'LEON: The Professional' Film Opening Analysis

Shot One:

•The film opens with a stark black background with principle titles shown over the top in a bold white font.

•The director is a well known auteur who will be a draw to the film, it’s therefore important his known appears prominently and early on.

Shot Two:

•The films title appears during a long, high level tracking shot that flies over New York.

•The large, bold title hints at the films action genre. It’s full title ‘Leon: the professional’ also ties into business like font.

Shot Three:

•The camera then moves to another high level tracking shot, this time presumably on top of a bus or lorry. The shot is a little shaky to convey a rough, working approach to the scene. This ties in with the change of location from upscale central park to a busy, working class area of New York.

Shot Four:

•The camera then moves to another high level tracking shot, this time presumably on top of a bus or lorry. The shot is a little shaky to convey a rough, working approach to the scene. This ties in with the change of location from upscale central park to a busy, working class area of New York.

Shot Five:

•This is a medium establishing shot which identifies the restaurant where the opening scene is set to take place.

Shot Six:

•This is an extreme close up on the hands of the first character to come into the film. The drinking milk represents his abnormality in society and the well kept hands and nails identifies his professionalism. 

Shot Seven:

•This is another extreme close up shot, this time of a middle aged man’s sunglasses. The dark lenses of the glasses hide his identity and give an emotionless, neutral presence.

Shot Eight:

•This is a close up of an ashtray, perhaps to represent a poor lifestyle with bad choices. The multiple cigarette butts shows that the two at each side of the table have been talking for a while.

Shot Nine:

•This is another extreme close up of a middle to old aged man’s eye. The limited shots of the characters face and identity as a whole signify his detachment from society and maybe that his emotions are hidden from the public eye. 

Conclusion;

These opening shots already are hinting at a mystery, perhaps action movie. The shot where a picture is handed to one of the two men instructs someone to be found and killed, definitely identifying an action packed movie to follow this opening scene.

Film Openings Analysis

I chose the three films 'Hanna', 'Back to the Future' and 'Into the Wild' to look at the opening scenes of. Below is brief summary of each, including the effects that were used, specific techniques and camera shots/angles.

Hanna:

In this opening scene, the camera starts by panning through the trees in a snowy forest using a medium long shot to show the probable size of the landscape. Notice, the camera does not show the entirety of Hanna's face, only partially, hidden by a scarf and the surrounding trees. This is so not to give away the main characteristics of the lead role and keep her identity hidden.The intense, slow music played right from the start indicates that this is already going to be an action film. When Hanna disappears from behind the tree it also hints at a film containing mystery. The pace is sped up as Hanna shoots the deer and runs through the forest to retrieve her arrow, before she uses an eery declarative sentence of "I just missed your heart." -to end the opening and cut to film credits.

Back to the Future:

In this film opening, showing the boy's face is avoided and instead the camera is set up from low angles, shooting medium long shots of other things for the audience to focus on. The 'ticking' from all the various clocks in his home that the camera pans over, creates the build up before we see the boy arrive. We only ever see his lower legs and feet in this section. We see the boy using the amp system with extreme close ups of his hands turning up all the dials, this also adds to the big build up before he is blasted to the other side of the room by the noise. Already giving the impression that this is a comedic film. 

Into the Wild:

In this opening scene, Chris Mccandless is filmed trudging through the snow, using a mixture of long and extreme long shots. The camera pans over the snowy grounds emphasising on the extent of the landscape. The soundtrack played over the opening scene is the song 'Long Nights' by Eddie Vedder, a slow and steady song with a steady beat, hinting at Chris' start to his journey. The camera uses lots of various shots of him out in the wilderness throughout this scene, a memorable one is a low angle shot of Chris looking up into the wide sky - a connotation of this being his love and admiration for the outdoors. 

Coursework Decision

For our AS Media Studies coursework, we were given the option to either do either a short opening scene for a film, or a front cover, double page spread and contents page of a music magazine. In a pair, alongside Holly Haskins, we have decided to do the opening scene option.

For the film opening we will have to do:

• Choose a genre for the film opening and find out what the conventions are.
• The history of the specific genre and similar films.
• Research the genre's key directors.
• A collage of iconography associated with the selected genre.
• Sound and musical advantages connected with the genre.
• The most used camera shots, angles and movement of the genre.
• Certificate ratings of the genre.
• DVD analysis of a film that uses this genre.
• Audience expectations of the genre (e.g.- questionnaire).
• Still frame analysis of different film openings associated with the genre.
• Analysis of various font styles, associated with the genre.
• The stereotypical or popular locations directors have chosen for films of this genre.