Film Opening Analysis

I will analyse three different film openings from three different genres.

This film opening is from the film iron man
Film release: 2008
Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth paltrow
http://www.imdb.co.uk/tt0371746/

The genre of this film is action and the genre conventions i would expect from the action genre are lots of gunfights, car-chases, explosions and more action based rather than dialogue or story driven which means it focuses on entertaining audiences with explosions and gun fights rather than the plot or dialogue the of the characters.

The technical codes of the iron man sequence are all computer generated (CGI)  as it shows a type of blueprint of a robotic suit being made which shows that the film will have advanced technology and might possibly even be set in the future as technology such as a robotic suit doesn't exist in todays world.

The key signifiers of the iron man opening sequence is the blue light which is frequently shown through the sequence and this could signify the light as a source of energy, the light that is shown on the heart of the robotic suit and may also signify good as light is shown as representing good and darkness represents evil and this tells me as he has light at his heart, it means he is good-hearted. 

Also the red is a signifier as its shown throughout the sequence and this could signify that there will be blood in the film as red symbolises blood. Another key signifier is the light on his hand which could signify that he has an array of weapons at his disposal due to the advanced technology which could feature in the film.

The sequence tells us about the content of the movie and that it will have cool technology and special effects in the film which tells us that there will be loads of fights done in cgi including the explosions.
The audience being targeted is children as the opening title sequence is done in cartoonish animations in order to attract the attention of children and keep them interested plus the idea of robotic suits will have them engaged as kids are interested in robots.

The second film i will be analysing is called the incredibles.
Film release: 2004
Director: Brad Bird
Starring: Craig T. Nelson, Samuel L Jackson

The genre of this film is an action-adventure animated film as it is all done in animation and in the opening sequence is punching in the opening sequence and explosions and this will be a superhero film as they are wearing masks and costumes with the letter ' I ' on it to symbolise they are on the same team and are called the incredibles. The technical codes of the incredibles is that it is animated which means the whole film is done on computer.



The key signifier is the black masks on and the identical red costumes with the ' I ' which signifies that they are superheroes as the matching costumes symbolises they have connection with each other and also it shows the characters possessing unique superpowers such as the baby setting on fire.
The sequence would make you suspect that there is a family aspect to the film as the team consists of a male and female along with children including a baby which shows they may be a family.
The target audience could be kids and would attract to families as the main characters could all be a family.
It also shows signifiers of an action-adventure film as it shows a map of an island which could be the setting for the film or the place where they could be looking for a certain object which adds to the adventure genre.

The third and final title sequence i will be analysing is from the film Indiana Jones and the raiders of the lost ark. The genre of the raiders of the lost ark is the action-adventure film genre. The conventions i would expect from the action-adventure genre are that of loads of explosions and gunfights and car chases and loads of set pieces which are fast and exciting in order to engage the audience. I would also expect exotic locations and i can tell this from the title sequence that one of the locations in the film will be Egypt as there are hieroglyphics written on the wall before they are turned into English writing.


 From this title sequence i can see that the main setting in this film will be Egypt. The key signifier is the writing being changed by being smashed against the wall and they turn into English which suggests its forced. Also it seems the movie will be set in the past as it shows the wall as being old. The name of the film also sounds exotic and mysterious as it says raiders which  are people who raid certain places such as homes or graves and the lost ark is also a religious artifact from in the bible which was a ark which possessed untold powers and contained the 10 commandments. From this i can tell that the plot of the film will be people trying to raid/steal this artifact called the ark of the covenant. This suggests there will be both good and evil people chasing the ark.