Film Opening Analysis and AOTT Research (DYM)

Apocalypse Now (1979)

This film is set in 70's Vietnam during the war and is drama critical of the Vietnam war. The film takes place over several days, in which our main hero is tasked with finding and killing a lunatic US general hidden in the woods called Kurtz. 

The opening sequence begins with the sound of distant helicopter blades, before fading up from black to an ELS of the Jungle with helicopter's flying in the foreground. Suddenly the forest is engulfed in Napalm, as the vocals chime in to a mellow melody. Images of our hero lying on his back, his personal artifacts, and propeller blades are superimposed on panning footage of a Jungle being burnt to cinders for the rest of the opening sequence. This is drawn to a close when our hero awakes from his slumber and peers out of the blinds. None of these shots appear to be directly linked, apart from the solider to his belongings, however all of these shots have strong connotations of the conflict in Vietnam. These shots do not intend to tell a story, but rather set the scene in which the narrative will take place. These shots also give the viewer some time to relax and begin to focus on the film, forgetting about any previous stress factors that are irelevant to their screening of the film. Despite all the events being connected by their iconography of the Vietnam conflict, they are otherwise unrelated and give very little away about the coming narrative, with only the setting, time and main character being revealed. His physical appearance as well as ocupation as a soldier are established within the opening sequence, but no other information, such as his name or personality have been revealed to the viewer. This leaves the viewer with more questions than answers about the main character and have them wondering what role he will play in the narrative. 

The opening sequence to Apocalypse Now is evidence that the audience do not need to learn very much in the opening sequence of a film, instead a firm sense of mood is all that is really required and extra information such as time, character and setting can be revealed as the director sees fit. The abstract motifs painted by this opening sequence do not give much information away, but instead create an unsettled mood which is sustained for the entirity of the film, which tells you just as much about the motives behind the film, as the story does itself. 

The Interview(2014)

In stark contrast to the opening sequence of Apocalypse Now, The Interview uses bright stylised graphics to establish both the setting and tone for the coming film, just as Apocalypse Now used superimposed footage. Both films chose to establish the same facts about the film in the beginning, however The Interview decides to withold all information regarding the characters whereas Apocalypse Now chooses to disclose the appearance and occupation of one character. I think this is because in Apocalypse Now, the thoughts and feelings of the main character are highly important in perpetuating the story, where as in The Interview, it is the events of the narrative that drive the comedy and story onwards. The interview also chooses to open the film with the credits of the production team and actors, whereas Apocalypse Now opens with more atmospheric footage. This could suggest that Apocalypse Now placed more emphasis on high production values than The Interview, whereas The Interview was more focused on creating a good film for everyone which made more money, by following the more mainstream conventions of film openings.

Aesthetically, the two openings differ greatly. This could be in part due to their genres being different, with the bright cartoon graphics on The Interview being a staple for comedy films, where as the unsettling visuals of Apocalypse Now are more characeristic of serious dramas, thrillers and epics. I especially liked the reverse ease-in and ease-out of the animations found in the opening sequence of The Interview. This has the subjects of the shot zoom into shot, before their motion slows to a crawl allowing the audience to read/view the graphics, before they zoom out of shot again. This gave the opening sequence great fluidity and made the sequence far less stale than if they had chosen to have the elements ease in to a stop and then ease out of shot. However, I also think the use of superimposed footage in the Opening sequence of Apocalypse Now was also extremely effective, giving the impression that we were seeing in to the main character's mind which is a theme continued in the film, as well building up an atmosphere and mood for the rest of the film.