Grease film opening sequence analysis report sheet

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

GreaseName: Megan Hughes

My Analysis Supporting Images

Cinematography & Camera Techniques

The ‘Grease’ movie opening title sequence is in animation even though the film is not. It also contains a large selection of shots varying between close ups and long shots, establishing shots and mid shots.

The first shot I would consider an establishing shot as it’s of a big speaker which bounces onto the screen and it allows you to jump to the conclusion immediately that the music is about to start. You could also consider the first shot as a close up shot as the speaker takes up the full width of the screen and it’s very dominant just like how the music is when it begins so it links in really well.

The use of a long shot is also included early on in the opening title sequence, long shots help to conclude the setting and context as you can see a bigger picture overall. In this case you can see the image of a full body and in the background is a bathroom.


After the last shot, the camera zooms in on a toothpaste bottle therefore creating a close up shot. Close up shots are useful as they include a large amount of detail… Like the example is have chosen for you to the right, you can see the creases in the toothpaste bottle from where it is being held whereas if it was a more zoomed out shot you wouldn’t be able to see as much detail.

This shot is one of the first that includes text. Over all it’s a mid-shot as you can see some detail of the setting e.g. the sink, however within this mid shot there is a close up shot of the actors face in the mirror.


Visual Effects & Colour Scheme

The colours are mixed overall and are a bit wish washy and bland but throughout the colour red does occur a lot and is very dominant in a lot of the shots. In my opinion, I think the colour red does relate to America slightly with the typical red dinner chairs and red clothes and cars.

It’s noticeable that its set in America from the shots as it actually shows part of the town at the end which potentially does look like a realistic American city back in the day. As well as this, there are American style cars in the opening sequence and within the titles you can tell some of the names are American too.

Genre Conventions From the shots within the opening title sequence it is easy to guess that Grease is a 1978 American musical, romantic, comedy film as they show shots of couples, they show shots of dancing and music themed animations, also I think from watching the opening scene it is easy to discover that it’s a comedy just because of the humorous animation shots and the story that the shots tell put together.

Narrative There is no dialogue present between characters within the Grease opening title sequence, however, at the beginning there is sort of a commentating act of a man who starts off the music and talks about the day ahead of the main character who comes on first. The man rhymes and makes a joke out of what he’s saying which draws attention because it sounds overly fluent at the same time as being humorous.


Editing Techniques

Various editing techniques would have been used in this opening scene especially considering its animation. Just browsing through the clips there are lots visible because they stand out very clearly.

They tackle things such as changing font into pictures by melting it out such as the word ‘Grease’ shown to the right, they show titles which obviously have to be edited in, they show various objects cutting in and out of the screen (also including jump cuts), and on top of this there’s the editing of the actual characters (animations) to allow them to move and distort their bodies.

Title Credit DesignAs shown in the picture, throughout the opening title sequence there are many shots where the main characters are present so they’ve done certain shots like this example towards the beginning so you know who the character is and who its being played by. Also, instead of just putting the credits on a blank page and leaving it plain, they’ve put a picture of the character next to the name to it’s clear for the audience who is who.


Education

Grease film opening sequence analysis report sheet