Main Task: Case Studies

Film Openings: Case Study of Firewall


We have researched different genres of films to help us decide what genre our main task is going to be on.

The first film was Firewall. It is a well made high budget thriller, starring Harrison Ford as a banker whose family is threatened when criminals try to rob the bank that he works for. As the title suggests they do this by using high class technology to hack in and steal the money electronically.

The first thought you get from the film is a sense of fear and there is a slightly creepy perspective as well. It starts with a camera following what looks like a family going onto a boat. It freezes on different shots and there is a sound effect of a photo being taken. This shows you that this family is being watched and photographed by someone which definitley adds a certain amount of tension into the opening. The camera is quite shaky and the picture is in black and white and this helps to give the impression that it is a point of view shot of the stalker. The camera keeps cutting back to the titles with the sound affect of computer typing in the background. This gives you an idea that the film has something to do with computers which is backed up by the title of the film. It then goes on to show the stalker following the family around through their day to day lives. Harrison Ford,the father, going to work and the mother and two children at home.

It then goes on to etablish the main characters of the film. It shows the family that are being watched getting ready for a normal week day. The children, a boy Andy and a girl Sarah, are arguing. You can tell that the girl finds her younger brother annoying as he is making alot of noise when she is trying to watch television. This is showed to be just the normal sort of thing for children of this age as the mother smiles and walks out the room. The scene cuts to the wife and husband, Jack, talking and you can tell that they have a great realationship as they joke and kiss and the Jack tells his wife that he dosen't deserve her. You also get a good idea of the realationship between Jack and his daughter Sarah. She calls him Jack instead of Dad but this shows that she is a rebellious teen who wants to grow up quickly.

The opening of the film is well made and keeps the audience intrested with tension and the quick introduction to the main characters. It is cleverly filmed with a great number of different shots and the titles were bold and clear with bright colours on a black background.

(James)

Film Openings: Case Study of The Italian Job


The Italian Job is the remake of the 1969 classic film starring Micheal Caine. The storyline revolves around a group of thieves being betrayed by one of their own when robbing a vast amount of gold in Venice. The leader is shot dead and the others vow to seek revenge for what has happened and steal back the gold.

The film starts off with modern music and establishing shots and mid shots along canals to show that it is set in Venice.The opening titles show a man looking over maps and he is obviously planning something. There is upbeat modern music which adds tension and makes you anticipate what is coming next.

The camera then cuts to a close up of a diamond necklace in a jewellery store which has just been bought. We are then introduced to the man who bought it. He makes a phone call to a young woman who turns out to be his daughter. He says that he is sending her something sparkly and her imediate reaction is to sit up straight and ask if it has a receipt. This hints very strongly that this man is a thief . It then cuts to the man meeting with another someone else to discuss if all the plans are ready and this indicates that they are about to pull off a heist.

The genre of this film is revealed straight away from the beginning and this leaves the viewer in no confusion about what they are watching. There are good uses of different shots to establish the locations and the different characters, and the music and editing makes the film glossy and well made.

(James)