Student Film Opening Detailed Analysis

For this task I am going to analyse a student film so I can see what sort of things people have done who are in my position to get some inspiration. I chose a student film called Redemption because I think it was created very well and I want to see what sort of ideas they came up with when having a sort time frame and a small budget.

Genre

The genre is action and you can tell because of content such as; the non-diegetic music is quite subtle and mysterious making the situation seem suspense, the setting is located in London and the lighting is natural but dull, the costumes the character wear and their props as the men wear suits and have guns & cars. As the genre of action is very obvious, this shows that it is a mainstream film.

 

Narrative

This film opening focuses on a young male who is planning on stealing a brief case from a man who looks to be high up and quite powerful. It is quite a brief story which is good because it doesn't give much away about the plot of what the whole film would be. However I think it is slightly too brief because as a viewer, I am confused with what the situation is as I don't know who the characters are meant to be and why the boy is trying to get the suit case. Also at the end I think they should've finished it when the boy left with the case instead of adding the part where the man caught him because it didn't look right as in a more realistic point of view, wouldn't the boy be running away from the scene and making sure no one was following him instead of standing on a open road waiting to be caught? Yet I do think they introduced the film well by stating the location and building up to the action.

Character

There were only 4 main characters involved in this film opening which was the young male who stole the case, a man who owned the case and seemed of high class, and his guards. I liked how they began with showing the young male before showing the scene where he met the man because it introduced him and what he was doing which makes the audience take his side of the story. I think he looked slightly too young compared to the man he was dealing with. Also the guards seemed quite young too and not very threatening.

 

Atmosphere

The atmosphere is quite dull and natural making it look like a realistic situation. The weather is cloudy which you can see in every shot so they didn't make any mistakes with sudden changes of weather. The man who the younger man is dealing with looks quite threatening but doesn't seem it as he doesn't appear to be a confident character which he should be. To me the younger boy looks more threatening. There are a wide variety of shots involved which allows the audience to see the situation from different perspectives.

 

Themes

The theme of this film opening is quite suspense and fast paced which suits the narrative of the film opening as it's an action film. It builds up tension by introducing the young male then introducing the older man showing that they are going to come together and something is going to happen. It is fast paced once the boy takes the case because the guards are chasing him and trying to shoot him.

 

Setting

The location is set in London. In the first few shots of the young male he is overlooking London from on top of 20 Fenchurch Street (sky garden) and then we see him leaving the building. We then see another location which says to be 'south London' which is filmed in a multi-storey car park. These locations work well for the film opening because it's realistic and suitable for action.

 

Sound

Throughout most of the clip from the beginning, there is suspense non-diegetic music which builds up the to the fight scene as it brings tension and warns the audience that something is going to happen. When the fighting scene does happen the music is a lot faster and more dramatic matching with the situation. There is a small amount of dialogue which is subtle because it allows more action to take place instead of telling the story as the audience don't know what's going on and will want to watch more to find out. However, I think the guards or the man should've said something when the younger male took the gun. There are also non-diegetic sound effects added for gun shots to make it more obvious when they were meant to be shooting.

Titles

The titles are very basic and neutral which suits the theme of the film. However, I feel that they are too basic, and you don't really realise they are there throughout the sequence. Once the dialogue starts, there are no more titles shown until the end which is good because a lot happens during that time but I still think there should have been some added in because the action goes on for quite a while in the overall film opening. I also think the title of the film came in at the wrong time and should have been shown at the end because nothing dramatic happened before hand making the film opening seem like it stops there and it doesn't emphasise the film as a whole. However, I like the animation for the title as it suits the theme and genre of the film.

 

Overall, by doing an analysis on a student film it has allowed me to look more in-depth towards what someone else has made and how they made something successful in a small time frame with a low budget. I have learnt about what works and what doesn't when looking at the ideas they had and I can compare them to mine to see whether my ideas are any better and improve on them. This task has helped my understand how important it is to make sure the narrative makes sense otherwise you leave your audience confused with the situation so they won't be interested in watch anymore.

Redemption film opening: