ANALYSIS Film Opening '71

'71

Yann Demange (2014)

BBFC 15, MPAA Rated: R

Running time of the opening sequence: 3:17

Budget: £8M

UK/US/World Box Office: £1.2M, $900K, £2.1M

Theatrical distribution in 12 countries 

 

Production co's:  Warp
Production financing:   Film4; Screen Yorkshire; Crab Apple Films
UK, US theatrical distributors: StudioCanal

LINKS: IMDB; RottenTomatoes (Users 81%, Critics 96%); BoxOfficeMojo; The-Numbers; Wiki; Official site/page; Facebook.

TRAILER
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-BaKfl1Ms4

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TITLES

Number of people/company names in titles: 3

Start/end time of main titles: 0:00- 0:40

Running time of main titles: 40 seconds

The three titles are:

Studiocanal

The main distributor of the film is studiocanal. This is also the first opening of the film therefor the most important company involved with the distribution of the film 

Film4

This is one of the commissioners for the movie and is one of the main ones in the UK. They "present" the film alongside BFI

BFI

This is the company that helped finance productions of the movie

All of the titles have no music or sound playing in the background which can get the audience to hold their breathe waiting in anticipation of what is about to happen.

TITLES ANALYSIS: ROLES

Only two specific roles were given, with 6 companies being mentioned. The 6 companies are Film4, BFI, Screen Yorkshire, Creative Scotland, Crab Apple Films and Warp Films. Crab Apple and Warp films are the main companies who have produced the film alongside the other 4 companies  

TITLES ANALYSIS 3: GENRE/NARRATIVE CONNOTATIONS

The font for the titles are a mix of large and small text like in a billing block to only highlight the important information which is the companies being shown. The font is serif and is only capital letters. The logo of warp is also shown in the title. The font denotes that the genre is not a comedy but more of a thriller. It suggests a serious tone to the movie. The titles are all on a black background, with the non diegetic sound of two men boxing in the background and other men cheering them on to really get the sense for what type of film '71 is. After the titles are done the sound of boxing continues and creates an audio bridge for about 10 seconds then it cuts to the first shot which is set in a military base with the main protagonist boxing another man and having the other soldiers cheer on.

FIRST SHOT + THE PROTAGONIST

The very first shot is a close up of two characters boxing each other panning to the right. It is obvious they are boxing because of the gloves, the shirts being drenched in sweet and the blood on their faces and mouth guards.The miss-en-scene helps anchor what exactly is going on. The opening sets the mood straight away. It is an unusual opening for there is no establishing shot. We can tell who the main protagonist is. For during the boxing sequence the camera was always focused using a shallow field of focus on him and after the sequence was done, the camera tracks the man to using close up and medium shots to show his emotion and start to make us sympathise with him. There is no voiceover for it is not needed to establish the main protagonist.  

ADDITIONAL POINTS

The establishing shot can be argued to be after the boxing sequence where there is an extreme long shot of the soldiers running down a hill as practice for the army. However this is more known as a master shot.

The army/ military camp continues to be shown as the soldiers are all practicing and training to be a soldier. The last shot of the opening is of the soldiers practicing shooting and the cut to the main film is with a gunshot and then as soon as the gunshot is heard the screen goes black, then the scene changes and the plot begins to develop.