Thriller / Crime Opening Sequences

The Narrative functions of the opening sequences are to introduce the characters, setting, establishing the expectations that the audience get as watching it. Some examples of thriller and crime movies that I have looked at are as follows:

• Harry Brown, 2009
• Ill Manors, 2012
• Kidulthood, 2006
• Adulthood, 2008
• Skyfall, 2012
• Taken, 2008
• Taken 2, 2008
• Snatch, 2000

Harry Brown

This film fits in perfectly into the crime and thriller genre and with what me and the rest of my group are planning to film.The opening sequence of Harry Brown establishes the mood of the film. When we start watching the film, we can't clearly see the setting. We can however establish that it is filmed with a hand held camera and this creates a feeling of a real life story. It makes the audience feel really engaged because they feel that this is really happening but actually they all are actors playing a role in this movie.
From the start we can see the distribution company and from this we can tell that this is not such a big
The opening sequence intorduces the characters which later on appear in the movie but we can not see them clearly enaugh. We can only make this out through their voices. However, we expect them to appear later on anyway because if they wouldn't then this opening sequence woud not fit in with the movie and wouldn't make any sense.
Through props and set we can tell that these are characters who aren't nesccesarily from 'good homes', this derives from the fact that it's a dark night and they are out and about in what looks like a subway, shouting and acting quite unusually. And the use of lighting coming from the light in the subway makes this setting feel more dangerous. The fact that he is smoking either meth, weed or whatever else makes this scene make the audience feel even more shocked as they don't exactly expect young people like them to be doing these sorts of things.
The opening sequence does somehow introduce what the story may be about. Drugs are involved, violence and out of control shouting characters. They are just normal mates but this creates a feeling of them being a gang.
The lighting and colour are dark and mostly done at night to show the dangers of being out and about alone with all these groups and gangs out as well.
Harry Brown Opening Scene (embeding of the opening scene of Harry Brown was disabled by request on YouTube)

Ill Manors

The film 'Ill Manors', starts off with a man sitting in front of a T.V. watching the news. This then starts to develop into a narrator rapping the story of characters in this film and this is how we get introduced to some of the main charaters that later on appear in the film. Mainly the first 5 minutes or so fully establish what the film is going to be about and what kind of characters are involved and what the genre it might be.
When the boy sits there we can see a cutting rhythm in the editing of this film. It is a medium close-up (MCU) focusing on the facial expression and head movement. Then the editing has been done so it looks like match-on-action, a shot of the man and at the T.V. and back to the man, and then to the T.V. again.
The main leading up bit to the film introduces some characters, the settings and gives away genre. This is due to Mise-en scene, which is what these chracters are wearing, the places they visit and what they do and how they act. We know this because the camera is moving very swiftly and slowly from different sides in different directions making watching this feel like time's going by quickly because the shots are fast at 2/3 seconds per shot. But really for us the flow movement from side to side make's it seem like we're taking a step back at what we're watching at the same time really pulling the audience in. This shows a fast cutting rate and the straight cuts are used to quickly tell the story.
The credits and text that appear at the start have been very cleverly made to appear as the rapper is telling the story. This has been done to remind us of the importance of the directors and actors and people that have been working on this film, but also not to pull us away from the story that is being told. Therefore we are aware that the film is only just beginning and hat we are being introduced to the characters and background information conveyed through the rapping. This links to sound and the sound clearly helps to portray the whole story and so does the dialogue.

Kidulthood

The Mise-en-scene which is made up of setting, costume and make-up, the use of figure, expression, movement and character by actors and lighting. Whilst watching the opening, the audience are recieving their first impressions about the movie and what it is going to be about.
The action takes place in an estate and around town. It is a movie about a couple of teenagers from mixed backgrounds in West London. Straight away we know that the kids aren't from a high social class, this is due to their envolvement in drugs which are seen or may be thought to have seen in the opening. Their appearance and the way of speech make us stereotipically think of them as 'chavs', although I do not agree with that.
Some of the Enigma's that are created in this opening sequence are: At the start, the ECU focuses on the drill and this makes the audience wonder why there is an ECU on the drill? Who is drilling? Why is this significant? The opening sequence shows the cuts from someones P.O.V. ther



All three of these films content which shows, involvement in drugs, usage of guns and dangerous situations fit in perfectly into what me and my group would like to do.