Openings 11/12

Battered And Bruised:
Pros:

  I think that one of the main things which was good about the opening is that it contained British Social Realism conventions and themes, such as violence.

 I also think that the opening credits over the music worked well. The music was also original and copyright free, which was also good.



The production company graphics looked nice as opposed to other simple, boring ones and also fitted in with the type of rock music that was playing at the beginning.

There was also the recurring cast of the gang of bulliest or thugs which comes up in every British Social Realism movie.

There were also some good camera angles and shots which are common in British Social Realism movies such as the low angle and over the shoulder shot as they were tying to make the audience feel as if they were actually there next to the character. I would try and maybe include more of these shots as while they were good, there was not too many of these shots only two or three.

Cons:
In British social realism movies, credits rarely are shown at the beginning with the names hovering over the cast. I would have the credits rolling discretely on the side, incorporating it in the narrative which is what most British Social Realism movies do.

The camera was also very shaky at times. They tried creating the feel and look that the boys were getting beaten up in a first person view, but it did not work well as it made it difficult to see properly. I would improve this by not having so much handheld camera shot and point of perspective shots and include mid shots and long shots of this fight scene instead so the audience can clearly see what it happening.

It also does not really feel like an opening scene for a movie - more of a trailer but its meant to be an opening scene.



It took a bit of time to get to a scene where something actually happens, for example in the beginning when the two characters are playing the guitar is pretty long and makes the audience lose interest a little bit as the pace was too slow. I would improve this by not having this mini - opening scene at all and scrap it entirely as you do not see it often in British Social Realism movies.

Wasters:

 
Pros:
 The production company logo and graphics are very good as it is in the style of a theme and situation of British Social Realism movie - Drugs. The production company is called 'Half Ounce' and is made without any boring, plain typography but instead using power which represents drugs which displays its relevance to the theme in the clip.

The title 'Wasters' also resembles a theme of British Social Realism which is drinks/alcohol. The name is thought out well which is another strength of the opening scene.

The trailer also had a good pace set to it, its not going too fast for the audience, but its not going too slow so that the audience gets bored and loses interest.




There also different types of camera shots and angles used in the opening scene such as close ups, low angle, eye line match and more, which makes it have more variety which others lacked. It also makes it more visually interesting to watch for the audience as opposed to just having one or two shots and angles.



The character archetypes also appeal to British Social Realism as we see the main character as the rebel type which is always seen in every type of British Social Realism film. This also helps it to appeal to the niche British target audience.

The soundtrack used was also copy write free and also appealed to the themes of the movie as it was a club style upbeat track.



Another theme which is common in British Social Realism movies is clubbing and partying and having a good time. We can see how this is included in the opening scene as they are partying in a night club.

Again another theme which is expressed in the opening scene is Sex which again is a common theme in British Social Realism themes. This is expressed as we can see the Girls dancing and kissing each other in the scene.

The method of including the credits in the scene is very clever in my opinion. The writers and cast names are written on wrappers as opposed to others who used normal typography for it. Some people may think it did not work well but I believed it did as it added that unique part into the opening scene.

A lot of graffiti can be seen on the walls in the background, which is very common in Britain and again represents the reality of Social Realism films.

Cons:
The only main downside to this was that it did not really feel like an opening scene as it seemed to have crammed to much things in which made it seem more of a trailer then an opening scene. It seemed like the whole movie packed into the scene due to the voice-over. I would probably take away the voice over and try not to cram so much in. I would also not have the title 'Wasters' at the end as it makes it seem like a trailer  I would have it right at the beginning and also have the credits at the beginning too as it would make it feel more like an opening scene.