Soundtrack: Research

I decided to do some research into what types of soundtracks are usually used in other film openings that are in the Crime Thriller genre to get an idea of what types of things we can use to accompany our film opening. Using a soundtrack throughout our video will be key as there is only one piece of dialogue and that’s at the very end, so if we had no soundtrack, it would make it boring.

I firstly found this video which is an example of some credits at the opening of a crime thriller series called ‘True Detective’:

This particular soundtrack fits well with what is shown in this particular film opening and it is really good at building up suspense for the film. However, this opening uses voices of people singing in the soundtrack and we don’t want this as we are showing actual film footage rather than just images of things like this opening is, and we don’t want to detract away from what is happening in the opening of our film.

The next video that I found was from a crime thriller film called ‘Fargo’:

This film opening uses a soundtrack that doesn’t have any voices in it which is exactly like what we want for our opening, this soundtrack is subtle but effective which is also what we want. It doesn’t detract away from the what’s happening in the opening but it makes it seem more interesting and engages the watcher.

Overall, I have found out that for our soundtrack we will have to find a piece of music that is very similar to what was used in ‘Fargo’ as it is subtle and it builds up suspense without detracting the attention of the audience away from what is actually happening in the film opening.

Crime Film Timeline #2

To research into our Crime film genre, each member of our group decided to watch the opening of a Crime film and analyse it to see what is commonly found in the opening of a Crime film.

Rebecca watched the opening to ‘Fargo’ and below is what she found:

00:00-00:08

The logo for Metro Goldwyn Mayer is shown. This tells the audience which company made the film

00:09-00:17

The logo for PolyGram then appears

00:18-00:42

There is writing about how the film is based on a true story, this lets the audience know the context of the film

00:43-00:52

A white background with black writing saying the Polygram filmed entertainment presents

00:53-01:00

Still on a white background another company’s name fades in

01:01-02:22

Actors names appears across the bottom of a show which shows the setting, this tells the audience who is on the film

02:23-02:31

The title of the film appears on a white screen with nothing behind, which makes it stand out as it is the only thing on the screen

02:32-02:49

There is a shot of a car driving from a distance, this sets the scene for the audience

In the first 2 minutes and 49 seconds of the film there is no dialogue, there is music but I cannot be heard until 30 seconds into the film.

From the fact that each of us have looked at a different opening of a Crime film, it enables us to get an idea of what the opening to a film usually looks like and because we have all looked at one film opening each, we have a wider range and understanding of what is in the opening of a Crime film.

Film Opening Research: Crime Thriller

As my group and I have decided to focus on the thriller aspect of the Crime genre and make an opening to a Crime Thriller film, I decided to watch the opening of one. The film that I chose was ‘Fargo’ that was released in 1996 and was directed by Joel Coen.

The film starts off with two film company logos and it then shows a piece of text that is on a black background that explains that the film is based on a true story. Most of the opening is made up of credits of actors, producers and directors etc… and these are shown on a white background and they are written in black letters.

Half-way through the credits, a car appears in the background and throughout the rest of the credits, it appears to be getting closer and closer to the camera until the credits stop and the watcher can tell that it is a truck that is driving through in snowy weather. The title then appears in the same font that the credits were in and there is another few shots of the same truck driving along a snowy road.

The opening to this film is very simple and it doesn’t reveal a lot about the film and if you hadn’t looked up the film prior to watching it then you probably wouldn’t know what genre it was. There is also no dialogue in the film opening but there is music that is being played throughout. I think that the director has made the opening very simple and mysterious for a reason and that is to build up suspense and make the film more mysterious as it is a Crime Thriller film.

Crime Film Opening Research- Timeline

To research more into the Crime film genre, I watched the opening of a very popular crime film called ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ that was released in 1995 and I analysed what is in the first two minutes of it to gain an understanding of what we need to include in our opening.

0:00-0:14 

 

The first thing that the watcher sees is the well known Warner Brothers film company animation that lasts for 14 seconds and it is there to advertise the film company that has created this film.

0:15-0:32

 

The next thing that is shown is another film company animation from ‘Castle Rock Entertainment’ which lasts another 19 seconds, this means that film company animations have taken up over a quarter of the opening two minutes of the film which I was quite surprised about and me and my group will have to take this into consideration when making our opening and we will possibly have to make our own company animations for the film.

0:33-0:59

  

For the next 25 seconds, we see two actors names of the main characters that are in the film that fade in and out on a black background. Both of the names are in white writing and they are actually on the screen for about 5 seconds each which shows that these characters are the important ones.

At the end of these 25 seconds, after the two main characters names have shown up, we see the actual name of the film show up in the same style of fading in and out on a black background and in black writing.

1:00-1:18

At 1:00 we see the first shot of actual film which is an establishing shot of what appears to be the entrance and a driveway to a house, the shot is at night time and it is therefore dark and makes it hard to pick out exactly what this shot is showing but we see the camera backing away from the house for 18 seconds and the house is on the screen at all times for that 18 seconds which shows that it is possibly a main part of the film.

While the film is playing, we carry on to see names of actors appearing on the screen in the same style of in white writing and fading in and out, however, this time they aren’t on a black background, they are on the actual film that is playing.

1:18-1:38

At 1:18, we are shown the first person in the film and he appears to be sat in a car, in the drivers seat. However, the man is not speaking and in the first 2 minutes of the film there is no dialogue, he is just shown to sit there and stare in front of him while the camera pans around him.

At 1:32, the camera shows more of the mans face and the watcher can understand a little more about him as they can see that he is wearing a suit and tie and he looks distressed, which suggests that something is going to happen, or that he is going to do something.

1:39-2:00

At 1:39, we see the man reaching across into the glove compartment of his car and taking out something that is wrapped in a piece of cloth, because the watcher is unable to see what it is straight away it causes suspense and mystery.

After this, we see the man placing the item wrapped in the cloth on his lap and carefully unfolding the cloth to show a gun to the camera, with bullets around it. This foreshadows something that may happen in the film and shows that more than likely, the film is going to be based around a murder/shooting, so even just 2 minutes in, the watcher already has an idea of what is going to happen in the film.

After we see the gun, we are shown an eye level shot of the man sat in the car and we see his facial expression and we see that he looks fairly confused and worried of what is going to happen. Although it isn’t in the exact first two minutes of he film, at 2:02, we see the man drinking out of a bottle of what appears to be vodka, which shows that the man perhaps needs courage to do what he is about to do.

 

Throughout the opening, there is no dialogue however there is a non-diegetic sound track that is playing in the background. The song that is playing is an old fashioned song and it has lyrics, it fits in and flows with the shots that are taking place and it lasts for the full first two minutes. However, the song gets quieter when we see the man getting the gun out of the glove compartment and we hear the sounds of him getting it out and then we hear some tenser music over the top of it that builds up the tension.

Crime Film Research- ‘Gone Baby Gone’

As part of the research for our coursework task, I decided to watch a Crime film called Gone Baby Gone that was released in 2007 and was directed by Ben Affleck. The film is a neo-noir mystery/crime film that is based around two detectives (Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro) that are investigating a 4 year old girls kidnapping, the detectives aren’t professional however they know the neighbourhood that the little girl grew up in and they are shown to face drug dealers, gangs and paedophiles to try and solve the case. In the end, the two detectives are faced with a moral dilemma that could tear them apart.

Because we are only creating the first two minutes of the film, I’m going to talk about what happens in the first two minutes of this particular crime film and how it is able to engage the watcher into watching the full two hours of the film.

The opening starts off with a small animation of a film producer company called ‘Miaramax’ but after that, it goes straight into the film. There is no sound at the very start while the first animation is showing but when the film actually starts, there is non-diegetic music that slowly begins to play to accompany the clips. The first piece of actual film that the watcher sees are two establishing shots of some buildings in a street and then of a close up of a sign of the American flag, these shots are made clearer as to why they are used further into the film when you find out that their street is a close society. The first characters that are seen are some of the main characters, for example, the girls mum and then a police officer.

While there is a montage of video clips of people that live in the neighbourhood playing, there is a man (presumably Casey Affleck who plays Patrick Kenzie; the main character) who is speaking over them while the music is also playing. He sets the scene for the watcher and the use of him speaking gives the watcher an insight into what has happened as he talks about how all of his neighbourhood know eachother.

Although you don’t see it in the very first two minutes, the watcher is shown the main event that has happened and what the film is about very near to the start (about 4 minutes in) which shows us that showing a main event in the first two minutes of a film may be a good idea as it entices the watcher. While the montage is playing, the names of the actors, producers and directors etc… appear at the bottom of the screen in white writing and they fade in and out for about three seconds each.

I feel that watching this film was very useful to get an insight into what crime films are like and in particular, what happens in the first two minutes.

Genre Research: Crime Films

My group and I are currently researching into genres for our coursework task as we are unsure of which genre to base our film around, we decided to research into two genres; Crime and Horror, to find out more about them and give us an insight of which to go for.

This is what we found out about the Crime film genre:

The definition of a Crime Film is- “A genre that revolves around the action of a criminal mastermind.”

We have found out that Crime films are usually based around the actions of a particular criminal and that Crime films are often based around that particular criminal and their actions. We also found out that Crime films are often based on plays rather than books/novels.

We researched into what types of storylines Crime films generally have and we found out that popular storylines are based around:

Detectives- Where a detective is shown to try and solve a crime that has been committed.

‘Whodunnit’- Where the audience is given the opportunity to engage in the same process of elimination as the detective in the film and is able to watch along and work out who has committed the crime.

Murder Mystery- A mystery story that focuses on one type of crime case- homicide. There are typically more than one victim and the detective must work out who murdered them, this often includes a lot of suspense.

Courtroom Drama- (usually a Television Series), A subgenre about law and fictional dramas, it may show lawyer work, Law enforcement or a detective-based mystery solving.

There are quite a lot of Crime sub-genres, such as; Crime Thrillers, Crime Comedies, Hood Films, Heist Films, Legal Dramas, Mystery Films and Detective Films.

Some high rated and popular Crime films are:

• The Dark Night
• The Shawshank Redemption
• 12 Angry Men
• Black Mass
• Black Friday
• Goodfellas
• Two Down
• The Departed
• Sicario