Film Ratings

All films have a rating system, but every country is different in how they use their system. In the United Kingdom it is the BBFC which is the British board of film classifications which decide what rating the film will receive.


The ratings that you can get in the UK are;




The "U" rating stands for Universal, which means that it is safe for anyone to watch the film including children. This means that most "U" rated films are for children. E.g. Disney films like Cinderella and Peter Pan.




The "PG" rating means Parental Guidance, which means that it is often advised that the parent or guardian should be with the child when watching a "PG" film as certain scenes may be unsuitable for children under 8.E.g. Grease and The Cat in the Hat




The "12A" rating is only used in the cinema and is for anyone over the age of 12, but it can be suitable for children under the age of 12 if their parent/guardian allow them to watch it but only if an adult is with them.




The "12" is for anyone aged 12 and over. No one under the age 12 can buy or go and see a 12 in the cinema. E.g. Mean girls and Meet the Fockers




The "15" is for anyone aged 15 and over, no one under the age of 15 can buy or go see a 15 in the cinema. E.g. White Chicks and Stand By Me.




An "18" can only be seen by someone who is 18 or over, no one under the age of 18 can see the film in the cinema or buy the DVD in the shop with out i.d. Most 18s often contain violence, drugs, sexual reference, strong language etc. E.g. Jackass and The Godfather.

Why are opening title sequence important to the film industry?

Opening title sequences can be considered very important peice in a film as they are the first thing an audience see's at the begining of a film, other then trailers and advertisments.
Opening title sequences are very quick lasting roughly 2-3 minutes however in that short period of time the audience can gain alot of information; for example the film-makers intensions, sometimes who's the main character(s), genre and maybe the storyline sumed up. Saul Bass, a graphic artist in the film industry once said "making a main-title was like making a poster, your condensing the event into this one concept, this one metaphor a back story that needs to be told or a character that needs to be introduced".

Title sequences also tell the audience who created them and what the audience can expect from this film they are about to watch. For example, if one looks at the title sequence and decides that it is not very good, their first impression might be that the rest of the film won't be good either. On the other hand, if one thinks the opening title sequence is great, they would want to watch on and see the rest of the film as it draws the viewer in.

personally i think the opening title sequences play a huge part not onlt in the film industry and also the film it self.

what makes a good opening:

• good lighting
• good music
• not giving to much away
• good mise-en-scene
• characters - main character - industry to promote stars - audience desire
• action films - an explosion- stunts pyrotechnics - dramatic - narrative
• genre made clear or ambiguous (tarantino)
• short prologue, before it starts
• good sound, editing, performance and cinematography
• anigmas, questions?
• introduces location, message and values
• wow factor so that it makes you want to keep watching.

Kyle Cooper Comparison

Analyse of Kyle Coopers 'Seven Pounds' and a comparison with 'Se7en'. I will see if i can detect a particular style in his work.

An theatre review by The Guardian

Seven PoundsWill Smith stars in a supremely annoying and precious romantic drama
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Peter Bradshaw The Guardian, Friday 16 January 2009 Article history
Searching, searching ... Will Smith in Seven Pounds

Here's a mystery drama that's supposed to get us asking questions in a whispery, awestruck voice, questions like: "Oh wow, what's Will Smith doing? What is his secret? What terrible private pain drives him? That aura of tragic, saintly heroism which if anything makes him sexier than ever - what is it all about?" The question I was asking myself after 30 minutes was: "When is this incredibly tiresome nonsense going to end?" The answer, I discovered after a tense squint at the publicity material, was: after another solid hour and a half.

Seven Pounds
Muccino, the Italian film-maker who directed Smith in the 2006 family drama The Pursuit of Happyness, is now at the helm of a movie intended to be both puzzle and emotional journey - halfway between what Variety magazine calls a head-scratcher and a tear-jerker. Maybe make that: tear-scratcher. We are initially supposed to be intrigued by that enigmatic title, unexplained until the very last, and perhaps inspired by Alejandro González Iñárritu's 21 Grams. Gosh, what does "seven pounds" mean? Could it, perchance, refer to the exorbitant price currently being asked for this film's knockoff DVD by the bloke standing outside Tesco Metro in Tottenham? (To be fair, he will throw in Bride Wars for a tenner.)

The action starts with Will Smith agonisingly phoning the emergency services. He is evidently in the midst of a spiritual and physical crisis. Then we flashback to what led up to this calamity, and the puzzle pieces are coyly lowered into position. Smith is Ben Thomas, apparently an officer with the Internal Revenue Service, galvanised by his own mysterious mission – searching, searching, searching for decent, kind, good people.

With incredible condescension, he tells the successful ones things like: "You have a beautiful family." Ben finds himself drawn to one Emily Posa, an artistic type with a picturesque cardiac condition, played by Rosario Dawson, who in the midst of an adorably platonic date, modestly tells Ben: "I used to be hot." (There is of course no ambiguity about who the lesser, not-hot characters are meant to be, and they aren't Emily and Ben; the latter's own notional dishevelment is incidentally signalled by being ever so slightly unshaven.)

The most supremely annoying moment in this supremely annoying film comes when Ben actually insults blind call-centre worker and part-time pianist Ezra (Woody Harrelson) for the specific purpose of testing him: checking whether he is meek and nice and good enough to measure up to his moral standards. Are there any other disabled people he wishes to test in this way, I wondered? If I was Ezra, I would tell our tortured, jug-eared dreamboat to go jump in a lake.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/jan/16/seven-pounds-film-review

Kyle

Kyle Cooper has directed over 150 film title sequences, and has been credited with "almost single-handedly revitalizing the main-title sequence as an art form". He is the founder of two internationally recognized film design companies, Imaginary Forces and Prologue Films. Cooper earned a M.F.A. in Graphic Design from the Yale School of Art, where he studied independently with Paul Rand. Cooper is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale and holds the honorary title of Royal Designer for Industry from the Royal Society of Arts in London.

Opening sequence on 'se7en' by Kyle Cooper

Opening sequence on 'Se7en' (mise-en-scene)
Here i am going to write about the Mise-en-scene in the opening sequuence of the film 'se7en'.

The costums in this particular film are very important as it gives the audience a clear view of the characters and straight away we can tell their charactistics.With Detective Summerset (Morgan) everything has to be perfect and in order, we know this because at the begining his coat is folded on his bed and he picks some fluff or something of it, and he makes sure his shirt is tucked in with blazor done up and tie right to rim of shirt, all this connotates that he is a professional detective, who doesnt like to make mistakes and is always very serious.
However Brad Pitt (other detective) is completely opposite, his shirt is not tucked in and creased and looks very rushed, and very scruff looking which shows the audience that he is not as professional as Detective Summerset and that he is very casual.
The public costumes are very casual however it is very noticable that they all are wearing dark dull colours, that could relate to the weather; rainging and relates to the setting as a rough area, quite denced and costofobic.

The Propsimetry had played a small part in the mise-en-scene, we, the audience felt that Freemen wanted to look to impress and quite layed back however Brad Pitt is deperate to atherity also what Morgan wants and also Pitt thinks high of himself and thinks he deserves Morgan's status.Whilst these two main characters were walking i noticed that they both were trying to walk in frount of each other to try and have more power and frount of fame.They both walked very differently; Morgan walks at the same paste down the street and steady in rymthem and quite professional however Pitt walks quite lazy and with a slouch and bad posture.

Props are also important because it also shows the audience certain details about the characters involved.Morgan as iv already mentioned is very organised especially with his equipment needed with his job such as his badge, which has to go in his back pocket and most of the equipment is hiding (everything has a place) so people wont notice he is a Detective, which yet again is proffesional and secratative however with Pitt, he makes sure all his is on show.Another prop is the blood splatter on the blind, which is not a focus with the camera conditionally it does show us that the murder was a close shot to head or body connotates a really bad incident, also in the background there is a picture of a child which could mean that there might be a child involved, or seen the crime happen.These props helped our imagination with the sence about a child might have seen a horrific something.

The colour is the opening sequence straight away that gives the impression of something bad because the colours are mainly dull and dark.There is functional furniture in Detective Freemen's house, all his furinture is baige and cream, and lacks life and colour like no life excisist's there, which might have something to do with his job.Also at the end of the opening sequence is the killer, not face but we see his fingers and what he is doing, for example making his own document of his victims and also he cuts off layers of skin on his fingers so that there no way of getting his finger prints, is all in black and white, cold, lifeless and dark colours.The lighting sets the mood as dule dark and sad.Dectective Freemen lighting is very persific in his house, showing different shades of his face, slao he sleeps with his bed side lamp's on witch could be a cause from his jobs and the hiddious crimes he has faced, might of made him scared of the dark.

Overall, the Mise-En-Scene in this film is very persific and easily understood from different veiw and straight away gives us the genre of the film and what it might be about.

Risks

The whole idea could be a big risk, beacuse of the topic of the film being about ghosts and using an Ouija board in the opening title sequence, this could offend people who don't believe in ghosts and that don't like the idea of using an Ouija board as they don't think that it is safe. when talking to teachers about the idea of using an Ouija board they were quite unsure wheather or not to go haed with the idea.

continuity sequence

The Continuity task involved film and editing of a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue between them.

The rules of continuity involve; match on action shot, reverse shot and the 180 rule.

The reflection of making this peice through to story boarding, filming and editing; we had not come across any complications nor any problems accoured.