Opening Sequence Analysis

    Panic Room:

• Camera Shot/Angle/Movement : there are many different shots and angles and lots of movement. When the opening scene starts it is an establishing shot of the city in this case New York. The camera pans across to reveal the names of the actors. the main shots in this are long shots that show the buildings and sky scrapers.
• Sound: The Diagetic sound in the opening scene has orchestral music with a tense tone and you can hear the hustle and bustle of the city e.g sirens and car horns, the sound of a clock ticking starts to add tension then the dialogue starts.
• Editing: The opening scene has a vast amount C.G.I graphics the names of the actors and the staff behind the film are floating in front of buildings in shiny font.
• Mise en Scene: The mise en Scene in the opening scene of panic room conveys a very dark industrial feel due to the city and the music, and also camera angles give the film a very eerie undertones.

• Characters ( No characters to analyse in the opening scene)
• Locations: The location is New York right in the heart of the city with skyscrapers and office towers dwarfing the cars and the people below.
• Narrative/Plot the narrative is found by the only section of dialogue in the scene as the woman speaking suggests she is looking for a new house and is speaking to an estate agent.
• Themes: there are no clear themes i can see in the opening but the use of high up camera shots and surrounding buildings can give a scene to vertigo or entrapment.
• Visual Style: The visual style of the scene is very dramatic and eerie.
• Genre: the genre of the film is a thriller.

Opening Sequence Analysis

Se7en

• Camera Shot/Angle/Movement:In the opening scene there is a close up of the characters had as the write and cut and stick objects in a scrap book.
• Sound: The sound for the opening sequence is very stark and bold there is a vague sound of a typewriter and also the sounds of a radio and scratching sounds over the top of a bold backing track.
• Editing: in the opening sequence there are cuts between credits and between shots of a man with rough scarred hands cutting and sticking camera film into the same scrap book.
• Mise en Scene the mise en scene together creates a very eerie voyeuristic quality to the whole trailer and the colours are very faded and dry which gives the whole video a dirty unclean quality.

• Characters No characters just the hands of a man who is fumbling around with a scrap book and stationary.
• Locations Just one location we do not get to see too much of but it is believed to be this mans house.
• Narrative/Plot
• Themes/ Dark eerie undertones creating a sence of tension in the trailer .
• Visual Style/ In the opening scene you can see a variety of objects in great detail like you can see the wording on a razor blade and the roughness of the book he is cutting as he turns the page.
• Genre/ From the opening scene i have found that this genre is Thriller but with elements of horror.

Children of men          

• Camera Shot/Angle/Movement- The first shot we come to is a mixture of shots an establishing shot, a mid shot, and a reaction shot as we can see a coffee shop filled with people all fixated onto a television news channel the next camera shot is a tracking shot of the main character walking down the road.
• Sound/Sounds begin with news reporters talking of a murder. then as slow classical violin begins to play over the scene alongside  the sound of cars and scooters then finally the sound of an explosion ends the scene along with car alarms. 
• Editing/ The editing in this sequence is hard to pinpoint accept the start were they have chosen to start the sound before the actual scene.
• Mise-en-sene/ The whole opening scene is very sterile in the way it comes across everything is grey and Smokey creates a sense of depression and hard times for these people.
• Characters/ Apart from the extras we have one character a male tall dark hair dark clothes.
• Locations/ London England in the business district.
• Themes/ As the same as the last dark theme there is an air of depression surrounding the people.

Hostage.

• Camera/Shot/Angle/Movement. The camera angle in the opening scene of Hostage is randomised. the shot is a panning shot which pans through cartoon drawings of skyscrapers and armed police then it cuts to real life of a man with a gun to his head screaming down the phone. the camera then zooms directly out of the window and up to the roof of a car park overlooking the crime scene.
• Sound/Sounds. The music in the build up to the scene is very tense and is similar to the music in the opening scene of spider-man, then the sound of a handgun being cocked starts the real life scene then the sound of police cars and helicopters drowns out the mans swearing and screaming.
• Editing. in the build up to the real life scene there has been allot of editing to create the cartoon parts in which the first credits are displayed.
• Mise-en-scene. The Mise-En-Scene is very dark and bold there is a very hysterical man with a gun so the scene could go in any direction but this creates an un nerving feeling.
• Characters. We have a man who has blocked the door to his house and has taken his family hostage. we see a few police from distance but he is the only person we see in detail.
• Locations. The opening scene is located in Los Angeles. 

The Warriors.

• Camera/Shot/Angle/Movement. The camera in the opening scene of the warriors starts facing the gang with them getting on a train the angle is a high angle and the movement is short shots of characters in pairs having conversations. some in low lit area some in brighter areas of the train station.
• Sound/Sounds. The opening track is typically 80’s with a synthesiser over the top of the scene the music is ominous which builds to a crescendo this is when we see the other gangs introduced.
• Editing. The editing stitches scenes together so we see the main characters then we see the next gang all on there way to somewhere making there way through train stations.
• Mise-en-Scene. The mise-en-scene creates a strange dark atmosphere everywhere the camera goes there is lots of graffiti this makes the scene allot more urban.
• Characters. in this scene we have our 9 characters who are members of the gang the warriors then we see the same amount of people from different gangs all with different styles and themes.
• Location The Bronx New York. Coney Island. Various underground Train stations.

Comparison Between Se7en and Children of men

There is quite a difference between these two opening sequences. Children of men has very urban dark theme to the scene as we can see a livley city cente with different shots and angles of the main character it is very different compared to Se7en because se7en keeps a continuous close up/Depth of field shots of a mans hands the colouring is different .