Opening Sequence For Drama Genre

I had to redo this as we changed our genre for our final coursework peice, that is why i changed the opening sequence from thriller to Drama, the movie I used was Adulthood.

OPENING SEQUENCE OF ADULTHOOD

In the opening sequence, credits are show, by saying who the film was produced by (Cipher films), then it shows the some of the sponsors of the film (UK film council) it then goes to the next clip which shows the distribution company whom are Pathe and also associated with Limelight, then it comes to the creator of the film & who’s initial idea it was ( Noel Clarke) then it starts of the movie with flashbacks from Kidulthood, showing some of the main characters such as Jay, Moonie & Sam, these flashbacks are shown to remind the viewers of what previously happened, as Sam killed Trevor with a base ball bat, then a long low pitched drowsing sound appears when there is a birds eye view of all the action and as the police are arriving whilst Sam stands their shocked, this flashback was roughly 1 minute long which explained for the viewers that have not seen Kidulthood, what Adulthood is all about.
Whilst siren type music is being played to create the atmosphere of a rave, writing appears slanted to catch the viewers attention saying “six years later” which is six year after the death of Trevor.
A long take of traffic passing is taken then a cut is made towards the rave which is taking place, this is the first main scene in adulthood, several different shots are taken, from people dancing, to people kissing & people taking drugs.
Several different cuts are made during this scene which lasted about 2 minutes to catch the atmosphere of the place & to show what is going on at this rave.
Two main characters are introduced at this point, Omen , who is represented as a typical black male, living in London flat estates & Dabz a part of Omen’s crew, who have intent of robbing a wealthy rich man whom has approached their estate, they smash the car window and rob this man & in the process end up shooting him and running away, then the credits come up saying “Adulthood”, which is the first introduction to one the of main characters Sam, who was sentenced for 6 years for killing Trevor, all of this has taken place in 3 minutes and 42 seconds.

The characters are constructed in a manner which many teenagers can relate to know days, as they have the same style of speaking and the clothes and location are also very similar.
The characters have been constructed very carefully, as they have some sort of scenario that we heard of on a regular basis in the news i.e. youth murdered in gun crime, this was shown in Omen’s bedroom, where Sam came to the reality that his little brother is involved with gun crime & how Omen was so easily robbing a laptop out of a car in broad day light, this can be reflected to many of the youngsters now days as several youngsters are carrying knives and involved in gun crime on a daily basis.
Some of the characters have been shown in a very negative manner and some in a very positive manner, such as Dabs is shown as a boy who is willing to harm people in order to make money, which was show when he accepted £3000 pounds from Jay to kill Sam, he also showed that he was very crafty and manipulative as he tricked Omen into potentially killing his own brother.
On the other hand we have characters such as Sam who where bullies, Rapist and thugs, who destroyed life on a regular basis, but in Adulthood he was portrayed as a man not a boy, who thought twice before making decisions and avoided trouble and tried to make peace for his actions.
The main purpose of picking such different characteristic characters was so that the audience could relate and somehow reflect their lives into the action taking place within the movie.

The opening scene shows us that the movie will be based in a estate, as they are having a party in some garages, it seems to be an abandoned area, which shows that they are not going to clubs etc but having a party where and when they can, however there is a slight indication of what the general locations will be used, because it is a drama genre movie, so we know that it will relate to lower/middle classed people so it will be based in areas that we would consider to be slums, which it is, as some of the main locations are areas such as Brixton and London, these are the areas which are ideal for a movie such as Adulthood.

There is a very limited amount of shots taken in the opening sequence, they have used cuts shots the most commonly and at a very fast pace to give us different effects and make the mood abit distorted as there is bright flashing lights & fast paced music being played, From the credits the first shot of Adulthood was a Crane shot which panned across the screen to make a different atmosphere which showed several different shots taking place, i.e. dancing, smoking drugs etc.
They also have an eye line match of where the Indian boy bumps into the girl and she locks eyes with him and walks up to him and then it is shown that she was looking at him, there is also another eye line match when the car pulls up and then it goes back and forth cut shots from the car to Omen and the crew.
The main shots taken on the opening scene where cut shots, which allowed us to see the whole location in which the establishing shot, took place.
The editing in the opening sequence worked perfectly, as their was faced paced cuts which went perfectly along with the backing soundtrack, the editing also allowed us to see the whole location that the opening scene was in and also let us see what kind of things that the youth where getting up to, which gives us a good idea what the film will be based on and what we can expect from the film.

The sound in the opening sequence is used to create a mood which gets you pumped as it is grime based music and the fast and sharp cut shots help to create that mood for us, the dialogue between the characters is very aggressive and impolite to one another as it seems that they are arguing in the manner that they speak in but are actually just generally talking to their friends as they would in a day to day basis.
As Omen and Dabs approach the car, the dialogue become clearer and the music become muffled & just about when they are about the smash the car window, it all goes quiet so that we can hear every detail that goes on, as they shoot the guy that has been mugged, the image starts fading away but the music become louder as it goes to the credits to where Adulthood is shown.
The opening credits where effective as they where placed at a slight angle at which they viewers will look at them even more carefully, however they was abit small and if their was some sort of sound in the background, it would have been better, as it would have been more eye catching and more people would have been more attentive.However they did have something that was unique, once the credits came up, the bumped as a heart beat which was something interesting and unique. However the credits could have been longer and more eye-catching and something more colour.