Research - Film Openings

Billion Dollar Brain (1967)

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/billion-dollar-brain/

The opening of ‘Billion Dollar Brain’ is focused on introducing the main character of Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) to the audience.

The electronic voice over is important because it tells us a bit about the plot of the film.

This has been achieved with the use of extreme close up shots of Palmers face to see his expressions when talking on the phone. This is in order to tell us that the phone conversation is important to the plot of this film.

The opening shot uses slow panning and zooming in with the focus on Palmer also to highlight that he is the main character.

A dissolve transition is used to blend the opening prologue scene into the opening credits and soundtrack. From the harsh brass and percussion music, this suggests that the film is to be dramatic and perhaps a thriller. The percussion creates tension and suspense as we can tell that there will be a climax to the music and therefore a tense climax in the film.

There is imagery of the protagonist with a woman and holding a gun, this foreshadows events that will occur later in the film, as well as a shot of Palmer behind bars.

Finally, the credits dissolve into the last shot we see in the opening of this film. The camera uses a mid-shot, tracking shot of Harry Palmer in a taxi, being driven towards a building; this long shot is used to set the scene. Also the same electronic voice over is used as in the first scene, and from this the audience can assume that this voiceover will be present throughout the film.

Dreamcatcher (2003)

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/dreamcatcher/

The tense and haunting music that is presented to the audience before any imagery, allows us to understand the genre of film before we know the plot. Immediately with a dramatic climax in the music it is clear that the film will be a thriller.

The first shot shown is of a bird’s eye view of an almost supernatural looking landscape, and then lots of different snapshots of nature imagery are faded into one another with a medium speed editing.

The editing of this film opening is all in black and white.

As the soundtrack speeds up and climaxes towards the end of the opening scene, the imagery transitions also speed up