As Student film opening analysis

1. AS Coursework – Final Task
Student Film Opening Analysis
Film opening: The Marksman
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoJlLzuRaUo
Quick Analysis:
At the beginning we hear voices of people speaking and using
strong language but we don’t know what is going on yet, all we
are shown is a pitch black screen until a few seconds into the
opening we are introduced to the film studio and the company it
was associated with. Along with the voices we can hear non-
diagetic music playing, the particular sound started from a simple
beat to becoming intense and quick as we were finally introduced
to what was happening. From this quick start into the opening it
was clear that the director really wanted to add a strong sense of
enigma for his audience, and he did. It was difficult to know what
exactly was going on; even after we were shown some people we
still couldn’t see their faces clearly. All that still wasn’t enough to
be able come to a conclusion on what, how and why such things
were taking place.
Straight after the gun shot we are thrown into a new scene that
shows two new people standing around talking to each other, and
just before it cuts to a new scene we see one of the guys give
the other person a weapon only used in combat. In this short
scene the director has yet again used a sort of intense, dramatic

2. non-diagetic sound playing to place the mood of that scene and
varying close-ups and extreme close-ups to on the actors. What’s
varying interesting on the director’s part was that even though
this scene was a dramatic, sort of dark scene he still used high-key
lighting which went against stereotype.
In the next scene we are shown a new character and the two
previous ones before. Once again enigma was used here because we
are not shown the face of the new character until the passing of
the extreme close-up of his phone which displayed a map on it.
There’s natural lighting here but when picks up the phone to call
what seems to be his boss the lighting changes completely to low-
key and we can now see a person covering his face with his big
hoodie sitting down with a mask and his phone on the table as if
he was expecting the call. The director made this scene very
mysterious and low key by not only revealing who the person was
but by also changing the tempo of the non-diagetic music and
using an extreme close-up of him the instant he puts on the skull
mask. All that and the fact that he’s wearing all black connotes
that he must be very evil and dangerous in some way.
Lastly was the gun chase scene in which the director applied
various positions of where he placed the camera to take shots of
each actor, tracking shots to follow each actor when they were
running and the different sounds (e.g. the gun shots and the
background music) used. Then it’s finally towards the ending with
the heart beat special effects being used that we, the audience
understand what truly happened. It was all a simple memory/flash

3. back of what happened as a result to what we saw at the very
beginning of the opening.
What’s good & bad?
In general there were many good points to be said about the film
opening The Marksman; I would start off by saying the story line
itself was very interesting to see, as to the fact that it was all a
replay taking us, the audience, to what we saw at the very
beginning of the opening. The use of various angles and positions of
different shots were also very good, especially the extreme close-
up of the boss wearing his skull mask. The diagetic and non-
diagetic sounds (e.g. the gun shots and the background music
which added enigma and intensity to the film) were on point in
the sense that it really seemed to fit with the story line. Lastly
the effects used at the beginning with the blood and the heart
beating towards the ending were very good and looked
professionally done.
But there were little mistakes and things they could improve on,
like the late reaction one of the actor had when he was telling his
fellow friend that it’s him he shouldn’t fire. Each and every actor
has to be alert and ready of their lines and what to do next and
most especially when. Timing precision is also another important
thing an actor and even the director should consider. Towards the
ending when the one of the actors shot the last person running
the timing of the bullet sound and the person falling weren’t
within synch. The last thing I would have to say that kind of put
me off what the fact that when there was a tracking shot it was

4. kind of difficult to keep focus because the camera kept on moving
a bit too much, it wasn’t stable.
Inspirational Ideas
I would have to say that I got my ideas on making my film
opening from the television series “The Flash”. “The Flash” is all
about how an invention from a scientist explodes and gives a lot
of people super human abilities, out of all of them one person
named Barry Allen gains the ability of super speed, not only does
he need be trained to use his powers to stop the people from
using their powers for evil with the assistance of the members of
the company that built the invention, he also has to find the
“man in yellow” (Reverse Flash) who killed his mother and made
his father go to jail for it 15 years ago. Because of what happened
in the past it resulted in him taking the path he’s on today and
made him do certain things like study law and not to confess to
the girl he likes how he feels about her all to simply prove that
the impossible exists and prove that his father wasn’t responsible
for his mother’s death, but the person in yellow who also has
super speed was.
Watching the series was what gave me the idea of mainly adding
the slow-motion effects to my film opening. I thought that if I
could apply even the tiniest bit of the slow-motion effects to my
film it would make it very interesting to watch.

5. Filming & Editing Updates
After filming I had to then take specific clips and edit it all
together to make the film opening itself finished for people to be
able to view it. Editing it did take a lot of time because I had a
lot of clips of one particular scene, and out of all of them I had
to choose and insert the best one into the opening. Not only did
that take time I also had to find a fitting non-diagetic that would
go perfectly well with the different scenes in the film opening. In
the process of looking I was suggested to merge two different
sounds into one if that would make things easier. I was able to
add the most important thing to the opening which was the slow-
motion effect, it was slightly difficult because as I was making
specific scenes slow I had to continually re-watch it and make a
judgement on if I made it too slow or not slow enough – (which
was sort of a problem, so what I did was ask people to watch it
with me and tell me if it was slow enough).
Job Roles (Cast & Crew)
Myself – I am the director of the film, so technically what
this means is I have the responsibility of not only telling my
actors what to do and where to go, I also have to get them
prepared and let them all know when it’s time to film and
exactly where it would be done.
I’m also the camera man most of the time with the aid of
Imisi (who is also one of my main actors). As the camera
man I have to get all of what I have directed my actors to

6. do on camera, while doing so I have to consider things like
lighting, different shots (panning, high angle, low angle, etc.)
and where I would place my camera in terms of positioning.
Imisi - He is one the main characters in my film opening, and
his role was to simply not only act and be directed but to
also assist me with the camera form time to time. If I
couldn’t take a shot of one scene we would swap and he
would take the camera (if he wasn’t needed in that scene). I
could even say that he was my assistant director because he
would give me ideas if he didn’t think what I had in mind
was capable of being done, he would even show me how it
would turn out by acting it out with the other main
character Matthew.
I chose Imisi as one of my actors simply because he knows
how to act very well to a high standard that I think would
be needed for my film opening, he also knows when to be
serious which would reduce any wastage of time. Lastly he
also knows how to work the camera and set it up a lot
better than I can.
Matthew – He is also the main character in my film opening.
Just like Imisi he also has his own part to play in the film
as an actor and act according to what was written on the
script. I chose Matthew simply because of the
talent he possesses when it comes to actually playing
basketball. He knows the sport very well which makes him
experienced and more than qualified to take part in my film
opening.