Two Contrasting Film Openings - ESSAY

Media – Two contrasting film openings

                In this short essay I shall be comparing two contrasting film openings (from different genres), I shall compare the film’s title sequence, the camera shots, the music used to create the films mood and how these techniques are used to draw in the target audience. The two films I shall be comparing are Jaws (the original) and The Dark Knight.

                Jaws was based on the original novel by Peter Benchley, but Stephen Spielberg took the successful book (in 1975) and turned it into a multi – million dollar film. Jaws is briefly about a Great white shark that terrorises a small town in America called Amity. The film shows how a single animal can have such a massive affect on the town and the people in it. Jaws is considered one of the best films to have hit the cinema, and even today (35 years later) it is being watched.

                The Dark Knight was made in 2008 and was directed and co-written by Christopher Nolan. It was written as a sequel to Batman Begins and was based on the original comics. The films is about Batman’s (Bruce Wayne) struggle to fight the crime and to capture The Joker, (played by Heath Leger). The film was a big hit worldwide and made around $1800,000,000.

                Jaws’ opening sequence is roughly about three minutes long, it starts with a point of view shot of the shark and the eerie theme tune which gets louder every time the shark makes a quick turn, the music almost acts as the viewers heartbeat – as the suspense is increasing. The credits start to appear in an eerie font, this sets the scene as to what genre the film will be. As the music gets to its loudest, we are suddenly hit by the calming folk music of the young teenagers who are sat on Amity beach; this is a huge contrast to the scene and music that was shown just before. It is evening, even with the friendly atmosphere of the youth, the sea looks dark and dangerous and it is almost predictable that one of the teens would decide to go for a swim. A medium shot is used at the start just to show the quantity of people that are on the beach, then there are a few close – ups showing what a few individuals are doing. When the girl runs to the sea, we see an establishing shot, of the beach and the girl running away from the safety of her friends into the ocean. The music slowly fades away which also emphasizes that the companies of her friends have gone.

                As we see the girl entering the water and swimming the camera changes to an over the head shot, this gives us an idea of how small she is – compared with the vast sea. We then hear the music. This indicates that the shark is near – bye and has spotted the girl. The camera than cuts to the sharks point-of-view shot and the music starts. We see the girl’s legs thrashing in the water, with the shark getting ever closer. The music then cuts and the camera goes back to the girl swimming, the pause adds to the suspense, as the audience knows that the shark will attack in any second. The camera then changes to a reaction shot, showing the girl’s face wince with shock and pain. We don’t ever see the shark in this scene, which makes it even scarier – as it lets the audience’s imagination run wild.

               

In comparison The Dark Knight’s opening scene is 4 minutes and around 35 second long and starts with an establishing shot. It shows the tall buildings of New York City. One of the windows smashes –showing a close up of two men in masks. The camera then cuts to lots of different pairs of men in masks at different buildings and immediately, we know that this is a big, well planned robbery. In the opening seen we hear a lot more dialogue, this is very different from Jaws and in most films. There is a two – shot of two men on a roof of the bank, dis –arming the alarm.  We then see an over-the-shoulder shot as one of the masked men shoots the other.

The music tempo is very much like Jaws because as the scene progresses the tempo gets a lot quicker, thus building the tension and suspense.  A group of the masked men break into the main hall of the bank and we see a reaction shot of the bank manager, who tries to put up a fight by reaching for a gun, however he gets shot.  There is many references to “The Joker” in this scene and it is clear that one of the masked men is the Joker however it is unclear who is.

There are many close ups of the men, but you cannot see any expression on their faces, as they are wearing masks. It becomes clear that the writer has done this to make the point that the criminals are unidentified.  At the end of the opening scene, we see the last reaction shot as the last criminal is hit by the getaway car as a school bus comes crashing through the banks walls. This is done using special effects; however it is very cleverly done as the reaction shot acts as a decoy, so the audience look at the criminal’s reaction – instead of looking at the bus.

In conclusion both of these films have very different opening but use very similar techniques to get the effects needed, such as music. Both films use the tempo to create tension and suspense, another similarity is that both films have at least one death. I think that this is done to show that it will be common in the film – which makes the viewer want the watch on. Also both films do not show there protagonists (Jaws – the shark and The Dark Knight – Batman).  However both films have there dissimilarities, for example the credits, Jaws uses the credits to create an atmosphere, however the Dark Knight doesn’t have credits at all. This could be that the director tried to make it a run – on from the first film, Batman Begins, but the film company does try and sell them as individual films. Both these films were very successful and you can see why when they have openings as gripping as they are.