The First 2 Minutes

The first 2 minutes….

The Opening Title Sequence • • • • • • • • • •

There are no directors or producers names just the title of the film. The water effect is futuristic as special effects are used and the use of slow motion with different the use of different angles. The diegetic sound of the water when it fades into bubbles with the bubble noises. The music gets louder and quieter and creates tension. The dark colours blue and grey are used for a water effect. It seems we are going deeper into the water and story. A part of the story is given: exposition. Each law is represented by the clip in each stage. The law dissolves and fades out to the clip (flash back). The music gradually gets louder towards the end and the camera angle, music and cuts get faster which breaks into the sound of the alarm clock (a false awareness).

Institution • • •

The main company which is behind this production is FOX. The exact budget for this movie was $120 million. In the USA it made $52 million in its first week, but in the UK in its first week it made $4.7 million. • The director was Alex Proyas who has also directed films such as Dark City etc. • I would compare this film with INDEPENDENCE DAY because they have the same type of genres. Such as science fiction and action. • It is typical of FOX to produce a film like this as they like to produce lots of action using special affects etc as they have lots of money because they are part of the big six (major conglomerate).

Audience • • • • • •

Target Audience: Age- it would be for people aged 15 to 45 as it is full of action and the story line is quite difficult to follow. Gender- it would appeal to males as it is full of action, but maybe for females as will smith is well liked male actor. Ethnicity- it would appeal to all ethnicities but especially towards black people. Nationality- it would be for the UK, but especially for the US as it has American stars and is produced by an American conglomerate. Socio-economic status- this would come under C1 or C2, upper and lower class.

Genre •

•

•

• •

There are different types of genres (hybrid genre) for this film such as when the character wakes up he has a gun which signifies that it could be an action film or thriller etc. The audience could be miss-lead as the opening title sequence has music which sounds like it comes from a horror movie as it makes the audiences heart speed up etc. One other type of genre which could be involved in this film could be science fiction/futurism mainly from the opening title sequence when we see the robot and the 3 commands (laws). I would compare this film with INDEPENDENCE DAY because they have the same type of genres and the use of hybrid genres . After watching the film there is one last genre which is a mystery because you have to follow the film to understand it.

Narrative •

There is some narrative enigma in the first two minutes because when we see the male character wake up he has a gun in his hand because we don’t Know why he has gun, the audience may see him as a gangster, criminal or police man etc. • We could include Props theory in this but because of the narrative enigma we don’t know, the character could be the villain or helper. • By looking further into the movie we can see the transformation between the equilibrium to the disequilibrium. It takes a further five minutes for this transformation when we see the start of the conflict which are the robots. • There is not much binary opposition, but there is a little because we see the main character is the only one who doesn’t like robots but everyone else around him does.

Representation & Ideology •

•

•

We see some counter-hegemonic because the when we see the character waking up he is not fully dressed so it could be for male gratification or for strong individuals. The groups represented are possibly the gay male market or you could look at issues such as ethnicity as the character is a black American. The main character is a general stereotype of a man as he is a broad well built physic.

By Joe Shrimpton