Film Openings - D.O.A (1950)

 D.O.A (1950) is a film noir directed by Rudolph Maté which has an attention grabbing start to it. All the elements of ECMS work well together to achieve an intriguing beginning to the film.

 The editing present at the start of the film is firstly an establishing shot which shows a man walking towards a building the first edit shows the title of the film in dinstincitve huge bold 3D like writing which is eye catching to the viewer. The shot following this lasts for around a minute and a half and is of the man walking presumably inside the building walking towards to homicide division. During this long first shot the rest of the titles are displayed on screen in smaller type than the name of the film but in the same 3D like shadowed form. This font is likely to have been used as it was seen as looking in your face for the audience and makes the writing stand although in modern society this type of type is seen as out-dated and looks tacky. However the use of this font is interesting and the type does jump out at the viewer to grab attention. As the man goes through the homicide division door before the enigma of the start of the film which is so surprising to the viewer is revealed there are two edits. Both are continuity edits and are used as the man enters two rooms.

 Cinematography is used with various lights in the building creating shadows and the floor and walls. This is particularly notable in when the man wlaks down the corridor with many lights used to light up the hall. During the talk between the main as the inspector he meets with over the shoulder shots and medium shots are used to keep fluency through the conversation. The film uses mostly medium and wide shots for the start sequence of the film with the medium behind-the-back tracking shot following the man – Frank (Edmond O’Brian) as he walks to the office. There is as I mentioned a notable establishing shot at the start of the film also. The man reveals is a twist when talking to the inspector in the homicide division that he wants to report a murder, when asked who has been murdered he says he has been murder which is a huge surprise to start the movie as you would expect that he would be reporting the killing of another, what this does as well for the audience is create an enigma and make them make to find out how he can possibly be reporting his own murder. Another surprising element to the opening is the reaction of the inspector who does not simply ignore the seemingly crazy reveal by the man but acts as though he expected him to come and say what he did which again creates a confusing situation for the audience. So therefore this is clever filmmaking in the way that the suspense of the man walking to the office is matched by what he reveals to the inspector and how the inspector reacts to this reveal.

 The elements which make up Mise-en-scene that are shown in the opening sequence add to the suspense, set the scene and location of the film. One way in which this is done is by making the audience aware that the man is walking inside a police station, this is shown by the costume of the actors in the building as he initially enters as there as dressed as police officers, another way the audience knows the setting is a station is by the name of the room he enter which is ‘Homicide Division’. The props in the homicide division office e.g. the desks and office equipment  also set the scene of the sequence as well as the fan of the wall in the inspectors office which itself creates an eye catching shadow which seems somewhat mysterious and in keeping with this thriller film. Moreover the use of these props allows the viewers’ realise the suspense of the sequence. The location is set by the man stating the murder was in San Francisco which immediately within the first five or short lines of dialogue notifies the audience of the location of the movie.

 Sound is used to create suspense through the opening sequence it grows and dies and through different at different points. During the establishing shot at the beginning of the film the music is calm however as the man walks through the police station the music grows which create a sense of a man on a mission, it is very frantic as he reaches the office then then is a sudden jump as the doors shows ‘Homicide Division’ on it. After this though the music dies down again as enters the office and stays the same until he reveal he has been murdered to which there is another sudden jump in the music for it to go calm once more after. So sound is important in the opening scene of D.O.A as without it the audience would not be aware that the movie is a crime thriller which the sound to an extent itself reveals by creating a sense of mystery throughout and the sudden jump at the homicide division reveal which shows it has importance to the film.

 ECMS is important to the start of D.O.A as it makes the audience want to continue watching the film and understand what the film is going to be about i.e. the enigma of the man saying he has been murdered although he is clearly still alive and how to inspector can be aware of the murder before told.

Film Openings - Double Indemnity (1944)

The opening scene of the classic film noir Double Indemnity (1944) directed by Billy Wilder achieves in keeping a constant level of suspense throughout the first two minutes. It achieves this by cleverly using different techniques in order to intrigue the viewer.

Moreover the editing used in the scene is a mix of fade editing, along with straight cut continuity editing as well as more notable cut edits also. Additionally the fade out of one shot into another is what film noir use frequently, with the next shot slowly overtaking the screen of the previous shot, and this is used when to as an editing technique when the car is shown on the road and then fades to being parked. The titles are bold and stand out on the screen with each letter having shadows underneath to create a 3D effect. Another use of editing on the titles is shadows of the man walking with the aid of crutches which again is used as an eye catching tool for the audience. It is interesting that further into the opening the man (Neff) is seen walking with some discomfort but not with crutches as in the title. The crutches are linked to later on in the film and part of the double indemnity plan however viewers would not be aware of this when first watching the film so it is a clever technique to slightly confuse the viewer.

The cinematography used in the opening is very much dark lighting and sets the scene for night time. The streetlights being on further this at the beginning of the film. Much of the opening minute following the titles is shot using long and wide shots although there is an establishing shot of the car approaching at the very start. Furthermore the high pace action with the car weaving past other cars and through a red light works well in setting up and exciting high action start to the film which sets the theme for the rest of the movie. Another thing which a film opening like seen in Double Indemnity achieves in doing in surprising the audience as in a scene set at night you would not expect a car to be driving dangerously and this in turn tells the audience that the driver of the car is central to the scene and perphaps film straight away just over a minute into the movie.

Mise-en-scene is used in the opening sequence to establish the location of a city at night and the streetlamps are used to further so the time of day although the dark lighting does this also. After the credits shows there a worker roadside shown on screen with the car approaching, the beam of light from whatever the workers are doing is clever used to show the viewer the location of the film, the beam reveals are sign saying ‘Los Angeles Railway Corp’. So this makes the audience aware of the setting.

Throughout the titles and the every part of the film opening there is music playing which changes in mood as it goes on. It starts off with a very bold sound which continues through to the start of the film where it gets more frantic and the car weaves through traffic then begins to die down as the car is parked at a building. The sound used keeps the viewers interested even through the opening titles. As well as doing this the frantic music playing in the background which is non-diegetic sound also suggests that the film will be a thriller type film as by having this music that is the suggestion to viewer.

In addition one thing which the elements of ECMS create is an enigma through the narrative in the opening. The audience wonder why the man is on crutches and also why the car is driving dangerously. So this is a clever opening to the movie.