Opening sequences of films | Series of Unfortunate Events

When researching different opening scenes of films with different genres, I chose to look at 'Series of Unfortunate Events' starring Jim Carrey.

This isn't the best video, but it's the only one I could find. Also I am analyzing a little bit more than is shown.

The first thing we can see in the movie is the 'Dreamworks' logo and title. While this is being shown, there is no music being played. This is probably done to make the viewer nervous and quite curious as to what is going to be shown on the screen next. After the 'Dreamworks' logo and title has been shown the 'Paramount' logo and title and the 'Nickelodeon Movies' logo and title follow shortly after. During the 'Paramount' title being shown, we can hear the chirping of birds, which indicates that the film may be happy and joyful, which of course it isn't. During the 'Nickelodeon Movies' logo and title, we can hear the start of a build up of music, which makes the us, the viewer, excited to watch the movie. As the 'Nickelodeon Movies' logo and title disappear, we are shown the set of the movie straight away - or at least we see a set of a movie.

The first part of the opening scene is a proper fantasy film with fairies, pixies, birds, butterflies and all things child appropriate. This then confuses the viewer as they think they are watching the wrong film, however, they carry on watching to see if it is the wrong film - which of course it isn't. In the first part of the first scene, we can clearly see that this film is going to be a fantasy of some sort. We can identify this because of the happy music being played and the colourful images being shown on the screen. The first part is all made out of clay figures, which means that the camera angles are very limited. There are quite a lot of panning shots where they pan the camera down on the clay set. Also there are quite a lot of tracking shots where the camera tracks the clay character skipping out of it's house. This is effective because it helps the viewer see clearly what is going on in the film and what the scenery looks like.

Once the clay figure set is gone, the scenery starts to look quite dark and intense. The sound you can hear is mainly the narrator speaking, but he is speaking over dramatic music which is being played. The next shots shown are tracking shots, long shots and close-ups. They use a lot of close-up shots and tracking shots to introduce each of the characters. This is so the viewer can learn about the characters one at a time and they can learn about them personally. They use quite a lot of match on action shots when showing what each of the characters do. They use this to give the viewer a bigger knowledge of what they do and how they do it.

They then go on to use the shot reverse shot to show the conversation between two of the main characters and a not so important character. They also use a lot of medium shots to show the family together, this is effective because we can see the connection they have together as a family. The setting that they are in is like an abandoned beach. It's quite dark and gloomy and in the distance we can see a bit of fog. This clearly indicates that the film is definitely a fantasy film because it is set in a weird place where no normal film would normally be set.

In conclusion, the opening scene of this film clearly states the fact that it is a fantasy film through many different points that are identified in that scene.