot of a rocky outcrop at dusk, in the background you can hear non diegetic sound that adds to the quick arrival of the scene. Then from below the outcrop appears a girl with tattered clothing panting and running away. The camera then moves to a long shot and you can see she is being chased by men in black clothing wielding pitchforks. From then on the non diegetic sound turns into quite sinister music. After that there is a dolly shot of the girl running and looking back and in the background is a shore to a body of water. The camera then stops as the girl carries on running and then there is a 2 or 3 second gap where you see the men run past the camera. Then there is a jump cut to the camera being behind a gated path. There is a canted angle to show it being quite scary. The girl runs towards the camera and veers to the right. A while later the girl stops running and the camera runs up from her toe to head and she then touches her brooch on her dress. This triggers a use of editing and jump cuts twice to a close up of the shining brooch in a black background to show the significance of the prop. A little while later a girl wakes up you realise that this has been a dream. And a girl wakes up and stands to reveal that she is pregnant. It then shows a pan shot of a seaside and a big building in the background with another rocky outcrop. During this there is a diegetic sound of the waves crashing onto the shore. And then jump cuts in cue with a minimalist piece of music which also sounds quite sinister. And the camera then turns into a first person view of looking through a series of rooms to reveal it is a girl walking through a corridor. I think that the start of this film is not a very effective one as i believe that too much is happening in the first four minutes. 


Rocky 3

Certificate: PG

year:1982

Director:Sylvester Stallone

Genre: Sport/Action

At the beginning is a picture of the champion belt shining in all its glory and then there is a non diegetic sound of the typical rocky theme tune. With the belt there the title of the film scrolls over from left to right. Along with the music is a sounding commentary of a fight which is also non diegetic but turns diegetic when there is a fade in to the current fight. There a medium shot of the two fighters on one side not breaking the 180 degree rule. And then editing is used to create the part where they both fall to the ground in slow motion. There is a jump cut to a girl shocked with a diegetic gasping sound. Then it jump cuts back to the fight with the referee continuing in slow motion counting from 1 to 10. The slow motion then speeds up along with the diegetic commentary which is along with a number of jump cuts to show the important characters of the film. And when Sylvester Stallone stands up and wins the fight and there is a diegetic sound of crowd cheering with the non diegetic rocky theme tune running in the background. There is then a freeze frame and a zoom in to Sylvester Stallone face which then the Rock theme tune music turns in to Eye of the tiger. As the music builds up and starts there are fireworks to go with the music when it climaxes. Then “Rocky” is spelt with the colours of the fireworks. After that then follows a montage of a series of fights that Sylvester Stallone wins with fade ins and outs of the different fights and a la’s Vegas style theme of clubs and places in neon lights. Along with the montage pictures of newspapers fade in to the side as well as magazines with the main characters face on them to show that he is at the top of his game in boxing. There is also a noticeable zoom in to another character who has been watching his career throughout this montage which would make the viewers raise questions on who he is and what part he will play in the film. Overall i believe that this starting sequence is quite effective due to it being about boxing with straight away clips of fights which is what the viewer wants to see. I also like the way they have used their editing to create an effective way of telling the viewers how Rocky is being publicised and all is going well for him. I believe the idea of bringing the other character on worked quite well as the viewers want to know who it is and will watch the film to find out.