Opening Sequence Continuity- Harry Potter

The opening shot is a focus shot depicting a street sign naming the location as an owl sits atop it, the audience are instantly given a sense of location. The shot then pans right to a long shot of a row of trees with a house and street lamp in front, as this happens the owl that was perched on top the street sign flies in the direction of the trees in the background. This was used to direct the attention of the audience, as a man with a long beard appears from within the trees that the owl had just flown past.

The long shot then changes to a mid long shot as the man emerges, still with trees surrounding him. This shows that he is in the same place as he was before in relation to the surrounding objects, it is only the shot which has changed. It then cuts to a close up shot of a cat as the man walks past, giving the audience a sense of movement in the scene, as though the man is walking with purpose.

The cat does not move, staying on the corner of the street as the man, stops in his tracks and stands in the same position for a number of shots as he takes out a lighter-like object and puts out all of the street lights. This changes the style of lighting in the scene from low key to a style much darker, all of the shadows in the scene are therefore emphasized greatly due to the lighting change.This leads perfectly into the next shot, which is a silhouetted view of the cat as it transforms into a female. Rather than showing the cat itself transform the shadow is used instead.

Later on in the sequence, shot-reverse-shot is used while all of the character in the scene are talking about whether what they are doing is the right thing or not. The audience are placed from the viewpoint of the characters and get a sense that they themselves are part of the conversation.

Accident Sequence

What techniques did you specifically use to create continuity in your accident sequence?

To create continuity, we tried to keep all of the action at a fast pace to keep the audience engaged and feeling the intensity of the action. With some of the shots it was fairly difficult to create continuity because we wanted to have Gavin falling out of the tree without him actually doing so. In order to get past this problem, we used quick cuts to different angles. In addition to this, we also kept the story line very simple because six shots doesn't allow much to be conveyed without causing any confusion.

 In hindsight, what could you do to improve the continuity of the sequence?

In order to improve the continuity, I would have used lighting in shots 4-6 to give a stronger impression that all of the shots were filmed at the same time of day. Due to the natural lighting outside being unreliable, the last 3 shots are much darker than the first 3.

Also, I would have placed the camera much higher in shot 5 as you are able to see the ground fairly close up, because as it stands, it looks as though the actor doesn't drop from that much of a height. Ideally we would have been able to actually have Gavin fall out of the tree, as we would have been able to capture more realistic shots without the need of close up shots to show what had actually happened.

Film Opening Analysis

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

The film is set around the life of 22 year old Scott Pilgrim who ends out falling in love with  Ramona Flowers, an American girl who has a secret about her past love life... All of her exes are evil and that if Scott wants to be with her, then he must defeat all of them in combat.

The sequence begins with a comic book like introduction, stating where the film is set and giving a small amount of insight into the protagonist Scott Pilgrim. It then swipes to a shot of a house as we hear Scott's housemates talking from within the house with disapproval about his new relationship with high school student  Knives Chau. One by one they try to pick apart every aspect of his relationship and wonder what would draw a 22 year old man to a girl still in high school.

We are then introduced to Knives as she turns up on the doorstep just in time for Scott's band to rehearse. As the band are playing hand drawn lightning bolts appear around them as would similarly be used in comic strips to signify loud rock music being played.

The opening sequence takes place over an extremely short period of time, it only gives us as the audience limited information about the characters in terms of their personality and general demeanour. All that we learn about the characters is their names, their relation to the protagonist and their ages.

The majority of the main characters are introduced in the opening sequence through the use of video game style pop ups. This fits in with the whole style of the movie as there are various effects within the movie with are derived directly from popular video games.

NOTE: Entire opening sequence was not available so some parts of the analysis will not seem relevant to available footage. If you wish to watch the entire opening please click on link below.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World Full Sequence

Reflection on Shots

Describe your shot and identify in what way it could be described as representing your chosen genre

This shot is a high angle shot of a scene. The actors head is tilted downwards and his face is covered by his hands. The lighting is focused on the male actor, because of this the audiences attention is shifted from the girl on the floor to him and the emotions which he is feeling. This represents the drama genre as the focus is placed on those around the "incident" rather the person injured by the event. We as an audience are forced to detach ourselves from the overall image and pay particularly close attention to the effect of what has happened on the male.

What did you actually do to achieve this effect?

To achieve this effect the flood light was placed so that the majority of the light engulfed the male actor. In order for the audience to be clear of the drama, I placed the actor fairly close to the body to show they have some form of relationship which explains why the actor is holding his head.

What is successful about your shot?

I love the way you instantly feel saddened by the image, you understand that the 2 actors had a real bond and that this incident has torn a deep hole in the male actors heart.

  What would you do differently?

In hindsight, I would have used a spot light rather than a floor light to place extra emphasis on the male actor being the centre of attention. Also, the image is extremely grainy, I would have altered the lighting so that the image appears more clearly.