In Depth Analysis of JAWS

 Jaws Opening Scene Analysis

GENRE

Jaws is a classic multi-genre film. Its a adventure; horror; drama thriller. There's also the strong horror element. It's a monster movie, and much of the audience's enjoyment comes from the tension, terror, and tragedy of each shark attack. 

SETTING

A giant great white shark arrives on the shores of a New England beach resort and wreaks havoc with bloody attacks on swimmers until a part-time sheriff teams up with a marine biologist and an old seafarer to hunt the monster down. It starts when the shark claims its first victim and it ends when the shark is destroyed and the heroes go home. Much of the tension and the fun of the film comes through its selective use of an all-knowing narrator.

SOUND

The non diegetic sound in the early stages of the film was at a very high tempo. This was done to maintain suspense and tension. The pace of the sound started at a low tempo and the tempo of it built up throughout the early stages of the film.

ATMOSPHERE

The opening titles begin with an underwater camera lurking underneath the water, trying to take on the persona of a shark itself. This is complemented by John Williams eerie and now well-known Jaws theme, suggesting to the audience the deceptiveness and danger of what is beneath the surface. The titles end just before the music approaches its peak, creating suspense and anticipation for the audience as to what will appear later in the film. 

 Opening Title From Beneath The Water

NARRATIVE

As the film progresses, the audience meets a group of teenagers partying on a beach. They are drinking, smoking and playing music – thus indicating their carefree nature and the fact they are oblivious to the potential danger that is nearby them.  As an audience, there is also anticipation that tragedy and violence will occur to these characters, as teenagers are often targeted as victims within modern cinema. 

Separation From Group

 Teenagers

THEME

 Jaws is a classic monster movie. Almost from the first frame of the movie, the audience knows that the shark is more than just a shark although it takes the film's characters some time to realise that. 

To a further extent, when two of the teenagers separate from the group, the audience can understand the approaching danger that is about to occur. A shot from below the water of the naked  female character Chrissie again connotes the evil that lies beneath, whilst also providing the audience with more information than the character themselves - furthermore, creating more suspense for them when they view this film. They know the shark is there - but Chrissie doesn't.

 View From Above.

 View From Below.

  

 CHARACTER

Moreover, the violent slaying of Chrissie sets the tone of Jaws in that both protagonists and antagonists are identified to the audience (humans vs sharks) very early in the film, again following the common nature of a standard narrative. 

This will help create my own film opening because I will be able to apply all the things I analysed and observed from the film opening above and apply it to my film opening to make it look effective as if it were to be an actual film. 

Class Film Opening Analysis

SKYFALL (2012)

Narrative

When we first spot James Bond in the opening, there is a low angle shot of him which gives the audience an enigma code and the audience are given the suspicion of whether Bond is alive or not. Near the start of the opening, we witness a women's hand that takes Bond's hand as if he is dragging him down. This has connotations of the women causing issues and bringing him down. About 30 seconds in, we see a POV high angle shot of James and we can see that he is falling down a plughole in the sea. This connotes that Bond is not in a good state of mind and it puzzles the audience and the wonder where is he actually going? The whole of the opening we see Bond go on a continual journey in the water, this connotes that he has to travel a long way. We also see a cardboard cut out of Bond floating in the water, this links to where he was shot on the train and it also reveals that he will be injured during the film. Finally, halfway through we see James shooting his own shadow, this connotes that he is very cautious and paranoid of  because he can sense that someone is trying to secretly kill him.

Character
In Skyfall's opening sequence Bond drifts through a watery dreamscape of daggers and guns, encountering faceless, shadowy foes who threaten to overtake him. Bond is seen as weak and vulnerable because we see him lose awareness of his surroundings when he slowly drowned in the water. When we see a woman's hand drag him down, he is made to look feeble and frail which further hints at his vulnerability that could occur during the film. When we perceive the paper cut-out target of Bond, it lets the audience know that he is susceptible to attacks from perilous enemies. Overall his character is loved by many because young men aspire to be like him, he has lots of cars, he stays at Lavish hotels and he is very good with ladies as he is handsome looking. As he is always at risk of being killed, he is very aware of his surroundings and is very cautious when walking from place to place. Also, when he senses a threat to his well-being, he always points his gun in all directions just to make sure that if the antagonist does come looking for him, he is ready to defend himself.

Genre

In the opening, we see references to Action when we see Bond firing a gun and when there are daggers. This gives the audience a hint into what the film is going to be like (i.e. if the opening has guns in it, then the film will contain a vast amount of action scenes including gun fights etc). The film opening also has allusions of death and destruction when we witness a graveyard and when James shoots his own shadow. This also foreshadows that the audience will witness deaths during the film. 

Setting

The setting of the Skyfall opening is shown in an underwater setting near a seabed. Animations and graphics technologies (e.g. CGI) have made the different places in the seabed look like a plug hole or a graveyard. This tells us that these places are possible settings for different parts of the narrative later in the film. The setting shows the audience the types of things that could happen in the storyline. For example, shoot downs, kidnappings, travelling to Asian countries (e.g. China - a Chinese dragon is shown in the opening), going to a graveyard etc. All of these things that will occur during the film make the film seem adventurous and exciting because a lot of fans, who are mostly men, watch Bond films as they aspire to be like him. This links to the Uses & Gratifications Theory because men watch Bond films for escapism (e.g. to escape from daily stress/pressures) or to find personal identity. It also links to the Hyperdermic Needle Theory audience type who are inactive when it comes to watching Bond films.

Atmosphere

The overall atmosphere of the whole film opening denotes a dark and gloomy feeling because there are references of death when we see a long shot of a graveyard but also because it is underwater. The whole allusion of the opening being underwater and that Bond falls down a plughole beneath the seabed could highlight that, during the film, someone will be drowned or will come close to drowning. Also, the lighting of the whole opening seems to be quite low-key and dark which gives the audience a sense of unease because black connotes evil, death, mystery and the unknown. 

Themes

The main themes of this film opening are death, blood, seduction, betrayal, mystery, guns & violence and self-conflict.

Sound

In the first few seconds of the film opening, we hear diegetic sounds of Bond falling into the water, slowly drowning. Then, there is an inaudible sound of violins that gives the audience a sense that Bond is in danger. As he falls deeper into the ocean, we start to hear a song called 'Skyfall' by Adele. The song has a sad and depressing beginning. Also, Adele's first lyric in the song is "This is the end" which could be seen as a subliminal message to death. 

Titles

In all film title sequences, the production companies are listed first followed by the main protagonist character, in this case, it is James Bond played by Daniel Craig. Then, all of the other main characters are listed in order of importance. Then, usually the title of the film is displayed on the screen quite early on, around 30 seconds into the film opening. These are followed by all of the producers, executive producers, editors, post-production producers etc. 

 

Analysing film openings will help me with regards to making my own particular film opening by giving me the knowledge and experience that will be required so I know how to make a film opening appropriately and effectively.

Similarities and Differences in Film Openings

Film Name/Opening Sequence watched	Similarities	Differences
Lord Of War	They all put directors name in the end.	Shows its logo much later than the other films.
Se7en	Se7en & Spectre introduce the main character faster.	Se7en has scenes that last longer than Spectre.
Spectre	Se7en gets straight into action at the beginning of the scene likewise, Spectre.	Spectre has faster pace of editing.

This is a table showing the differences and similarities of the three types of film openings, I did this because it will help me as a individual know the various types and forms of film openings and adapt the various knowledge I learnt through observing the openings and apply it to my film that I am currently working on.

LORD OF WAR OPENING SCENE:

SE7EN OPENING SCENE:

Differences Between Film Openings & Trailers

Differences Between A Trailer & Film Openings

Film opening and trailers heavily differ through intent: as they are both created to achieve different criteria's, and due the intentions of the clips differing the styles in which they are created therefore contrast to. 

Film trailers
Trailers to films are created to "Hook" an audience's attention trailers therefore can be distinguished by heavy editing to excite the audience, the clip is usually edited to fit a sequence of music to aid a more intense climax, the editing will usually conclude of the movies most significant scenes in order to satisfy the viewer (Gratifications theory) this is done through a montage . As the trailer is intending to represent the film to the market it will show a basic outline of the plot, simply to allow the viewer to conclude if the film will be their "taste" or not. The most iconic give away of a trailer is the abundant use of "Fade to black's".

 Film openings
On the other hand and Film openings are created to: Give an induction of where the film is set (location), show gratitude to those who contributed to the more significant roles of the films through the use of titles, to introduce the main character, give an indication of the historical period, to give information regarding the films mood a tone , and usually to introduce a theme tune. In doing this their is usually a great use of establishing shots. Due to the opening only having to indicate these themes chronological order can be used but is not necessary, the film opening doesn't even need to be part of the films storyline so long as it achieves the themes listed above. 

BOSS BABY TRAILER:

BATMAN OPENING SEQUENCE:

Preliminary Task Evaluation

The filming of this whole scene was very interesting due to the suspense we left at the end of it, because its a crime/thriller genre which is a mainstream genre I can say we did very well on the camera angles used and how we positioned ourselves as characters. What I think we found difficult about the production of this whole scene was finding a place to film it because it took a while before we found a place to film the whole scene because we wanted a place that looked more like an office instead of a classroom. However, as whole I think we did not too bad. One thing we could improve on for next time is to use a wider range of camera angles and keep the same room throughout the whole of the scene.

We have also used shot-reverse-shot in our short film when the characters are exchanging dialogue. It means that the audience are able to see the character deliver their lines and then almost immediately afterwards can see the opposing actors reaction. I think we demonstrated a well piece of continuity because we made sure that all shots were in order and each one flowed well to the next. All of the shots we used reflect continuity as we included shots like the point of view shot and over the shoulder shots that give the audience an idea of space and how the scene is composed.

We have also used shot-reverse-shot in our short film when the characters are exchanging dialogue. It means that the audience are able to see the character deliver their lines and then almost immediately afterwards can see the opposing actors reaction. we also used various editing techniques such as the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot are often used as they help to enhance the narrative of the story and allow the viewer to follow the story line.

I think our group worked really well together due to reason that everyone was active playing their part to bring this whole piece of art together I have not only learnt how technology affects the production of a film but I have also learnt that how the person uses the technology has a great impact on a film as well. Our film planning was satisfactory due to the fact that we didn't analyse where exactly we were going to film it. If we as a group ever had the chance to film this piece again we will improve on using more editing skills instead of the main ones I have discussed above.