Film analysis opening genre.

Film analysis opening genre

In this task we were asked to analyse the openings to three films, I chose Guardians of the Galaxy, Harry Brown and Ghost Ship. 

To do this we use the acronym DISTINCT.
This stands for:
Describe
In detail
Setting
Themes
Icons
Narrative
Character
Textual analysis


Guardians of the galaxy




The opening of this film is in an dark almost creepy cave, as there is very little light and there are lots of small rat like monsters running around. This whole image is shattered as soon as Chris Pratt presses play on his walkman. He plays comical music and does silly dances throughout the opening.  The song "come and get you love" by Redbone is an interesting choice, as it was released in 1973, which contradicts the futuristic alien theme and makes it into a comical sketch.  This gives a slight insight to the character as it shows he could have originated from Earth and have a connection to do with the 70's.


Ghost Ship



This film opens with panoramic picturesque shots of the outside of a boat sailing in the ocean. Then we see a pretty young lady singing to an audience on a ship in a red dress. This dress has connotations of blood and foreshadows the massacre at the end of the scene. The inside of the boat is brightly lit and has a warm feeling, but once the wire cuts through the crowed of people the lighting changes to a cold blue tinge and the feeling is suddenly the complete opposite. The brutal ending to the scene shows that the film is violent and has an element of surprise to it. The characters on the ship are all adults other than the one child who survives the wire. The lady in the red dress has calls everyone to the dance floor just before the wire slices through everyone. This most likely means she had insight to what was going to happen so is probably one of the main antagonists of the movie.

Harry Brown



From watching opening to Harry Brown you can instantly recognise that the film is not for younger children, as there are scenes of drugs, gangs and murder. The scene opened with a group of men, who are probably range from the ages of 17-22, doing drugs and peer pressuring others to take hits. They are all dressed in black, which has connotations of death, this could foreshadow their actions and near to the end of the scene. The boys are dressed and act like the stereotypical chavy gang members, and the graffiti on the walls of the underground suggest that they are from a poorer background/ area. Later on in the opening, the youths are riding a motorbike in illegal places and at dangerously high speeds. They are screaming and shouting and this adds to the stereotypical chav look of these men. They film themselves murder a young woman with a child, which shows how reckless and how little they care for others in the community. This suggests that the film has a dark theme of death and violence throughout the rest of the movie.