My Pitch for a Slasher Opening

Idea

Narrative synopsis
My idea is start off the film with five friends travelling to the lakeside in a camper van for there holiday, as they have heard that there are rumours that there are certain berries which grow on bushes which cause people to hallucinate. once they have set up camp for the night they go and collect these berries and start taking them, however there is one certain berry that isn't meant to be consumed as it causes people to have mental fits and potentially kill them. One of the five consumes one of these berries and starts to see at different stages throughout the night a certain being killing her friends in the most unpleasant ways, however there is a twist in the tale and it turns out that the girl who consumed the wrong berry is actually the person who has been killing her friends as the berry has caused her to go mental.

Writing title
A night to be remembered... 

Its X meets Y
The two films that meet in my film are, Shrooms & Eden Lake

Narrative Representation in 3 Slasher Opening Task TBC

Considering what to expect in the film e.g. sex age textuality, archetype and include your own interpretation. Always back it up with a specific detail from what you can see from the text and use semiotics to denote and connote and explain and say why the signifiers were used and why they were chosen to be shown.
E.g. A red rose connotes romance.
look at the characters clothing and how they speak.
E.g. Adult figures of authority and showing their power to inferior characters such as children.

Stereotypes:

• Evil characters are seen as the outsiders or abnormal characters
• Hero characters will come across as shy and timid sometimes

The three opening slasher scenes that i have looked at are, Halloween 2 (Rob Zombie,2009), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Marcus Nispel, 2003) and A Nightmare on Elm street (Samuel Bayer, 2010).


Halloween 2

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

A Nightmare on Elm street 

Idents & Titles Analysis

Slasher (2001)
Low budget indie movie $165K. No titles.
Set like a game show, no idents or main titles viewed even after the main plot was set.

Urban Legend (Jamie Blanks, 1998)
Budget: $14m and box office made $38m in the US and £1.1m in the UK. Trimark and Phoenix were the idents for this movie. It didn't have any digetic music over the titles, this stopped after 2.31s and eventually after this the movie titles started to play again.

Scary Movie (Wayanes,2000)
Budget: $19m (low budget for American film), it made $157m in the box office.
Dimensions Films is the only ident that was on screen.

Mad House (William Butler, 2004)
Budget:
Opening plot is a wall with blood all over them, there is no credits or titles until the opening scene has run through and the guy is killed by a car. The titles appear with white text on a black background. Lions Gate ident.

Black Christmas (Bob Clarke, 1974)
Budget:
Serif font used quiet often in the opening titles. First thing you see is the ident for Rouge Pictures, this eventually disappears of screen.

Cry Wolf (Jeff Waldow, 2005)
Budget:
An ident for Rouge pictures appears on screen at the begging of the titles and gradually fades away, as this occurs hypnotic pictures ident appears on screen. The opening scene titles show the font in what appears to look like a type writer style and looks decayed.

Donkey Punch (
Warp Films ident and Film 4 idents appear on screen during the opening titles. They are both then followed by the title of the film which is in serif font.

Dressed to Kill ( Brian De Palma, 1980)
Has a Metro Goldwyn Mayer ident that Samuel Z Arkoff ident that follows that with roughly 6 titles on this.

All the boys love Mandy Lane (Levine, 2006)
Only the one ident. The colours are very dull as they are a grey and black, there is very little audio. The ident that appears is Occupant Films. It has a very strong serif font signifying a knife. There are only 4 titles viewed in the opening scene.

April Fools Day (Fred Walten, 1996)
Idnet of Paramount Pictures, and then a Hotel Films productions. The titles end 5minutes in and 13 titles.

Babysitter Wanted (Jonas Barnes & Micheal Manaserri, 2008)
Large screen ident (The Independent Film Company).
Music is similar between idents, white sans serif font is used in the title.

5ive Girls (Waren Sonoda, 2006)
Alliance Atlantis is the ident. This ident has a lot of animations. The second ident that gradually appears on screen is Archetype Films, this doesn't stay on screen for too long. Eventually the titles for the film start to appear 4minutes in. Use of blood in the titles add graphic detail to the titles.
Voice over of a man reading.
Warp films

My Idents Vodcast

We individually had too look at 4 films each, i did leprechaun 1,2,3 and 4. I then paired up paired up with Ben and looked at his films and idents.

My Ident

 In class we were asked to create a fully operational ident. This is my ident 

Slasher Opening Sequences

When viewing a slasher movie you will tend to find numerous stuff in the opening sequences, the list bellow is just some of what may be viewed in a slasher opening:

1. Credits
2. White font on black background
3. Idents
4. Narrative Enigma
5. Dutch angle
6. False scare
7. Intertextuality
8. Post Modernism
9. Audio Bridge
10. Exposition
11. Stalk and Slash
12. Scream queen
13. Final girl
14. Establishing shot
15. Anchorage
16. Polysemy
17. Binary opposite

One of the slasher movies which we viewed was Psycho.

Psycho ( Alfred Hitchcock , 1960)

Box office
Budget: 800k
Gross: 5 million

At the beginning of the film it starts off with a black background and white stripes which appeared to look like they had been cut/ slashed by a knife, this in affect helped make the film more effective in the sense that it hinted what may be to come in the film, these slashed lines passed across the screen.

 As this is occurring the film presents the credits and titles of people who are featuring in the film or who produced and directed the film.

When viewing the opening sequence Alfred Hitchcock's name was viewed more than once during the opening credits.
The film had to be produced however in black and white as at the time that amount of blood and gore and had never been viewed before in a film, therefor the film was R rated which meant that it was the most violent film which had scenes of nudity and sexual violence in it. Now however in the present day it would be only rated a 12 or PG.

Once the opening credits and titles had been viewed the film starts of with an Extreme long shot which pans from right to left, this shot establishes the setting and where the film is taking place. As the shot is panning across the screen titles appear telling the viewer the name of the place they are viewing creating exposition. Gradually the extreme long shot starts to zoom in and focus on one certain window in the whole city (hand of fate), and views the scream queen laying on her bed with a male stood up right getting changed.

The Final Girl Concept

The Final Girl Concept

The final girl concept was founded by Carol.J Clover, in her book Men , Women and Chainsaw's. Clover suggested that at the begining of tese movies, the viewers begin sharing a perspective of the killer but experiences a shift in identification half way through of the final girl. How laurie Strode defines the final girl archeotype. the signifer that shows that she is the final girl is the fact that she is carying many books and school folders underneath her arm, this suggests that she is interlectual and very quiet. when she realises she has forgoton her biology book her friends laugh at her misfortune and think she is being pathetic, these are the stereotypical scream queens. Also the clothing she is wearing, she is very covered up and is wearing un-sexualy appealing clothes. Brown hair, flat chested and a poor choice of footwear also suggests that she is not very confident with herself and doesnt get ropped into things like others do. Unlike scream queens the final girl is also very responisble.



Laurie Strode (Halloween,1987)



Laurie Strode(final girl on left, scream queen on right)

Scream (Wes Craven, 1986)
Like previously in Halloween, Sidney Prescott is a young girl who at the beginning of the movie is doing her homework in her bedroom, when her boyfriend climbs through her bedroom window causing a false scare. Her clothing tells us that she is the final girl, this is because she has what viewers would say are old and unattractive, also her hairstyle is very old as well which suggests that she is not up to date with fashion and stuff. Also like in Halloween Sidney is a very well spoken girl who is intellectual and self-conscious about what she does, she is also a virgin which indicates to the viewers that she is not very sexual.

Micro Drama: Finished Film + Reflection

Here is our finished final micro drama, "Lads on Tour". It is a slasher movie. Finally after much editing during school time and out of school time working with my group on Final Cut Pro this our finished piece we have put together.

Micro Drama: Editing

Once we had completed out micro drama we went back to school and split our filming group into two separate groups, this meant that there would be two final edits of the micro drama that we had created. By splitting the group into two meant that we could cover different perspectives and see how others would interpret it.

In the group i was working with on the edit we cut down many of the clips using Final Cut Pro (FCP) cutting tool to shorten some of the long takes to make the flow of the film run more smoothly and also to help make it for the audience more understandable of what is happening in the scenes. Final Cut Pro was very helpful when editing as it helped us add titles to show the name of the micro drama, who certain roles were played by (characters) and who directed the micro drama. Also FCP made it possible for us to use a fading tool which faded one scene into another to show an ellipsis. Finally FCP provided different choices of  sound effects which could be used to create extra tension and suspense to give the ultimate scare.

If i was to re-do this process again i would try and firstly capture more shot varieties which would make it simpler to edit and have a wider choice of snippets to add into the editing, i also would try and add a bit more violence and gore as in the micro drama we have made the movement of the killers actions aren't very scary and don't cause the audience to jump whereas if we were to add more snippets of the action of the knife for example been struck back and forth more often this would help create the imagery of the killer brutally attacking the victim.

Micro Drama: The Shoot

Our micro drama took place at Ben's house, we choose to do it there as this allowed us to make to make the best use of natural light and background noises which helped create the realism. Also this provided us with reasonable amounts of room to shoot and different varieties of rooms in which we could use to make the micro drama as good as possible. Unfortunately however due to poor weather conditions this limited the amount of scenes which could be taken outside as we did not want to take the risk of damaging the recording equipment. 

This shot was one of the few taken outside as the weather became progressively worse

One of the best features when creating our micro drama was the natural light and how it worked, this meant that it created a sense of realism and added extra effect to our video. In one of our scenes shot in the micro drama myself and the others are stood at the top of the staircase looking down into the basement, as we had positioned the camera in a good position looking up at us from the bottom of the staircase the use of natural light created shadows against the walls of our silhouettes, this added the sense of mystery and suspense to out micro drama. However natural lighting didn't work out all the time as when it became darker it was harder to capture the footage.

This shot shows how natural lighting helped capture the shadows and add effect 

If i was to do this again i would, take more shots more often to help build suspense, i would reduce the amount of long takes as this doesn't help build up the tension especially if you are creating or attempting to create a horror, i would also add in a few more false scares to make the audience jumpy and finally i would try and use a few more close up shots and concentrate on the small details such as peoples expressions or certain objects in a room that people are picking up just to help make the audience experience what the person acting is experiencing. 

Film Festival Masterclass

As part of our media course, on the 9th of November we went on a media trip to the ASSF film festival in York. During this trip we went to two masterclasses, the first was a talk with the head of production at Warp   films Barry Ryan and the second masterclass was a talk from the successful cinematographer Danny Cohen.

Warp Films (Barry Ryan)

As it is the 10th year that Warp Films have been in production Barry Ryan was talking about its success over the years and how it came to be what it is now. He firstly started off by telling us about his latest films which he as the leading producer helped make and do and explained his role in the company, he also told us of another few films to expect to see in the future which he is currently working on. As the masterclass went on Barry talked about how to make a business work and how it fundamentally works in many film companies, he explained all about the budgets and costs of movies and how the money made from the movies (box office) was broken down to pay certain people for the help and jobs that were required to make the movie itself happen. Finally Barry went on to explain how Warp Films advertised and presented cover art for their films to draw the attention of the viewers. He stated that to get the attention of the viewers you must show them what they want to see.

Danny Cohen 

The second master class was with Danny Cohen and Mariayah Kaderbhai. Mariayah Kaderbhai did a live interview with Danny and asked he him numerous amounts of questions about how he came to be a cinematographer and what he had to undergo to get to where he is. Firstly Danny started  of by talking about how he got into the industry and how initially he did a social science degree then became a photographic technician which eventually lead on to him becoming a famous cinematographer. During the master class Danny was asked about how he made the variety of different scenes for numerous films. These scenes would be played to us and then he'd explain how he put them together. His best example was a scene from This is England, he explained how it was difficult to find an the correct are in which everything in the area had not changed much and had some of the features of what a town and streets would have appeared to look like in 1983. As it was difficult to find a perfect area Danny had to make make changes to the area, such things as changing the satellites on the house roofs and all the vehicles had to be from the 1980's time period. He explained to us how some cars were used more than once in any scene as they were on a low budget. The last thing that Danny went on to mention was how that natural light and the use of different camera angles and shot helped make a film better.

Vodcast Conventions

The objective was to work in groups of 4 and  create a vodcast of the different conventions seen in each others film openings. Here is our vodcast In this vodcast we highlight the conventions of Idents, Mise-en-Scene, Audio and Editing throughout the 8 films.

The 8 films that were mentioned are:

1. Breakfast on Pluto
2. Sunshine
3. Recrium for a dream 
4. 28 days later
5. Kez
6. Harry Brown

Key Narrative Theories

Todorov's 5-Part Narrative Formula 

Todorov is associated with the theory that every narrative can be broken down into three basic stages: situation,conflict,resolution (or equilibrium, new equilibrium). Crucially, your protagonist is not the same as the outset,but has been changed in some way from events. Your old friend Tzvetan Todorov actually posted five stages (though we generally refer to the 3-part model):

1.  a stage of equilibrium at the outset;
2. a disruption of the equilibrium by some action;
3. a recognition that there has been a disruption;
4. an attempt to repair the disruption;
5. a reinstatement of the equilibrium.

Levi-Strauss:Binary opposites & Dramatic Conflict

When we consider the use of stereotypes, it is often evident how a binary opposition is at play: how we describe a stereotypical poor or working class person, for example,is broadly the opposite of how we'd describe a middle or upper class person.

Scenes within dramas often reflect a use of this idea, with clashing pairs (male,female;rural, urban; rich, poor; heterosexual homosexual; good, bad; dominant, submissive etc.) of opposites,in other words binary opposites, sparking conflict or tension.

There is a philosophical argument underpinning this idea: when the world around us ( so,not just fictional texts) is organised and categorised through pairs of binary opposites, there is generally a powerful, or 'good',side: men are powerful, women are submissive; the poor unintelligent, the wealthy intelligent (a stereotype seen very clearly in Tess of the D'Urbevilles).

Propp's 8 Recurring Character Types

As well as proposing that narratives can be broken down into 31 basic functions, Valdimir Propp (in his study of fairy tales which continues to influence literary and media studies today)  argued that there are essentially just seven types, or archetypes:

1. The villain- struggles against the hero.
2. The donor- prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
3. The (magical) helper- helps the hero in the quest.
4. The princess or prince- the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of a unfair evil, usually because of the villain. The hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain.
5. The princess and her father- gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries he hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.
6. The dispatcher- character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
7. The hero/victim- reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
8. False hero/anti-hero/usurper- takes credit for the hero's actions or tries to marry the princess.

The roles could sometimes be distributed among various characters, as the hero kills the villain dragon, and the dragon's sisters take on the villainous role of chasing him. Conversely, one character could engage in acts as more than one role, as father could send his son on the quest and give him a sword, acting as both dispatcher and donor.


Barthes Concept of Narrative Enigma

A puzzle created within a narrative. A random person is being shot in a program but don't know by whom; a stranger arrives: who is she/he? What is she/he doing here? These are narrative enigmas. Trying to figure out these puzzles is part of the pleasure of watching fictional texts.
In 1980 over 25 million UK viewers watched when the US drama Dallas ended a season with the main antagonist getting shot. The nation was gripped, and speculation raged for months as to the identity of the killer. The tapes containing the episode revealing the killer had to be imported under armed guard, and the outcome was reported as a lead news story in the papers and on TV news.

Semiotics

Intertextual: Meaning of one text is tied to another, earlier text, e.g. to fully understand Scary Movie you'd need to have seen Scream, which it spoofs. This can cause contested readings.

Binary Opposition: The juxtaposition of the refined parson high up on horseback, and the lowly D'Urbeville character, at the very beginning of the Tess mini-series is an example of binary opposition: any mutually exclusive pair form a binary opposition (male/female, rich/poor, rural/urban). Binary opposites are a key device for generating conflict and thus drama. When placed together, we can talk of binary opposites being juxtaposed- paired together to emphasis the contrast; their difference.

Denote/Connote: Denotation is the description of what we see or hear. Connotation is the symbolic meaning of these factual details: When we can denote a male having stubble and dark hair this often connotes villainy; this may be anchored through use of menacing, non-diegetic music.

Polysemy/ Anchorage: Every media text is essentially polysemic: it has many possible meanings. Our interpretation will be influenced by our knowledge of other texts, genre, our values, cultural background, age, gender, etc. Signifiers are embedded within texts to point us towards a particular, preferred, interpretation. The mise-en-scene will generally give us clues as to the geographical and time setting, but we often require on-screen graphics or dialogue to precisely anchor the period/location.

Signifier & Signified: A signifier is a single we pick out which we think has symbolic meaning ( the signified ): A low angle shot ( signifier ) often signifies power or strength; with a high angled shot the signified is often weakness or vulnerability.

Commutation Test: Always consider what we didn't see; the choices the producers have rejected.

Preferred/Contested/Oppositional Reading: We may be mainly considering what we consider to be the preferred reading (the interpretation the producers wish us to follow) but as texts are all polysemic, they are open to contested or even Oppositional readings. its useful to highlight any sequences you think invite contested/Oppositional readings through being poorly constructed.

Narrative Enigma: Mysterious elements within a text form a narrative enigma, needed in any drama.

Assessing a past coursework opening

"Tiny Terror"

 The strongest feature of this opening

The strongest feature during this opening is the variety of camera shots used throughout which help build suspense which helps reinforce the fact that it is a horror. Also the use of ellipsis (moving forward in time) makes the opening a lot better.

The weakest feature of this opening

The weakest feature of this opening is the editing, i think that when the doll is walking into the bathroom to kill the victim that the shots that were taken to capture the dolls movement meant that the editing of it was poor.

Semiotics Rap

Yo this is ma media rap
We learning semiotics brap!
Firstly there's denotations not to be mistaken for connotations,
The signifier is a detailed text,
Which leads onto been signified next,
Polysemy ain't ya enemy,
It just a multiple meaning which changes ur feeling,
Commutation test ain't the best as the rest,
The text may have another meaning,
Which may be teasing,
If ya do oppositional reading.

Assessment criteria

Final Cut Pro X First Impressions

My first impressions on final cut pro x were that it looked extremely hard to use and required a lot of understanding to be able to use the software. However we had the help of some year 13's at hand to help us if we got stuck and require any help. With this help provided it made using the software a bit more simpler and easier to use.

Final Cut Express First Impressions

When I first used final cut express I found it was rather hard to use and I found it difficult to come to terms with how to use the software and the way to use certain things, such as, using the cutting tool and adding extra effects etc. However once I had the chance to have a play around with the software it started to become a lot more simpler to use and wasn't as difficult to edit videos. Now I can crack on with my work without worrying about not been able to use the software.

The Brief

 

The Brief

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.
Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.
All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source.

The coursework is worth 50% of the AS (same at A2) and the marking (detailed later) is divided into 3 sections:

RESEARCH AND PLANNING: 20%

PRODUCTION: 60%

EVALUATION: 20%

Your work is marked partially on my observations of your approach and level of organisation, but fundamentally its a DVD and your blog that are marked.

Sweding Pitch

Sweding
What is sweding?

Sweding is where you take a film and change the aspects of it to make the film comical or a spoof of the original film. An example of sweded film is the film Jurassic Park.

If I were to choose a film to do a swede of i would choose the film 'Super Bad'. I would choose this film as it is mainly based around the three main friends who go out and cause havoc in there own unique way. I believe creating a swede of this movie would not be to difficult yet would show which film it is off and wouldn't require a great deal of props.

My Favorite Film

My favourite film is called Pineapple Express
(David Gordon Green,2008)

Box Office

Budget:

$27,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$23,245,025 (USA) (10 August 2008) (3072 Screens)

Gross:

$101,624,843 (Worldwide) (8 March 2009)

This is my favourite film because it is extremely humorous, full of action and the characters involved in the movie make it a whole lot better as the way they act out the scenes when they are on cannabis (high) is very funny. Also the use of language and quotes used in the movie make me laugh every time i watch the movie.

Official release trailer for 'Pinapple Express'

Film Opening (2) Sunshine

 Sunshine (Danny Boyle,2007)

DVD Cover


   


Box Office

Budget:

£26,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£1,021,063 (UK) (8 April 2007) (407 Screens)

Gross:

$32,017,803 (Worldwide)          

     

 50 years into the future, the Sun begins to die, and Earth is dying as a result. A team of astronauts are sent to revive the Sun - but the mission fails. Seven years later, a new team are sent to finish the mission as they are Earth's last hope.

 Official release trailer for Sunshine

The company idents featured in the opening scene are:

• Fox Searchlight Pictures

Other company idents not featured in the opening scene include:

• DNA Films
• Ingenious Film Partners
• Moving Picture Company (MPC)
• UK Film Council

In this first scene viewed in the opening of the film 'Sunshine' the director has used a extreme long shot to establish the setting of where the the movie is or could potentially be taking place. Also the first shot shows the sun shining above the horizon which in a way sums up where the title of the movie comes from.

This second shot viewed during the opening scene of the film shows the space shuttle in which is been flown towards the sun in order to help re-ignite the suns energy in hope to save the world. In this scene the director has used a long shot to capture some of the scenery but intentionally to show the mass structure of the shuttle.




This third shot viewed during the opening scene shows one of the main characters sat in showroom of the shuttle ship (icurus II) looking out upon the sun from where he is sat. In this shot the director has used a long shot once again to show some of the foreground and background but mainly to show what the character is viewing.

This penultimate shot from the opening scene shows a medium close up shot of one of the main characters gazing upon something, the purpose of this shot is to show the characters body language, what they are wearing but mainly yo capture how there facial expressions change as the event goes on.

The final shot that i picked out from the opening scene show a extreme close up shot of one of the key characters eyes hiding behind his sunglasses which are been exposed to high levels of sunlight. In this shot the aim was to show the viewers the characters facial expressions and how his eyes begin to water and blink.

Taken Swede

 Taken, The Swede

As a group we collectively created a swede on the original film Taken. We decided on using the key main scenes from the original film to create our swede. To do this we used George's camera to capture the footage of our acting out of the scenes.

 

Official trailer for Taken

Our swede

 

 

 Key scenes

We chose this scene of the film as it shows the two friends waving goodbye as the leave the airport to catch there flight abroad. When we took are video, we decide to use a long shot and a two shot too capture both the characters in the shot and also to establish where they are.



 The next key scene from the movie we re-enacted is when Bryan Millls (the father) is on the phone to his daughter Kim to assure that she has arrived at her destination safely.When we acted this scene out we used a medium close-up-shot on both Jake (Bryan) and James (Kim) to show the body language of the character and there facial expressions. It also shows some detail of where abouts the character is.

Our next key scene we chose to use from the original movie was the part when Kim watches as her friend Amanda is being abducted by some males. This scene is important as it starts the action of the movie to commence. We used to different shot types to re-create this scene. They were POV,OTS and CU. These shots helped capture see things from Kim's perspective and her facial expressions.
 

This scene shows Kim crawling underneath the nearest bed to her and following instructions from her father Bryan on the other end of the phone. This scene is relevant to the movie as it builds up the suspense. When we acted this scene out for our swede, we used one shot type, and one shot angle. These were CU shot and a HA (high angle) shot. The HA shot helped make Kim look vulnerable and weak.

  In this scene from the movie it shows the males who abducted Kim's friend Amanda coming and dragging Kim from underneath the bed she is hidden under. When we shot this scene of James under the table (the bed) we used 4 types of camera shots and 2 types of camera angles. we used a CU to show Kim's emotions, POV&OTS to show what Kim is seeing and a MLS to show the males taking her. The LA shot helped portray the abductors power and the HA shot showed Kim's vulnerability when they catch her.

Our final scene chosen from the movie is when Bryan does his main speech to the abductors " don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that will  be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you ". For this scene we did a CU shot of Jake on the phone to capture the emotions been expressed by his facial movement and to also add suspense.

Breakfast on Pluto

Director: Neil Jordan

Release date: 13th January 2006(UK)

Run time: 129 minutes

Budget+Box office: $3,942,254

Opening Scene Time: 3minutes 25

Official trailer for 'Breakfast on Pluto'

List of the company idents:

                      

 

Shot Types

The first 20 shots viewed in the opening scene of 'Breakfast on Pluto' show various different types of camera shots, different types of camera angles and the usage of various different types of camera movement. In the first 20 shots captured there is a few types of camera shots including, over the shoulder where we view Patricia "Kitten" Braden (leading actor)'s point of view when she is strolling through the town centre pushing her pram. I think that the director (Neil Jordan) decided to take this shot to help create and allow the viewers to understand what Patricia ''Kitten'' Braden is seeing. Also during the first 20 shots viewed the director uses Point-of-view shots (POV), Close Up shots, and a Establishing shot to help set the scene, to give the viewer information about where the scene is set (in this case the scene is set in Ireland in a small town just next to the countryside).

These types of shots were purposely used to help establish who Patricia ''Kitten'' Braden actually was and the background information about the character. The choice of the POV shot allows the viewer to see what Patricia is seeing when she is walking through her town with the pram 1:11-1:24. 
The choice of a medium close-up shot allowed the director to help the viewers see what Patricia looks like and give them a sense of an idea what Patricia may be like and the type of lady she is. Also this shot shows the background and it also shows the body language of the character. 

At the start of the opening scene Neil Jordan has used music all the way through to show the viewer that what they are seeing is the opening scene and the music helps give the viewers a idea of who the character is , and what they may be like e.g. there interests or there background. To end the opening scene Neil slowly fades out the music to address that the movie had reached the start of the story.

Cillian Murphy as Patrick "Kitten" Braden

Plot

A made-up Patrick "Kitten" Braden, pushing a baby in a pram and flirting innocently with construction workers, introduces her life story. The story is set over 30 chapters about Patrick's life story, which is set in the fictional Irish town of Tyrellin, near the border of Northern Ireland in the late 1940's. Patrick's mother abandons him on the doorstep of the local parochial house where his father, Father Liam, lives. He is then placed with an unloving foster mother. The story quickly jumps into Patrick's teenage years, and how he survives after his step mother kicks him out of his home an he runs away with a band, here he meets a man called Billy who he falls in love with. Patrick uses the the name Patricia ''Kitten'' Braden to get around and comes across many difficulties in his life. His main aim is to finally get to London to find his birth mother and to be reunited with her, however things don't run smoothly for Patrick as he finds himself doing various jobs and also been forced into prostitution. Eventually Patrick (Patrica) finds her true love Charlie and move to London after there house is bombed by the IRA, as they flee Patrick bumps into his birth mother at the doctor's office, where Charlie is getting post-par tum care.