"City of God"

This film is set in the mordern day and then falshbacks to the sixties. The country in which the film is portrayed is Brzail which we know beacause of the non-diegetic sound played at the beginning of the film. It is established to be set in an urban area which we can see beacause there is a lot of people about in the town. I understand Rocket is the main part because voice over is used with him telling the story. Shaggy is also another main part because there is a parellel storyline going on between the two characters which leads up to them both in the same storyline where they meet. The film starts of with a black silent background which then changes to a foregrounded sharpening process of a knife in a close up shot which provides impact to the film straight away. Quick cuts are used to create the emotion of confused and tense, this also helps us to get a glimpse of their chaotic lifestyle. Determined dark music is played when the chase is happening which suggests death could arise.

Donnie Darko

The film is set in America in a rich neighbourhood because you can see the big houses when the camera is tracking Donnie on his bike. We understand it is nearly Halloween because there is a close up on a poster displayed. The camera at the beginning is leading up to revealing a strange and unexpected shot of a teenager in the middle of a road on a corner, this unexpected emotion by the audience, is what the director is wanting you to feel. The film is called "Donnie Darko" which suggests that he will be the leading role in this film. Deigetic noise of thunder implys something bad is likely to happen in the film. Time is being played in the film using the technique of expantion and contraction which conveys only one technique of the weirdness of the film.

Cold Mountain

 We understand that the film is set during the US Civil War, this then gives us the information that it is set in America. The voiceover is used to link the relationship between the leading role and his partner, we know who the partner is because he is admiring an image of an attractive woman as we hear the voiceover. We know that this relationship will be a key storyline to the film. After the use of text on screen, the film fades to black which suggests dark and scariness, this relates to the film as it's about the Civil War. I like the idea of this fading to various colours which symbolise something, this maybe something I could convey in my work. The use of close up is shown to imply something significant and plays a part in the play.

Research

Our preliminary research which we watched yesterday was extracts of opening television programmes to give us a flavour of what we would need to achieve at a high standard in our unit 1 coursework. The extracts from different media texts gave me some ideas about the opening credits which relate to the programme such as, in "Six Feet Under" the editors name moved down in unison with the liquid which doesn't make the writing always static. The majority images were associated with death for example, predator bird, dead flower and a grave yard. I noticed that the sound added to the death-like feeling, as the sound gave a short climax on a significant part of the opening credits. At 0:30 on the timescale, the wheel turns as text is being shown.



In "Dexter", the programme is conveying clues of what he does; him being a serial killer! There is a close up of ham which he is cutting and then puts into a pan where we hear diegetic noise of the food sizzling. We see that he is making breakfast but subconsciously we think he is cutting skin when we see the meat in a close up. He ties his shoelaces at 1:29 which makes you believe he is hanging someone.

Brief

Video: The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minute.