AS Media Studies

A textual analysis of the opening sequence of the film 'Inside Man'... 

The movie starts with the film distributor's iconic openings of 'Universal Studios' and 'Imagine'. However, the director has chosen to start the movie with the non-diegetic music playing over the top of the distributor logos instead of their own 'theme' music. By doing this, the director has already set up the mood of the piece. The chosen song is "Chaiyya Chaiyya" by Sukhwinder Sing and Sapna Awasti. The audience are already drawn into the mystical, foreign sounds of the Bollywood music. The director may have done this to show how New York has become a multi-cultural society or to set up links with the hugely popular 'Bollywood' business.
The non-diegeitc sound fades into softer, string sounds as the next frame fades into a medium shot of a man dressed in dark clothes sitting in front of a black backdrop. He looks directly into the camera when he speaks. The director has done this so the man is looking directly at the audience - he is addressing the audience. We then feel manipulated to listen to him. The gripping opening line of "My name is Dalton Russel. Pay strict attention to what I say because I choose my words carefully and I never repeat myself.", makes us immediately aware that important information is about to be passed on to us and we are forced to "pay attention".  We are aware that we may need this information again later on in the film. The antagonist's monologue establishes who he is, where he is (which becomes very important near the end of the film - linking back to how the audience needs to listen to his opening monologue) and what is about to happen - "the perfect bank robbery" - which is also the 'when'. The 'why' and 'how' are ambiguous, leaving the audience hooked - "How will he pull it off without being caught?". On his last line, the lighting becomes brighter so we see he his sitting against a brick wall. This shot then fades into the main film - the first shot being a long shot of rollercoaster tracks. The director may have done this to show the audience that this film will take you on a 'rollercoaster' of emotions - the rollercoaster connotes the 'highs and lows', fast paced, high tension points and thrills of the film.
The Bollywood music kicks in again, which contrasts with the serious monologue, hence, giving it an upbeat feel. It gives the audience chance to relax after being 'thrown into the deep end' at the very start, trying to make sure they store what they've heard, in their memory to use later in the film. The credits of production companies, production members e.g. the director and featuring actors appear in the bottom of the frame. The credits transitions/movements have been created to represent the turning of a safe - the movement of the different dials turning; This is the iconography of  the bank. The main title 'Inside Man' has the same transition into the film with the symbolism of the dials of a safe rotating. The typography is quite sci-fi looking, in bold, capital letters. This typography could have been chosen to suit the mechanisms that are used to take down the bank and the secret agent feel to the film. The next shot is a crane shot showing a dark van pull out of the amusement park followed by a close up of the "Manhattan Trust Bank" plague - this establishes the setting of 'New York' and what bank they will be targeting. We see a medium shot of the van driver, however, he is disguised in sunglasses, a baseball cap and white overalls. He looks like an ordinary painter/decorator, but because of the way the shot hides his identity because its a shot from behind and the lighting is dark and disguised, we have reason to be suspicious of him. The director has done this to express that maybe this character cannot be trusted. The camera continues to track the van, which again establishes setting because it drives by iconic bridges and road signs.
The next set of shots are close ups of the bank and it's architecture. There are close ups of a couple of animal statues. The first one being an owl statue which the director could have used as symbolism because owls connote the ability to see everything - this could represent how a bank has the ability to watch your every move (CCTV and security are strong within a bank). The second close up is a wolf or fox; this connotes its cunning nature and the ability to stalk its prey without being seen or caught - again, the director could of have used this shot as symbolism. The owl could represent the bank itself and the wolf, the robbers. The next shots of the bank shows an eagle statue which represents the United States of America. The camera tracks the van pulling onto the side of a road, however, snaps onto a crane high angle shot of another white clad person getting into the vehicle. There is a medium shot from behind of this person getting into the seat, so again the person is disguised and ambiguous. As the van pulls away the camera tilts up to show the famous George Washington bridge - another shot that reveals the setting of New York. Following on from that shot, we see the bridge, but as if the camera is strapped to the roof of the van so its a very low angle moving shot looking up at the structure of the bridge. The next shot shows the front of the van and the vehicle emblem stands out in the centre of the shot - this is a product placement as the shot is purposely there to advertise 'Chevrolet'. It has been framed so the Chevrolet emblem is in the lower middle of the grid in terms of 'the rule of thirds'.


A textual analysis of the opening sequence of the film 'Paranormal Activity'...

The first shot of the actual movie is a wide shot of a large domestic living room. The mise- en- scene is appropriate to that setting: a couple of plants, a sofa is in shot, a piece of art on the wall, etc. In the middle of the frame is a large flat screen TV. This establishes that a middle/upper class couple is being represented. There is a rock music video playing on the TV screen which could also enable the audience to question what kind of people live in the house; e.g. a music fan? A teenager? The camera is obviously shaky and we are immediately aware that this is home footage. The camera pans round and we are shown more of the home's interior.
In the next shot we are introduced to the character behind the camera. Standing in front of the mirror filming himself is Micah. This medium shot reveals more about who is being represented. Micah is wearing casual clothes – jeans, t-shirt and an open white shirt - typical domestic atire. To an uninformed viewer one might  ask why he is filming a room and what this will lead onto.This sense of intrigue is what a horror movie maker's biggest aim is.This could connote his middle class status. However, the camera he is holding and filming with is not your standard home video handheld camera. This camera is a large DV camera (similar to the Sony HDR-FX1) and has an attached microphone and light. This helps represent his upper-middle economic class status because it looks quite expensive. It also leads us to believe that he has bought this camera for a specific purpose (the capturing of paranormal activity in their bedroom).
He then points the camera to pan upstairs. This is an important shot because it foreshadows the significance of the bedroom later on in the movie - its in the bedroom that the 'money shots' are filmed and the 'gruesome' events take place.
The footage of Micah wandering around the house with his camera helps achieve a very natural verisimilitude which reinforces the documentary/’real home footage’ style narrative. It's as if he doesn't know what to frame; the camera is in the hands of an amature movie maker. However, as the film progesses the shots become well framed and more like the fliming ability of a cinemotographer.
In the next shot, Micah, still with the camera, steps outside the front door as a white convertible pulls into the drive. The information “San Diego, CA, September 18th 2006” appears over the footage for a few seconds to provide more insight into where and when the film is set – also another convention of a documentary. The white convertible is used, again, to represent their class – it’s an expensive looking car. The director may have wanted a white convertible to connote that these are innocent, average people.
The camera tracks the car's movement as it pulls into the drive and we are introduced to another character.
Micah greets her with “hello baby” which establishes their boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. Therefore, a stable, warm couple are being represented in a realistic form. Katie also mentions “what is that, it looks like a giant ass camera to me! What happened to the little handheld one?”, which reinforces the idea that Micah has bought a state of the art camera especially for the purpose of filming paranormal occurrences. The fact she questions “how much did this cost you?” raises the thought that maybe that have money worries – also that he hadn’t told her he was buying the camera.
However, the next frame shows them kiss which, again, supports their representation of a solid, good relationship.
In the next shot, we can see the box that the camera had come from and the packaging spewed across the sofa, highlighting the fact that it is brand new and these shots are just him mucking around with it and testing it out – like a child with a new toy. A canted angle is also present during the footage – whether this was purposefully done is questionable, but if so, it could represent the chaos that will occur later on in the movie (and also to have an emotional, usettling effect on the audience).
The last shot before the two minute mark is another tilt upwards to the bedroom door which, again, foreshadows the paranormal haunting that takes place.
All of the sound that is present in the opening of 'Paranormal Activity' is diegetic. This reinforces the home video, natural style of the footage. It creates a stronger connection between the audience and characters becuase the audience will not experience anything that the characters don't. Everything, therefore, is within their 'world' and we become part of it, watching their story, so when they start to experience the hauntings, the audience (for the purpose of the film) are aware that nothing has been edited in and are hearing exactly what the characters can hear, etc. It also adds to Micah's amateur camera skills becuase the final footage that we are watching hasn't, fictionally, had sound edited on top; it's just the chronological pieces of footage he's shot over the period of time that the film covers. In addition, the editing is also that of an amateur in the sense that the editing isn't polished like that of a stereotypical feature film; it has an irregular editoral rhythm. The cuts are abnormal, for example, it cuts from him standing in front of the mirror to him walking out onto the drive. This again reinforces that the film is put together from home video footage to support the idea that it's sourced from true events and people.