Further researching genre examples

With the research done in my previous blog post, I can now choose between the 4 genres that have been thoroughly researched on. I've decided based on the research in my prior blog that I don't want to do something with the action or horror genres as these would relatively be more difficult than sports or drama genre films. I would like to focus more on either the drama or sports genre. There's also a separate "sports drama" genre, which would be a good genre, since I'm thinking of including sports in a drama film. So, today I'll be looking at some sample film openings.

Sample Film Openings

Looking at one sports drama movie called "The Wrestler" from 2008, the film starts with the name of the production companies, as any other movie would begin. The opening is just a long shot of the camera moving to the right in a tracking shot looking at many different magazines and papers that include information on wrestling. This type of introduction tells the people about what the movie will be about and establishes a background of the character that will be introduced later in the story without even showing the character's face. The introduction uses a green, bold, and italicized font to include the credits of the producer, director, writers, etc. The introduction also uses lots of asynchronous sound by using the sound of boxing match announcers and rock and roll music. This starts off the music on a lively note with loud upbeat music and lots of vibrant colors.

Another film I decided to look at was "Ali" from 2001. This film opening uses lots of cross cutting between a singer and a man who is training. The singer starts out as synchronous but turns into asynchronous when the singer is still heard in shots that are looking at the runner. This music gives a lively feel to the opening, but this is contrasted by the mise-en-scene of the piece. The film begins with using very dull colors with lots of greys and blacks. The man who is training is in some sort of montage. Unlike the previous film, this one uses a smaller and white font to include the credits. This is a more subtle way to add in the names of the people who worked on the film.

These two film openings have given me an example of how to start out the film. I could do something that introduces the character by showing his/her achievements or I could try to start out with a character training in the night. Both types of these film openings show that the genre of the film is obviously sports. They also both use some lively music to start out the film. Using these two as an example, instead of crosscutting from a singer and a training man, I could possibly cross cut between someone's awards and trophies and to them training. This is just an idea I got from the videos. But I will definitely use some type of upbeat music like used in both of these film openings in my project.

Sources:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8vOpyGW1sA (The Wrestler)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqYXhGS4FF4 (Ali)