Opening sequence the firm
- 1. Opening sequence The Firm (2009) Owen Howard (Sam Cooke also working with the same film)
- 2. Synopsis O The production company; vertigo films, is shown before the movie starts, but the viewers can already get an idea of what the film is about because of the neon lights that were frequently used in the 80’s. During this time violence was also a huge factor of this time and football hooligans were also popular. The bright colours from this production title sets the theme of the film when you watch further on because it is very animated with lots of anger scenes shown throughout with a fast pace to the film.
- 3. Open sequence analysis The setting is revealed early on in the film as ‘London’. This is a busy place as it’s the capital of England, but is also known for football hooliganism due to the huge clubs like: West Ham, Millwall, Chelsea… London is also a well known place for violence so the audience know what’s coming but don’t know how its going to be presented which is the intriguing factor of this film. 43 seconds have gone of the film and we already see ‘Becks’ staring in the mirror which suggests that as he is the first character being presented he is the main one and the film will be shown around him. This is an over the shoulder shot which is used to add dialogue and suggest that two people are having a conversation but because it’s the same person it suggests that ‘Becks’ is a bit disturbed acts arrogant as he is looking at him self in the mirror with a pose.
- 4. ‘Becks’ the main character is clearly trying to ensure his wife/girlfriend that he’ll be safe and wont get into trouble as the woman says before he is about to leave ‘be careful’. This suggests that she knows what he is getting up to and in the past he has clearly been hurt or arrested by the police as she has lots of worries whilst she sees him walk out. The idea of him pleasing his wife with a kiss on the neck suggests he wants to keep her happy but deep down knows he has plans for the rest of the day relating to football hooliganism. We see from this clip that the main character is leaving the house with his Adidas tracksuit on which suggests connotations of him being a football hooligan. We know from the film that he leaves the house at 8:30am to go to the pub, this is a really early time to go to the pub so there is more evidence that suggests that he is going to get into trouble or has some football business to sort out.
- 5. The red phone box shows signs of the 80’s as they are not as popular now as they once was. Football hooligans were also popular during this time so the link suggests that ‘Becks’ is calling the opposition to organise a fight before the game. The lead man in a football frim usually has the job of arranging the fights so we now know that ‘Becks’ is the main character because he is head of the firm. (This links back to the title of the film) Before this screenshot we see ‘Becks’ pick up the milk from outside his house. This happened every Saturday morning during the 80’s so there is more evidence suggesting that the film is linking back to certain times of the 80’s. As he picks up the milk and walks down the road to the phone box, the previous music that was being played earlier ‘Tainted Love’, is played again which suggests that we as the audience, are waiting for the first problem of the equilibrium which will set the tone of the film. This will probably be set by ‘Becks’ as he is the main man of the football firm.