Heat is a film released in 1995 and stars Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. The film's main genre is action however, has bits of thriller throughout the film, the reason why it acts as a sub genre for the film. Action-thriller is the main genres for my main film opening task therefore, will help inspire me and give me ideas of how to create a successful opening scene in this genre.
The film starts with a establishing shot, showing a tram travelling towards the camera. The film stays with this shot until the tram reaches in-line with the camera. This makes the film start with a slow tempo, building tension, as it makes the audience wait. Furthermore, this shot lets the audience know the setting. Meanwhile, as the tram comes towards the camera slowly, the sound is diegetic and has no sound added to it, such as music. This also helps to build tension as its very quiet especially during this particular shot, with just squeaking and the noise of the tram, getting louder as it becomes nearer. Therefore, with little noise and a slow tempo, the tension created is very effective.
Moreover, during the opening few shots in this scene the lighting is very low key, which fits together with the sound well. Also, helping to create the atmosphere that they want. This is because the atmosphere is very low key, similar to how the lighting is too. There is mainly low level lighting due to the fact the scene is based at night, therefore, the only lighting is coming from the tram and other surrounding light. This also helps to introduce the main character later on in the scene as you can denote that he is the evil character during the film because of the dark surrounding him.
Also, the films main character, played by Robert De Niro is introduced to the film as he steps off the tram and turns towards the camera. This shows a mid shot of his face, however, as he moves towards the camera it turns into a close up. This way of introducing the character prevents the audience from knowing anything about him, creating more mystery to the film. By showing a close up of the character, it gives a feeling towards the audience of how the character is feeling and it changes the mood of the film as just through his initial body language you are able to tell this is someone that you would want to mess with. His body language is very authoritative and asserts dominance, a way of telling people that he's the one in charge. In addition, the mystery around the character and who he is, stays as they use a shot of his feet as he walks towards the end of the scene. This limits the details about the character a lot and the audience can't gain anything from the shot because of the little information they have to imply anything.
A point of view shot is also used during this opening scene to follow the main character, Robert De Niro. The audience never find out who this point of view shot is from however, you can assume that it's from any member of the public and the shots just used to follow his movements. This adds good variation to the shots used throughout and shows the main character from behind for the first time.
Furthermore, as this character is the only one shown throughout the opening scene it implies that he is one of/the main character(s) during the film and a lot of the attention will be based around him, just as the opening scene follows this trend. Also, to add variation of the shots used to track the movement of Robert De Niro, a aerial/birds eye view shot is used. This helps the to transition the character from one place to another more easily.
The transitions of shots used is mainly just cuts with nothing such as fading into a new camera shot throughout. However, jump cuts aren't used, slow cuts are used to maintain the mood of the scene and the slow tempo it has. A track shot is used as De Niro goes down the escalator, this is to put more focus onto him instead of anyone else and show who the main subject of this particular frame and scene is. Also, there is a dirty shot as the camera pans down the escalator tracking the character, this makes you lose sight of the character for a few seconds. Furthermore, the camera zooms in towards De Niro as he gets further towards the end of the escalator. This adds suspense as to why the camera is doing this and why he is the main subject of the scene.
Moreover, there is mysterious music used in the background whilst the character is walking. This non-diegetic music is very slow and therefore, links to the tempo that's trying to be created. Also, the mood and tempo of the scene is very similar to what I want to create for my main film opening task. Therefore, this type of music would be good for the moments of equilibrium, before any drama/twists occur.
In conclusion, the sound, lighting, mise en scene and the different type of camera angles/shots are similar to that of what would be useful for my film opening task. This is because they will be of the same genre and therefore, have a similar type of mood that is trying to be created. There is a good variety of shots throughout this opening scene, with the lighting and the sound staying consistently low throughout. The setting helps to keep the character mysterious and reveal little about him. Overall, this film is very successful in creating an effective opening scene because of the different camera shots and the mood created throughout. The film is very successful and is very famous with generating $187.4 million at the box office with a budget of $60 million.
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