Skyfall - James Bond - FilmDirector: Sam Mendes

Writers: John Logan, Robert Wade, Neal Purvis

Genre: Action Film, Spy Film, Thriller, Adventure Film, Crime

Fiction

Running Time: 2 Hours and 33 minutes

As soon as the film opening begins the audience are immediately introduced to the the beginning of the theme song as ‘James Bond’ falls and starts to sink into the sea. This makes the audience feel curious straight away as they haven’t been informed on what has happened in order to make the main actor sink into the ocean.

We then move on to a close up, of a woman's hand grabbing the main characters wrist pulling him further into the ocean. This tells the audience that there is more than one character involved in this film and this shot indicates that the women may play an important part. The main character then continues to sink into the ocean sea and fall into a black hole. As the film opening continues, the audience experience seeing a lot of different things such as multiple cardboard cut-outs of James Bond being shot floating which then continues to guns falling onto a graveyard. Overall, the film opening makes the audience think about how they are interpreting the plot from all of their visual viewings of graphics.

Within this film there are a variety of themes which include action, crime, thriller, adventure and more. The film opening clearly demonstrate these themes during the first few minutes as all of the colours already shown by this point are dark, these colours immediately make the audience feel sad and scared as it reminds them of those dark memories/events such as death.

One of the main characters ‘James Bond’ is introduced by the name of the film series in big bold writing, which stands out immediately in the audience’s eye. As a few shots continue to play we see in the middle of the screen text that writes “Daniel Craig as Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007”, this is enough words that inform the audience enough about who the main character is.

Overall, I think this film opening is very successful in some ways, as it tells the audience the standard background information that the audience should know before the film continues. Such information would include introducing the character and the situations he is associated with.Friends - TV Programme

Director: Writers: David Crane, Marta Kauffman, Alexa Junge,

Jeff Greenstein, Jeff Strauss

Genre: Sitcom (Situation Comedy)

Running Time: 42 Minutes

In the opening sequence we get to know the setting which is New York, the characters the

actors are playing and the relationships they all have with one another. The different shots

sync in with the theme song, which makes it for the audience less boring and very

entertaining to look at. This is most likely done on purpose as everyone may have the

mindset of thinking the film opening is a waste of time and that they shouldn’t pay attention

to it. However, because the theme song is so catchy and enjoyable to listen to it is the

complete opposite and the majority sing along and get excited before the episode starts.

The audience are informed that the characters all live close to each other in New York, and

this is because of the type of shot they used, the establishing shot. This shot is particularly

used to inform the audience for this exact reason, to give the viewer an idea of where they

are and because parts of the set is designed as realistic as possible the audience

themselves can imagine and relate to the characters.

From the film opening we can already tell that the theme/genre is associated with comedy.

We can see this as there are no dark colours shown that would particularly emphasise on

thriller or violence and the shots shown of the different characters focus on incredibly happy

facial expressions as they are all having fun with each other.

Overall, this film opening is very successful in being able to inform the audience on the six

characters/actors, the location where the series is set in under one minute. From analysing

this film opening I have a lot of inspiration and would like my film opening to be as successful

as this one. This is because, it really engages the audience within those few seconds and

puts the audience in a happy mood ready for the rest of the episode, which is suitable for the

genre.

Downton Abbey - TV ProgrammeDirectors: Brian Percival, Ben Bolt, Brian Kelly,

Angy Goddard, James Strong, Ashley Pearce

Writers: Julian Fellowes, Shelagh Stephenson, Tina Pepler

Genre: Historical Period Drama

Running Time: 47-52 minutes

In this opening we get to know the setting it is set in, the actors, the style/type of living

conditions they live in. All of these things then lead the audience into thinking about what

time of period it is filmed in to get a realistic idea on how to imagine the plot themselves.

From shots of the table being set, to maids making their way upstairs to continue working

around the house, we realise that the show is mainly focused on upper-class people and the

shots prepare the audience to get into this upper-class part of life.

From what we first see in the film opening we can understand and see that there is a man

with a family dog which may inform the audience that the plot is based on a (big) family. Not

only can the audience infer that the tv programme will be based around a family but they can

also infer this from the way the the first actor appeared is styled and we can tell from the

breed of dog that the ‘family’ is posh and very upper-class as the breed and the way the

actor is styled it is very common in the posh side of England. This then continues to give the

audience further background information that the tv programme is set somewhere in

England, allowing the audience to imagine and see the tv programme from a more realistic

perspective.