Film opening sequence deconstruction

Straight outta Compton

 

Straight outta Compton conforms to generic conventions of urban dramas and displays them within the opening scene. In the opening scene there is a drug deal and a cops get involved in it. The opening sequence contains the universal production company ident, a short introduction to the film, some names off important people featured in the film and also the title of the movie.

 

 

The scene starts off with a black man taking out a bag full of drugs out of his car and going to a house. This conforms to urban drama as it is set in a urbanised place "the ghetto". Also in the opening sequence a hip hop and R&B track is played. These also conforms to the generic convention as music is from the charts at the time. The man then goes into a dope house and tries to deal his drugs. The people in the dope house don't have any money so they try and threaten him with guns. This again conforms to stereotypes and the generic conventions as they are using weapons. This film opening only casts black people as the main characters. This goes against racial profiling in films as there are many different roles casting black people in both good and bad places. Although they have cast black people as non token blacks they the cast members still follow stereo types of drug dealing killers that are dangerous. But this may be because of where they are and how they are connected to the story line.

 

Mis-en-scene: The lighting used in the sequence is low-key. This means it is very dark in all the camera shots. This is used because it makes the location seem eerie and dark. This adds to the sequences atmosphere as the audience knows that this is a bad and foreboding place to be. We should think about lighting when filming our piece as it controls the audiences emotions a lot.

 

 Camera: There is a lot off variation in camera angels and shots. This is very good as it keeps the audience excited as there is a lot of variation. One off the shots I looked at was a high angle shot. This shot looked down on all the cops. The reason for using this was to show all of the cops below and to show the audience how many there are.

 

 

 

 

Editing: A shot reverse shot is used very effectively in the opening sequence. a close up shot focuses on one man, then it cuts to the other person he is talking to, then finally cuts back. This is used to show they are talking to each other and also shows the expression on there face whilst they are talking. This is something we are going to have to incorporate in our ideas.

 

 

Sound: The non diegetic sound track is especially picked for this sequence. It is a hip hop R&B song and is quite popular amongst people who listen to hip hop and people surrounding this culture. This is good because the film is centred around this lifestyle so it appeals to the audience watching it.

 

 

Typography: The title to this film is very iconic. It is in block capitals with block endings to the letters. There is no flourish on the letter. It looks almost industrial because of the faded parts and paint splatters on the right. It is also black and white which are contradictory colours and make the words pop out. This may also have a deeper meaning and be talking about he contracts and opposition between two sides, "in the film these two sides would be black people verses the cops".