Film opening sequence analysis report sheet v for vendetta

Film Opening Sequence Analysis *Comment on the following aspects in relation to your film opening title sequence choice

V for vendettaName: Adam Grundy

My Analysis Supporting Images

Cinematography & Camera Techniques

First we start on an establishing shot from the speakerphone on a wet night. This sets up the beginning scene perfectly for the film. It shows the viewer that the scene is going to be sinister. This is a clever idea by the director because it shows the viewer what is going to happen before it happens; you could also say that dramatic irony could apply here due to knowing something before the character does. Next up with have a close up, there are multiple close ups in the particular scene, but all to do with the same theme. Every character in this scene has a close up, so all the thingermen (Antagonists) are about to sexually abuse the protagonist because she had broken the law. This is good use of close-ups because it lets the viewer see the reactions of the characters, to see how they are feeling at the current moment; The males are all in a positive mood whereas the female protagonist is terrified so as you can see facial expressions are an important aspect. There is also a close up on the male protagonist, even though we cannot see his reaction due to him wearing a mask, we could see that from the angle of his head tilt that he was not impressed by what was on the mind of the antagonists. Now this scene had multiple uses of tracks, first was a track of only her and the male protagonist, this may have been to keep the audience wondering who the male was since there was only one female in the scene, it is unsure to know who it was since there a few characters who were wearing long coats. It may have been the masked protagonist to symbolise that there are two protagonists without telling the viewer directly. The use of the two shot was to show both the protagonist and antagonist in the same shot, you see both sides in the same shot. Two shots are good for establishing


relationships between characters, here it shows the male protagonist do a cease fire and the antagonist continue to fight back but fail. This is cleaver use of a two shot because you get too see both sides of this, in two different reasons; First as protagonist and antagonist and secondly as someone who wanted to stop the fighting and someone who did not, so it was a clever decision by the director. Lastly is the use of the a high angle shot as the protagonist throws the gun, this could be interpreted as a Point a View shot because it would be at the height of the protagonist but I decided to class it as a High angle shot because that’s what it was, the use of a high angle shot was used to make the throw of the gun look longer than it is, which us believe the protagonist is strong and fierce. .

Visual Effects & Colour Scheme

The visual scheme for this scene is dark; this is used to show us something that you wouldn’t see in the afternoon. It also sets up the antagonists in this scene too and shows us a much darker and corrupt England. Though we only find this out from the characters the establishing shot as their version of England has a “Curfew” in which our version of England we have a nothing like this. Throughout the scene it continues to be gloomy with very little light from the dim lamps along the street providing some light to this alleyway, As it is night we can guess that it’s chilly as all the characters are wearing thick and heavy coats. This adds to the scene to make it more it energetic and powerful. The tone helps portray the setting, time and sometimes just to create a feeling.

Genre Conventions

The start of the film is with the speakerphone announcing that the town/city is now in a curfew which shows that this version is Britain is much different to our version. It also shows us that this setting is much more stricter as the speaker on the television is speaking about justice as if they are keen on their


word but as we find out later on that they don’t live in an equally fair Britain, and during the speaking he is speaking propaganda which shows us that this is a fascist Britain which also backs up the point of the “Justice” he was on about and how he is lying to the population to get their beliefs up. Since it’s set in a Fascist Britain it gives us the feeling that there is or will be an uprising against the current dictator and that shows us that the film is an action film, this is proved later on in the Scene when the male protagonist starts to fight with the male antagonists after they were about to abuse the female protagonist. With that it shows us that the film will continue to bring dark imagery throughout the film as they did at the beginning. The film also comes across as science fiction as it is set in a futuristic fascist version of Britain so though it is a made up story, this can be classed as an alternate reality. I searched something up and the book/film is based around the theory of if is based around if the Nazi’s had won the war, so they created their own political party called Norsefire and their own secret police called the thingermen.

Narrative Throughout the scene, the narrative is all based around governmental and anti-governmental topics. With the exception of about the antagonists speaking of rape, the narrative of the antagonists shows us that they are not that well educated unlike the protagonists. The speech with V, most of the words begin with the letter V which gives the viewer the idea of what his name is going to be. Though the main theme of the scene is governmental so it sets up the theme of the film and what is going to happen throughout

Editing Techniques The scene consists of multiple editing techniques, first of all during the interrogation scene. It doesn’t break the 180 degree rule, while always staying on the left side and never on the right. Though it does go on level with 180 degrees but that’s the most it does in this scene. Also it looks like one straight cut, no


roughness and no stops. Just one continues cut, which also known as continuity editing. Directors use this to make sure it’s a smooth scene and that it keeps it looking professional. You can see it was filmed with multiple cameras as it shows us a single shot from multiple angles. It jumps around also cross cutting where it jumps between cuts.

Title Credit Design No credits in this scene.

Documents

Film opening sequence analysis report sheet v for vendetta